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I get up when I'm ready, usually around 9 a.m. 3 or 4 times a year I need to get fasting bloodwork done and I want to
get it done early so I can have coffee. An appt is not required so I can go when I'm ready-the earlier the better! This gets me out of bed, but it makes me ever more thankful for all the days that I don't have to get up!
I used to be a night owl. When I was working...not good as I worked 8to5. Now I sleep a lot more, go to bed around 10 or so, read til midnight. That's the schedule I'm on for now anyway.
One issue I have it that I have a hard time waking/getting up when it is dark. It does not matter how much sleep I have gotten. I feel like crap when I have to get up in the dark thus any earlier that 7am is tough on me.
On my non-babysitting days (two days a week with my 15-month-old granddaughter), I do almost the same thing as you RiverBird, except I don't feel decadent or like I'm wasting time. I absolutely love those mornings when I can wake up early, feed the cat, and get back into bed to surf the 'net.
Unload the guilt, RiverBird! Enjoy!
Now that you mention it, being with the grandkids (one day a week now for me, and another day when the baby is born) is hard work. Really hard work. So I should think of those as workdays, along with my freelance day, and then enjoy my days off when I can get up when I please. I actually do accomplish some work on the laptop while still in bed, so I can think of myself as even less lazy. A morning person I'm not. The only problem is that I'm not a late-night person anymore, either, so my "day" is getting shorter and shorter, lol. I rationalize even further with the thought that those of us in the North should really be hibernating like the bears. Don't the Eskimos have a short day in terms of activity? No excuse for spring and summer though.
Used to get up at 3:45 every weekday when I worked. Now that I'm retired I'd happily sleep in until 9 or so; were it not for our cat who believes 7:00 is a perfectly appropriate time to be fed.
5 hours sleep.
Up for an hour or so.
3 more hours.
Man!, I sure wish I had been able to do this back when I worked! I always thought I had insomnia. But, no, it's just polyphasic sleeping and it's the way my body works. My cave-man relatives used to do it that way.
During my last 20 working years I arose promptly at 0530 so I could have coffee and read the paper in a reasonably leisurely manner, work the daily crossword puzzle, clean up, get dressed and leave the house; all without having to rush. A rushed morning could ruin my mood for the entire day.
I set an alarm but usually awoke a few minutes before it was to go off. I hate alarm clock awakenings so beating them to the punch saved the "lives" of several. Experience taught me that they don't fare well being thrown against bedroom walls or floors.
For about a month after retiring I continued to awake at or near 0530. By force of habit it's when my body clock told me it was time to get up. From then on I went to bed later and awoke after eight to 10 hours of really good sleep and that's still my pattern. Much Better! Unless unavoidable, morning appointments are a no-no.
one issue i have it that i have a hard time waking/getting up when it is dark. It does not matter how much sleep i have gotten. I feel like crap when i have to get up in the dark thus any earlier that 7am is tough on me.
I am not retired yet but reading through the posts here made me wonder ... did any of you discover in retirement that your internal clock is set for more than 24 hours? From what I've read so far, that doesn't seem to be the case for any of you -- i.e., you may sleep different hours in retirement, but they're still based on the "normal" 24-hour day.
I ask because I have a circadian rhythm disorder that apparently about half of blind people have....
Plants and animals that respond to circadian rhythms actually have natural rhythms that are more than 24 hrs. What happens is that a repetitive signal starts and ends each 24 hr period so that they stay consistently 24 hrs. Often that signal is daybreak, which stops the night phase and resets the clock. So if you are totally blind and unable to measure a day via this re-set mechanism each morning, you could theoretically train yourself to respond to something else. A sound perhaps, such as the radio coming on after a long period of quiet.
The upshot is that you are perfectly normal, as our inclination is to extend our day to slightly more than 24 hrs if we do not have a signal that wakes us up. Many people are in deep sleep at daybreak and so can ignore this signal so they need something else. Just because you awaken each day before the alarm clock doesn't mean you would not drift to longer days in an environment without stimulation. You entrain yourself each day to wake up the next day at that time as a purposeful endeavor that is rewarded when you go about your desired activities.
My pattern is I have no pattern. That's the pattern. I get up anytime when it's light enough, or when I darn well feel like it, but usually no later than 9am. A few exceptions in the winter months. After I was no longer on a work schedule, over time I was more attuned to the seasons: tired earlier and slept later in winter, up early and bed late in summer. That cold just triggers hibernation.
"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go"
I love the idea of finally being able to "hibernate" in the winter! Instead of dragging myself to go to the gym after work or run errands at night when it's dark I can do all that in the daytime and squirrel up in the evenings without guilt! And stay up as late as I want in the summer enjoying the warm evening breezes knowing I can sleep in! ...very simple pleasures to enjoy that don't cost a cent.
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