Owl here! Always have been. I recall some time in my twenties reasoning that every hour less sleep was an increase of usable life by 1/8th. I rarely sleep more than 6 hours, not infrequently less. My normal waking time on a work day used to be somewhere between 7 and 8 (varying with job and travel time), and non-work day 8-9. But I have no difficulty with getting up early if there is something specific I want or need to do.
One thing that over the years has irritated me about habitual early risers has been a ‘holier than thou’ attitude by seemingly a high proportion, though maybe I just noticed those that were like that.
As you say being up late can wipe you out the next day unless you have the luxury of not having to get up.
I think most of it is down to decades old habit, and it would be interesting to try to change my pattern if I can, as I can see several benefits in doing so, especially with respect to exercising early in the day.
Your pattern sounds similar to mine, especially being able to get up early if you need to.
We’re all different and some people manage with less sleep than others, though I think the importance of good sleep quality is increasingly recognised as desirable for health, not just when we sleep or for how long.
For my working life I’ve been a Lark, up at 6am, in work after 7, bed 10-11pm. My wife was often up after after me, then in bed before me. She needs 11-12 hours sleep, I like 8.
However since retirement, I immediately changed to an owl. Bed 1-2am, up 9 about the same time as my wife. I found this very easy to change, plus it gives me 3-4 hours of Netflix and music on my own, while she is asleep at the opposite end of the house where she can’t hear me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how much this setup works for us.
I’d like to think that if we were at complete odds, I’d change to accommodate or agree a closer compromise.
I’m up at 7am 7 days per week having concluded that Matthew Walkers book on sleep, although populated with several bits of poorly interpreted data, was likely right on the detriment in varying your sleep pattern on weekends and more generally.
No medical reason for it but I have learnt over the years that any rise before 7am means my vision is fried and I struggle to get through the day visually without at least one power nap if not two.
Evenings I struggle to even feel tired before midnight so I’m usually in bed somewhere between half past midnight and 1am. Those latter couple of hours I am usually a;one and thus it’s a lovely time for music.
I struggle to do 7 hours and associate that with my sleep pattern being destroyed by the boy when he was younger and very poorly indeed. I often survived, if that’s the word, on 30 minutes or so sleep per night and have never managed say 9 or 10 hours since. I am euphoric all day if I have achieved 7 hours sleep such is the rarity.
Pretty much the same with me and home life. I don’t disturb anyone as the kids have gone and I listen to music in a sound proofed room, so it doesn’t matter how loud I play albums, best investment I’ve made
I love a power nap in the afternoon. My Nan used to call it 40-winks. A 10 minute nap feels like a power boost to me.
My wife has just got a new Fitbit, so I tried her old one for a few nights. It tells you what type of sleep you had. It was very interesting, but in reality when it said I had a low score sleep, I actually felt great, so have now ditched it as not being any help at all.
I must say that I’m in agreement with the above two posts, insofar as we’re all surely a bit of both, dictated by circumstance, and at different points in our lives.
A lifetime in the offshore oil and gas industry invariably meant rising at early o’clock and driving to an airport to catch the redeye flight to some far off destination, so very much the lark in those days.
Since retiring, I seem to have morphed into something of a night owl, rarely asleep before midnight, yet usually wide awake by 07.00.
I think that when we sleep in terms of the clock is irrelevant in this regard, provided it suits us individually. I’m very lucky in normally sleeping well, and exceptions are rare. As I am now retired the talk of insufficient sleep reducing life expectancy concerns me - but then over my entire adult life I’ve enjoyed something like 25% more usable waking life than had I followed the ‘norm’ of 8 hours sleep every night.
I’m usually knackered by half ten and go to bed, read for 5 minutes and am asleep until 6 when my wife gets up to go to work weekdays, about 7:30 weekends (I still wfh most of the week, popping into office or going to see clients every couple of days or so).
Occasionally I’m up later, into early hours, if we’re watching a movie or I want to get a project finished, but that is exception rather than rule.
Hi @Alley_Cat
I am a lark, up at 05:30 7 days a week even when on holiday.
I like getting out before the streets have aired and the day has been spoiled.
Nothing better then being in the woods with the dog at daybreak watching the deer and seeing a pheasent sunning it self.
Funnily enough I was going to mention sleep monitoring as in recent years when I wear my smart watch to bed I’ve noticed trends with my heart rate.
Interestingly I thought a gradually decreasing heart rate reflected good quality sleep, but perhaps not as this link suggests a U shaped curve is best and that a linear downward slope might indicate metabolic stress.
I’ve not exercised much for 4-5 weeks due to an injury and my overnight heart rate is maybe 10 bpm higher if I look at the curve.
Must admit that I get a real buzz when i do get up very early and achieve several things ‘before breakfast’ - this seems to happen more often on weekends.
When I was in work after 7, those next two hours were most productive for me before everyone started to turn up, and start needing my attention. It was a good time to get some programming done
Things of course depend on what one is doing or wants to do, as well as habit.
When I lived in the Home Counties and having a weekend away in, say, the Lake District, Rather than leave home early evening on Friday straight after work, and sit in traffic jams making the journey twice as long, frustrating and stressful, I’d go to bed a couple of hours earlier than usual, get up in time to set off before 4 AM, and travel with virtually no other car on the road, high speed, no holdups, and a lovely time time to drive as dawn breaks - arriving still quite fresh and ready to go walking.
I spent a year working in Manchester while living in South Wales. I arranged it as a four (long) day week, living in digs in Mon-Thur, and home for 3-day weekends. To have a full weekend I simply got up early enough to drive to Manchester on Monday morning, leaving at something like 4.30 to arrive at work at about 7.30 to avoid traffic. Again worked well.
I had an owl session last week (0230) and it wiped me out, but the dog and hens got me up anyway, albeit around 0900. It was a vinyl and streaming session just like the old days (obviously without the streaming).
Normally I head for bed around 2200, read for ten minutes with music set to run for 45 minutes, then nature or the dog wakes me around 0530, then I slumber or read for a bit with the radio on until I get the hens up and walk the dog. For about 20 years now my brain does not wake up until after 1200, so I potter around in the mornings doing chores or reading. The afternoon is spent catching up on admin and walking the dog.
What sort of Lark are we talking about? Wood Lark, Sky Lark, Thekla, Crested…I usually wake up about 5:45 most mornings and doze intermittently until the Alarm goes off at 6:30 and then I am up. Usually in bed by about 23:00 unless I have had a particularly busy day.
