Are You a Night Owl or a Morning Lark?

[MoneyGal]

I'm such a lark I actually named my first child Lark (she drew my beautiful avatar).

[TheDreamer]

I'm a Night Owl...have been for as long as I can remember...

I had hoped that things would change with CPAP....though the machine seems incapable of making me go to bed earlier...and waking up in the morning is hit and miss...mostly miss. Every now and then, I'll be up a bit before the alarm and stay up...or up the instant of the alarm and not need to hit snooze. But, most of the time there's one snooze and then I'm a zombie for a hour or two before I fully wake up.

But, other than the rough start in the morning, the rest of my day goes well. Can't remember off the top of my head the last time I was struggling to keep my eyes open at work (though if somebody figures out the last time I pulled an all-nighter...then I could tell you....) But, I would have a harder time recalling the last time I lost the battle and did fall asleep at work. Which at the point when I decided to raise the issue with my doctor was something that was happening almost every day.

The struggling to stay awake at work, was something I had experienced for years...the losing the struggle and losing time was a new thing last year.

The Dreamer.

[Mimmie]

I don't usually go to bed until around 4 in the morning and then I read for a couple of hours before sleep. Thanks to CPAP I can now go to sleep around 6am and sleep until 2 or 3pm, sometimes 4. Thank goodness I no longer have to work but even when I did I had the graveyard shift.

[rocketdork]

Through most of my life I was a night owl. My parents said as a baby I would wake from a "nap" at around 10 pm, play in my crib till around 3-4 am, then back to sleep until about 10-11. I've always found it easier to stay up as opposed to getting up.

That's all change in the past 10 years or so, now if I'm up at 7am, its a late morning for me. I don't have a clue why the sudden (and it was sudden) change happened, but there's nothing I can do about it.

My preference would be night owl. I've always enjoyed being up late, rather than rising early. I have the same number of hours in a day, but I seem to be more alert, creative and productive during the night.

[rainmom2]

I'm definately a night owl, but am consantly trying to make a rigid scheduling time to go to bed & get up. Works for awhile, then I slip back into what is more comfortable to me & that's night owling!

[Wulfman]

I've been a combination of the two.
For most of my life I've been forced to get up much sooner than I wanted to (to go to work), but I do enjoy the mornings when I can sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and watch the sun come up (and not have to go to work).
In the evenings, if I can stay awake past about 10:00, I often get my "second wind" and can stay up a lot longer.

I don't know if some of this comes from having worked different shifts (or even round-the-clock in many instances) over the last 40 years or "what".

I've often been curious as to how many people with sleep apnea (and/or Diabetes) have worked shift work in their lifetimes.


Den

[Goofproof]

My first ten working years were 8 to 5, then I had to get a job to pay all the bills. That only came with a 11pm to 7 am shift, working in the dark often using only a headlamp on my hat for a worklight. After a few years, my body shifted into night mode, it became normal so much so that when I was laid off for 5 years and not working, I stayed up all night the same.

Now I have been retired for 8 years, and still am going to bed at 3 to 4 AM and up by 11 AM. This poor sleeping control results in me falling asleep in my chair in the evening while watching TV, but I've earned that! my treatment for apnea works good and I can drive long trips without falling asleep while driving. It does make it difficult living in a world that runs 8 to 5, but we cope when needed. Jim

[Muffy]

I am the person that wakes the larks up.

Muffy

[Sleepless in Indiana]

I am the person that wakes the larks up.

Muffy

I guess somebody has to be that person.

I am a natural night owl. But can get up early when needed. Especially durning hunting season. Most morings I'm up between 3 & 4 A.M.

[gasparama]

Prior to my OSA diagnosis, I would have said that I was a morning lark. I was up very early every morning, including vacations and weekends. However, since my xPAP usage, I tend to be more of a night owl. My job requires I still pretend to be a morning lark most of the time, but I find while on vacation such as last week, I gravitate towards being a night owl. It makes the first day back to work (today!) really tough.

My experience is so similar to yours. I always thought that I got up early because I was just a hard-working, motivated person. And people who stayed in bed past 6 were just slugs. Uh, well, I'm a slug now because I sleep until at least 7 when I'm not going to work. It feels so good to sleep all night! And no longer do I fall into bed, exhausted, as early as 8. I can now stay up with my husband. The down side is that I've learned to enjoy primetime tv because I was never able to watch much due to sleepiness and early bedtime.

[SaltLakeJan]

I have loved being a night owl, there are so many wonderful things you can do at night without the phone ringin', kids playin', and cookin' meals. I like to do my Christmas Decorating and gift wrapping at night. Before our kids married, they loved to awaken the next morning and find the house transformed. Before a family party or holiday, I liked to grocery shop about 1 a.m.. You could get everything you needed and be out of the store in 20 minutes. Like Kira, if I started writing in the evening and it was going well, I couldn't stop until the sun came up the next morning. Same with reading a great book, reading on without the phone or doorbell interrupting created a personal enjoyable space.

Then life changed, I began working. Up at 6 a.m., but not in bed before midnight. Then years later life changed again. This time due to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea seemed to require regular getting up and going to bed times. At first I tried to be true to my night owl habits, but that didn't work well. On one of Bleeping Beauty's threads, Muffy posted a list of good sleep habits. They included going to bed early, and getting up at a regular time each morning. The list gave specific instructions to follow to improve your sleep habits. I have followed it, and like B.B. I am not yet perfect, but it works well for me.

A Reformed Night-Owl Jan

[SaltLakeJan]

I forgot to mention that as a dedicated Night-Owl, of course I married a Lark. Our habits created unusual experiences. We can laugh at them now.

Did other Night-Owls marry Larks.

a newly created Lark, Jan

[Slinky]

All my life I was a night owl. I still am. BUT I tend to wake up at 6 or 6:30 AM which is NOT my favorite time to wake up by any means! Unfortunately, my entire working life required a morning lark schedule. My FAVORITE part of retirement was throwing my watch and calendar away!!! Especially the d*mn watch! What ticks me off about the 6-6:30 AM waking is that it was a struggle for me to wake at that hour all my working years. I so hated it!!! And now I can sleep in - or would if I could but for some odd reason now that I don't HAVE to wake up early I do. And it torques my jaws that I do.

My preferred hours have always been in the area of from midnight on to bed and up at 8-8:30 AM. I never was one for sleeping past 8:30 AM and it always seemed I got my BEST sleep from 6-8:30 AM. If those were the only 2 hours I slept I felt better than if I slept 7 hours but was up for whatever reason before 8:30 AM. Even now on those few mornings I CAN sleep between 6 and 8:30 I feel the best. But despite I TRY to go to bed by midnight to establish good sleep hygiene I'm waking up at 6-6:30 AM whether I like it or not (and I do NOT!) Some nights, not too often, but some nights, I do feel SLEEPY about 10 PM and so I go to bed - and lay awake at least until 11 or 11:30 or later. And wake up anywhere from 4 to 6 AM. I HATE it! But I'm averaging 7 to 7 1/2 hours a night and feeling rested so .... I guess I don't HAVE to like it and all that matters is that I'm feeling rested.

Mumble, grumble.

Oh, and, yeah. I married a Lark.

[BeanMeScot]

By nature, I am a night owl. Left to my own devices, I tend to go to bed later and later each night. I get up early these days so my night owl tendancies are being reset each day. Traffic is a bear here so I started going to work earlier a couple of years ago. That's when I started being sleepy during the day. I sleep later on the weekends and that can sometimes mess up my ability to go to sleep on Sunday night.