To be horrified I used to wake at this time every day?

This thread is very skewed to morning people!

My LO usually gets up at about 8am (she’s 1) but today she woke at 6am for some reason and it’s killing me! I salute all of you with early risers.

I’ve always been a night owl, anything before 7:30am is far too early.

It really depends your body clock, doesn't it? I'm a night owl, getting up at that time makes me feel ill as fuck. To most of the virtuous early risers on this thread who see no issue with it, it is probably easier as it fits their body's rhythms, but at least it gives them something to be self-congratulatory about too.

Not horrified no. I'm also in peri-menopause and wake at 4am. This started just after my second child started sleeping through the night so I haven't slept in 10 years. Given MN is full of mums and peri-menopausal women you may not have the right audience here for empathy that you had to wake at 5.30 for a while!

No I wake up at 3 most days to go to my first job.

5/5h30 does not sound particularly early to me. Kids are often naturally early wakers. It's light outside in summer at 5. Winter is a bit sadder. I remember those first two hours in pitch darkness playing with the kids. But I wouldn't use the word horrifying. As i side note, for most of human history, people rose when the sun came up which was between 5 and 6 in summer in the northern hemisphere, but almost throughout the year in the southern hemisphere. They did go to bed earlier than us IG and social media scrollers though, I presume

I'd honestly swap my sleep pattern for one where i was consistently up at half five.
As it is, i struggle massively to get to sleep, and then have awful nightmares and wake up frequently. If i'm lucky i have a sip of drink and can go back to sleep, but anything longer and it's over. Waking for a wee is a guaranteed not getting back to sleep, the getting out of bed to go to the toilet wakes me up too much. I can be so tired i cannot stop yawning, my eyes burn and i feel sick, but cannot fall asleep. I lie in the dark for literally hours. I'll get maybe 3 hours, be awake from 2am, not get back to sleep despite laying in the dark trying til 8am, go about my day, fall asleep at 6pm, sleep 3 hours, wake at 9, not sleep till 3pm, get 3 hours, be awake at 6pm, bot get to sleep again til mid day next day etc. I cannot ever get in to a day and night rhythm. I'm forever exhausted, can't make plans, let people down all the time, can end up barely talking to my partner for not being awake at the same time in the day etc. I'm on a wait list for ADHD to see if thats the issue, in therapy for PTSD incase thats the cause, but there's no medication i can take that doesn't interact with a necessary med im on that would help me sleep, no sleeping tablets, antihistamines that make you drowsy etc.

I struggled a lot with disrupted sleep. My eldest was a fabulous sleeper and then my youngest happened. I don’t think she slept through the night more than a handful of times between 1 and 4. She used to be up at 3am and then my alarm would go at 5.15 to catch my train and she was then often up before 6 at a weekend. It nearly killed me.

Now it’s 7.20 and I could have done with a longer sleep myself but am working and will need to wake up the kids so I can get them to holiday camp.

I was about to say the same! By the time my kids started sleeping through I was entering the menopause with early waking every day. Still going on so I haven’t had a good nights sleep since before I was pregnant with my eldest - a long time ago.

Yes: what I found really depressing when I went through this was that it only me doing it so it was lonely and very boring. My ex was really crap at getting up with her at the weekends because he "worked hard" (yes dear). DD (now 14) woke up freakishly early even for a small child (usually between 4 and 5) so I would do some activity that felt like it took half a day and then another ridiculously long activity and even then no one else in the house was up by the time we'd finished.

I'm naturally a really early riser so I have no problem with an early morning but a very early morning with a child who can't talk but demands constant attention is very draining.

It’s 2 hours earlier than I ever needed to get up for work.

Into my 7th year of 5am starts with my autistic son (often with multiple night wakings too). Yes, it’s tiring.

My turd of a cat wakes me up at 5-5:15 every day for breakfast - I've been trying to train her for 5 years to wait till 6 but she's not having it and now I automatically wake up at that time.

My dickhead cat woke me at 5am and I've not been able to get back to sleep - it's a horrible time!

It’s the way a 5am start means an extra meal or snack, and extra entertainment, adding to the slog. I remember once getting up with DD at some godforsaken hour, running out of activities so we did some baking, went to the shop for sprinkles while the cake cooled, then we iced and decorated it. I thought, “great! That’s the morning nearly sorted, just lunch then nap, day’s practically done”. Looked at the time: 8.40am.

Waking up at 5 and enjoying some peace and getting a few bits done sounds lovely! Entertaining grumpy tired toddlers and trying to keep them quiet is torture though.

It’s three hours earlier than I used to get up. Different jobs start at different times…

Agree, permanent exhaustion then having to be your best parenting self ALL DAY. It kills me.

First day back at work today and before bed last night I said to DH “shall I set an alarm?” And we laughed and laughed. Never thought I’d miss the sound of my alarm clock that’s for sure.

Haha, I had this with my DS1. It took until he was 3 years old and toilet trained to start sleeping until 7am. Thankfully, my other two DC never seem to have those kind of early mornings, even though they are still really little.

We just had our BIL’s family stay with us at Christmas, and their 18-month old is a terrible sleeper and woke every morning between 4:45-5am. I felt awful for them. They were just exhausted and grouchy the whole time.

Yes! How do they do it? DP will wake me getting up for his old man 2am wee, bumbling about, then he’ll be back to snoring before he’s even back under the covers. Meanwhile I’m wide awake for hours.

5am is my body’s sweet spot for going back to sleep after a night on the insomnia.

The only glimmer of hope is seeing how my parents, who had alarms for years at 6am and cursed how their bodies had adapted and still woke them early in retirement, now snooze til 9 or 10am. And enjoy an afternoon nap. Roll on my 80s!

Surely 5.30am isn't that much earlier than the time you would have been getting up for work prior to children?

Try having horses! 5am starts are normal here.