Night owls vs early birds – anyone else live happily on a late schedule?”

I used to be a night owl in my 20s and 30s, now very much an early bird. Its a combination of having a job which requires me sometimes to start very early and being a parent, which has reset my body clock.

I have always found it very hard to properly lie in in the morning: my brain kicks me awake.

Absolute, unapologetic night owl. Best part of the working day is when the larks are all finishing early and Teams green lights go off and you can actually get on with your work rather than be in calls. Usual bedtime is never before midnight. If I have to get up early for a work trip somewhere, I feel as though I have jetlag all day.

Im a night owl I thrive off it, lucky to have a flexible work start these days with core hours in the late afternoon.
used to work fully night shift and would deal with so many comments about ooh nice for some sleeping in, lazy comments etc, I work the same hours as you just at a different time, this shouldn’t be a hard concept to grasp

Yes me. I love my bed.

I go to bed about 4am and get up around noon.

Night owl, have been all my life. I generally to bed some time between midnight and 1.30am and I'm rarely asleep before 2am.

I work from home most of the week and under our flexible working policy I usually start work around 10am which my boss is fine with; she's well aware that I work better later in the day. I get up between 9 and 9.30ish during the week, although I tend to be dozing in bed half-listening to the radio from around 8am onwards. At weekends, I'd typically get out of bed between 10am and 11.30am.

I've been like this since I was a child. Whenever people say things like 'Well, of course we never get a lie-in because we've got small children' my mum's always baffled that people just assume that's standard, because as a mum of three, she was never woken up at the crack of dawn by any of us, ever, unless it was Christmas Day.

I am a night owl and always have been. Go to sleep about 1am ,wake up regularly during the night but then have my best sleep from about 6am to 10am .
Husband now sleeps in until about 930am since retiring.
Obv very different schedule when children were younger!

I am, by nature, a night owl. However, my job does not accommodate this, so I have to switch when I'm on shift! On my days off, I sleep in, have a lazy morning and don't really do anything productive (like laundry or cooking or something) until the late afternoon/early evening.

When I'm on shift, I get a lot of, "WOW! How do you manage to get up so early and work at that time every day?" When I'm off, I have been called lazy and some people are suspicious because I don't tend to go out unless I have to (and usually, it's in the evenings when it's quiet out!).

People are judgemental, and anything that is "different" is treated with great suspicion. I do not recommend taking other people's judgements into account, as they usually make you feel bad! However, as I cannot yet afford to buy an uninhabited island, I am going to have to continue living alongside other people and their opinions for now...

Same, but my job unfortunately requires me to be in at 8:30.

Years ago, I had an office job with flexitime. The 'early birds' who came in at 7:30 and went home at 3:30 were very snotty about those of us who preferred 9:30 -5:30. They claimed they did sooo much more work in those early hours, thought us later birds were 'lazy' and said so. Drove me nuts.

I was born at 7am and am a night owl.

I wonder does the time you are born have any influence on whether you are an early bird , a night owl or something in between, which I am.

Because we live with them and it's very draining to have to justify your schedule every day. I don't think early risers understand this as they don't encounter the same criticism daily.
I don't care what a stranger thinks but when it is my own spouse and they simply won't stop... it lands different.

It's annoying to have your sleep patterns treated as a moral failing. I don't think it's hard to understand.__

If it works for you, it's fine. Why do other people's opinions matter?

My DH and DC are like you, OP. Whereas I am more of a pigeon 😆Neither lark, nor owl.

Read this book, it really explains how the world is built for the early people, but the late people can contribute massively, if we just let them change their timings!

Plus it's a fascinating book in lots of other ways. Especially about how our brain "flushes" itself out as we sleep. Sleep is so important, however/whenever you do it!

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

In this book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves into everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-We-Sleep-Science-Dreams/dp/0141983760

My ex constantly commented on me not getting up early enough in the morning (I am rarely in bed past 7.30 even at weekends!). He was up at 4.30, in the gym by 5am. But... every night he would be asleep on the sofa by 7. Whereas I'll be at the gym, walking the dog and then painting or reading or doing things for my small business till at least midnight.
I could never understand this.

My natural sleep rhythm is about 12am-9am, and I think my husband is similar. Unfortunately our children have not yet synced up with this, but we live in hope for their teenage years 😆

My people!
I have recently decided the next time my dad calls me lazy as 'banter' because i, as a teenager, wanted to sleep in (SHOCK) im going to say 'thats big talk from a man i never saw cook a single meal or do a single household chore other than mow the lawn during my entire childhood'

The exact opposite I’m afraid, sometimes I would like to stay out beyond 9pm without counting down the minutes until we can leave.

Most of the time though I’m very happy to be up with lark, drinking coffee when the world is still asleep and enjoying the peace.

When I was much younger I was very grateful for the night owls at work who always did the 5:30pm finishes, I would be there at 7:30 but left at 3:30pm so I could pick up the DC. They were happy to roll up at 9:30am.

Enjoy it. The people who are criticising you are probably just tired because they either can’t or won’t follow their body clock 😉

I’m an early riser, getting up when some of the previous posters are going to bed. Like @Friendlygingercat I really enjoy those couple of hours when it feels like the rest world (I don’t think about time zones or shift workers) is asleep. I’m knackered by 9pm though.

If you don't need to be awake early then just stop.

I just got up a few mins ago, I woke up about 10:30am and read in bed for an hour after staying up until 2am.

In the hours from 9pm-2am I made huge progress on a project of mine after struggling to focus all day. If I forced myself to wake up early I'd never get anything done.

I'm a neither! I'm asleep by 10 at the latest and am rarely up before 9am - I do not like getting up. I am happy in bed with a book (morning or evening).

Maybe I'm a cat.

You're my tribe.

I'm thinking of asking to change my hours to start later, because I'm so much more productive later on.

The worst thing about it is I spend all day wishing I could have a nap then the evening comes and I'm wide awake, so I sleep late and the whole cycle starts again.

I'm happy doing both. When i worked i went to bed at 10 up at 5, with usually a nap in the afternoon. At weekends i would go to bed about 2 and get up at 8.
Now i'm retired we go to bed about 12 and i get up any time between 6 and 10.
It's very freeing to do what you want.

My ideal sleep schedule- if I could sleep well anyway would probably be midnight - 8.30am.

Unfortunately that doesnt work with what I need to do so I (unhappily) get up around 7am....but find it hard to go to bed early.

I do find that lots (definitely not all) early birds - especially if they exercise at a godforsaken time in the morning- seem quite smug or superior about it. Im not sure why its better to go for a run/to the gym at 5am than 8pm...? 🤷‍♀️

DH often complains about our teens sleeping in when they aren't at school or uni...but often they dont have anything they need to do specifically before 10am for example, why would they get up for no special reason?