Tell me about life as an early riser

[MaryJonesEscapesAgain]

After rashly encouraging DD's enjoyment of swimming, we've got to the point where I need to get up at 5am three times a week to take her to training. I'm wondering whether to try and make it my usual waking time so it's less painful, use the extra 1-2 hours to go for a walk, clean the bathroom, do archery practice or something. I'd love to hear about other people's experience of being a very early riser - how you use the time, how you adjusted (or if you didn't adjust) and how it impacted time with family members in the evenings. My usual waking time is 7am, and I'm ok with 6am, but anything earlier tends to leave me feeling sick all day. I'm happy getting up early in theory, but I would like to see DH occasionally (not an early riser) and I'm thinking 5am starts might simply be incompatible with the odd evening glass of wine. Thanks for any thoughts!

I often make dinner around 5.30 or 6. Bolognese sauces or stews. The hard part is done and it’s ready to be put away by the time we head out for the school run.

Reading this for some motivation! I'd love to be able to have some me time before DS wakes up but I've always been a night owl. I've found if I get up earlier than my body likes I'm zonked out all day!
OP if you're already managing 5am wake ups for swimming, I think you're half way there already!

It's really good to read these different perspectives. I've been up since just before 6am today and feel pretty rubbish, but the light is beautiful and it's very peaceful!

I got up at 630 and fell into the shower. I feel groggy as hell despite going to sleep at 830! I need masses of sleep.

Alarm at 5.30, up by 6. This is all year, I don’t have lie ins.
Coffee, feed dogs, out on the yard to sort the horses. Back inside for breakfast and other animals.
Mornings are my favourite time of day.

I’m up at 5 every day and enjoy the quiet time before getting our daughter up between 6/6.30am.Out the door at 8.15am for work.
I head to bed around 10.30pm.I usually get by on 6hrs of sleep per night.

I get up at 5am but when I do im in bed asleep by 8pm. Love getting up early, I usually read in bed for a hour while rhe house warms up before having a shower & getting ready but it does make me tired. This morning I didnt wake till 7am after going to sleep at 8pm.

I’m up at 5:30 most mornings. I go to bed by nine.

I really enjoy the peace and quiet of the early hours, especially in summer.

Give it a go…I love the mornings.

I’m often up at 5, I tend to go to sleep about 10.30pm. I like the time pottering around on my own, I used to go to the allotment in the summer and a walk in the winter. Now I go to the gym and must pick up the walking again on the days I don’t gym as I really enjoyed the being out early. In summer I’ll potter round the garden. I’ll also iron or get some chores done. Tbh today I’ve just sat in bed and drunk tea as I was out last night and had had a long day at work and today is a long day too so I’m just chilling.

I like getting up early but sometimes it can feel like I’ve already had a full day by the time my dh surfaces, especially on weekends if he has a lie in. We do have a dog but she hates early morning walks and hides in her bed doing fake smoking if I try and get her out before 10.

Are you sure you're not getting too much sleep? I'd be groggy after a 10 hour sleep and am much more alert/energetic after 6/7 hours.

Also an early riser but I'm not productive like you lot! Nor do I go to bed early. I sit around with coffee(s) and relax for an hour, in the garden if it's dry, or curled up on the sofa in the colder months. That time is mine, no chores are getting done at that time of the morning. I just enjoy the quiet.
You're a dedicated mum OP. Most I can manage is a lift to training 2 evenings a week.

@Easyozy 10 hours has always been my natural rhythm! No matter what time I go to sleep, if there's no alarm I'll wake 10 hours after.

I wish I could have less. I feel like a lot of the day is wasted. DW sleeps half the amount I do!

I couldn’t do it every day. DS wakes between 5.30 and 6.30 and on 5.30 days I feel like the walking dead, but from 6.01 onwards miraculously I’m ok. I’m usually in bed by 10pm.

Reading this thread with interest

I'm naturally a night owl, but for practical reasons I would really like to change. When I was out a lot in the evening, it wasn't something I wanted to change and historically I've always worked later hours wherever possible.

I'm now at a point where early rising would be useful to me so I'd like to know if anyone managed to switch over.

I'm really envious of these early morning walks in forest and things, but sadly I'd not have anyone to go with and I'm definitely not doing that on my own - at the moment it's annoying I haven't got anyone to go with in the evening!

I was always a night owl before kids - rarely went to bed before midnight, and the only way I saw 6am was from the other side.

I am, alas, now broken and never wake past 630 or so. It's not too bad though, I enjoy the longer days and I don't actually need that much sleep so can still have some late evenings

Yes you can switch over! Thousands of couples change from being night owls to getting up early, once they have an early rising toddler to handle!

I think the research shows that people do have natural inclinations towards being early birds or night owls or in-betweens, but I’ve found that the body gets good at what you do a lot, whether that’s eating healthy food or going to bed early and rising early. It’s the in-between adjustment period that is tricky. But if you stick with it and are consistent, you soon get in to a rhythm.

Also, generally speaking, I think there is a lot of poppycock spoken about sleep, just as there is about diet, and we are all far too precious about it. In the past we probably shared dwellings with animals who continually made noise, families would be co-sleeping and individuals would be coming and going. There is also evidence that we slept in two shifts and woke up for a couple of hours after midnight to do a few gentle chores or socialise and then when to bed again for a second sleep (Chaucer mentions this).

So all of this fuss about having to have perfect black out curtains and quiet and a perfect tidy bedroom I tend to treat with a degree of scepticism. The same when know it all doctors on the internet try and persuade us that it’s a disaster if we wake up once or twice in the night. It’s all designed to make us feel anxious, which ironically, prevents us from sleeping!

Of course we need to be sensible and get enough sleep regularly as we know our physical and mental health is impacted if we don’t, but we don’t need to approach the entire subject with such extreme or precious rules!

@Hospitalcorners52 that's probably the thing isn't it?
Being forced into it

I did have one job, where I had to get up at six because of a commute. I ended up coming home and sleeping for a couple of hours because I was very rarely asleep before 2am. That was a real fricking nuisance so when they wanted to renew my contract, I said no. I had a massive social life at that time so it was probably two nights a week I was doing that. The rest of the time I just managed on four hours sleep. My late father used to do that all the time. So I suppose it's doable.

I don't have a massive social life now and I just think earlier rising would be more practical.

I'm trying to think of something that would be a really major incentive but I definitely don't work as well on four hours sleep as I used to.

As usual, it's now midnight and I'm pretty perky!

I don’t think you can change permanently that easily. Both my dc were 5am wakers for years. I just ended up feeling like the waking dead most of the time. I never enjoyed the early mornings and was always shattered.

Now they are teens, I get up later. If I had to get up early I do, but if I do it consistently I start to feel worn down and exhausted again.

I’ve always been a terrible sleeper, even as a baby. I can be exhausted and still not be able to fall asleep until midnight. Eventually it just makes me ill.

I would like to say that while I have always been early to bed, I’ve not always been an early riser. My DD made me this way. She broke the cycle but I never did. I’d say I am permanently exhausted but I think I would be no matter what time I woke up.

I also came to check this thread to say that today is the first day since Thursday or Friday I’ve been able to get up early. It’s not always peaceful bliss. Sometimes it’s very snoozy.

I wish I could get up early for lovely forest walks! This morning though by 6 am I had finished watching a Netflix film while doing online banking, completed a travel insurance claim, and made a banana cake for the DCs. I’ll take it though. All very peaceful and I relish my hour before everyone else gets up.

@StillFeelingTired so you did all that by 6 am? What time did you get up please?

You're probably in bed now 😂

I was in bed! I got up about 4.30. Today was 4.45. I used to be a night owl but I used to commute to London daily and would be up early with a train around 6 am. It’s ruined me!!

I get up at 5am. I should go to bed earlier but often don't get to bed until at least 11pm. I just sleep very well - head hits the pillow and the nwxt thing I know it's time to get up!

For those of you getting up at 3 am presumably you live in a detached house? I live in a flat and would NOT be happy to hear my neighbour’s washing machine etc at that hour.

5am here. I have no choice as I work full time. I can't usually wind down properly until around 10pm, so I get about 6 hours of sleep a night, which is nearly enough and I can function. The 9-5 grind (I work in corporate) is really starting to piss me off now, though. Soulless existence. Braindead management. Fixing problems that shouldn't exist. I can't wait to go on maternity leave. That said, I do like that point in the morning when there is nobody around, I get to see the world before it wakes up.

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