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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Why is my body set to 8am?

17 replies

Seline · 30/01/2019 22:06

Posting for traffic as I've mentioned this in person and no one gets it. Basically I "wake up" at 8am no matter if I'm awake or not. Before 8, no matter how much sleep I've had, I feel knackered. Then it gets to 8am and I suddenly click and become awake.

This also works in reverse. If I stay up late, say until 2, I can't sleep past 8am.

I'm very sleep deprived atm anyway but this still holds true. Does anyone know why? Or does this happen to anyone else? I'm really curious about why this happens.

OP posts:

TulipsInbloom1 · 30/01/2019 22:08

If you naturally wake at 8am and are sleep deprived then you need to front load your sleep. Start going to bed earlier. 2am is no good.

Original poster

Seline · 30/01/2019 22:10

I have young children so sleeping regularly isn't an option right now. I'm just curious why 8am or how I seem to wake up despite being "awake" but knackered earlier, if that makes sense.

OP posts:

Thisimmortalcurl · 30/01/2019 22:20

I’m the same but for around 5.20 am . It’s very frustrating, when I’m working I have to get up at 5.55 but when I’m not it is very frustrating. In general I wake at least twice a night. This is only in the last few years , before that I took an unbroken 8 hours for granted.

Annabk · 30/01/2019 22:23

Noise or activity at 8am that you’re unaware of but wakes you subconsciously... neighbour’s alarm clock, car starting up outside your home, church bells? Try noise-cancelling earplugs and a black-out eye mask to see if erasing audio/visual cues makes a difference?

FaithInfinity · 30/01/2019 22:26

We have a sunrise alarm clock. I struggle to get out of bed and it really helps, it slowly gets brighter over 30 minutes with an optional alarm afterwards. We bought DD (5yo) one for Christmas and it’s helped her get up too.

MysteryNameChange · 30/01/2019 22:29

I was just taking about this today with my OH. I'm shit before 8. I can only gawp at the wall and drink tea. Last night I had a really bad night with a poorly baby and I was destroyed when my older child got me up at 7. 8 o clock came and I was hurrying everyone to get dressed so we could make a snowman before school. It's also the same when I stay up late and have a hangover, stuck awake from 8am.

Original poster

Seline · 30/01/2019 22:30

I wake in the night too and it's a sort of drunken blunder around whereas 8am I'm suddenly sprightly. Even if I wake at 4am the minute it becomes 8, I'm full of energy and unable to sleep.

I don't think it's noise. I'm very sensitive to noise and can hear things fairly well providing it's not a crowded room and I don't notice anything.

OP posts:

Original poster

Seline · 30/01/2019 22:31

mystery that's the same as me.

OP posts:

FlapAttack23 · 30/01/2019 22:33

Because at 8am it’s daytime and the sun is up and people are moving about and you have shit to do that day . At 4am it’s dark and quiet and cold.. that’s when my kids wake up 🙄

SummerInSun · 30/01/2019 22:37

Read Matthew Walker’s book “Why We Sleep”. Explains all about what is happening to our brain and body chemistry around sleep. And some tips on how to improve your sleeping patterns (you’ll never drink coffee again after you’ve read what it does to your brain chemistry).

TulipsInbloom1 · 30/01/2019 22:42

its your circadian rhythm

brick15 · 30/01/2019 22:43

Somehow you’ve trained you’re brain to do that and all the hormones in your body that wake you up too. Your body literally runs on clockwork and different hormones peak at different times depending on what needs to be done at that time. I wake up at 6:21 every damn day without an alarm too even at the weekend, fine for work days not so fine for others ...figure it’s just my brain that’s got so used to it now it’s automatic.

Original poster

Seline · 30/01/2019 23:17

I wonder how I trained myself to do that then. Weird

OP posts:

BoomBoomsCousin · 30/01/2019 23:35

Most likely it's your hormones that make you more and less alert (i.e that feeling awake or not feeling awake even though your eyes are open and you're definitely not sleeping!) at certain times of the day. Hormone cycles tend to keep to a rough clock regulated by daylight and when you eat. Some people's body clocks are more stable and steady than others.

Asthenia · 30/01/2019 23:40

I’m the same! 8am is my switch on time...I’m exhausted waking up at 6am for work but wake up naturally at 8 on weekends, no matter what time I go to bed.

justforareply · 30/01/2019 23:48

I think that we have hormone surges at certain times - melatonin which makes you sleepy at night and cortisol in the mornings
I haven't googled exact science of it but pretty sure that's the reason

daipaned · 30/01/2019 23:57

I'm an 8am person too! I have to get up at 7, we'll 6:45 ideally but I feel like I'm wading through mud before 8.

I astound DH with my sleeping abilities, I sleep through his alarm everyday once for two hours and yet mind wakes me up. I hear the kids who sleep on the floor below us if the wake at night but sleep through the car alarms and police cars he wakes up at.

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