‘An hour less in bed’

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

Lighthearted... although it does make me scream a little bit

Every year, my mother reminds me that the clocks are going forward and complains about getting ‘an hour less in bed’. (She also gets excited about the ‘extra hour’ in autumn.)

Now, I could understand this if she worked Sundays and had to be up at a certain time. But she doesn’t. She never has. And as she’s nearly 70, she never will. If she wants an extra hour in bed, she can have one - or two, or three, or sleep all day! No one is going to say, ‘It’s 9am - you MUST get up’.

Why is she worried about ‘losing’ an hour in bed once a year when she could have that hour in bed every week?!

MiL has been complaining that she have to get up at 5 new time but it will feel like 4. She's 82. Lives alone. Yet gets up at 5am every single day to do her chores? She could stay in bed until 11 or lunchtime tomorrow if she wanted to!

Does anyone else never notice the hour less time in bed (or hour extra later in the year)?! I have also never been jet lagged, even travelling to and from NZ. I wonder if it has to do with being a night owl..?

glitterblue I think a lot of older people have an automatic wake up time that is early and struggle to just go back to sleep

@optimistic40

Does anyone else never notice the hour less time in bed (or hour extra later in the year)?! I have also never been jet lagged, even travelling to and from NZ. I wonder if it has to do with being a night owl..?

I’m exactly the same but I always assume it’s because I worked nights for 20+ years and generally only need 4/5 hours sleep per night anyway .

I used to work in ICU. I didn't like the clock changes because it messed up my observations chart.

But I'm lucky on the pets front because my dog and cats all politely ignore DH and me until both of us are clearly awake. It's very sweet. As soon as the last one to wake shuffles in bed, they come and say hi. Until then, they studiously ignore us

Even people who don't work are creatures of habit. All humans are. We have internal clocks and rhythms and fucking with them isn't good for us.

I feel out of synch for ages after the clocks go forward, I just feel not quite right. Things don't look right, I think it's that the light looks wrong. It makes me sort of second guess myself, not in a massive way, but just in a feeling not quite certain about things way, and I hate it.

Maybe your mum feels the same.

@Dreadnought77 resent being called an idiot a teeny bit tbh, I have tons of empathy I’ve spent the last year working full time, doing MILs shopping at several different shops to her liking (specific things from specific places), thinking of thoughtful craft items, puzzles etc to get her because I know isolation and lack of things to do is really bad for people, ringing her regularly, making extra effort on her birthday, taking her to medical appointments etc, for her to ring and say she’s having to do ‘so much’ rankles a bit when I’m absolutely knackered and she has quite literally the bare minimum of responsibilities. DP is even planning on decorating her lounge for her when lockdown ends because she’s sick of looking at it. I do think she goes on about her daily chores of washing up, bins and cat duty so it gives her a sense of duty and makes her feel like she doesn’t do nothing but sometimes I want to say to her, you have 16 hours a day to literally please yourself!! Stop moaning about losing an hour ‘in bed’!

Tbh she doesn't sound very happy and neither do you.

She’s happy as Larry, bored but managed to keep covid away from her this entire time so she’s done pretty well all things considered! she’s looking forward to several trips when lockdowns lifted. I’m happy enough but very tired my job is demanding, I don’t get enough sleep and miss having a social life but maybe I’m just a moany millennial 😆🥴

Everyone I know whatever their age 'moan' (or maybe they are just commenting or musing) about the clock changes twice a year.

DH moans about it because I have over 30 clocks and he needs to change the majority of them. He started early this year so we've been an hour forward since lunchtime 😂

Because their brains will tell them they have to get up! This kind of reminds me of a poster asking why sahms get excited by it being Friday when they don't work! Let her moan!!

Well you are moaning yes and it seems to be driven by resentment towards her more than anything else. You wouldn't really like her life would you? Because she doesn't seem as though she likes it much herself : ime people who spend a lot of time talking about how busy they are when they blatantly aren't busy do so because they're aware that they're underoccupied and feel bad about this.

Sorry just rtft then realised my answer came off as moany too. I'm still awake s ok just cranky. Sorry

I think ‘venting’ rather than moaning, tbh I’d like her life for a couple of months, I might get rid of the bags under my eyes and be able to eat 3 decent meals a day!! But it’s fine, her life has only been like this cos of covid, she will be back going on hols, trips, seeing friends etc soon enough

@nokidshere I am imagining your house as being some kind of fantastical repository for all the clocks of our forgotten dreams and fleeting encounters that you conjure onto your shelves of varying heights when our attention strays from them, where you tend to them with miniature oilcans and tiny special tools while wearing a long misty grey dress.

I'm right, aren't I?

My dog started barking early in the morning a few weeks ago, a habit he got into after being unwell. I'd circumvented it by setting my alarm earlier so I could get downstairs while he was still being a Good Quiet Boy. I was edging it later but today I've been able to reset the alarm to what I consider a more civilised time.

And I followed my own excellent advice about going to bed earlier last night so it's worked out well this year.

@ErrolTheDragon thoughts for cats, dogs and other pets who do not recognise clock changes. Another reason to drop the arcane practice of clocks being on GMT in the winter.

I woke up about half an hour ago and feel fine, no different at all. The day will proceed as norma, I'm not thinking it is now 0828l.

Another reason to drop the arcane practice of clocks being on GMT in the winter.

There's nothing mysterious about GMT, 12 noon is at midday in Greenwich.
GMT is sensible, exactly what it says on the tin.

What's odd is that we distribute our waking and working hours so asymmetrically around noon nowadays (presumably since the invention of artificial lighting, compounded by tv schedules). It would be a lot more rational if we worked 8 to 4 rather than 9 to 5, and rose earlier in the summer if we wanted to make more use of daylight hours rather than fiddling with clocks.

DM is exactly the same! She always has to text to remind me about the clocks. She then spends the next week saying '0f course, it's really only x o'clock'

My mother says this too. It's a bit annoying. I cancelled my phone call last night with her so she couldn't tell me this strangely she didn't text it to me either ( a first)

@VioletCharlotte

DM is exactly the same! She always has to text to remind me about the clocks. She then spends the next week saying '0f course, it's really only x o'clock'

@VioletCharlotte Yes!!! I get the, ‘Of course, it’s really six o’clock...’ comments every year too!

@mummylovesthesunshine

My mother says this too. It's a bit annoying. I cancelled my phone call last night with her so she couldn't tell me this strangely she didn't text it to me either ( a first)

I love that

Lol. My bedside clock automatically changes so I got up at 7.30 and went down and made a cup of tea. Brought it back to bed and gave my DH his. He opened one eye and said 'WTF are we having tea at 6.30 on a Sunday morning for?' His clock isn't automatic. Tee hee