In praise of early mornings

[crochetmonkey74]

I have a really busy and overwhelming job - and I am currently also halfway through a major personal project (recovering from trauma, weight loss and rebuilding my life) It's going well and I feel very positive.
I find I really need regenerating time, and evenings just weren't cutting it (my mind would still race from the day) I have gradually found myself getting up earlier and earlier and really enjoying it. I get up at 5am, slowly wander the house with a cuppa, maybe read a bit, put some laundry on etc. I try not to fill it with too many jobs like packing my lunch etc, I try to keep it as proper me time It's so nice. I leave the house to go to the gym for 6.30 and then off to work. It does mean I'm normally ready for bed by 9pm but I love it. If you are an early bird, what do you do and do you also love it?

I’m the same as you op. Up at 5, chill for an hour and then head to the gym before work.
On days that I can’t do it I feel grumpy and tired (despite getting up later).

I wish I could do this, but I fear I would be clock-watching and therefore I wouldn’t find it relaxing. My head would be all “you have 10mins to finish this coffee and get in the shower” or “you have 15 mins to read this book…now 10…now 5”.
Probably says more about my head than anything else!!

I have this at night- but clockwatching in case i go to bed late and am tired the next day.
I am also like the PP who is more tired if I get up later

6 days a week I'm up at 6. Straight out for 45min walk listening to audio book. Back to sort dishwasher, bins, school snacks, breakfast etc until 7.15. 45 mins email, organising work meetings. Kids up at 8 for breakfast, ready for school/church. Leave house 8.45.

Saturday I stay in bed until I wake naturally sometimes still at 6 others 9! I have to say I do feel out of sorts all day on Saturday if I've been in bed for too long. Normally asleep for 10.30/11pm.

I got up very early as a young teen and had breakfast with my dad before he left for work. In the summer we would be sat under the Apple tree in the garden; just him and me whilst DM and DS were still fast asleep. I really cherished that time with him!

Then, in my twenties, I discovered the beauty of lie-ins!! However, when DC were born I started getting up really early again as I needed that time on my own , to ease myself into the day.

Now DC are grown ups and I still get up between 5 and 5.30. I catch up with the news, have a gallon of coffee, do some laundry, sometimes prep dinner before I go to work. I love it and it means I can relax a bit more after work.

I am in bed by 10pm though!

I think that's great if it works for you. What I find frustrating is the veneration of early rising and the demonisation of those of us who stay up late and get up late! (Not by you OP, but society as a whole).

Ooh, that's how I feel! I've always been a night owl and that hasn't changed with the menopause and I really resent the narrative that I'm somehow lazy if I don't wake up till 9ish (ex-H and my DM used to call it 'lying in your pit' in a really disparaging tone) if I'm left to wake up naturally.

I have enjoyed some lovely early mornings, but it's not something I make a habit of!

Like some other posters, I feel physically sick of I have to wake up too early, even if I've gone to bed early the night before, and I don't recover all day.

@OneTC

im kind of like that, except i have to get up in the morning for work. In 11 million years when I retire, I'll definitely operate on my body click times!!

I so so wish I was an early bird. I'm neither an early or late one!

I'm an early bird, at the weekend I might lie in until 7.30 at the latest! I love getting up before everyone else, making a coffee, bit of reading, bit of pottering, sitting in the garden in the summer, listening to the birds. I hate staying up late though!

I also find something weirdly comforting about watching the morning news when it first comes on at 6. Like they are my only company for a while and I'm getting the news when it's new and fresh. It gets repeated about 50 times but I heard it first!

I sound bonkers.

I do.. That's when I get my best sleep - I know as I can be awake at all other hours of the night and be okay but if I'm awake at 5/6/7 I'm never okay, that's when I get my best sleep it seems!

I like staying up late with a book and maybe a drink, chilling out, unwinding from the day.

The thought of going to bed at 8pm or 9pm is horrifying. I could never sleep at that time.

It's cutting the day too short.

I would only want to be a morning person if I could still go to sleep at a reasonable time, say 11pm. I had a friend who wakes early and she could never stay away past about 9pm, she would actually be falling asleep! I think more fun things happen at night. But I also love the idea of waking up early and having a nice relaxing start to the day, sounds amazing OP

Me. Ideally I'd never get up before 8am.
If I do, I have puffy, swollen eyes and extreme lethargy the whole day no matter how many hours I slept before the violence of early get-ups.

Any time of the day and night can be beautiful and productive if it's not breaking your own body clock.

I was once a morning person, up at 4:30 every day. Then I married a night owl, and now that we both have more flexible hours (and the option to wfh most of the time), we've fallen into the habit of staying up until 11 or 12+ every night. Now I'm used to it, I feel like I'm a hybrid lark-owl. I like to stay up fairly late or I feel I'm missing out on 'us-time', but if I happen to wake early (sometimes far too early, 3 or 4), I have trouble shutting off my brain and often end up getting up and enjoying the free time. I can be wide awake at 3 a.m., but after three or four hours, I need a nap, and it does catch up to me if I rise that early too often. As long as I don't wake too much before 7 or 8, I'm fine with the later bedtime, so that's my usual goal.