Getting up early is actually good isn’t it?

[shizerhousen]

I love a lie in at the weekend. Im up early during the week and often have broken sleep thanks to my toddler waking in the night so it really refreshes me to have a lie in. However if I get up any later than 9am I really feel like the day has gotten away from me and I’m rushing to get all the things done that I need to. Which is silly really as it’s only 2 hours later than I’d usually be up for work!
Got up early with the little one this morning so Dh could have a Father’s Day lie in and actually it does feel really good to be up and on early. Already got some washing done and planning to get out with the dogs and get lots done.
Hard to decide what’s best between a lovely lie in and feeling productive and smug because im up with the lark. Which do you prefer?

Not for me, later the better. I feel worse the earlier it is, apparently cortisol is high first thing.

Totally agree
I have been having difficulty with sleep recently and it's been getting me stressed. I now get up when my body says to even if it's 2am.

I completely agree!
I was out with the dog at 6, everything done by 10.
This week I’ll be out even earlier, soon after 5 as tiddler dog struggles in hot weather- I’ll be knackered by lunchtime!

One of my favourite treats is waking up early naturally and sitting outside with a coffee while the day is still.

Also feel better about the day if I've got the chores done earlier and can think of the rest of the day as my own/family time.

I quite like staying in bed too, though I generally do that in the evenings by going to bed early and reading.

Yes cortisol is higher from the moment you open your eyes it doesn’t matter what time of day that actually is though.

6.30 is a lay in for me 😊

We're up at 5 during the week and that's when my body clock wakes me up. Sometimes i lie there trying hard to lay in but then i think of all the things that need doing and i'm just like 'that's it i'm getting up!'

I was watering the front garden at 6 this morning and it was sooooo peaceful.

we're boring buggers and in bed by 9.30 tho

I voted YABU because there is not a universal/ objective “good” or “bad” answer; it’s highly subjective.

If you have a typical CRY-1 (human circadian rhythm) gene, getting up early can give you a harmless advantage, enabling you to function within chrononormative patterns.

If (like me) you have the mutation that means you are at your most alert and functional late at night, with a natural going-to-sleep time of c. 4am, then getting up early is the path to ill-health, exhaustion, and likely burnout. (Those of us with the delayed circadian rhythm mutation live shorter lives, in worse health, statistically.)

That might be because doing night shift isn't just as being night owl. People do their shift then they still have to do other stuff, it flips clock on any circadian rythm.
Night shift and sleeping 1m-9am are not comparable

Exposure to early morning light is said to have health benefits, but I haven't been able to find any clear guidance as to a) what constitutes early and b) whether it's ok to go back to bed afterwards.

Oh really? Interesting. Maybe I'm just lazy 😂

I hate getting up early but ultimately I find it doesn't make much difference. If I get up two hours earlier than usual, I go to bed two hours earlier than usual because I'm tired, so my hours awake are the same.

I like being up before everyone else in the house. I get some time to just be quiet in the morning, to get done anything I want/need to do without other people being around. I always feel like I’ve had a more productive and calm start to the day if I don’t have to talk to anyone for at least 30 mins after waking up,

Not a morning person, I feel sub human before about 7.30am, almost incapable of speech and thought! I get a surge of energy mid afternoon when most people are flagging and get loads of stuff done then, I feel much more mentally alert then than I do in the morning. I've just blitzed the kitchen and bathroom, put a wash on and tidied my bedroom. This morning the mere prosepect of it was making me tired.

I've found being a morning person that I'm not very good at getting stuff done in the evening, so also get this sense that the day is over if I have a lay in. I'm actually trying to be more active in the evenings. Not exercise per say, but not doom scrolling from 7:30 which is what I do now.

I defintely am an early morning person. We were out running before 7am this morning. If i get up late I feel like I've wasted the day. Half 7 is a lie in here.

When I was younger I hated it, but now I like it. We are retired and I get up at 9 latest, often earlier than that. Sleeping in past that makes me feel rubbish all day.

We had a years worth of building work done on our house recently, up at 7 and the guys arrived at 8. It was so nice, by 9 I had finished fannying around reading the news papers and was ready to start the day. I vowed I would keep it up after it was all done, but needless to say I didn't. I am getting up earlier in these hot, light mornings though.

Nope, it's not only about night shift. Studies have also shown that people with a strong "evening chronotype" (natural night owls) tend to have worse health outcomes on average than morning types.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.125.044189?

https://www.health.com/condition/sleep/health-risks-night-owl?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12433348/?

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/being-a-night-owl-may-increase-your-heart-risk?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/2031/?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/3004/

Well your attitude of ‘getting things done’ doesn’t mesh with my idea of a relaxing Sunday but I don’t have toddlers and at 64 have the luxury of lying in any day. But occasionally I do think back (only three years ago) when I’d be dropping my DD at the train to get to sixth form at 7.30 and taking the dogs to the park and coming home and thinking I had got up showered and dressed, dogs walked and ready for the day by 8.15am. Now dogs have both died and DD at uni…kinda miss the routine.

Totally agree

Then I get my money's worth out of the weekend

Much prefer and early night or an afternoon quick nap to a lie in. I LOVE sleep but extra in morning doesn't feel very nice for me as morning is when my energy is highest so I kinda miss the best bit of the day if I lie in.

I prefer night as I can be much more productive without trying to also simultaneously track the time because something else needs to happen at a particular hour. In the morning I’d just have got into my productive flow state and frustratingly everyone else would arrive and start wanting things and making a noise.

Im not an evening person for getting stuff done really. Once the kids are in bed I just want to sit down and veg out.
My weekends are never relaxing per se, they are always chores to do, dogs to be walked and kids to be taken places. I also try to get to the gym and catch up on things I don’t have the time or motivation for during the week.

Im not saying that getting up early somehow makes anyone superior 😂 I bloody love a lie in and most weekends enjoy staying in a bed a bit longer very much. But it does leave me on the back foot and feeling like I’m rushing all day. As pp said, if I’ve got up at 9 then had my usual coffee and doom scroll, showered etc then it will be approaching midday by the time I’ve got out anywhere. Today I did get up early purely because it was Father’s Day and I let dh have a lie in. I’m bloody knackered now mind.

I used to be an early riser (5/5.30), now I sleep so little I stay in bed as much as possible. I miss the old days but I’m exhausted (work, life and perimenopause) and up later now I have teenagers plus I work retail so up 7 days a week most weeks (school run plus work 3 days during the week, 2at weekends)

I seriously wish I was a morning person but most nights I am still awake after 01:30am. I have child and a baby so it’s painful. My body seems programmed to want to sleep between 2am and 10am…I have tried everything and I’m usually up for work by 6am anyway. I just don’t sleep well at night even if I’m in a routine of getting up early, so I would always take the lie in to catch up on my chronic sleep deprivation. Alas, the world was not built for my natural body clock.

As much as the thought of a lie in is appealing I agree those missed couple of hours really do set me back with what I need to get done - which is crazy really when you've got all day ahead.

I love getting up early 6.30 make a cup of tea and take it back to bed or sit in the lounge looking at the garden.

I really appreciate the peace and quiet and the stillness of that time of day. Then everyone wakes up and the peace is shattered. Hey ho it was good while it lasted.
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