Are you and owl or a lark?

[spidermama]

I was interested in this \link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2004_45_mon_05.shtml\Womans Hour item} about why some people like to wake up early and others prefer to wake up late and stay up late at night.

It's to do with cortisol, apparently, the hormone which wakes you up and gets you going. There's a whole spectrum between lark and owl depending when your cortisol peaks.

So what are you? I'm an owl. No matter how tired I've felt in the afternoon, and how I've longed to get into bed, I perk up again at about 9pm and wonder why others are flagging.

I'm with frayedknot on this one. Def. not a morning person, but flag in the evening. Mind you I'm also an insomniac and will wake for 3-4 hours at a time in the early hours of the morning.

spider,
i have a pal here who went to uni to become a primary school teacher. but she's such an owl, she went back to college to become a nurse so she could take on only shifts starting after 1PM. she just can't deal before that.

Expat I'm abouit to start a new job with means I only work four hours a day but I start at 0530. . I'm in denial at the moment. I'm trying to pretend it's not really going to happen. I may be posting at some very odd times.

Like your pal I hope they'll give me more suitable hours once they see that I can do it.

she started nursing in the US, where most places have set shifts. it makes so much more sense, b/c then the nurse can chose what suits them best and stick w/it. helps retention rates, and the patients get someone who's at their best part of the day.

when she moved her, she went into agency work so she could chose late shifts only.

OWL through and through

Um I'm both

I'm 100 per cent owl. just as Spidermama says - doesn;t matter how tired I am I start to wake up in the evenings. I want to work and do stuff and find it hard to get myself into bed. And even if I manage that find it hard to get to sleep. I feel guilty if I don't go to bed while dh is still awake, just for a nice wee bedtime chat and cuddle - so quite often, I "go to bed" and then when he's fallen asleep I get up again! My body clock setting would be fine if it wasn't for the child-imposed lark-like schedule. DH says I wander round looking like a mole in the mornings. It drives me nuts not being able to live in accordanxce with my own rhythyms.

You'll get your rhythms back when they're teenagers thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat.

Twit twoooooooooo .... I'm off to make the lunches.

oh definitely an owl - that's why I love working nights - get to sleep in the mornings and stay up all night

sp[idermama - if you're an owl doing a 4 hour shift starting at 5.30 am - are you going to go to bed before hand? hradly seems worth it...

Definitely a lark, I used to annoy my db who said I was just too bloody cheerful in the mornings!!

I'm a lark that can't sing

a lark, but it didn't feel that way when ds woke at 5:18 this morning...

Neither ! I like to wake late and sleep early . I'm really terrible in the mornings though, genuinely grumpy. So I suppose I'm more of an owl, but I'm asleep by 11pm most nights, so I wouldn't class myself as either.

Totally an owl and I've always been like that

By nature an owl, my kids force me to be a lark. The best job I had in terms of working hours was one that started at 5pm, ended around midnight, I went to bed around 4am and got up around lunch time. Needless to say this was long before I had kids....

can I be both?

Always been an early riser and can't lie in bed once I am awake(7:30am would be a good lie in for me), I'm always knackered in the afternoon, yawning constantly but then by 9pm I'm wide awake.
Fall asleep on the sofa in the evening about 50% of the time when DH is home but if I'm home alone I often stay awake until late.

Lark, but I do like a good lie in (although these have faded into the dim and distant past now). Have been known to spend all day in bed, after a looong night out.

katyp - intersting that you say that's your best job. Despite my moans below about kids imposing a lark routine on me, when I was younger I liked having a lark routine imposed on me by work - it effectively made the day longer. I used to do shifts and I miles preferred doing early ones - cos then my day's work would be over by 2, giving me a whole afternoon to do what I liked. If I did a late shift I just wasted the free bit of the day (ie the morning) bimbling around in my dressing gown. That was when I did a slightly mindless physical job purely for the money - so I guess my reasoning was that it was better to get paid for bimbling round half asleep than to waste my good productive hours working. now I equate being productive with working, then it was the opposite way round, working was about getting paid, being productive was everythhing else.

Well this was long ago when I was considerably younger and partying until dawn was still attractive.... There was nothing much to do in the area anyway and very hot during the day so nothing much to miss out on

insomniac lark. Have to crash by 11pm but am awake at 3, which is a pre-lark mebbe.

Ruined myself on recent girls w/e staying up blethering till 2.30, yep 3am there's that lark again...