Early riser

Sleep when you want to.
I like late evenings when it's quiet and I can get things done so I'm rarely in bed before 4am - but then I wake up about 11 so that suits me. Other people look at me as tho' I'm a nutcase but it suits me.

I always get up between 5 - 5.30. During the week my husband has to get up shortly after me to go to work but even when he's on holiday or on a weekend I'm awake and get up. I too love the couple of hours peace. As I work from home I often start work at that time and can get much more done before the real work day begins!

Doing chores at night would have been very expensive in candles.

I read that back in time, before electricity at any rate, it was common for people to have two sleeps at night, early evening after the last meal of the day. In the middle of the night people would get up and do a few chores then go back to bed for the second sleep presumably until sunlight. I'm wondering if that might suit some of us today.

I thought we would need less sleep as we got older, but we seem to sleep more!
DH likes to be up and about by 6.30 but I wake up about 8 or 8.30.It doesn't matter what time we went to bed,strangely.

I always said that when I retired I would have a lie in in the mornings & I do! I do go to bed quite late & read before I sleep but I refuse to get up early. DH goes off to work about 6.30 ish & I rarely hear him go. I wake naturally about 7.30 & turn on radio 4 & lie in bed with a couple of cups of tea (Tea machine next to bed!)& hear all the news. I get up between 8.30 & 9 usually.
At weekends (unless DGC staying over) we BOTH have a lie in.
I spent many years getting up at 5.30 to give the dog a long walk before going off to work for the morning & I reckon this is pay back.

There is a type of prescription-only sleeping pill you can get which only lasts about 3 hours so is suitable for taking if you wake in the early hours. Though if you do go to sleep at 9 or 10 pm then at 4am you have had 6 hours sleep which is all we really need at our age.

I used to have this problem too but I trained myself out of it by following a program I read in a lot of places which is deliberate sleep deprivation. I forced myself to stay awake till midnight however tired I was and even if I woke at 3am. It gradually reduced the number of times I woke in the early hours and made it easier to go back to sleep after waking too early.

I'm with you sun seeker!!

Having always been told one needs less sleep when getting older, I must be getting younger as can quite happily go to bed at 10pm and not wake til 9 am unless having to rise earlier. No probs in the past getting up for animals or work.

Me too! I love waking up and thinking, I'll just stay for a bit longer, and wake up 3 hours later!

I sleep on and off all night which is a nuisance would love to lie in but can't once awake up I get! I do work which is annoying !! Gets in the way if my sleep!

Am I the only one who likes a lie in? Since retiring I love having that freedom!

Me too 4 am is my usual time sometimes I lie for a couple of hours catching up on Tv on my iPad or play word games other times I get up and go for a beautiful early morning walk on the beach
I like waking early I still don't go to bed before 11 but I do admit to an evening or afternoon nap when I don't want to, usually when I m watching something I ve been waiting all week to watch haha

I am an early riser too , not through choice either . Up about 5-5,30 , bed at 11-12 midnight , nothing seems to help with my insomnia so I just try not to worry about it . I have noticed that when I am worried about something it will wake me about 4 and I will have to get up . If anyone has any remedies I would try anything because I am permanently tired .

Now we sleep in separate rooms. He snores and if wakes at night puts the light on to read.

At evening time I put on the radio, morning time it goes off. If I wake I can lull myself again to sleep, but I do hear the most fascinating radio.

I am an early waker too, between 3 and 4am. I make myself lie in bed until 5am, then have a read and soak in the bath to kill time, after which I take an hour's walk. It is the best time of the day! If I go to bed any earlier than 11pm I know I shall wake before 3am, so delay bedtime . That is not to say that I don't fall asleep in front of the TV sometimes! Masterchef has that effect on me!
I was offered some medication recently, a side effect of which is to alter the sleep pattern. I refused it as I like my body clock as it is. Even as a child I did a newspaper round every morning and loved it.

There are two 4 o'clocks in a day?!!? Actually I read something on Facebook which describes me perfectly, I am not an early bird or a nightowl - more like a permanently tired pigeon!

I wake up early, it's the birdsong, which of course is lovely, sometimes I'll get up soon after 6ish and go downstairs and read or get on the laptop, but wait till 7 to make the coffee and bring one upstairs for my husband. Today it was his turn to do that as he was off early for a golf match. I like getting up early, particularly this time of the year. I couldn't contemplate the lie ins of my youth, now it would just be a waste of the day.

Me too at this time of year, don't get up too early, but it does mean an hour or two in which to get a quiet cup of tea and catch up with what is happening in the world.

Sue I seem to have the same body clock as you. I love my 3 or 4 hours of peace in the morning, by the time DH appears i have put the washing on the line, walked 2 miles and drank 3 cups of tea in silent (apart from the noisy lambs) bliss. At night i get the whole bed to myself for a few hours and can read for as long as i can keep my eyes open.last month i was shocked to wake up one morning and find it was 8 o'clock, i felt awful all day and really missed my early start.

Thats me too watermeadow!! Awake....Up?. bed by 9ish..have just accepted it now...actually like the time alone early a.m!! Just difficult living in a bungalow as cant make any noise?.but have now stopped stressing..its how I am..bodyclock rules...✨

I wake up early around 5am it will get earlier as the dawn chorus gets earlier. I try to stay up late but it makes little difference I can sometimes doze for an hour or two but usually just read till 7 or so..

Do you have a choice?