Awake at 5am, am I getting old?

Dunno? Got up that (without an alarm) early most days in the military.

Now I usually wake up as the sun rises.
 
I get up at 5 M-F for work. But I might be getting old too as sleeping in on the weekends is usually no later than 7am.
 
Since retirement I follow the sun. Right now wake up is ~6:15, mid winter it’s ~8:30.
 
4am every work morning for me. 5-5:30 is my typical weekend time, which is perfect for me. I’ve never adjusted to getting up at 4. On the other side of that coin, I’ve never been into truly sleeping in. The only time I have ever slept past 6 on a regular basis was when I was working nights.
 
I used to be up at 4 for about 25 years for work. Had a client for about 6 years who was in the office at 4ish. He had my cell and would often call between 4 and 6. I also had a pass to get to his office before the security guard was on duty. He was the COO, so this floor had more security than the rest of the building. My competitors (McKinsey, BCG etc) would make appointments to talk with him at 9 or 10 am. I had already talked to him on the phone, been into his office, written up a contract and had him sign it before they even had their meeting.
Now I get up at 6, feels like sleeping in.
 
I don't even bother setting an alarm clock any more. If it is some big event like opening day of deer season I will set my phone but haven't heard the alarm go off in years I wake up before it goes off. Generally awake between 4 and 5. 6 is "sleeping in". Try to get to bed 9:30 or 10 at the latest because it doesn't seem to matter what time I go to bed I wake up at the same time.
 
Depends on the day of the week. Some Saturdays and Sundays, I'm up and busy by 1 am. Kinda throws things a bit since I normally get up at 9:30 pm and out the door to work at 10:00 pm.
 
DFH65 said:
I don't even bother setting an alarm clock any more. If it is some big event like opening day of deer season I will set my phone but haven't heard the alarm go off in years I wake up before it goes off. Generally awake between 4 and 5. 6 is "sleeping in". Try to get to bed 9:30 or 10 at the latest because it doesn't seem to matter what time I go to bed I wake up at the same time.
Click to expand...

Weekdays I have my alarm set for 6:30. It rarely if ever goes off, I'm usually up long before. My wife made the comment the other day that she was sleeping so good she never heard my alarm go off.
 
you ARE old. you should surrender your plane to the nearest low wing pilot immediately. heck I'll even nominate @RyanB
 
I've always been an early riser and with a new pup we're usually out on our morning stroll by 6 in the summer but wait until the sun is up in the winter.

37Z9mXt.jpeg
 
I usually get out of bed by 4:15, although I'm normally awake before that. These days the gym opens at 5:00 a.m. weekdays and I want to be there when it opens.
 
My natural inclination used to be that I would go to bed at about 0200-0300 and wake up at around 1000. Nearly twenty years in the military has beaten that out of me. Now I'm up at 0500 pretty much every day (occasionally 0630 on a weekend if I want a luxurious lay-in) and I'm yawning cavernously by 2100. I do try to get 7-8 hours of sleep every day though, as I'm really convinced that's the foundation of good health.
 
Growing up I had a Belgian Shepherd, sweet dog. I would walk her before school every morning.

(1) Dogs do not understand the concept of Saturday, Sunday, or Holiday. (2) I was never late to school.
 
AvNavCom said:
My natural inclination used to be that I would go to bed at about 0200-0300 and wake up at around 1000. Nearly twenty years in the military has beaten that out of me. Now I'm up at 0500 pretty much every day (occasionally 0630 on a weekend if I want a luxurious lay-in) and I'm yawning cavernously by 2100. I do try to get 7-8 hours of sleep every day though, as I'm really convinced that's the foundation of good health.
Click to expand...

2100...is that time in metric? :rofl:
 
The change to being asleep by 1030, usually earlier, with a no alarm wakeup before 6 has not been so bad. It is being tempered by the 20 minute mid-day naps that are getting more frequent, but not yet daily. Perhaps it is the SI-driven switch to decaf as the norm for that warm cuppa in the morn. My days are more efficient, even if the productivity is down.

But I do miss the ability to sleep in until noon every once in a while.

I feel I am aging, but not yet old. Beats the alternative.
 
catmandu said:
Perhaps it is the SI-driven switch to decaf as the norm for that warm cuppa in the morn.
Click to expand...
Of all the indictments of the metric system, being forced to drink decaf has to be near the top. :biggrin:
 
Sleeping in for me is 8am. My 2 year old is up anywhere from 630-8. I guess when she’s a teenage I’ll be able to sleep in again:)
 
Rule of life - if you ask if you're getting old, you already did.
 
jordane93 said:
...I guess when she’s a teenage I’ll be able to sleep in again:)
Click to expand...
Hopefully your experience is better than mine! My youngest (now 22) of three didn't sleep through the night until after he turned one. I never recovered. I cannot remember the last time I slept through the night. Like clockwork, ~2am I'm up. They also forced me to become an early riser. Alarm set for 5:15 but I'm usually up before it goes off, that is, assuming I'm able to fall back asleep!
 
2/10 Can't relate.
1750871626367.png

As a military guy, not sure why people are bringing up the .mil somehow definitionally beating the night proclivities out of anyone; there's plenty of WOCL and shift work in the military...unless you're a nonner lol. I guess got lucky in that I managed to carve out a niche that allows me to fake my way through "morning people" routines, and remain employed while being a closet night owl. It's not perfect, but I've got pretty good at splitting the gap.

Btw, people also misundertand/conflate the nuance between night owls (asleep 0300ish +/-1) and vampires (awake through 0800). Two different groups. The health outcomes of vampire schedules are much worse objectively (true WOCL workers, like my wife currently) than either morning-normies or night owls. To be clear, it's the diurnal family impositions of vampires what generally wrecks that demographic. Though I argue even a vampire without a family will see long term cancer effects if it carries to their 50s and 60s, due to lack of cell regeneration allowance as a result of engaging in work during WOCL.

All that said, I don't see the causation nor correlation of aging, with early-AM rising for all groups. Morning people/night owl proclivities have not been age-dependent in my experience (I've been as much of an owl now as I was in college for instance). The only correlation I see is the proxy of lifestyle that having to work for diurnal/gradeschool-centering employers imposes, given the latter are the majority mob. But that's a cultural imposition, not a physiological one. I can see how that correlation is mistaken for causation for morning normies, given they're already up at such immoral times. :fingerwag:

See ya at brunch beeches... maybe. *yawns* *hoot..hoot..*
 
Mahneuvers said:
Hopefully your experience is better than mine! My youngest (now 22) of three didn't sleep through the night until after he turned one. I never recovered. I cannot remember the last time I slept through the night. Like clockwork, ~2am I'm up. They also forced me to become an early riser. Alarm set for 5:15 but I'm usually up before it goes off, that is, assuming I'm able to fall back asleep!
Click to expand...
Took her 9 months to sleep through the night. Really almost a year to consistently do it. I have no problems sleeping still thankfully
 
Mahneuvers said:
My youngest (now 22) of three didn't sleep through the night until after he turned one.
Click to expand...

jordane93 said:
Took her 9 months to sleep through the night.
Click to expand...

Little league.
How about 15 months before being able to get a full night of sleep?

I remember the good ol' days in which I was awake at 5am because the party kept going until 7am.
 
hindsight2020 said:
2/10 Can't relate.
View attachment 142256

As a military guy, not sure why people are bringing up the .mil somehow definitionally beating the night proclivities out of anyone; there's plenty of WOCL and shift work in the military...unless you're a nonner lol. I guess got lucky in that I managed to carve out a niche that allows me to fake my way through "morning people" routines, and remain employed while being a closet night owl. It's not perfect, but I've got pretty good at splitting the gap.

Btw, people also misundertand/conflate the nuance between night owls (asleep 0300ish +/-1) and vampires (awake through 0800). Two different groups. The health outcomes of vampire schedules are much worse objectively (true WOCL workers, like my wife currently) than either morning-normies or night owls. To be clear, it's the diurnal family impositions of vampires what generally wrecks that demographic. Though I argue even a vampire without a family will see long term cancer effects if it carries to their 50s and 60s, due to lack of cell regeneration allowance as a result of engaging in work during WOCL.

All that said, I don't see the causation nor correlation of aging, with early-AM rising for all groups. Morning people/night owl proclivities have not been age-dependent in my experience (I've been as much of an owl now as I was in college for instance). The only correlation I see is the proxy of lifestyle that having to work for diurnal/gradeschool-centering employers imposes, given the latter are the majority mob. But that's a cultural imposition, not a physiological one. I can see how that correlation is mistaken for causation for morning normies, given they're already up at such immoral times. :fingerwag:

See ya at brunch beeches... maybe. *yawns* *hoot..hoot..*
Click to expand...

Similar circumstance for me. I worked mostly swings (3pm-ish to midnite-ish) for the majority of my time in the USAF, and have worked the same schedule for the majority of my time as a civilian. Though to be fair most of my time as a civilian has been spent on a military base attached to some military squadron. After 3+ decades, I’m comfortable with the schedule. In the past few years though, regardless of the time that I actually go to bed, I am up at 5:45 every morning. I go back to sleep around 7:00 for a couple hours a few times a week, but more often than not I just stay up. I feel like I should probably go to dayshift soon and try to go to bed earlier, but the politics and BS of dayshift and morning production/team/mx group meetings will probably be worse for blood pressure and health than the lack of sleep from staying on swings; rock meets hard place.

Speaking of WOCL though, the Brits have a policy that made a lot of sense to me that no heavy maintenance is allowed to occur between 0100 and 0500, and only servicing and flight prep is allowed to occur during those times. Or at least it was that way a few years ago. Things may have changed.
 
Been retired 13 years and my body clock still hasn’t adjusted to a normal sleep pattern,although it’s getting better.
 
Yeah, air ambulance had the tendency towards non-regular sleep patterns. Nothing like getting called out at 6pm, getting home at midnight, 1 hour to unwind and eat something, then off to bed thinking I was done for the night. Of course as soon as the hair on my ear touches the fuzz on the pillow, the phone rings again and off we go for another 6 hours. 7 night shifts(4pm to 4am) then switch over to 7 day shifts, (4am to 4pm) then 7 days off.
 
Rotating shifts, with no weekend days off every few months when early in my career. Hated it, never adjusted to it.

As I approached the top of the pay scale, I also became the top expert for some mission critical equipment, and was called whether I was low on overtime or not.

The result was an interesting compromise at home. The phone by the bed rang, I answered on the first ring, every time. A quiet listening time, usually no questions, hang up dress and gone. Wife learned to ignore the ring, and was asleep when I left.

Baby came, wife went on hair trigger for baby sounds, slipped out of bed and responded to all events, and I slept on. First one had colic, you cannot sleep through that, but eventually normal baby events.

My normal shift in my later days was 7 AM to 3:30 PM. Alarm set at 6, up and turned off before it rang.

Go to bed at 11 PM. Still wide awake before 6. That has been the pattern 70 to upper 80's.

Now, 90's I take a nap at 2 or 3. :):):)
 
I've always gotten up early. It's when I started going to bed at 8 that I knew I was old.
 
I was at scout camp all week. No alarm and I was happily up at 515 every morning with plenty of time to shower and get coffee before the natives wake up. I’m usually up by 530. Great for OSH too to beat the shower crowds
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top