What is it that makes sleeping in the morning so good

[teetee]

I recently noticed that both of my alarm clocks could not wake me at 7am, but they did at 9am. I usually go to bed around midnight. I often wake up around 4am/5am by myself before I go back to sleep. If I don't get to sleep between 6am and 9am, I don't feel refreshed.

Also I rarely have dreams during the 12am-6am sleep, but dreams appear more often during morning sleep.

Maybe it is just me? Or it has something to do with the season change? I live in new england so we do have seasons.

 

[38Chevy454]

Your sleep cycle is around 2.5 hours, and normal nights you should have 3 of these. So that's why your morning sleep is in the middle of deep sleep at 7 am. You probably do have similar dreaming in the prior cycles, you just don't recall them. More likely the noise or other disturbances in the morning are why you recall those dreams better.

 

[WestUniversity]

Geez, I wouldn’t know. Almost 3 years retired and I’m still up every day around 5 AM. Ugh…

 

[Bamaman]

No matter when I go to sleep, I tend to wake up at 3:00 am like clockwork for a short bathroom run.

Sometimes I go back to sleep, but often stay up reading online newspapers, etc. I'll go back to bed at 5:00 and that's when I get my best sleep.

But I have to get the grarnddaughter up at 6:30 am, and I carry her onto school. Fortunately I can come home and get a few catnaps thru the day.

It's not the best sleep habits to get into, but they work for me.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I think you are going to bed too late. Your body needs about 8 hours of sleep. If you start going to bed by 9:30pm you will wake up earlier. We wake up between 5am to 6am in summer and 6am to 7am in winter. My husband sleeps at 9:30pm while I tend to stay up until 10pm. We have had this routine for a couple of decades already. Before then I used to stay up until midnight and feel exhausted in the morning. I definitely prefer our current routine.

 

[pacergal]

I have noticed my sleep pattern has changed the longer I am retired. The first few years, was pretty consistently the same as working in bed by 10, up between 5-6, slept all night.
Now, i am in bed anytime between 9-midnight, always wake up around 3 am, sometimes can go right back to sleep, other times stay awake until 5 or so, then snooze until around 8.
I can not nap during the day, unless I am exhausted, and if I do take a nap, I have trouble sleeping that night!
I don't fret about it though. Being retired, I don't have a schedule. If I get myself into a continued poor sleep pattern, I do take steps to get back into a better snooze.

 

[eytonxav]

I wish I knew. Seem to wake everyday between 5-6AM regardless of being retired for many years.

 

[RetireeRobert]

I recently noticed that both of my alarm clocks could not wake me at 7am, but they did at 9am. I usually go to bed around midnight. I often wake up around 4am/5am by myself before I go back to sleep. If I don't get to sleep between 6am and 9am, I don't feel refreshed.

Also I rarely have dreams during the 12am-6am sleep, but dreams appear more often during morning sleep.

Maybe it is just me?

It's not just you. I have similar pattern, including deepest dream cycles seem to occur in that second "went back to sleep" just before getting up for the day. When i do have those really deep dream cycle, it seems I usually do feel really rested as well.

 

[CindyBlue]

I wish I knew. Seem to wake everyday between 5-6AM regardless of being retired for many years.

Me, too. No matter how late I've stayed up the night before, between 4:45AM and 5:15AM every single day is my wake up time. I've been retired for two years (as of this month - yay!!) and I still naturally wake up at that time.

I don't mind, though - it gives me a couple of hours of "alone time," just me and my coffee and my computer and the quiet, dark morning. I love my morning time!

Plus, I can take a nap in the afternoon if I want to - ahh, such luxury!

 

[googily]

I have been blessed to have a job where showing up before 10:30 wasn't ever expected. And I've never been a morning person, and never had kids, so staying up until midnight or later and slowly becoming conscious somewhere between 8 and 9 has kept me feeling like a youngun. [emoji16] DH worked the evening shift, so he didn't go to bed until 2 or 3.

My aunt as she got older became one of those who slept in two shifts, getting up for 1-2 hours around 2 or 3 before going back to bed and getting up around 6:30. She had more energy than anyone I've ever known, so clearly it worked for her.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Humans Used to Sleep in Two Shifts, And Maybe We Should Do It Again

A wakeful period during the night was common before electrification and industrialization regimented life.

As for me, I'm like googily and spouse -- for many years I worked what in the newspaper biz was known as the lobster shift, midafternoon until midnight or thereabouts. The benefit was that I eased into the day and enjoyed peak productivity in the evening.

 

[teetee]

It does seem everyone has different sleep cycle. In my original post I forgot to mention I am still working but my work hours most follow the west coast business hours (so 12pm-8pm EDT) unless I have some early calls with the European customers.

I wish I could fall asleep around 9:30pm but my brain tends to remain active hours after work. I will see if I can use NyQuil to fall asleep earlier.

 

[googily]

Humans Used to Sleep in Two Shifts, And Maybe We Should Do It Again

A wakeful period during the night was common before electrification and industrialization regimented life.

As for me, I'm like googily and spouse -- for many years I worked what in the newspaper biz was known as the lobster shift, midafternoon until midnight or thereabouts. The benefit was that I eased into the day and enjoyed peak productivity in the evening.

The newspaper biz--yep, that's the one!

 

[Palmtree]

For well over two decades I've always fell fast asleep around 10:00 to 11:00 then woke around 3:00am. For the first few years I would go downstairs and watch TV as to not disrupt my wifes snooze time. I would watch shows for an hour or two until I fell back asleep on the couch. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night, I remain in bed with the lights off, listening to boring podcasts via earbuds on an mp3 player until I fall back asleep for a couple more hours.

 

[old medic]

This is one of my retirement concerns... a sleep pattern.
I have spent nearly 36 years working a 12 hour rotating shift.
Its not uncommon to get to naps at night, so I have almost developed a 12 hour day cycle. I have on many occasions run 24-36 hours with nothing more than an hour or so cat nap. Its RARE I sleep more than 4- 5 hours at a time.

 

[grasshopper]

I sleep like a farmer go to bed with the sun and up with the sun. In June I am out the door for my walk before 5AM, winter 7AM or so. Our habit is dinner around 5PM a netflix movie until 7PM and in bed by 8PM. I take 2, 20 minute naps a day.

 

[Marita40]

I go to bed early, sleep 8-9 hours, and wake up at 3:00-3:30 a.m. This has been my pattern for many years, both working and now retired. I have tried hard to sleep longer in the morning, but that rarely happens, no matter what time I go to bed. So I get up and enjoy the pre-dawn hours with good coffee, prayer, reading. It has turned out, often, to be my best time of day. I'm just an unrelenting "morning person" by nature.

 

[Gumby]

I get up when the cat yowls. Usually around 5 am.

 

[RetireeRobert]

I get up when the cat yowls. Usually around 5 am.

When one has a cat, "you" do no have a schedule or choices. Cats rule.

 

[aja8888]

I've been monitoring my sleep for three years (retired) with my Fitbit. I am in bed around 11:00 PM, but don't always fall asleep until around midnight. Then I wake around 6:00 AM and that's it.

My average is 5 hours, 45 minutes sleep nightly over three years. I don't take naps.

It works for me.

When I was working, my sleep patterns were all over the place due to constant business travel all over the globe.

 

[aja8888]

When one has a cat, "you" do no have a schedule or choices. Cats rule.

Doesn't it go like this?

"Dogs have owners, cats have staff"

 

[RetireeRobert]

Doesn't it go like this?

"Dogs have owners, cats have staff"

Pretty much.

 

[tmm99]

When one has a cat, "you" do no have a schedule or choices. Cats rule.

Closing the bedroom door and wearing ear plugs saves my sleep. I couldn't have survived without doing those two things during my wo*king years.