Poll: Did you learn to sleep in after retiring?

[Danmar]

Depends on what you mean by wake up. I frequently wake up at 2-3 AM and read for a while, but almost invariably get back down for a "second sleep" that ends around 6-7. Sure beats waking up for that 4 AM commute.

I often wake up around 1-2am and have trouble going back to sleep. So I get up and surf the net for an hour or so. Often post here during this period. Go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Seems to work fine.

 

[LuckyDog]

I have a hard time sleeping more than 5 or 6 hours at night. Go to bed at 12:00 and awake before 5:30 most days feeling refreshed. But many days, I have the guilty pleasure of taking '40 winks' sometime after lunch...

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

While w*rking, I rarely had set hours and kept what I called "super maxi flex hours", which meant avoiding bad traffic times. I rarely had to be in early, so I never had to be an early riser. Now, I find that I naturally wake up between 7 and 9...and it's wonderful. I can't recall the last time I set an alarm.

 

[DEC-1982]

Still get up at the same time, but now I consistently take my (short) siesta in the afternoon.

 

[kcowan]

I often wake up around 1-2am and have trouble going back to sleep. So I get up and surf the net for an hour or so. Often post here during this period. Go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Seems to work fine.

Yes one if the things we have learned from many years in retirement is that everything can be flexible. I will wake up and watch Seth Myers from Seattle at 2:37 am, then maybe a recorded show, and go back to sleep for 4 hours. I seldom sleep for 7-8 hours straight anymore. But then I never do anything for 7-8 hours straight.

 

[exnavynuke]

I’ll let you decide which answer best fits your expectations. I guess if pressed I’d say sleeping in is an hour or more later than your work alarm time.

For all my working years, I set an alarm and got up at somewhere between 4:45a to 5:30a, my work start time and morning routine changed some over 35 years.

I rarely set an alarm now, and I expected to learn to sleep in a little. But after more than 6 years retired, it’s rare I sleep past 6:00a and I’m usually up around 5a. DW sleeps until 7a Mon-Fri and later on weekends. Maybe I’ll still learn?

I haven't retired yet, but I've learned to sleep in on every day I don't have to be up for work.. does that count?

 

[Backdraft57]

Much better sleep. I was amazed how sleep deprived I was before retirement! I get up when I wake up, usually 0730-0830. Still have work dreams, running calls, doing CPR on someone. Fought a house fire in a dream last week. It's been 1.5 years since I left and still dreaming about it.

 

[MBAustin]

For awhile after ER, I got in the habit of staying up very late (past midnight) and sleeping until after 8am many days. Then 2.5 years ago we got a little dog, who expects to be walked no later than 7:30 and usually a bit earlier. So I adapted to his schedule and now usually turn off the light by 11:30. Still beats the heck out of getting up at 5:45am.

 

[Just_Steve]

Straight up night owl here. Bed 2,3 sometimes 4 am, wake up around noon.

 

[6miths]

I didn't need to learn to sleep in as my sleep wake pattern was always quite variable and usually didn't have a fixed wake time through the years. Never had much (any!) trouble filling the available time for zzzzzz's.

 

[Katsmeow]

Straight up night owl here. Bed 2,3 sometimes 4 am, wake up around noon.

Finally! I had begun to think I was the only one. (Posting this at 2:58 am)

 

[dixonge]

I couldn't vote in this poll. I went from employed to self-employed back to employed and now retired. During that time the amount of time I sleep has generally shortened. By using a sleep-monitoring app I have managed to slowly lengthen my sleep time back up to 6.5 hours (my average over the last two months or so). I guess having an alarm again has helped me to sleep longer? Perhaps knowing that it is there and set to go off helps my brain to not worry about sleeping too long?

 

[kevdude]

I learned to sleep in on weekends in high school and perfected it in college.

 

[kcowan]

I also do not overschedule any day so there is always flexibility for a nap. So there is little pressure to sleep.

 

[dixonge]

Much better at napping now. Just took one in an airport!