I’m a night owl. I work late. I go to sleep late. But every time I’ve gone on a vacation or taken time off I find myself enjoying waking up early, and I kinda look forward to the point in my life where my schedule shifts and I can enjoy this time of day before ppl stir.
So is it personal preference or is it aging?
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For a year or so I was getting up at 4:30am building my small business website, and doing work for my clients. It was glorious. Zero life interruptions, 100% productivity, and focus.
I have a teenage kid now that drives, so getting to bed before him just isn’t possible right now, so I’m locked into a 11pm-7am sleep schedule.
Both. The older you get, the more sleep required to naturally function at a mid-to-high caliber. I used to operate just fine with 6 hours of sleep, but I’ve noticed the last year or two that I need that extra 30-60 minutes and it makes a big difference. I’m also a night owl so it’s been a lifelong habit to try to break.
Only because my wife has a lousy sleep pattern.
Probably just enjoy the peace and quiet or solitude in general. Early in the morning and late at night no one bothers you. I turn into a night owl when Im off work. I work first shift and start at 6am. When I have more than a couple days off consecutively I instantly revert back. Sucks during the week.
I used to be a night owl. But with an 8am job and only being able to go to the gym at 5 or 6am due to family obligations in the evening I now go to bed at 10 and get up at 5. Although on the weekends I often stay up late
I wake up a couple times to piss now.
It’s definitely a change. The best part of it, if you can work it into your schedule, is a nap.
Aside from that, just sleep whenever you want to instead of conforming to everyone else’s schedule.
What is this called?
Freedom.
In college I’d sleep 3am – 10-11am then after was like 11-12pm to 8amish, now I’m in bed before 10pm (usually read my book until 10:30-11 though) and wake up at 6:30am cause my kiddos are up that early. Sleep pattens change with where you’re at in life.
Contemplating trying to get up even earlier and work out/enjoy some quiet.
I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier and sleep more as I age. High school age I would go to bed between 3-6am and sleep for like 3 hours a night. Now I go to bed around midnight and wake up around 6.
It’s funny how much you enjoy the peace of a quiet house at 5 in the morning.
You guys are sleeping?
Kids in bed by 8, wife goes at 9.
Duolingo lesson from 9 to 10.
Chores from 10 to 11.
Power sleep 11 to 2.
Awake and unable to sleep till 4.
Power sleep 4 to 6.
Get ready at 6, at office desk by 8.
Or is just “dad with young kids” schedule and it gets better when theyre older and less prone to wake up?
Yes; by the time I had to stop drinking fluids after dinner in order to sleep through the night, sleeping through the night took like 70 less minutes every night.
When work isn’t dictating my sleep schedule, my natural tendency is sleeping 11-7, but as-is during the week it’s 10-5:30. During the pandemic I had to work at 6am and you know what I never want to do again? That.
I’ve been getting up early for work for 7 years and it still feels like having 10k nails jabbed into my eyes
Question. Are you a night owl because that’s when your body naturally prefers to be active and doing things, or are you a night owl because evening/night time is the only time that you don’t have any other demands on your time, so they’re the only ones that you’re actually in control of?
My understanding is that it’s not uncommon for people to convince themselves that they prefer night time simply because that’s the window that they have actual control over, and you starting to get up earlier on holiday (where you have more freedom anyway) might indicate differently.
In that case, if you follow the pattern of increasing in stability and freedom as you age, then you may find yourself settling into what is actually your more natural rhythm because you’re not trying to wrest control of your time from the universe.
I slept more and better when I was younger.
Mine hasn’t so far. I’ve always been a night owl and that hasn’t really changed. Though I suppose the number of nights I’m up past 2am or even 1am has gone down so maybe it’s slightly shifted.
Night owl here too. I’ve been trying to fix it for the last decade or so but it doesn’t work for me. Even if it gets into a healthy schedule, it takes only a few days for it to go back to business as usual night owl mode . So, I accepted my reality and established my life around it.
Found job(s) that allows me to sleep in the mornings. I work during afternoons and evenings, live the life at night and sleep around dawn. Maybe it will change once I get to my 50s but I have no hope that it will change during my 30s and 40s. Will see I guess, haha
I’m getting a little bit more sleep now than I ever have. Does that count?
Other than that, in my case it only changed slightly out of necessity when I was forced to work dayshift
Mine shifted dramatically. In college I was up until 2am, awake at 10am. Granted, I had to be for the restaurant job I worked, but still.
Now I’m 34 and I’m in bed at 8pm, asleep by 9pm, and awake at 5am. I like the peace and quiet of the 5am-7am hours. Wife and dogs are still asleep, the neighborhood is still asleep. I get to drink coffee and play video games. I’m in the “Rise and Simmer” club.
“Do your sleeping patterns shift as you age?”
Yes.
I’ve been a morning person my whole life. I can sleep anywhere any time but forcibly staying up past midnight to 2am murders me. And I flew military aircraft on night shift for a decade.
Age 38, expert circadian rhythm shifter, still like mornings.
Ya
i’ve become more sensitive to light when i sleep…. and i also wake up to pee sometimes
Not yet, but I’m in only in my mid-50’s. My body is weirdly consistent. I wake up about the same time every morning, poop at the same time, feel tired at the same time (though, if I’ve been doing a lot of manual labor, that time does get earlier). I keep the same schedule I have for the past 20 years, and if we lose power and my alarm clock is off, I wake up within a minute or two of the usual time.
Now that I’m getting older, I kind of feel that I should train myself up to get a little more sleep, but that’s easier said than done. I’ve kept the same schedule for so long, my body seems to just be committed.
Honestly, I think your habits you build in your teens and 20s go pretty far into life.. Maybe work or other responsibilities change those.. But most of us who wake up with or before the sun every day do so because that is what is normal for us for x amount of years, if that makes sense.
It also can be a mental thing too. I strongly prefer to hammer the days tasks from wake up until its complete, and then I can rest, chill, whatever. Though with three kids under 6 there is not a ton of resting lol.
Main thing is I have always preferred getting up and at it early with the idea of accomplishing everything earlier, leaving time to enjoy the afternoon/evening
I cannot speak for other people, but I was a night owl my entire life. That was until I left a particular job where I was working from the afternoon till early morning. The next day I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and could immediately tell that was my new wake up time. I started looking for a daytime truck driving position. It’s been almost 10 years of me getting up at 6:00 a.m. consistently. The cats help for sure
Definitely, for me it started at around 35. These days I’m struggling to keep myself awake until midnight, otherwise I’ll wake up too early..
I’m 51 now. I had been a night owl my entire life, regularly staying up until 2-3 am and sleeping until 9 or 10 am. (on no-work days at least). But somehow in the last two years, I haven’t exactly turned into an early bird, but midnight is about as late as I ever want to stay up, even during week-long vacations and such. I’m physically incapable of staying up like I used to. It’s very weird to me, even now. I just have to roll with it.
Yes. I sleep okay, but it’s basically 5 hrs, read for an hour, 2 or 3 more.
Preference. I’m 45 and still would stay up until 3 AM and wake up at noon if my schedule and family allowed it.
I used to be a total night owl. I would stay up late watching movies or playing video games constantly, and always sleep late unless I had to work. And then I would have trouble getting up.
Changed a lot when I had a kid. Now I’m in bed by 10 and up by 430 every day.
I think I just like having a couple hours where everyone else is asleep so I can have some damn peace and quiet.
I used to have a hard time falling asleep and would be up till 1am regularly on weekdays. Little kids cured that. And then little kid schedule – if I want to be at work at 8:30 and so does my wife and we have two children who need help waking/teethbrushing/eating a good breakfast/diaper changes/bags packed… it’s a whole process and even with nearby daycares, they need to be up at 7. And I have several teams in India and my 7-830 is all fucked up so I’ll take 6 am meetings, which means I’m up at 530 to shit and brush my teeth and put some clothes on and you can see where this is going.
I didn’t naturally gravitate towards being an in bed at 930 up at 530 old man, but I’ve had to do that in order to get enough sleep to rested and safe as a driver. And having done it long enough, I absolutely cannot imagine sleeping until 10am or later which used to be a regular weekend occurance.
Habits usually change as we age, and that affects our circadian rhythms more than people realize.
Most self proclaimed “night owls” in reality just have terrible daily habits that makes it harder for them to feel sleepy at night.
Not really. My body has wanted to sleep from about 11pm-7am since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, life usually requires me to get up at 6am or earlier.
I used to be a night owl, and I still am in vacation mode. But as I age it becomes harder and harder to work on a schedule like that. Gotta get up at 6:30 these days to get to work on time…
I sleep better now because I’m not as stressed
Honestly, It just depends on energy exerted that day/week.
For example, I find it hard to stay up past 10 on week days that I work. Daughter just had a spring break so I took the week off to spend with her and since I didn’t put out as much energy as I did during a work week I simply wasn’t as tired.
I became an early to bed early to rise guy for other reasons, and it’s unexpectedly the best thing ever.
They can to an extent but everyone has what’s called a chronotype that defines the actions of our circadian rhythm and that doesn’t really change unless affected by injury or disease.
I’m a night owl. Always have been. In college with no girlfriend to regulate me I typically went to bed when the sun came up and woke up around noon to start my day. Everyone said that would change as I got older. Nope. 49 and I’m still exactly like that. I get up because I have to (work and kids). But I still stay up late, I still sleep til noon when given the chance.
I used to be a late night person. When I got into my mid thirties I naturally started getting tired earlier in the evening. I would say on average I sleep from 11 to 7. I start being done with the day around 8pm. Like ready to just lounge in my underwear and play video games or watch tv until I fall asleep.
I mean, I don’t think what you’re describing necessarily means that you are not an night owl anymore. I’m a night owl and I do enjoy being up early on vacations sometimes but that doesn’t translate to when I’m at home.
I still usually sleep these days from about 2/3am-8am on normal work days. On my days off I don’t fall go to bed until 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep until 10/10:30.
Although because of work my sleep schedule has corrected a little bit, because in University or when I used to work evening shifts it would be a bit crazier. I used to work 3-11pm shifts, and often wouldn’t go to bed until 4/4:30 and then I would sleep until Noon.
I do find that I can’t sleep in as long anymore even if I want to anymore, unless I went out the night before and went to bed pretty drunk.
I’ve had to wake up once or twice to piss for as long as I can remember now (I’m 36). That, plus having 2 toddlers that seem to refuse to sleep any later than 5am has just naturally shifted my sleep pattern to like, 9.30 – 10pm bed time, 5am wake time.
I was inherently a night owl, used to go to bed at 2am and up around 9am.
With a kid, I know go to bed around 9pm and up at 5am for an exhausting day.
Bed at 10 and watch a documentary on youtube till 11.
Wake up at 5:30, embrace how comfy it is and be in a light sleep bliss till my alarm kicks in at 7.
At the time of night that mid-20s me used to start prepping to head from the pre-drink to wherever we were going that night, present-day me has already been asleep for ~2 hours
Yes
47 year old man here. I’m just fucking tired all the time. Between work, uni and training. I try to stay up till 9pm, I will wake up between 4-5am. This suits me fine as that’s the time I go running. But yeah. I rarely stay up past 9 anymore.
I’ve only been able to sleep about 2 hours at a time since I was like 20. Sleep 2 hours up for a half hour. Sleep an hour up an hour. Wash rince repeat. 4 to 6 hours of actual sleep. But I’m not generally tired during the day. I’m 41 now and I haven’t died. So I guess I’m ok.