Early Birds & Night Owls- Advice sought - # 11

I wanna know....

1. Are you an early bird or a night owl or some other kind of bird?

2. Are you or have you ever been partnered with a person who had the opposite body clock from you?  You like to wake up early and get a LOT done before 9 am, but he hits his stride after 11 pm when you would prefer to be in bed?  Or vice versa?

3. Do you use your body clock to time your workouts, preferring early morning or late at night?

4. Do you think you can change your body clock or have you changed from one to the other? What prompted the change?

Just call me curious Georgina....

1.  i'm a mid morning bird.. i hit my stride around 9 or 10 am

2.  yes.. my hubby is a night owl

3.  yes.. i like to work out around 9:30 or 10 am

4.  yeah.. i think you can change your clock.. when i was in college i was a morning person.. but then i went to work and had to work 2 pm to 10 or 12 pm.. changed my whole outlook on sleep and when to be busy

oh.. and hi georgina.. :)_

1) Yes. I am an Early Bird.

2) Yes, of course, my gf is a Night Owl.

3) I prefer early morning workouts where possible, as it's been cooler. Working out right after work seems to work for me as well.

4) Nope.. we've had to wake up at 5:30 anyways for her to get to work on time. I just wake up and am here, at work, early :)

I think I am both depending on what is going on.  I get up anywhere between 2 am and 6 am and can go to bed anywhere between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. (worknights) and as late as 2 a.m. on weekends (I always sleep in on Saturday as it is the only day I can, unless my daughter needs a right to work in the am, then I come home and get to work).

Hubby gets up for work at 1:00 a.m. and is back home by 11:00 a.m., I have to be at work by 6:30 a.m. and am home by 2:00 p.m.  So as you can our life is definately not like anyone elses.  He naps after work two times a week, so on those days I don't see him for the most part. 

Before I married Ken I would never be up this early.  No way on earth could I have imagined it ever possible.  But I love it.  Not matter the time I get up, I wake up raring to go. 

We exercise after work around 2 or 3 p.m.

Im an early bird!  Im normally up at 6:30am, even before kids.  Now my hubby doesnt wake up until 10 or 11 on the weekends if the kids let him.  But he will stay up til 2-3 in the morning and I have a hard time being up past 11. 

I will say that before exercising I would fall asleep by 8 putting the kids to bed but now Im not tired then!  I usually workout in the mornings but lately, since starting maintaining, I do stuff after the kids go to bed.

1. I am a night owl, but my daughter is a very early riser so I have to be too.

2. My man is a night owl too, but he has to get up early and hates it.

3. I like to work out as soon as I get up, so I can get it over with, but if I miss one my body feels it.

4. Yes, have some kids, then you will naturally get up early just like they do. (Also, I have become a very light sleeper since then).

1. Are you an early bird or a night owl or some other kind of bird?  Early bird!  I am at work and functioning at 6:45 (and my commute is around 45 mins).

2. Are you or have you ever been partnered with a person who had the opposite body clock from you?  My husband is a night owl and often will stay up later than I do, and can sleep in until noon on weekends.  I can MAX sleep until 9--and that's sleeping in! 

3. Do you use your body clock to time your workouts, preferring early morning or late at night?  Yes, but I don't work out in the am.  I work out at lunch because it gives me the energy to stay up for the rest of the day & keep on truckin' (eliminates the need for a nap when I get home from work sometimes). 

4. Do you think you can change your body clock or have you changed from one to the other? What prompted the change?  I've always been somewhat of a morning person, but in college I would stay up so late with homework or hanging out with friends that that all changed, and I could sleep in.  With my routine for work now, I'm a morning person again, so yes, I have made both schedules work. I think as long as you get in a routine, your body will adjust.

1. All depends.  I have narcolepsy, so I'm only up for 12 hours a day.  When I played music, I was up from 3 - 3.  When I worked at the hospital, I was up from 6-6.  When I had my own business, I was up from 9-9.  Now I am up from 8-8, sometimes later than that.  I also have apnea, and the CPAP has mad a huge difference in my energy level, so sometimes I am awake until 10 even!!  Wow!

2.  I don't have a bf atm, but it wouldn't bother me, because I go to sleep without a problem, even if there is activity in the apartment.

3.  I like to walk either before it gets too hot, or after it cools down.  In the autumn, winter and spring, I usually walk in the afternoon.

4.  I don't know about changing my clock...  I don't even follow daylight saving.  lol  I just get to bed an hour earlier or later than I did before the time change.  hehehehe  I have changed my clock in the past, obviously, but I think it's a tricky thing to do.

Depends. 

I love staying up really late and often do it unintentionally but I also wake up at 9ish, earlier if I'm home since the sun comes in my window.  I do my best work either before lunch or waaaaaay after dinner.

2)nope, largely because I've never had a serious relationship, I suspect.

3)I prefer early morning, even though getting up early enough hurts.  It gives me more energy for the whole day.

4) Heck yeah!  In school I would be up until 2 or 3 in the morning and get up at 7 (ouchy) and nap in the afternoon but now I'm up at 5:00ish and in bed by 9. 

1.  Early bird..up by six, but usually awake around 5

2.  Hubby seems to be both an early bird and a night owl.  He doesn't sleep much.  He is up before me and stays up much later than me.

3.  I work out in the late afternoon/early evening.  I don't like to exercise in the morning (prefer to spend my mornings with my coffee and computer).  Exercise later in the day helps me to have enough energy to not go to sleep at 8:30.

4.  I don't know if you can change your body clock.  I know I have a very strong internal clock (changing the clocks twice a year wreaks havoc with my system for a whole week).  I wouldn't want to change it anyway as I am comfortable with my routine.

1.  I'm an early bird.  I wake up around 5:30 am , no alarm clock. I have to be in bed by 10 pm to get enough sleep. 

2.  Bill is a night owl. He can't fall asleep before 1 am and has to set the alarm to wake him up or he'll sleep until 10 am.

3.  I don't have much choice about timing my workouts.  My monitored exercise class is 1 pm to 3 pm three times a week.  Also, I take some very heavy duty meds in the morning and they drop my blood pressure very low for a couple of hours - not a good time to exercise!  What i do in the morning is check my e-mail, plan and log my meals for the day, read, and do some gardening while it's still cool.

4.  The only time I've changed my body clock was when my first baby (now 40) was born.  Suddenly I had to go from staying up late and sleeping in, to waking up at all hours.  Too many years of taking care of babies and working the early shift have stayed with me and now I have no desire to change it at all

Interesting...

I became an Early Bird after my daughter was born.  My bf is a Night Owl and it makes him mad if I fall asleep before 11.

Whenever he points out my early-birdness, and says I could make an effort to sleep in later and stay up later, I usually say, well, you could wake up earlier and go to bed earlier too.

Then he pulls out the trump card.  There are LOTS more things to do at night than in the morning -- bars, dancing (which he won't do, I might add), live music, etc.

All I can offer up for the morning is a brisk walk to a coffee shop.

We need to compromise, but I'm not sure how to go about it. 

My sleep schedule has been messed up many times.  Went thru years of insomnia.  Then went to grad school and got used to only 3-4 hours a night.  Then I got depressed and started sleeping 10-12 hours a night.  Now, I like how I'm sleeping - about 7.5 hours a night from 11 to 6:30. Sometimes I fall asleep at 10 or 10:30.

I hate to be like Forrest Gump, but dang - If you're sleepy, you should sleep....   right?

It seems like you need a very compelling reason to change your body clock (I do anyway) and maybe BF feels like doing the things he wants to do later at night should be a compelling enough reason for me.

I am a very early bird. I woke up around 5 every morning except if I drink alcohol the night before I will sleep till 6 :)

2. My boyfriend wont wake up before 11 even he he has to work at 9... 

3. I work out in the morning because my boyfriend is sleeping and I don't have anything else to do. After work, I'm too tired because my work is physical.

4. I think it is not so hard to change your body clock but sleeping too much makes me feel like I have no energy all day long

NME, just remind him that YOUR sleep schedule is more conducive to work.  I wish I was set like that, but I'm not.

If you guys want to go out, just deal with a bit of sleep deprivation.  And make him get up with you, so he gets a taste of it, too.  Then again, if you're prone to insomnia, changing your sleep pattern might not be a good idea.  You can always hit bars earlier.  No cover a lot of time if you go then.  And how often does live music happen?  Dancing, well, you almost have to go later so there are lots of people, but if he won't dance, then that's a good reason to not bother.

Hope my ramblings were helpful!

Thanks Red!

That sounds like a good strategy.  Will try it this weekend.  :)

In Greensboro there is live music every weekend.  I'm not saying it's good live music, but it is what it is.  For the longest time BF has been saying "I feel like some good live music."  And see, that's another area where our tastes differ.  To me, a good acoustic set up is very enjoyable. But what he wants is the louder rock thing.  Even punk.

He and I agree on a lot of things, but we are so opposite on others!

ah - the spice of life ...  =)

1. Definitely a morning bird.  Am up by 6:30 during the week and "sleep in" until 8 on weekends!

2. My boyfriend WAS a night owl.  When we first started dating, we both were really.  But a combination of work and working out changed that and I had to get up earlier.  It was tough at first but now I don't even need an alarm clock to wake up and he generally gets up with me.

3. That said, I prefer to work out after lunch.  I like to take the morning to do more cerebrally challenging tasks and I use a mid-afternoon workout to boost my energy levels when they're at their lowest.

4. We are very resilient creatures - your body will accommodate your changing demands better than you think.

1. I'm a night owl, but I have to be to work early.

2. He's middle of the road.  My problem is my alarm needs to go off at least 20 minutes before I have to actually get out of bed, I like the turn on the radio, drift in and out of sleep, strech, listen to the news, mentally go through my day ahead.  He likes to set the alarm for the last possible minute, and when it rings, he gets up immediately, and hauls butt to get out the door on time.  He would rather have that extra sleep, but I can't move that fast in the morning, if I get up right away I get a stomach ache, I need to get up slowly. 

3. I like to work out right after work, it's a release.  However it's getting really hot here in the afternoons, so I'll be shifting to morning gym workouts instead of afternoon outdoors.  Not too happy about it, but I want to keep working out.

4. I can change my clock when necessary, but not completely and it usually involves sacraficing a few hours here and there.  If it's too far from my natural 1am - 10am such as my teaching 11pm - 5:30 then I tend to sleep until noon on Saturday to make up some hours, not looking forward to kids keeping me from my Saturday sleep in. 

1. Are you an early bird or a night owl or some other kind of bird?   When I was younger I was always a night owl.  I have never been a morning person.  However now with work I have to get up early so in turn that makes me tired at night and unable to stay up late.   I guess that makes me a mid-day bird. 

2. Are you or have you ever been partnered with a person who had the opposite body clock from you?  You like to wake up early and get a LOT done before 9 am, but he hits his stride after 11 pm when you would prefer to be in bed?  Or vice versa?   When DH and I were dating we were somewhat opposite - he liked to get up early and was pooped by the end of the day, when I was just getting started.  I am the type who likes to lay around in bed on weekend mornings, so it annoyed me when he popped out of bed, ready to go.  However, over time we have sort of reached an equilibrium.  Since he has become much more physically fit, he has a lot more energy at the end of the day than he used to, and I am more likely to be tired in the evenings rather than wanting to go out every night like I did in my 20s. 

3. Do you use your body clock to time your workouts, preferring early morning or late at night?   Not really!!  I work out in the morning so I don't have to shower twice, but I am always dead tired and not wanting to get out of bed.  It's sheer willpower that gets me up every morning.  When I am done, I am ready to go back to bed, and sometimes I do!  It's funny so many people who say exercise energizes them and makes them less hungry.  I am the opposite.  After my one hour workout each morning, I am starving and sleepy.  I could easily go straight to bed (after a shower) and sleep for a few more hours, and sometimes I do (if I don't have to be at work)
 
4. Do you think you can change your body clock or have you changed from one to the other? What prompted the change?   See #1 and #2 above

 

1. I am without question an early bird! I have been going to bed later since im 15, but I stride out of my room at 5am ready for thre day! :p Everytime I fly across two time zones i still wake at 5am. 2. Both sisters are night owls so not exactly a partner...but I kinda know what its like.

3. I don't use an alarm clock since my sleep pattern is fairly exact. (and I'm one of those people thqt cant fall asleep anywhere but my bed) I do yoga right before I go to bed and as soon as i wake. I do aerobics before bed as well.

4. I'm sure I could, but I have trouble staying awake past 10:00pm. -_-;

I am most definitely a night owl. I definitely have an inherited body clock that is most resistant to change. My father had it and my poor son inherited it as well.

I can stay up very late, getting more energetic as time passes. If I try to go to bed early it does no good, because if I am not sleepy, I can not fall asleep. I just toss and turn and can't sleep, then get frustrated and angry and then sleep even more poorly.

I worked 2nd & 3rd shift for several years and it was wonderful for my system. The weight came off very easily. I had lots of energy and felt great. Last year I started back to work in an office and have to be here by 8:00. It is a struggle every single morning. After a year, I am now able to wake up regularly by 7:00 and feel half way decent. Although some mornings I struggle until 10:00. By 10:00 I'm usually beginning to feel very good and energetic.

Trying to exercise with my new work schedule is just not working at all. Getting up early to exercise is just not an option. I can't do it. Anyone who says, "just get up and get out of bed right away", just has no idea what it is like to have the internal clock that I have. It is physically impossible for me to get going early as much as it is for early birds to stay up late. Now, if there's an emergency, I'm fine, as the adrenaline kicks in and takes over for me.

Once it gets warm and dry here on a regular basis, I want to try walking and riding my bike in the evening after I get home. There is just so much to do when I get home from work every day that this is hard as well.

1.  Both.  I stay up late and I wake up early (early to me, anyway).  Rarely do I sleep in.

2.  Right now, no.  We're both on the same sleeping schedule.  If I get this upcoming job, we're going to have a lot of adjusting to do as my hours will greatly vary and his kind of won't.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, though.  We had practice during clinicals when I had to be up at 3 AM to get ready and he had to work until 11 PM the night prior.  He tucked me into bed before he left for work (at 4 PM) and after he left, I got up and did whatever I had to do until it was bedtime.

3.  I work out whenever it's convenient for others or myself.  I run with Alex every other day and ride a bike with my mom the days I don't run.  If Alex has the day off, we'll run in the morning or around noon, if not, we'll go in the evening.  Same thing goes with Momma.  If neither want to work out with me, I go whenever I can find my tennis shoes.  Today it was morning.

4.  YES.  I used to have to stay awake all night to guard the house and keep tabs on Daddie one week, then work on staying awake during the day and sleeping at night another for school.  It takes a day of being crabby, and usually a Tylenol PM or four, but it's doable.  I haven't had to do that since I was seventeen, but will have to do it if I get this job.  It's not set hours, it's pretty much whenever they need a shift filled in, which can be first (5 to 1), second (1 to 9), or third (9 to 5).  I welcome the challenge, though.  Alex?  Not so much.