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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Any Owls forced by circumstance to get up at stupid o'clock (i.e. before 8am)...
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
... coping tips please.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
I'm habituated to the point that I now naturally wake at 6, but only with a desperate desire to go back to sleep because I'm still knackered. I start functioning about 10.
[ 20. March 2015, 14:02: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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BessLane
Shipmate
# 15176
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Posted
About a year ago, I changed from a job with extremely late hours to one with extremely early ones. I get up between 3 and 3:15 AM, Monday-Friday. I adjusted by making sure I go to bed early (7:30) and that I don't make the mistake of sleeping too late on the weekends. I may sleep in til 5 am or so, but that's usually as late as I'll go.
Mornings, I'll piddle around on the computer for about 1/2 an hour and drink a cup of coffee while I grumble about being up so danged early. Then, I go with the "fake it 'til you make it" method which is simply pretending to be perky, alert and with-it until I actually am. Usualy takes me about 1/2 hour to an hour of forced perk to achieve the real thing.
Don't know if that helps, but I gets me through the day ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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It's all on me and I won't tell it.
formerly BessHiggs
Posts: 1388 | From: Yorkville, TN | Registered: Sep 2009
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
People who naturally don't sleep until very late and naturally wake very late may have Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder.
Googling suggests that some people can benefit from light therapy using a lightbox during the first hour of their day to help shift their circadian rhythm to a more normal pattern. It also recommends things such as avoiding light in the evening especially tv, computers etc in the hours before going to bed. Some people also benefit from melatonin therapy.
Anyway, lots more info and links can be found here. These are not really coping mechanisms but more ways of treating the underlying disorder. If you feel you may fall into the sleep disorder category these may be worth looking at.
I'm sure my mother-in-law has this disorder. Fortunately she used to work in a job which had flexitime so she could roll up at work at 10am. Now she is retired I think she is rarely in bed before 2am and generally doesn't get up before 10am.
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee. ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
Oh, and melatonin supplement an hour before I want to be sleepy. No guarantees, but it doesn't hurt.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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St Everild
Shipmate
# 3626
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Posted
Out of bed. Into shower. Stay in shower for 20 mins or so, by which time I am functioning enough. Tea to drink first. Then coffee. With caffeine.
Posts: 1782 | From: Bethnei | Registered: Dec 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Manage it like jetlag. Lie to yourself abt what time it really is and function on Liberal Backslider Standard Time. It's a rigid discipline. 6 is the new 9. Or whatever is required.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee.
This.
You don't wake up until 10, Karl, I am not fully awake until after my second strong coffee of the day.
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Last ever sig ...
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Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
I do my best everything after midnight. But, not possible with the new job. Up at 5:30. Shower first, then tea.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
I work a rotating shift system where one day it is 0530 - 1730, the next 0900 - 2100, the next 1315 - 0115 then back in that night at 2100 - 0900. As a result my sleep is all over the place. The only thing that allows me to sleep properly is sleeping tablets which thankfully the GP is happy to prescribe.
It's not only your sleep that gets screwed up but your eating and your digestion. These shifts suck.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Oh, and melatonin supplement an hour before I want to be sleepy. No guarantees, but it doesn't hurt.
Be careful with melatonin though as it can cause significant changes in mood. I was prescribed it once and went from normally mad to suicidal overnight. Went back to normally mad a couple of days later.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by St Everild:
Out of bed. Into shower. Stay in shower for 20 mins or so, by which time I am functioning enough. Tea to drink first. Then coffee. With caffeine.
I get up early enough without getting up even earlier to take even a 2 minute shower.
I cannot believe an owl could do this.
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Last ever sig ...
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Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
quote:
Originally posted by St Everild:
Out of bed. Into shower. Stay in shower for 20 mins or so, by which time I am functioning enough. Tea to drink first. Then coffee. With caffeine.
I get up early enough without getting up even earlier to take even a 2 minute shower.
I cannot believe an owl could do this.
This. I have to allow a 15 minute sitting on the bed working out what's real and what's dream and persuading myself it's not worth losing my job to have another hour in bed without allowing shower time as well And this is after the first coffee of the day (curtesy machine set up night before)
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by W Hyatt:
Get a travel pillow like this one and take a quick nap in your car during lunch.
What car?
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
No sympathy - I'm a lark, up at 6am even 'tho retired. I do my best everything before 11am and completely flop at 3:30pm. Bed by 10pm at the latest!
Tweet tweet!
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
I think it depends if it's something you have to do regularly or just occasionally. When I worked a lot of early shifts I found I just had to force myself to bed at a boring time and get up at an unreasonable one. After a few months I got used to it but I found if I had a lie in on my days off it all started again so I had to get up relatively early on my off days too which irritated me.
If it's only occasional just survive it and you'll be able to get through it on minimal sleep. It sucks but it's doable.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
No sympathy - I'm a lark, up at 6am even 'tho retired. I do my best everything before 11am and completely flop at 3:30pm. Bed by 10pm at the latest!
Tweet tweet!
The French have the right idea. Larks should be served lightly charred.
I don't even start properly waking up until after 8, so anything I do to prepare for the day before that is a complete waste. Ideally, I start around 10.
I think my body clock is completely and utterly confused, and has been for years. It's at the mercy of other forces.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
I get up early enough without getting up even earlier to take even a 2 minute shower.
I cannot believe an owl could do this.
This. I have to allow a 15 minute sitting on the bed working out what's real and what's dream and persuading myself it's not worth losing my job to have another hour in bed without allowing shower time as well And this is after the first coffee of the day (curtesy machine set up night before)
I'm an owl, but also a potterer. If I have to leave the house at 7 because I have an early meeting or something, I have to set the alarm for 5:30. Yes, in principle I could shower, eat breakfast and get out of the door in half an hour, but I'll be completely discombobulated all morning if I do that. If I need to be functional in the morning (and I don't get up early for the kind of nonsense meeting that just wants my body present), I've got to have my pottering time.
If it's an early start to catch a plane, or to drive somewhere, then although I'd still like to potter, I don't need to.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
What wakes me up is a lark of a husband who brings me tea in bed. My eyes slowly open as I sip.
Unfortunately he then tries to engage me in conversation.
Showers in the morning? Torture!
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ThunderBunk:
The French have the right idea. Larks should be served lightly charred ...
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif) I'll go along with that.
I'm lucky to be an owl who doesn't start w*rk until 10 most days. I'm currently limbering up for my annual up-at-silly-o'clock day: we have a Choral Eucharist with the New Fire on Easter morning at 6 o'clock, so I'll be up around 4:30, and for once will probably be in bed around 11 the night before.
That's the plan anyway ... ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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sharkshooter
Not your average shark
# 1589
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Posted
My wife and I start work at 7:00. So, the alarm goes off at 5:40 - we both shower and get lunches ready (usually mostly prepared the previous evening). I usually make her breakfast as well, which she eats when we get to the office. The drive is about a half hour (because we are before the morning gridlock gets too bad), and we are usually there on time. Since we work a block apart, driving together works well.
That does mean sleeping in until 6:00 today was a bonus, as even on weekends I don't make it that long. My wife does much better at sleeping in on the weekends, sometimes making it past 7:00.
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Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]
Posts: 7772 | From: Canada; Washington DC; Phoenix; it's complicated | Registered: Oct 2001
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Ethne Alba
Shipmate
# 5804
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Posted
Coping hints and tips? These work for me:
* pack my bag the night before,
* choose (all) clothes the night before and leave hanging up,
* check enough money for tram/ bus the evening before,
* remember to double check front door key is in bag + mobile phone,
* leave a note to myself for the next morning.. "lunch in fridge", "take mobile phone out of charger", etc...
* only eat my breakfast on the go, once out of house
This only leaves me having to cope with ...getting from the bed to the shower, which is easier said than done..... into clothes and shoes.... coat on.....tick off the messages to self and do what they say.....and leave the house.
Somewhere between getting out of the front door and arriving at work i Do wake up. Just not too certain When though.
Should any silly sod insist on me getting to work before 9am, they hardly ever ask me to do it a second time.
Oh yes, and first thing i'm not too chatty and tend to be argumentative with nearest and dearest
Posts: 3126 | Registered: Apr 2004
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ethne Alba:
This only leaves me having to cope with ...getting from the bed to the shower, which is easier said than done.....
In the days immediately following the spring time change and any other time that it's crucial for me to be up well before my body wants to be up, I set a piercing alarm in the bathroom.
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Leaf
Shipmate
# 14169
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
No sympathy - I'm a lark
How nice for you. Do you show up on other threads in All Saints to chirp, "No sympathy, I'm happily married" or "No sympathy, I have stable employment"?
I'm an owl forced into ridiculous lark hours which I fucking hate and am dearly hoping I will get to change this year. I have been doing this for seven years without making the magical adaptation to lark life. When I was able to set my hours to suit myself, my working day started at 10 am.... oh what I would give to be able to do that again.
The only thing that has ever helped a little is exercise: I sleep better, for the insufficient hours I sleep. Other than that I rely on duty, love, and that tiny spark of hope that I may one day be able to return to happy owl hours.
Posts: 2786 | From: the electrical field | Registered: Oct 2008
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Ethne Alba
Shipmate
# 5804
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Posted
Quick check to ensure that we Are in All Saints?......Yup.....
Leaf you have my deep sympathies. Shall pray for change at your work. Can't imagine how terrible that must be week in and week out.
Posts: 3126 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leaf:
The only thing that has ever helped a little is exercise: I sleep better, for the insufficient hours I sleep. Other than that I rely on duty, love, and that tiny spark of hope that I may one day be able to return to happy owl hours.
You will - it's called retirement!
I understand owls well - I live with one. I get up at 6am, he gets up at 10am. I go to bed at 10pm - he goes at midnight or later.
It's useful when we get a new puppy - both morning shifts and late shifts are covered!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
Yes, choose and put your clothes ready the night before. Or if you live with an early to bed lark like I do, prepare them the afternoon before so you're not stumbling around in the dark!
In the morning I have a timed routine that I can go through without thinking.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
I am a hibernator, which means that the winter up time at 5.00 gets increasingly difficult, but as the light increases, as it is doing now, I wake with the sun or slightly earlier.
I too need to potter, which means being up roughly 75 minutes before leaving the house. Notes to self the night before and as much stuff stacked by the front door as I will need to take with me the next day.
A mug of sweetened hot milk laced with whisky/brandy/rum helps the sleeping process. we are now at the end of the school term, and I've been packing in 121 singing lessons till 6.20PM, not home till 7.20 after a 24 mile drive, and in bed by 9PM. Fortunately this pressure will decrease dramatically after the Easter break.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
I'm naturally a later-in-the-day person. But, with a job that usually allows me to roll in at a sensible time. Yay! Though why I was up at 5am this morning beats me, I've been a mess all day (probably still adjusting to shifting 9 hours). On the other hand, I do tend to work normal hours even though I don't really need to, as it's become a habit recently.
I started getting into work at 9am when the children got me out of bed at 6am or so wanting breakfast, and then getting them to school (just across the road from work). Not easy, but the little dears do the job of getting you up far more efficiently than an alarm clock. Even though that no longer happens I still find myself stirring at about that time, pottering for a bit (time for a second mug of coffee before I leave) and working my way into a reasonable state for work. Although, I'm not usually at my best 'til about 3pm but now have the option of keeping going at work into the evening which is OK as the work gets done. When in Scotland, the children still get me up before 7am on the weekends which does sort of keep the internal clock running on the "get up at that time" even though it's nasty. Here there are two sensible trains (8:11 and 8:43) and I usually end up on the second one - if I miss that it's an hour hanging around the station for the next one. So, still up at 7am to have time to potter over breakfast.
I can't really say how I manage it without the little two-legged hungry for breakfast alarm clocks. But, somehow I do. A reasonable routine is established: alarm at 7am; potter around checking email and Ship while having breakfast and coffee, a shower (in Scotland a second coffee as I have a filter machine which gives me two mugs and fills my flask), leave about 8.20 for the train (in Scotland I get an extra half hour at that point). In work 9am, a second look at email, potter around for a while responding to anything and working out what I'll be doing for the day. Coffee at 10.30 by which time I'm working semi-productively, then after lunch I start to feel OK to do stuff that needs my attention. By 3pm I'm on a roll, so keep working with a quick coffee and some Ship time. Call it a day usually sometime between 7pm and 8pm, unless I need to get something done (here I have weekly research group meeting that starts at 6.30pm and usually finishes in time for the 9.30 train - if it doesn't then I'm stuck waiting for the next one gone 11). Get home, cook dinner, potter on the computer for a while then make sure everything's set for the next day. Bed around 11pm.
If I really need to be up early, then my trick is several alarms set at 5 minute intervals, none of them where I can reach them from the bed.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I am neither an owl nor a lark. I am what the French call a marmot – a person who needs a lot of sleep (don’t know whether marmots really are particularly sleepy animals). Consequently, while I like being in bed by about 11 p.m., I also don’t really function if I have to get up before about 7:30 or 8 o’clock.
Like LC, I am also a potterer. I hate being in a hurry in the morning. If I have to be up and about at oh hell o’clock, I find it helps to have as much as possible of everything prepared the night before, e.g. by picking out my clothes so I only have to put them on, making sure my bag is ready, washing my hair the night before, and so on. Anything that I am liable to forget goes in an obvious spot next to the front door where I can’t miss it. That way I can autopilot my way through everything and don’t have to think about any of it.
I can’t stomach anything that early in the morning so it’s better for me to have something packed that I can eat later.
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
Have you tried a sunrise alarm clock Karl?
My son is a natural owl, like his Dad, and has to get up at 4am on working days (he's an airline pilot), he finds it helps enormously.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Macrina
Shipmate
# 8807
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
No sympathy - I'm a lark, up at 6am even 'tho retired. I do my best everything before 11am and completely flop at 3:30pm. Bed by 10pm at the latest!
Tweet tweet!
May you be forced to work night shift in your next incarnation!
Posts: 535 | From: Christchurch, New Zealand | Registered: Nov 2004
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Have you tried a sunrise alarm clock Karl?
My son is a natural owl, like his Dad, and has to get up at 4am on working days (he's an airline pilot), he finds it helps enormously.
Much of the year it's already light by 6am. It's no easier then.
eta. [Yorkshire]HOW MUCH!?![/Yorkshire]
[ 24. March 2015, 11:39: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Macrina:
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
No sympathy - I'm a lark, up at 6am even 'tho retired. I do my best everything before 11am and completely flop at 3:30pm. Bed by 10pm at the latest!
Tweet tweet!
May you be forced to work night shift in your next incarnation!
Haha - I am well aware how annoying us larks are to you owls! I have always been the lone lark in my family.
I once shared a room with a lark, it was a joy - we happily twittered together at 6am and were having an early morning stroll down the beach at 7am, followed by coffee + more chat - marvellous.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Come and celebrate larkiness on a thread in Heaven, and leave the bleary-eyed owls to rest.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
[Yorkshire]HOW MUCH!?![/Yorkshire]
It's marketed as an "alternative therapy". That allows people the excuse to shift decimal points. Someone probably sells almost exactly the same gadget for £15, but makes no outrageous claims about the benefit of artificial sun-like-light. All you need is a desk lamp and a timer switch, lights on a stupid o'clock to help wake you up.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
... washing my hair the night before ...
That doesn't work for me: my hair is sufficiently unruly that even if I were to lie utterly motionless all night, I'd still wake up looking as if I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards*, so a shower has to be allowed for in the morning timetable. If that means occasionally getting up at oh-bugger-o'clock, so be it.
* I look like that even after an overnight flight, which doesn't involve lying down ... ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
All you need is a desk lamp and a timer switch, lights on a stupid o'clock to help wake you up.
I keep meaning to build a slightly better version, which gradually brightens over half an hour, to better mimic an actual morning. Round tuits seem to be in rather scarce supply here, though.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
I've been dealing with this a lot more lately; I've started bike racing this season, and they like to give us rookies the Absolute Worst Times, which, right now,* means an 8:30 start time. It takes the better part of an hour sometimes to get to the race, plus time to check in, get set up, warm up, etc—so a 6 AM or earlier wake-up. Oh, and drowsiness while sitting a few inches off somebody's back wheel and bumping elbows with everyone else at 30 MPH isn't a good thing...especially when considering that the race itself kinda wears you out.
So the trick is to find a way to have the alarm go off at the last possible second to allow yourself just enough time to get out the door when you need to, especially when considering that you're going to be slow and forgetful in the morning. Do everything possible the night before when you're actually functional and will catch that you missed something—no, not just packing lunches and laying out clothes, but making the non-negotiable first cup of coffee** or, in my case, putting my bike shoes in my car. Admit to yourself that you will be slow, you will be forgetful, you will be worse than useless in the morning, and anything you have to do then you will almost certainly do poorly—so do it now. Even if it feels stupid, like putting the helmet that always hangs on your bike in the car—because, in the morning haze, you will take it off the bike, set it down somewhere when you take out the bike, and then forget it.
You are going to be stupid in the morning. You are not the same capable, useful, intelligent person you are at night. It will feel like you're belittling yourself, like you're taking care of a three-year old who also happens to be you, but you'll have to do it. If you don't, you will forget things, you will have to sacrifice sleep for inefficiency, and you will be stressed and tired. Know that everything—EVERYTHING—is taken care of the night before, when your best, clear-thinking self did it, rather than the morning version of you who forgets that coffee is an effective antidote to feeling dead.
Also remember that mornings are different. They feel different. Sunrises look weird—pretty, yes, but weird. It's like the world's backwards. It's also going to be cold. The cold will make you tired, make you slow, make you lose whatever concentration you might have. If it's a really early morning, even your coffee that you made the night before (or bought as cold brew) will probably be cold. The weirdness, and general backwardness, is going to throw you, especially when combined with everything else that's Unnatural. Another reason to do everything you can the night before, while things are still normal and you can tell the difference between "not right because it's actually not right" and "not right because, right now, nothing seems right and everything's weird."
*Come July, when daily highs are usually above 90º/32º, they'll give us the 1 PM start time. They're so friendly.
**It's prevenient caffeine—the coffee you need in order to be functional enough to make and receive the salvific caffeine that gets you through the day.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
I keep meaning to build a slightly better version, which gradually brightens over half an hour, to better mimic an actual morning. Round tuits seem to be in rather scarce supply here, though.
That's what the sunrise alarms do - and they have full spectrum light, desk lamps won't cut it.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
All you need is a desk lamp and a timer switch, lights on a stupid o'clock to help wake you up.
I keep meaning to build a slightly better version, which gradually brightens over half an hour, to better mimic an actual morning. Round tuits seem to be in rather scarce supply here, though.
Well, if I need to be up early then I need a shock. Alarms with really annoying synthetic 'tunes' at too loud volume, lights that are bright and in your face. And, the whole lot somewhere that I need to get out of bed to turn the buggers off. I need "get your arse out of bed, NOW", not "it might be a good idea to think about waking up soon".
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
The sunrise lamps work well for me in conjunction with a slightly later-set "Get the HELL out of bed NOW!" alarm somewhere out of reach (like that cool one that pitches itself off the dresser and rolls away like anything, laughing as you try to tackle it to turn it off).
The first lets me get my pre-conscious pottering done ("Oh, is this a neuron? Let's try firing one and find out") so I'm ready (well, sort of) when the alarm from hell goes off.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
We got a sunrise light, which had an additional feature - sound.
The idea was that you would waken gently by the increasing light, to the gentle sound of a babbling stream.
What actually happened was that the sound of running water first thing in the morning catapulted both of us out of bed to dash to the toilet, fighting like ferrets to get in first.
We used it for three days then took it back to the shop for a refund. The shop (Boots) refunded immediately. Apparently ours was the third they'd had returned, all for the same reason.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
I don't thinking I've ever seen ferrets fighting to get into the bathroom, but I suppose it must happen ...
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I have a sunrise clock that works well for the “it’s dark and my body doesn’t think it’s time to get up yet” problem. Trouble is, they don’t really do anything for the “just haven’t had enough sleep” problem.
If you need eight hours, you need eight hours. Being awoken after six hours by a sunlight clock may be less horrible than being awoken by a nasty noise, but all things being considered together, you won’t be significantly less tired.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I think La Vie has hit it on the head: no matter what time of year it is, or how much/little light there is, we all know our own individual needs for sleep and the only answer is to try and meet those needs.
We've got a friend (in his early 60s and a definite Lark) who's in his dressing-gown with a mug of hot milk by 8:30 in the evening; if he's at a function that goes beyond, say, about 10:30 you can see him start to turn into a pumpkin ...
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
I think La Vie has hit it on the head: no matter what time of year it is, or how much/little light there is, we all know our own individual needs for sleep and the only answer is to try and meet those needs.
Wish I could, wish I could. Mrs Backslider has to be at work by 8 which means leaving at 7:15; I have to get the kids to the childminder and then go to work myself.
The sleep pattern I need is not an option.
[ 25. March 2015, 13:11: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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