Could you please shut the fuck up about how much I sleep?

The BBQ Pit
1

First, people just couldn’t shut the fuck up about how I eat.

Now it seems my sleeping habits are up for consideration.

I like to sleep. A lot (both the liking and the amount of sleeping). My hero is Sleepy from Show White and the Seven Dwarfs. I can go to bed at 11:00 p.m. and sleep until 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon, no problem.

Sadly, this seems to just piss everyone else off:

[ul][li]My parents. Lord how they love to bemoan my sleeping late. (I should add my sisters to this list as well.) It sticks in my father’s craw and irritates my mother to no end. If we’d had something planned to do - say, do some cleaning or some other chores - then I would get up and help. However, if we had no such plans, why are you angry that I’m still asleep? And waking me up by loudly throwing my door open and yelling at me, or dumping a glass of water on my head (my mother did this once) will only succeed in making me hate you for the entirety of the day.[/li]
[li]My friends. Although not angered by my excessive nocturnal jaunts, they find great delight and amusement in taunting me about it. If it’s not the habit of mocking me for the habit (“God, you’re still not awake?!?!”), it’s relishing the fact that when I finally do get out of bed, I am irritable and cranky - relish it by way of teasing and taunting me at that particular moment. Simple rule of thumb - do not speak to me in the morning until I have spoken to you first. Don’t get in my way, don’t say good morning, don’t engage me in conversation - or, if you do, deal with the fact that I will be snappish at you. (I suppose I shouldn’t hold my breath here - I’ve been this way for nigh over 30 years, and in all the time I lived at home, my parents never really learned this.) What it will take for me to engage you in civilized discourse is, at the very least, my first cup of tea. Comments like, “Oh, look - he’s finally up!” or “Gee, you look like hell - maybe you should take a nap?” or “GASP! IT LIVES!” will only guarantee that I will harbor some pent-up rage against you, and it will take the rest of the day for it to abate. Is it unreasonable? Probably. But I don’t think the small request of asking you to not speak to me first thing in the morning is too much of a stretch. (I just had this conversation with jkusters and thomasm the other night - we’ll see if they learn if I never have to post their obituaries in MPSIMS.) Oh, and it is especially annoying when you know I’m like this and do it anyway. “But I just love pushing your buttons - they’re so big and shiny and red and blinking!” I told your boyfriend to tell you to knock it off because if I’d said it to you, he’d be out a boyfriend. Yes, I know by and large I’m a huge target and I allow people to make fun of me and I go along with the joke and yadda yadda yadda - that’s all well and good, just not first thing in the morning.[/li]
[li]My chew toy. I know we’re new to the whole relationship and everything, but you’re going to have to learn all of what I just wrote. No, I’m not going to change - I’m a night person, I like staying up late and sleeping all day. Yes, I realize you’re ex-military, so up at the crack of dawn, and no pussy snooze button for you. But waking up and then waking ME up because you woke up and then spending the ENTIRE MORNING saying, “God, I can’t believe you sleep so much,” isn’t going to make me want to spend any more nights with you. Look, if we make plans to be somewhere in the mornings, I’m perfectly willing to do so, and I’m perfectly capable of being there on time (well, almost - I’m late for everything). I can wake up earlier - if I set my alarm. If I don’t set my alarm, believe it or not, I actually do sleep the entire time. I don’t wake up, look at the clock, chuckle evilly to myself and say, “Those bastards - I’m going to go back to sleep just to spite them!” I also don’t lie there for six hours just to piss you off. I SLEEP. It’s the way I’m built. Deal with it.[/ul][/li]
Here endeth the ranting. I’m going to bed.

Esprix

2

Yawn.

3

Oooo yes I hate people who tell me I sleep to much. I myself am very much a night person, if I have to get up I will. With much grumbling nad need for coffee, but I shall.

It drove me nuts living with my Grandparents who inisisted that I be up at 7 even when I had nothing else to do. I usually managed to get away with sleeping till 10 but that was not right in their eyes.

gah! totally commiserates with Esprix before wandering off to get food and more sleep

4

I get the same thing. I think it makes other people feel less lazy to criticize other’s sleeping habits. Me, I only sleep 8 hours at a time, but apparently, it’s at the wrong time.

The phone rings, and dimly, I poke my head out of my blanket cocoon to hear a voice on my machine. It’s my grandmother: “Lissa!? Where are you? It’s almost noon! Don’t tell me you’re still in bed?” Well, yeah, I am, but I didn’t got to bed until four or five.

I read a study once (or an excuse, if you’d rather) that people’s internal clocks are set to different times. Some people feel much more comfortable being awake at different hours. Me, I’m a night person, and luckily, I have a job which doesn’t require early rising. So, I see no reason to upset the balance of nature and drag myself out of bed until at least 11:00 A.M.

My grandmother, out of almost sixty years of habit, wakes every morning at 5:00 A.M., an ungodly hour at which only chickens and donut bakers should be awake. Nevertheless, she feels that anyone who snoozes past 9:00 A.M is somehow being wasteful of their lives. I tell her that I get the same number of waking hours as she, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

5

Appropriately enough:

Yahoo! claims that the amount of sleep you need depends on your body clock.

And when I saw that article, I celebrated. I love getting sleep, and if I get less than 8, life ain’t grand. I’d love to get 9 a night.

And yes, I know that plenty of people get less.

So see, Esprix, it ain’t your fault! It’s biology, man!
:o (yawnie smiley)

6

Oh God . . . flashing back to dorm life . . .

I was like this for my first 23 years or so. I gradually grew to not be such a surly morning bitch once I wasn’t, immediately upon waking, thrust among people I couldn’t stand. Now I am a normal person in the mornings because I spend them interacting with my favorite person. And I work at home, so I don’t get thrust out among the wretched refuse very often. These days I can actually choose the people I spend time with.

But ugh, Esprix, I feel your pain.

7

I do much the same. I’ll go to sleep around 6 am, wake up at 2pm or so and be quite happy the rest of the day. But:

The MOMENT someone speaks to me before I’ve stopped walking around like a zombie, I turn around and go back to bed. That’s really because I can be a big fat jerk, but hey :slight_smile:

My favorite is being woken up at 4:30 in the morning to dishes being thrown around the kitchen (my bedroom is right off of the kitchen), my mother cursing like a sailor (oh yes, she gets up at 4 am.), and the dogs barking. I know I am not the only person annoyed by this-- our houses here are rather close.

Grrr.

But now, it’s naptime. :slight_smile:

8

Preach it, brother. I’ve long held that mornings are unnatural and an affront to God. I try to sleep through as many as humanly possible.

9

Perhaps a night or two of listening to loud music and noisy cooking whilst you exclaim “I can’t believe how early you hit the sack!” might fix things? :slight_smile:

10

Woo hoo, Esprix!

I have been a night owl all my life. My parents tell me that I could imitate Ed McMahon introducing Johnny Carson at a very early age, I stayed up that late. Fortunately for me, that made my parents quite used to me staying up 'til 3 am and getting up past noon. Aside from some occasional mild joking, they don’t comment; they know it’s just the way I am.

But that’s one of the reasons why I actually like living alone: no one else to tell me to get up or to bother me before 12 pm!

11

I hate to go to bed. I hate to get out of bed. What a way to live.

12

The amount of sleep I need is directly related to the amount of daylight.

Winter sleep schedule - In bed at 7:30pm, up at 6:30am

Summer sleep schedule - In bed at 10pm, up at 6:30am

We all have different sleep patterns. Tell 'em all to go piss in the wind.

13

I know exactly what you mean. In college, I knew better than to schedule classes before noon. It was not uncommen for me to see the sun rise before I went to bed. At midnight, I would start to think about getting ready to go out. If it was before 2 am, it was “still early, what else do you want to do?” I could sleep all day if left alone. I am not a morning person, and I hated it so much when people would talk to me in the morning, and even more if they were sarcastic. I still hold a grudge against anyone who wakes me up for a little while, even if I asked them to.

Now, I have a job that requires me to get up at the unholy hour of 7:30am. I consider it a small miracle that I still have this job. My body clock has adjusted a bit, but I still do my best work after noon, and still sleep in and stay up late on the weekends and on vacation. I am definately not one of those people who can get by on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. If I am allowed to sleep, my body naturally feels best and wakes up after 8-9 hours, but I can always sleep more!

I have always wanted to see how much I could actually sleep if left alone. I always feel like I could sleep more when I wake up. Hmmm…one of these days I am going to sleep until I actually cannot sleep any more. I bet it would be over 20 hours.

I don’t understand why some people can’t deal with other people needing to sleep on a different time schedule!

14

Well, you folks would never be able to live at my house. My husband and I are up by 6:00, even on our days off. If I stay in bed past 7:00 am, I’m most assuredly ill. And I’m usually in bed by 8:30.

My son is a night owl. He is best when he gets up around noon. He’s a waiter, so no problem there, but he had a helluva time with a straight 7-3 gig. I’m sure our morning energy convinced him it was time to move. I don’t tiptoe around when the majority of the house is awake.

15

Dude, we’re total soulmates! Eight hours is my ABSOLUTE MINIMUM, and I usually do get 9 a night, but if I can swing TEN, praise de lawd and pass me a pillow!

Unfortunately, I do have to work at 8 am on weekdays, and on the weekends I feel guilty if I sleep into the double-digits, so I’m up by 9-something even on Saturdays and Sundays (I’ve created a loophole, though, which dictates that as long as I’m out of bed before 10:00 initially, I can go BACK TO bed immediately after breakfast :)). Which means that, in order to enact my evil 9-hours-of-sleep plan, I usually go to bed around 9 pm.

So I don’t get shit for how late I sleep, I get it for how early I go to bed!

:rolleyes:

16

People should shut the fuck up about how much you want to sleep (unless you miss a wedding and you’re the best man or something) but…

If you snap at someone for saying Good Morning, you’re a jerk. Once you’re up, you’re up. Anyone can suck it up and NOT be snarky. Now, if they say “Hey, fuckface, you sleep too much,” or pull some cutesy-wutesy little joke about your sleeping habits, well, then you snap at them. If they just talk to you, though, be a nice guy.

17

One thing good about being an early riser…you can get all your chores done and do a late-morning nap on the weekends. I love the 10:30 nap. Then you can get up and do more stuff and take a 2:30 nap. The possibilities are endless!

18

Oh, and Honey makes an excellent point about wintertime. I used to wish I could just be a goddamn bear for three or four months. . .

19

There was a study done that indicated teenagers’ internal clocks tended toward late rising. I know it’s the case w/ my son (17). I believe Minneapolis schools changed their schedule to reflect this - wish this were more common.

20

I think it was because of that study seal_clubber that my schools changed the start time from 8:00 to 8:30 before I started high school. Whoo! A whole extra half hour! :rolleyes:

Even when I was young, I always stayed up late (or tried to. Dad would have none of it. He’s a morning person). If left to my own devices I fall asleep around 3/4 am sometimes later and don’t wake up till 12pm or so. I do prefer to get a good 8 or 9 hours. 10 is sweet I agree auntie em.

Funny thing is if I ever AM tired enough to go to bed around 10 or so it means I am really sick, or just have stayed up way too long. And if I do get to sleep at that time I usually sleep until 4 am, wake up for four hours and go back to sleep for another 4. That’s when I’m healthy. I haven’t yet found the right time for me to go to sleep early enough to be well rested for work and such, without either waking up way too early (see 4am) or being tired that I yawn part of the day at work (which is why I got fired from my last job).

I do great working evening jobs, the thing is they are hard to find decent paying ones in the evenings sometimes. Even as a student when I need to work in evenings just to support myself while I go to school.

I don’t know how I’d ever survive a 9-5 job.

The odd thing is, the only time I ever have any semblence of a ‘normal’ sleep pattern is when I’m camping. Possibly because I tire myself out running around and fall asleep about 12, and can no longer sleep when the sun is risen and the birds are singing and my father is scrounging in the cooler to make breakfast. I love camping :slight_smile: