Early Bird or Night Owl?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I wake up at 5’oclock in the morning to go to work. In theory, I could fall out of bed and into the shower at least an hour later, I’m not a morning person, and it takes a lot of coffee to get me into shower mode. I need time to commune with myself before I’m ready to face the day.

I’ve been getting up at this time for five years, and I’m used to it – to the extent that I’ll wake up really early on weekends as well. Christmas and Easter holidays see me staggering into the kitchen at the regular time, even if I go back to bed again afterwards. I don’t mind waking up early on non-work days, as it allows me to feel self-righteous about my afternoon nap.

I’ve always considered myself a night person, but I was beginning to wonder if the pattern had changed. I mean, in some peculiar, twisted way, I was even beginning to enjoy being awake hours before everyone else.

But now I’m on vacation, and I can see that my default preference is still night. This morning I saw the dawn rise, as usual, but only because I hadn’t been to sleep. As the vacation has progressed, I have watched my body clock reset itself by degrees: day by day, the waking up has been delayed by minute increments. Every day I wake up and look at the clock in awe, as I see myself creeping past the previous day’s record. Today I slept from 7 am till 2.30 pm. I’m very proud of myself.

#2

Night Owl, but not by preference.

It’s a whole lot quieter at night, whereby I can often get things done more easily than in the morning.

I would love to be an early riser, but apparently my body rejects that idea.

#3

I’m a night owl. I never see the sunrise unless I simply haven’t gone to bed yet.

#4

I go to bed between 1:00 and 2:00 am when I have to work the next day, and between 2:00 and 3:00 when I don’t.

I’m up at 8:00 am, even though I could technically roll out of bed at 9:45. I just need a bit of “me” time in the morning. My wife does real estate, so she makes her own schedule (meaning, she’s still sleeping when I leave for work at 10:00). We spend every minute that we can together, which I love. However, this means I’m up early if I want to play a litttle PS2, work on my web site or catch up on my online comics.

Works out fine by me.

#5

As a schoolteacher, by profession I’m an early bird. But if left to my own devices during three day weekends, holidays and summer vacation, and I immediately revert to a night owl who’ll stay up through the night until 5am and sleep until noon.

#6

Night Owl. Since I’m retired there seldom are reasons for me to worry about getting to bed in order to get a good sleep. Tonight is an exception and I’m going to hate having to get to bed before midnight.

#7

I’m a true night owl. I really do wish I could easily get up in the morning, though. For one thing, it’s very peaceful in the morning, and it would make life in general a hell of a lot easier if I was chipper that early. :smiley:

#8

I’m a night owl. The Mr. is a night owl. Our 4 year old is a night owl. My mom is a night owl and so is the Mr.'s family.

When I have to get up really early for something, I do the same thing you do: get up even earlier, sit around and blink for a while, get some caffeine in me, etc. I can’t just hop out of bed at 6am and be in the car by 6:30. I need to get up at about 5:00 so I can be coherent in the car at 6:30.

Do you think being a night owl/morning person is genetic or learned? I think it’s genetic but I can make a case for learned, too.

#9

Night owl, here. “Good morning” is an oxymoron.

#10

I’ve always been a night owl. All my best studying is done after 10pm, and I usually go till 2am without trouble.

My summer job has me waking up at 5am now, and I have to admit I can see why some people enjoy waking up earlier to enjoy that little bit of quiet time in the early morning. The sun is just rising, nobody is up and about yet, and it’s peaceful.

Despite my new hours, I still prefer the night for getting my work done. Anything involving writing or creativity of any kind absolutely has to wait until after sunset. It’s as though my imagination is inhibited by sunlight.

Oh, I can still enjoy the morning! Just don’t ask me to do anything before 10am.

#11

I’m basically a night owl, and have been since at least the third grade when my parents would let me stay up as long as I wanted during summer when school was out. But I really seem to be on about a 26 or 27 hour internal clock. If left to my own devices, I will go to bed and get up each day 2 or 3 hours later than I did the day before. This means I go all around the clock, with no regular hours at all; not even nightime hours.

#12

I’m a night owl. It’s very rare that I go to sleep before 2:00am, even on workdays, when I start my shift at 8:30.

On the weekends, I usually wake up about 12:00. Today, it was closer to 1:00. I do not like mornings. At all.

#13

I am most definitely a morning person. I love getting up before sunrise. If I should happen to sleep past 7, I feel as if I wasted my morning. But come 8PM, I’m ready to crawl into bed and watch TV for an hour or so till I fall asleep.

I’m married to a night person. Go figure…

#14

Early bird married to a night owl.
Somehow we managed to have two kids.
Interestingly, one kid is a night owl and the other, while he enjoys staying up late now (I did too as a young person) seems as though his true inclination is morning lark. Time will tell.
I love the early morning. I get that ‘me’ time, I enjoy the peace, and I just seem to get more done, though I know that plenty of night owls accomplish quite a bit in the wee hours.
I think it probably is genetic. I literally cannot keep my eyes open past 9:30pm.
I leap out of bed, bright and chipper, somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 every morning. But there are drawbacks.
On the occasional nights when we go out, staying up until 11 or so is a huge deal.

#15

A night person since I was born. I think it’s genetic personally. I alway got myself up on time for morning classes in school and for a few years when I had a day shift job I was up at five a.m. every day. Now I usually go to bed at five a.m. and have an evening job. Left to my own devices I never wake up before one o’clock in the afternoon.

#16

A bit of both.

I love both late night and early morning, and have settled into a sleeping pattern of approximately 2.00-5.30 both am and pm. Any afternoon I absolutely have to do something really messes me up. :dubious:

(No, I don’t work).

#17

I’m definitely a night owl which causes problems in the sense that I live in a location where almost nothing is open at night, and by the time I wake up, I have to take an hour or so to not be so tired and by then some of the stores will be closing in a couple hours.

One reason I hate mornings is that when I lay down, there’s a lot of pain right under my ribs where my hiatal hernia is. So when I wake up, I feel very nauseated. I ought to try elevating my bed on one end; I heard that helps.

#18

Early bird married to a night owl. Our time when we are both asleep is about 4 hours. Oddly enough, even when I stay up late, I always am wide eyed awake at 5:30 or 6:00 AM; which could lead to sleep deprivation…except for a nice mid afternoon nap of 1 to 2 hours.

Since I live in the hot SouthWest, this works out really well. Mmmmm…naps!

#19

Night owl since I was a kid. I love my job right now, cause I don’t have to be there until 10 AM, and I lve five minutes from the place, so I could, in theory, get up at 9:45 and still make it to work on time. As it were, though, I get up at 9 so I have time to eat, take a non-rushed shower, and do a little mornin’ web surfin’.

#20

Night owl here. My mother claims that, as a small child, I was positively convinced grown-ups were having fun without me and I refused therefore to sleep. If I couldn’t hear them talking, I’d get up to make sure they weren’t having fun quietly. Which may explain why it took five years for the grown-ups to produce a sibling for me.

I married a morning person. HA! We get along fine for about three hours every day when we’re both awake and home. And yes, our single child was most likely conceived in the afternoon.