I can probably count on one hand the number of times in my life I’ve woken up in the morning feeling really refreshed, energized, and awake. Most of the time, I can easily roll over and go right back to sleep for a couple of hours (and I do, if I ever have the chance). When I get up, I feel groggy and listless for a long time, and even when I’m at peak energy later in the day, if I were allowed to lie down in a dark room, I think I could fall asleep within half an hour. And it seems to me this is true no matter how long I sleep. I almost never* wake up and feel wide awake.
What about you? Do you ever wake up well-rested? How much sleep does it take for this to happen?
*I have gone through periods where I wake up in the middle of the night for a few hours and can’t get back to sleep, but I’m certainly not well-rested at that point. I’m tired; I just can’t fall asleep.
If I have gotten at least 7.5 hours of sleep each night for a continous period of at least 2 weeks, I will generally wake up refreshed. I was at that place for quite a while until my work schedule changed about a year ago, and I have been struggling ever since to get it back.
Have you been tested for sleep apnea? It’s one possible cause of never feeling that sleep truly refreshes you.
I sometimes take naps late in the evening and if those naps end up being short, 10-15 min things, then I wake up from them feeling refreshed and clear-headed. If I end up sleeping for an hour or more, then my head will often feel more foggy though it all sort of depends.
I work eternal night shift and usually sleep roughly through the office hours, but since I live alone and have basically no social obligations my sleep cycle tends to wander all around the clock. One of those most annoying things that can happen to me regarding sleep is to try to go to sleep a bit earlier than the day before, fall asleep … and wake up 10 min later, feeling like I can easily be awake for the next 16 hours. It’s a false feeling and I know I’ll be sleepy soon enough, but it does mean I can forget trying to sleep for 1-3 hours at least.
Micronaps - sometimes I love 'em, sometimes I hate 'em.
I don’t think I’ve ever woken up feeling refreshed and energised. Doesn’t matter the amount of sleep I get, I wake up feeling groggy and knackered and gain more energy as the day goes on.
I usually feel refreshed, though it takes me a good 10 minutes to ungroggify. After that I’m pretty good. I do have days, though, when a nap seems like a fantastic idea. On weekends I’ll usually indulge.
Lately, not at all. For some unknown and annoying reason, I’ve been waking around 2 or 3 in the morning and I can’t fall back to sleep. After a half an hour of flopping around, I give up and head to the living room to watch TV for a while. Usually by 4:30, I head back to bed and crash till 7 or 8. It’s aggravating and I hate it. I don’t remember the last time I slept 7 or 8 uninterrupted hours. Fortunately, since I’m retired, I’m not having to drag myself to the office in zombie mode.
Occasionally on a weekend, when I wake up at the usual time (around 5:30 am), then fall back asleep for another hour or so to wake again when it’s light outside.
There have been a few times, way back in my younger days, when I woke up and figuratively leaped out of bed, eager to take on the day.
But lately? No. I pretty much never feel like I’ve gotten enough sleep, but even on weekends I can’t seem to actually get back to sleep after eight or nine in the morning.
Nowadays, if I can sleep in until 9 or 9:30 and I got at least eight hours of sleep during the night, I feel pretty refreshed. But I used to be able to wake up refreshed from as little as six hours, week after week, when I was sleeping outdoors. In high school, I slept outside for about a year and a half* and I have never slept so well. Especially in the summer, when I could safely sleep on the uncovered section of the porch and fall asleep under the stars.
*Our climate was not especially cold (Southern Oregon) and I had a mattress, a covered porch, lots of blankets, and a big cuddly dog. It wasn’t child abuse, I promise, and I had an actual bedroom (albeit one that I had taken the bed out of) to return to if I wanted it.
As long as the baby hasn’t put me through the wringer overnight, I will wake up refreshed enough to transition into mommy hyperdrive immediately. I’m usually fixing her breakfast less than three minutes after I roll out of bed.
The number of times I’ve opened my eyes and felt SUPER GREAT though? Well, there was one time when I took Benadryl and slept for 14 hours. I felt awesome when I woke up.
Depends. If I have had bad sleep 2-3 days in a row and have a good nights sleep then yeah. If I sleep normally and wake up when I need to spontaneously then yeah. But lately I have had sleep problems and that isn’t happening much.
Also when I was unemployed I would have these amazing dreams. Like I was surrounded by kindness and protection. I think my brain was trying to compensate for the stress I was under by giving me good dreams.
Nope. Not even as a kid, but then I’ve had sleep problems all my life.
I can recall two times when I woke up feeling refreshed. The first time was when I was in the hospital. I had spent the 3 previous days doped up on morphine, and sleeping 23 hours each day. That fourth day I woke up feeling wonderful.
The second time was when I woke up after 16 hours of sleep. I went to sleep one evening at 630, and didn’t get up until 1030 the next day. Felt pretty refreshed after that.