# What's the ratio of sunrises you've seen from the "right" way around vs the "wrong" way
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 29, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558 "2016-01-29T06:32:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/1 "2016-01-29T06:32:27Z")
Waking up before the sun rises counts as seeing the sunrise the “right” way, staying up so late that the sun comes up again is the “wrong” way. For the purposes of this poll, it doesn’t matter if you physically see the sunrise or not, just that you’re actually awake when it happens.
What’s your personal ratio of “right” sunrises vs “wrong” sunrises?
Personally, I’m a pretty extreme night owl. Pretty much the only time I ever see a sunrise the right way is if I’m catching an early morning flight. Otherwise, I do my best to not have to get up before 10am (working in tech makes this surprisingly feasible)
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/2 "2016-01-29T07:16:14Z")
I worked night shifts for years. My ratio of seeing sunrises the “wrong” way is much higher than 10:1.
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### Author:  [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/3 "2016-01-29T07:29:34Z")
My shift switches between days and nights.
When I am on days I awaken before sunrise. When I am on nights I am still awake as the sun comes up. So pretty much 50:50 for me.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/4 "2016-01-29T08:10:47Z")
I’m a night owl and tend to get wrapped up in things in the wee hours, sometimes until dawn.
However, I do store/haul equipment and materials for events that sometimes require a very early start on preparations. Even if I load the truck the previous night, I may have to head out before the sun is up to get to the site early enough. These occasions remind me that I was insane to volunteer for the job.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/5 "2016-01-29T08:14:45Z")
I was too embarassed to post my insomniac answer … until I peeked and saw that Most Dopers (or at least most of the early-voting batch here) are as weird as I. 😛
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/6 "2016-01-29T08:22:26Z")
Well look what time it is. The folks on the other side will not check in for some hours.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/7 "2016-01-29T08:44:07Z")
Night shift worker here. If I slept overnight, it’s because it was my day off, and nothing is getting me out of bed while it’s still dark out.
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### Author:  [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/8 "2016-01-29T10:26:40Z")
Impossible to answer for me given my erratic sleep cycles and tendency to sleep 2-3 times per 24 h when I’m working night shift. If I sleep 4 hours, then see the dawn and then sleep another 4 hours was that the right or the wrong way around? If I wake up at 9 pm and stay awake until dawn is that right or wrong? Where’s the cutoff point?
Living this far north gives it its own spin as well - dawn can be anywhere from 3:30 am to 9:30 am.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/9 "2016-01-29T10:33:30Z")
I might be doing it the ‘wrong way’ today. I hope not.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/10 "2016-01-29T14:21:48Z")
On the ‘bad side’: I pulled a handful of all-nighters in college, and one or two in recent years at work.
On the ‘good side’: I’m get up for work before sunrise about 10 months out of the year.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/11 "2016-01-29T14:29:17Z")
I checked the 5:1 (right way) option but it’s more like 3:2. I have to count the years I worked nights, plus there are times (for whatever reason) that I’m up “late enough” for sunrise. But 5:1 was the closest option for me.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/12 "2016-01-29T14:52:51Z")
I used to work by the shore and seeing the sun rise over the sea during a night shift was always good.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/13 "2016-01-29T14:56:41Z")
I frequently see sunrises the “right” way from getting up before dawn to go birding (and also to catch morning flights). I used to see them the “wrong” way from all-nighters or parties when I was in my twenties but hardly ever now.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/14 "2016-01-29T14:57:09Z")
I worked 3rd shift as a security guard for about a year. Other than that, I have seen sunrise from the right side my entire adult life. I’m 62. So I voted for the first option.
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### Author:  [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/15 "2016-01-29T15:34:20Z")
I consider myself a morning person. Before I started working from home I’d get up at 5:30 but now I sleep in until 6:30. But at my latitude sunrise is earlier than 6:30 from March 9th until September 26th so I’m not technically on the ‘right’ side of the sunrise. The last time I saw a sunrise from the wrong side was the last time I was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/16 "2016-01-29T17:11:52Z")
I thought this was going to be about seeing the sun rise from different sides of the Equator, In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun rises and moves across the sky from right to left, i.e., the wrong way. I’ve got about three years of those.
As for the OP’s definition, I’m at the age where I need only about 5 hours sleep (not counting naps) so I go to bed at about 1:00 and usually up before sunrise. Thanks to Daylight Wasting Time, which takes away a hour of daylight in the morning, when it is so nice.
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### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/17 "2016-01-29T18:15:57Z")
These days almost always the ‘right way’. For a couple of years, however, shift work caused me to see it the ‘wrong way’. I therefore chose 10:1 right way to make the adjustment for a lifetime average
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/18 "2016-01-29T18:50:28Z")
I’m a night owl, but I almost never make it all the way to sunrise. Nowadays I sleep from about 1 or 2 until 9 or 10. Earlier in my life I was much more constrained to follow a “normal” schedule. However, I’ve always lived close to work or school and neither ever started too early, so my regular arising time even on a “normal” schedule has not usually been before 7:00.
But even at that, when one does that at the mid latitudes, sunrise is after 7 am for about two months of the year, so I’m sure I have a few thousand right way sunrises and perhaps a few tens of wrong way sunrises. So I’ll go with 100:1.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/19 "2016-01-30T04:53:41Z")
I see more the right way as defined here but now that I think about it I feel I see way more sunrises than I should. Possibly 3 days out of 7 and I don’t work early hours or anything like that.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2016, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-ratio-of-sunrises-youve-seen-from-the-right-way-around-vs-the-wrong-way/744558/20 "2016-01-30T05:11:37Z")
I guess it depends upon your latitude. For months in the year I get up before sunrise. I pull all nighters about 3 or 4 times a year if I’m lucky.
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