Your sleep habits/routines

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was 52… 53?.. when I learned what the snooze button on an alarm clock was for.

Until then, I literally could not figure it out. “If you want to wake up at 6:39, just set the alarm for 6:39. Don’t set it for 6:30 and hit the snooze button, that makes no sense” was my attitude.

It wasn’t anything my ex and I needed to use, you see. If we wanted to get up at 6, we would set it to 6. If we wanted to get up at 3am, we’d set it to 3. And when Tanya asked me the following question this morning, it occurred to me that every woman since my ex has asked it, or some variation thereof:

“How do you sleep like that?”

You see, it’s like a switch. I can stay up until I decide to sleep, and when I wake up, I’m at 100% within seconds, no need for coffee, stretching, eating, or getting an extra 9 minutes by hitting the snooze button. I’m just… awake, not much different from t+30 seconds as I am at t+ 3 hours.

And going to sleep is similar: one said it was irritating that we could talk and talk and when she decided she was ready for sleep, I would be completely out within 2 minutes. I don’t know what to say - I get tired, but I can keep myself functional for a damn long time, and when I decide to sleep, I sleep. And when I wake up, I’m awake.

And apparently this is unusual.

So… how do y’all sleep? Trouble sleeping? Grogginess in the morning? Like me? Other?

2

Regarding the snooze button, I hit it either once or zero times.

I know someone who sets the alarm for about 30 minutes before she has to get up, then repeatedly hits the snooze until it’s up-and-at-em time.

Nothing like deliberately arranging, every single night, to have your last half hour of sleep interrupted every 9 minutes.

mmm

3

Sometimes when I am woken by the alarm I will have been dreaming. On those occasions I find that if I keep hitting the snooze button I can keep dreaming over and over. Some times I go back into the same dream. I love it when it happens. Makes for a nice start to the day.

4

I’m like you. I can fall asleep in 2 minutes and be immediately alert when I wake up 8 hours later with or without an alarm. The downside is if my dog jumps on the bed at 5 am and I wanted to sleep until 6:30. Once I’m awake, I’m awake. It’s been this way all my life. Some habits die hard. I’ve never needed a snooze alarm. Ever.

5

How I hate snoozers!! And this especially goes if you’re sleeping next to me and have to get up earlier than I. I follow the rule that you set the alarm and then get up at that time. Get your ass to bed earlier if you’re that tired waking up. Now that doesn’t apply if you’ve got a new baby or taking care of a sick person. But if you’re dragging because you had to binge one more episode, then oh well.

6

This. I do this every day. I usually set the alarm for at least an hour before I want to get up. The more interesting the dream, the longer I hit the snooze button. The only time I get up when the alarm first goes off is if I have somewhere I have to be and don’t want to chance oversleeping. Now that I’m retired, I try to avoid that as much as possible.

As far as falling asleep, most nights it’s pretty quick, other nights I have insomnia and lay awake for hours. That doesn’t bother me as much as it did when I was working since I can just sleep later. I love sleeping and dreaming and being able to do that for the most part on my own schedule.

7

Another one who can go to sleep right away, and wake up right away. I also don’t move much when I sleep. I go to sleep on my left side, I wake up on my left side.

I can also nap whenever I want to. I give rides to several neighborhood people that need them for doctors appointments or whatever. I can easily nap sitting up in a chair in the waiting room while they see the doctor. And I’ll stay in the same position. No sliding down in the chair or leaning my head against another person. Luckily, I don’t snore.

8

Comatose, according to my wife. I drift off within a minute or two, and for 4-5 hours am almost un-wakeable. I actually make sure I’m comfortable and arms/legs are in the correct position before laying my head on pillow. I’m out so fast and move so little I’ll wake up quite sore if I haven’t “arranged myself” correctly before unconsciousness hits.The final 3 hours or so are light sleep, drifting in and out.

As far as snooze buttons, I haven’t used an alarm in decades. I go to bed X hours before I need to get up, and that’s it. I wake up and am ready after a minute or two of gyro alignment (sitting on the side of the bed).

9

Never used a snooze button. That’s just self torture.

I was getting up at 5:15am for work for 25 years. I used an alarm. Now that I work from home, I could get up at 8am, climb up the stairs to my loft office (it’s over the bedroom) and get to it. But, I now, without an alarm, get up at 4:30 - 5am. I sleep when I sleep. It’s wonderful. And kinda weird.

My at work hours used to be 7am 3:30pm. Now it’s more like 6 or 7am until about 5pm. but instead of a 30 minute lunch, I may take 2 hours. Depends on what’s going on and what I need to do.

I very much like this ‘Do your job’ approach where my work hours are not written in stone. It helps me a lot. I worked last weekend because I needed to get some things done, and then I worked a few 6 hour days to round out my 40 hour week.

The pandemic has had some interesting side affects. I’m more available to co-workers by working from home. Getting to know them better too. It’s odd.

10

I can always wake up when the alarm goes off, even after just a few hours of sleep. My wife, on the other hand. . . well, waking her up is a tough job that requires a lot of planning and hard work.

But I can never sleep late. I can never go more than seven hours (if I’m lucky). My legs get all weird and jumpy and actually start to hurt below the knee if I sleep much more than six hours. It’s really fucking annoying, and I don’t know how to fix it.

11

I used a snooze alarm back in my college days… till I almost snoozed past a final. :astonished:

When I was still working, I’d set my alarm for when I wanted to get up. We used to have a TV as our alarm, waking to the morning news and weather, but none of our TVs since then have had that feature. And now that I’m retired and spousal unit is self-employed, we only use an alarm when we absolutely have to - like to make an early appointment. Not that it matters - I still tend to wake around 5, plus or minus, like I did for decades.

Falling asleep varies for me. If I’ve over-caffeinated during the day, I’ll be awake till midnight. On the other hand, a particularly physical day may have me falling asleep in front of the TV at 8. But generally when I get in bed, I’ll have my tablet and either read or play some mindless game till I can’t keep my eyes open. I may wake once or more during the night, but I can usually drop back to sleep. And I don’t really like to nap, but I have dozed a wee bit when reading in my recliner with a lap full of cat.

12

I sleep 7 hours most nights, but it’s always in 2 parts. I wake up around midnight. I mean wide awake; no point in trying to get back to sleep. So I get out of bed and read, or do light work in the garage, or whatever. After a couple hours, I’m tired so I go back to bed for part 2 of my sleep. In the morning I wake up refreshed and energetic. No snooze—I want to get going immediately.

13

I’ve was always a night owl/insomniac.

I stumbled into a job that had odd hours and that suited me well. There was a policy change, so now my hours change a lot. 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm, occasional 10pm-6am.

I don’t know if is because i am older now or the changing shifts, but i’m more prone to going to sleep early now.

I’ve been using one of those sleep tracker devices recently (Christmas gift). I was a bit skeptical how accurate they are. But it does seem to accurately confirm want most of us know intuitively. If i wake feeling like i had a good nights rest, the device tells me i had sufficient REM, Deep, and light Sleep, and how many times i woke up. If i wake up groggy, the device knows i didn’t hardly get any deep sleep or woke up a lot more.

14

I never use snooze. My alarms are set for 5:45 a.m. (I have two and both are on the other side of the room). But I am always getting out of bed at 5:15. I can’t even remember the last time the alarm clocks went off.

Starting around 3:30 or so, I start waking up and keep looking at the clock to see how much time I have left.

I am out of bed at 5:15 every day except Saturday (when I sleep in until 6:00). Even Sundays I get up at 5:15 as it’s laundry day and the laundromat opens around 7:00.

When I go to bed a night I fall right asleep within minutes. But I take a 3 mg melatonin pill a few hours before bed. Had to start doing that because after the stroke a few years back I started getting restless legs at night and had a hard time going to sleep.

I actually get up way too early during the week. I don’t need to be at work until 8:00 but I get there around 6:45.

15

The blessing of being self-employed and working at home is not having any particular sleep schedule. I get to sleep whenever I want, get up whenever I want (or need to pee). It’s been over 15 years since I used an alarm clock. :slightly_smiling_face:

16

I’ve always been able to get up when I want without an alarm, but part of the reason is probably that I’m a light sleeper. However, after sleeping next to me for a while Ms. P was able to do it as well, and she’s not a light sleeper.

17

This is what was once known as “first” and “second” sleep:

I did this for the last several months before I retired. I would lay down after dinner and sleep for 3 or so hours. Then I’d stay up until around 3 a.m. and sleep again. I’d been having a lot of insomnia and getting only 4 or 5 hours of sleep and it was starting to wear on me. This way I got about 7 and had no problem falling asleep both times.

18

When I was young, I needed at least 10 hours sleep. Which really cuts into your day. So I went to sleep as late as possible, and woke up at the last possible minute. The alarm on my watch went off at 7 minutes past 8, I got up and had a shower and went to work.

At the moment the alarm on my watch woke me, I was pretty close to awake anyway: I’ve always been able to awake at around about the time I want. But since my schedule was so tight, the watch alarm kept me on schedule and got me to work at 9.00.

I’ve always disliked the snooze button. I get what it’s for, and I think it’s a fun idea, but in practice it’s the other button which, when accidentally used, pretends to turn the alarm off, but actually just sets the alarm to go off 10 minutes later when you’re in the shower or having breakfast.

19

When I was working I got up at 6:40 am, often to a click of the clock, before the radio came on. Never used snooze - I agree with those who say it is interrupted sleep.
It took me a year after retirement to stop getting up at 6:40. Now I sleep until I get up - or until the bladder calls. I only set an alarm if I have a Zoom meeting or some special occasion.

20

In my 20’s, I was an insomniac, usually unable to fall asleep until 2-3 AM. But in grad school I was in charge of my own schedule, so rolling in at just before lunch and leaving around 1-2 AM was no big deal. Now that I am older, I (mostly) have no problem falling asleep within 10-15 minutes (while still occasionally staying awake until about 3 AM).

If I am not deeply sleep deprived or deathly ill, I generally wake up 5-30 minutes before my alarm goes off (including while traveling in Asia or Europe). I’m another one of these “instant on” wakers, though in a group situation, I tend to feign grogginess, just so I don’t get assigned early morning tasks. The way I tell that I’ve reached the limit of sleep deprivation is that the alarm wakes me, though still instantly.

Another sign of sleep deprivation is I don’t wake, or at least remember waking, in the middle of the night. Otherwise I’m awake for varying lengths of time (from long enough to note the time, roll over and go back to sleep, to an hour or so), at about 2 AM.