Sleep Schedule
I'm a night owl by trade. When I was younger, I'd happily stay up until one in the morning or later (earlier?) and sleep until eight or nine. I volunteered to work the closing shift at my fast food job. I scheduled my college class to avoid early classes. The few times I had to take an 8:00 class, I was miserable. And boy, do I hate getting up before sunrise!
Then I was hired to teach high school.
This job required me to be a morning person, bright and cheerful and bushy-tailed at 7:00 AM every school day. It had to be done, so I faked it. For 30 years, I showed up at work. In the dark. Pretending I was thrilled be awake and in my classroom with my students, who were themselves surly and half asleep.
The moment any vacation--winter, spring, mid-winter, summer--started, I'd go right back to staying up late. The trouble was, though, that my body had learned that I'm supposed to be up at 5:30. No matter how late I was up the night before, I would wake up at 6:30 or 7:00, fully awake and feeling like I'd slept way in. Even during summer break, I'd be up by 7:00, 8:00 at the absolute latest. And having kids, of course, meant fewer chances to sleep in anyway.
Now I'm retired, and I've married another night-owl. The two of us are up until at least midnight most nights (the latest Darwin will stay up on work nights). When Darwin doesn't have to work, we're up until 1:00 or later. But I was still waking up at 7:00, feeling like I'd slept too long. The lack of actual sleep meant I'd want a nap partway through the day, and I don't like naps--the sleep hangover is awful. Was this going to go on for the rest of my life?
Fear not.
The last couple of weeks, I've been waking up at 8:00 or later. This morning, Darwin and I didn't get up until almost 9:30!
I'm loving this, I have you tell you. The two things I disliked most about my job were 1) grading essays; and 2) getting up inhumanly early, especially on dark, freezing winter mornings. Trudging into the school building before sunrise and seeing the sun come up toward the end of second hour was disheartening and grinding. Now? I sleep right through that awful part of the day, and I'm awake only well after sunrise. Same for Darwin. It's a little odd in that we aren't ready for lunch until two or three o'clock most days, but I'm good with that.
My internal clock has finally realized that I'm retired.
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Then I was hired to teach high school.
This job required me to be a morning person, bright and cheerful and bushy-tailed at 7:00 AM every school day. It had to be done, so I faked it. For 30 years, I showed up at work. In the dark. Pretending I was thrilled be awake and in my classroom with my students, who were themselves surly and half asleep.
The moment any vacation--winter, spring, mid-winter, summer--started, I'd go right back to staying up late. The trouble was, though, that my body had learned that I'm supposed to be up at 5:30. No matter how late I was up the night before, I would wake up at 6:30 or 7:00, fully awake and feeling like I'd slept way in. Even during summer break, I'd be up by 7:00, 8:00 at the absolute latest. And having kids, of course, meant fewer chances to sleep in anyway.
Now I'm retired, and I've married another night-owl. The two of us are up until at least midnight most nights (the latest Darwin will stay up on work nights). When Darwin doesn't have to work, we're up until 1:00 or later. But I was still waking up at 7:00, feeling like I'd slept too long. The lack of actual sleep meant I'd want a nap partway through the day, and I don't like naps--the sleep hangover is awful. Was this going to go on for the rest of my life?
Fear not.
The last couple of weeks, I've been waking up at 8:00 or later. This morning, Darwin and I didn't get up until almost 9:30!
I'm loving this, I have you tell you. The two things I disliked most about my job were 1) grading essays; and 2) getting up inhumanly early, especially on dark, freezing winter mornings. Trudging into the school building before sunrise and seeing the sun come up toward the end of second hour was disheartening and grinding. Now? I sleep right through that awful part of the day, and I'm awake only well after sunrise. Same for Darwin. It's a little odd in that we aren't ready for lunch until two or three o'clock most days, but I'm good with that.
My internal clock has finally realized that I'm retired.
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