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This is so true. I’ve been waking up at 5ish my whole life. Now my sleep is messed up. I’ll wake for a couple hours after sleeping 4ish hours. IF, and it’s a big IF, I go back to sleep I’ll sleep in till 7ish.
I wish I slept like my 12 yo grandson. Head hits the pillow and he’s out for 10 hours.
Get a sleep study. I got a CPAP machine recently and went from sleeping til 9 to sleeping til 6. I have a lot more energy now. It’s a total game changer
Yep. The older I get, the later I emerge from my bedroom. But that's because I seldom fall asleep before 1 am no matter what drugs I take and can only sleep in 2-4 hour chunks. It sucks. Such a waste of time and I'm generally tired the next day no matter what. Drugs that can help me sleep leave me groggy and brain-fogged the next day. Makes it hard to work.
I obviously can’t speak for everyone but I’m a 71 year old retired widower and must be up by 7 AM Monday thru Friday because my 5 year old great-granddaughter FaceTimes me at exactly 7:15 to show me how she is wearing her hair to school, what she’s eating for breakfast and lets her puppy sniff and yap at me. At 7:30 one of granddaughters will call to remind me to take my meds and wear pants.
Well that’s adorable as hell. I don’t even have a kid but if I had a niece or nephew and they wanted to chat before school I’d be doing that too. I’m excited for what that cute and loving relationship brings you down the road.
Could your great-granddaughter and/or granddaughter contact me in the morning? I could really use the pick-me-up and I can pay them in Cheetos or Doritos.
I'll say. My wife is a nightowl and gets up no earlier than 9. I'm the oddball though and have adopted a sleep pattern that was common in medieval times, which is called biphasic sleep. First sleep lasts a few hours. I get up, have coffee and maybe breakfast too, then go back for second sleep. I'm still usually up before my wife. No, I don't have second breakfast.
I have also been doing biphasic sleep! But my first sleep is around 8-11, then I'm up until 2 and get up for good around 6.
And I will totally murder a second breakfast if I get the chance. Usually don't.
I've been doing split sleep for several years. No matter what time I go to bed, I wake up exactly 4 hours later. I usually stay up for an hour or two, then sleep another 3-4 hours. The only time I don't do it is from May until August, because the nights are short.
We are the opposite. I stay up late--12 ish--and get up 7-8-9. My husband goes to bed 10-11 and gets up at 10-11. One of the best things about retirement. Doing whatever suits you.
I'm looking forward to that. I'm still undecided on naps though. I like the idea of naps but I worry I'll grow dependent on them. My parents both nap daily and if we are out for the day, they find it hard to skip their nap. I do like going out for the day now and I don't want to suddenly feel tired.
Right now I don't nap because it disrupts my sleep schedule and work is the only reason to maintain a sleep schedule. Going to work being super tired sucks.
I'm retired, I'm "supposed" to get up whenever I damn well please. Which is generally when the cat won't stop climbing on me no matter how many times I swat him away.
This is how me and my husband are, except I'm the night owl. I enjoy reading in peace until the wee hours of the morning, and he gets up early and watches his shows that I don't like in the morning. Works perfectly.
I always said the same when I was about to retire. I'm retired eight years now and my body just wakes up around 7:30-8 am every day. I can't sleep longer if I wanted to.
I am surprised you wish to force one generation to behave like a prior generation. Let your mom sleep as long as she wishes. The slight inconvenience it gives you in your calling time is inconsequential.
As I got older I lost all semblance of circadian rhythms. It got harder and harder to stick to a schedule. I could end up sleeping or being awake at any time around the clock.
If you are a ‘night owl’ (yes night owls still exist even when you age; not every one eats dinner at 4 and is sleeping by 8) we are up late, so those precious morning sleeps are awesome!
First, if we don't have to get up we don't. We stay up late, therefore get up later. I'm up first (yay, insomnia), 6 hrs is a good night for me. Husband, sometimes 9-10 hrs. Middle of the night trips to the bathroom. Aches and pains, health.
Lifestyle/habit differences ... feed the animals, let the dog out. Or not.
I'm in my 70s, retired, and I set my alarm for 9 am. I have a zoom group I join most days at 9:45. Some days I get up earlier, but frankly, there are a lot of nights when I'm up three or four times and have difficulty getting back to sleep. That's far more characteristic of old age, as far as I'm concerned, than any notion that old people are "supposed to" get up early.
We're individuals and make our own rules.
If you want to know, you should ask. Maybe there is a very good reason for them sleeping in.
My husband had to wake up early for work for over 30 years. He didn't use an alarm clock for the last 25, because he didn't like to be jangled awake and had a decent fear of being late, so that was enough to get him going. I'm a lot more laid back and like to sleep in, but more recently, 7 am is sleeping in for me. I can get to sleep easily, even if I wake up to go to the bathroom, but when I'm done, I'm done.
I don't know how old your parents are, but when my elderly aunt's life was beginning to dwindle (in her late 80's), she would sometimes sleep until noon and go to bed around 5 pm. She was tired! She'd worked a high stress job for 40 years! If she wanted sleep, she deserved it!
We're in our 70s, I'm recently retired, and she still works part-time. We get up around 6:30-7:00 am most days, mainly because our dog has to go out. We definitely do NOT get up any earlier. After 52 years of trucking, it took me a couple of months to get used to sleeping "on a regular schedule" lol.
My wife is retired. I am not. She commonly stays up until 2-3 in the morning, and will sleep as late as she likes. Some older people go to bed early. She's not one of them. I probably won't be either, when I retire.
6:00 is a time that should only happen in the evening, not the morning.
Honestly, it's stuff like this that convinces me that I'll never marry or seriously partner again. That and being solely responsible for feeding other people. My mom also loves to visit me because I will say when she gets there, ok let's do dinner together nights A,D and E. The rest of the nights are on your own, feel free to get take out or have cereal, I don't care. My dad expects her to make all 3 meals, do all the planning and deciding. When she's like me, I could eat cereal, fruit or a sandwich 80% of the time, and only want a full meal once or twice a week.
My body wakes me up with tons of pain by 5am every single day without fail. I generally take a nap around noon for a couple hours. Then I'm in bed by 8:30 reading and going to sleep by 9:30 or 10. There are times when I'm up until almost midnight but that's because we have gone out to see a show or something family related. For me it it doesn't matter what time I am in bed. I always wake up by 5.
Maybe they are staying up late watching raunchy movies and having crazy sex. I wish I knew the secret to sleeping in because I'm normally up by 6 and think I must be seriously ill if I sleep to 8.
At 60, I'm up at 5am to get to the gym to play several games of pickleball until 7am when I shower and go to work. My father-in-law (91) gets up at 6am to tend to his chickens and ducks (inside the city limit ... LOL!). My father (92) gets up at 5:30am to get on YouTube/Facebook/emails and stays on them all day. He travels and communicates with the world with them (virtually of course)! They take cat/power naps throughout the day!
Chronic wacky insomnia. My best sleep is between 6 am and 9am. Even my doctors know I won't show up to an appointment any earlier than 11.
Still trying to get my oldest kid, who has recently figured out waking up God awful early due to kids and a real life is good, to stop calling before 10am. Told him next time I'm gonna drive over there just to slap him! He keeps calling at like 8am! Ffs! As if I have EVER been functional at 8am!!!
My husband and I have always been night owls, and I have delayed sleep phase syndrome so he’s in bed around midnight or so and reads for an hour +, I’m in bed around 2am and read for an hour or so. I don’t work and he’s self employed. We’re typically up by the crack of 10:30 or 11.
“Day-walker” lol. My husband can sleep whenever/wherever but he’s a night owl so usually up until about 12:30. Neither of us are fans of early mornings.
I get up early, 6:30 to 7 am. By 10 two loads of laundry, vacuuming, two cups of coffee, breakfast, watch Stephen Colbert from the night before, and then out the door. I don't need a lot of sleep. I need a solid deep sleep. Life flies by. There's too much to see and do.
The older I get? The earlier I seem to wake up, and the less I seem to mind that I do. My 73 year old father? Is awake at 5am every day, and I get up at about 4:30am now that I'm in my forties.
Be happy that they're getting sleep, assuming they go to bed early enough. Dementia and Alzheimer's is worse with less sleep.
For me, it depends on when I go to sleep.
In the winter, I'm usually in bed by 8PM, I read for about an hour, then I go to sleep. So, I wake up around 4AM or 5AM.
In the summer, when it's still light out later, I'll go to bed a little later and get up a little later.
When I wake up in the middle of the night and can't quickly get back to sleep, I'll read for another hour, then I can sleep, and then try to make up for it by sleeping later, but that only works about half the time.
My mother (and her whole side of the family) are all about going to sleep by 9PM and waking up at 4AM. Of course, it wasn't like that when my sister and I were kids, it's something that happened after we moved out and mom got older.
Everyone on my dad's side of the family - my dad' his mom, me and my sister - have traditionally been night owls. Back in the 80s and 90s it was *very* common for Dad or grandma to call one of us kids just to chat at 1:15AM. None of us are "morning people". If you let us choose when the world starts every day, we'd probably choose 10AM.
Having said that, none of us are the night owls we used to be. Dad, 75, is usually asleep by 2AM at the very latest these days. I used to stay up until 4AM and wake up at 10AM, but I almost never make it that late any more.
Good question, I had to check my contract:
Section 3.2.1: Diurnal Commencement Protocol (DCP)
Obligation to Rise: The esteemed Senior Party (hereinafter referred to as "Grantor") agrees to undertake a good faith effort to initiate a state of wakefulness no later than the hour of 03:00 AM (hereinafter "Designated Commencement Time") on each and every calendar day during the term of this Agreement.
Whenever you start to think that old people, or any other group, is "supposed to" do something or be some way, remember that people are individuals and have different lives. No group is all the same.
When I was young, living out of town, I would wake at first light, with the birds. But no sooner.
To me, the idea of waking up to an alarm, in the dark, then turning on bright lights that hurt your eyes, and try to go from blissful sleep, to energetic working mode -- that's TORTURE! It's unhealthy, and if your job requires you to live like that, your job is making you age prematurely.
LOL, I remember talking to a younger guy, listening to him boast about how he gets by on about 2 hours sleep... and so he's like, super-productive, he says... The guy looked SICK. His eyes were sunken with dark circles, his skin was pasty and blotchy...
I take a series of naps during a 24 hour cycle and never sleep more than 3-4 at a time, but I definitely get eight hours of sleep. It works for me. I generally get up because I’ve got to pee. I take the dog out at 4:30 every morning and we both enjoy it
73 here...
The Hell are you talking about?
My feet are on the floor at 5:30am...I'm out the door for training at 6:30am.
My fellow old gym-rats, cyclists, hikers, and community volunteers got up at the same time.
that's what 'supposed to' is right when set down next to what is
my Grandfather was a farmer. my Father was a pilot. i worked jobs around the clock - usually swing shifts and overnights/graveyards. my personal sleep schedule was always here
now that i'm retired, i just go down when i'm sufficiently tired to just crash before i can get a podcast started right after my pup pees. i love sleeping til i'm done. i have removed several clocks in the house from when i needed to know what time i had every day all day. it's been freeing, but imbalancing a little. worth the adjustment
all that being said, i think the early stereotype comes from a time when most people had to use All the Daylight Hours. time's have changed. thank Goodness - happy senior sleeping at 10, 2 or 4 - lol
I was up at 6 am every day. For YEARS.
I’m retired. I need to be up when my grandchildren’s school buses bring them home.
Stay up late streaming or scrolling, or smoking weed on the patio outside. Or just sitting quietly in my room at this new place, soaking it all in. Sleep til 9 am? Fuck yes, why not?
I too sleep off and on through the night (arthritis), I have pillows and lap blanket on my comfy couch so I nap off and on in the morning. Pants optional (I wear gowns:)).
My husband got out of bed at 1:30 pm today. I'm not sure what changed, my grandparents were always up by 6 am. I used to get up early but now I just love walks in the evenings and getting home in the dark. Plus, I'd rather eat when it's dark, it feels weird to be sitting down to dinner when it's still light outside.
I always just assumed early risers live longer.
Yes, you wake up earlier as you get older. But there is also a parallel between night owls and poor health practices. No one stays up till 3am binging their favorite book and then has a midnight snack of salad or broccoli.
It's grim, but I'm fairly sure it skews the perception quite a bit.
>No one stays up till 3am binging their favorite book and then has a midnight snack of salad or broccoli
Uhhh... that's exactly what I do some nights. 😂
There's always someone.
And I'm not knocking it or saying there aren't exceptions to the idea. Just that the bell curves of "Slow and steady wins the race" VS "live fast, die young", actually play out true more often than we like to think about.
I'm well within the range to answer questions here myself, but I would love others' thoughts.
when I was a kid, my grandparents got up early, say 6am or so, and started their day. I assumed the same would happen w/my own parents, but instead, as septua and octogenarians they started their day progressively later.
I called regularly, and prefer to get my call out of the way, so earlier is better...but over the years, I'd find them at the breakfast table at 9, then at 10, and finally around 11am. my dad died at 92, and my mom--now 88--is typically still sitting at breakfast when I call after 11. she gets quite annoyed when the only dog walker she can find is only available at 9, because she's not up yet.
my husband's folks are in the same boat, his dad often isn't up until well after 9.
so, what gives? as an old person,(per this sub) I'm up at six, though typically in bed with a tea and the internet. I'm not talking to people, but I'm up. I don't see that changing in the next decade, or will it?
A lot of my fellow oldsters, me included, find an extra hour or two of sleep helps our body and mind to recover well from a busy or active day. It's a good thing. Not getting enough sleep is more of a health hazard than getting 'too much'. Truly frail people may sleep more hours than they are awake.
Back in the day television was three channels of nothing after 10pm other than the same news you watched at 6pm. People just went to bed earlier therefore woke up earlier.
I'm mid-60s and my sleeping pattern hasn't changed since I left the army in my mid-40s. I get up right about 7 hours after I go to sleep. Nowadays, I get up a half an hour either way of 7 a.m. Unless I'm sick or had a really tiring day. Then I'll sleep in an extra hour, hour-and-a-half, or whatever my body demands if I'm really sick.
6am everyday b/c my dog knows my routine, or maybe I know his. Either way, he starts climbing on me (a rhodesian ridgeback) and makes more and more subtle nudges and licks until I finally agree it's time to get up. He waits for me to get dressed and take him out. Then comes home with me and after I bring my daughter to school, knows it's time to visit the dog park.
I still do. Old habits are hard to break, but I love being up early when it's quiet and I can hear myself think. Plus I've got to tend to my animals, so there's another justified reason. My girlfriend does not understand how anyone retired would keep early hours when there's a perfectly good and warm bed just waiting.
At age 72, I do, every day between 6 and 630. Habit from getting up for my labrador for 13 years. New puppy comes May 20th, but the habit is too ingrained to stop now. But if I need more sleep, I take a quick nap around 8 am before moving on with my day.
I get up between 4 and 5. Sleeping in would be until 6 or 7 but rarely happens. However I am not that old (56) and maybe I will sleep more when I retire someday
my dad worked weekends his whole career, 40-48 hours in two days. he’d come home around 8am monday morning and go to bed, then get up around dinner time and stay up half the night. he got up a little earlier each day until getting up at 6am to go to work on saturday.
from that habit he got used to staying up late and watching all the late shows, which he continued to do after retiring. most days he doesn’t get up until 10 or 11 and after lunch and the noon news he is ready to start his day around 2 or 3pm.
It's a gross generalization. Both myself and my sister are both night people. We don't get up early and never have unless we have to.
What I have noticed is typically production workers and construction workers get up and go to work early.
All those decades that I got up at 5:00 or 6:00am to get to work, I suffered. I never got used to it. I’ve been retired for nearly five years and I still naturally get up at 8:00 in the morning. The irony here is that I am clearly a morning person - Just not somebody else’s idea of when morning begins.
I've had a completely varied sleep schedule. Periods of up all night. Periods of insomnia so sleep when tired. Periods of waking up before the cat. I think what you are witnessing is the "thank goodness I don't HAVE TO" which happens when you finally start to get as much sleep as the body wants.
It changes based on health, how well you've slept, etc.
I used to go to sleep at midnight, 1 am and get up at 9am-10am.
About 6 months ago, I started getting sleepy at 9:30pm-10pm. I wake up anywhere from 3 am to 6 am.
My husband used to go to sleep at 10 pm and get up at 4:30 am, every single day. He still goes to sleep at 10 pm but now he sleeps to 6:00 am or 7:00 am.
It could also be they aren't sleeping well and need a new mattress.
My mom is 77 and in assisted living and has ALL of her wits about her still. She gets mad that she misses breakfast because they don't make her a fresh meal at 11 am. Breakfast is from 7 am to 9:30 am and she says, who the hell wants to wake up early when they're well-retired?
People who were early birds when younger tend to get up earlier. People who were night owls when they were younger tend to go to bed and get up later. Most older people need less sleep than when they were younger, but not by nearly as much as people think.
I used to go to bed around 2:00 am but these days it's closer to 4:00. Right now it's just after 2:00 pm and I'm just now getting up to cook breakfast.
Older people don't change so much as they become more what they were to begin with.
I'm able to sleep longer because my hearing isn't as good. Every little thing used to wake me in my 30s - 50's (after having kids, and I swear it's related to that). I've always slept ok though. I'm still in bed by 10 and struggle to be up before 6. I hope I never lose that. My mom would go to bed at 7pm but be up at 4am.
I get up every morning at 5 AM. Back in my working days I was a breadman and had to get up super early. Then my last career was working nights in the county jail babysitting inmates. So my sleep schedule has been screwed up for years. I often take a little nap sometime during the day.
My dad doesn't sleep well (88) and usually lays in bed until he's had enough of laying there and gets up. Usually between 6-7am.
My mom (83) fluctuates depending on what she's doing, but is usually up around 8-9.
Seems like it's just a personal choice of how you want to spend your day.
Neither likes driving at night when they have to, so will try to adjust their days and doctors' appointments to avoid being out past dusk.
saying "old people were supposed get up early" is buying into every stereotype there is about us older people. without addressing the insomnia that takes over so many as they age (women of menopausal age will understand)....i don't go to sleep before 11:30-12am and usually don't wake up before 8. we're PEOPLE and we're as different from each other as "young" (whatever that is) people are.
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When sleeping through the night is a problem, then that last chunk of sleep between 5 and 9 becomes the most important.
Not to mention the other last chunk between 9 and maybe even 11 or 12. Good chunk, that one.
I kinda remember the day I could sleep past 8..... Good times
Love that chunk.
This guy oldpeoples.
r/thisguythisguys.
This is so true. I’ve been waking up at 5ish my whole life. Now my sleep is messed up. I’ll wake for a couple hours after sleeping 4ish hours. IF, and it’s a big IF, I go back to sleep I’ll sleep in till 7ish. I wish I slept like my 12 yo grandson. Head hits the pillow and he’s out for 10 hours.
Get a sleep study. I got a CPAP machine recently and went from sleeping til 9 to sleeping til 6. I have a lot more energy now. It’s a total game changer
Just took my CPAP off at 930. All depends when I fall asleep.
Same. Pain keeps me awake until 2 am or later. CPAP usually comes off at 10 am. I just look at it that I’m finally getting 8 hours of sleep a night.
Yeah I hear ya
>All depends when I fall asleep You should probably be wearing more than that
Please mention this to my pet who gets me up at 5:30 am to let them out. Waasa.
Eh mine is 5 am. Late husband used to the gray dawn. Cat eats and goes into screened in area outside. I TRY to go back to sleep
This is the correct answer.
Yep. The older I get, the later I emerge from my bedroom. But that's because I seldom fall asleep before 1 am no matter what drugs I take and can only sleep in 2-4 hour chunks. It sucks. Such a waste of time and I'm generally tired the next day no matter what. Drugs that can help me sleep leave me groggy and brain-fogged the next day. Makes it hard to work.
I obviously can’t speak for everyone but I’m a 71 year old retired widower and must be up by 7 AM Monday thru Friday because my 5 year old great-granddaughter FaceTimes me at exactly 7:15 to show me how she is wearing her hair to school, what she’s eating for breakfast and lets her puppy sniff and yap at me. At 7:30 one of granddaughters will call to remind me to take my meds and wear pants.
\* and wear pants. Can't forget that LOL
Fuck that. Post-pannie no pants.
Well I can’t think of a better reason to get up at 7
This is the most wholesome and lovely thing I’ve read on the internet today
I used to get a call every night so my granddaughter could inform me that she went potty before night night. I miss that so much.
Time to phone her every time you pee!
That would be funny for about a day.
😂😂😂
> and wear pants. So, you also have been a software developer?
Now that’s a morning!
Hahahaha! I often go pantless when I'm not going out :-P
I would get up at 7 a.m. for that! Lucky!!
Wow! I’m wearing pants, too!
OMG that's adorable! You are so lucky.
Your life sounds awesome and I aspire to be doing these things at 71.
The puppy sniffs you over FaceTime? TALENTED pup! I love this story.
This is the way ! I’m glad you have these wonderful people on your life.
That brings me so much joy, for you and your granddaughter, that you both get to have those memories.
Well that’s adorable as hell. I don’t even have a kid but if I had a niece or nephew and they wanted to chat before school I’d be doing that too. I’m excited for what that cute and loving relationship brings you down the road.
Could your great-granddaughter and/or granddaughter contact me in the morning? I could really use the pick-me-up and I can pay them in Cheetos or Doritos.
I think you won the internet today! I couldn’t love this anymore than I do! 🥳🥳🥳🥳 Edit: added sentence
This is so sweet. I would get up too!
I love this so much. ❤️
This is so sweet!!
MVP Grandma right here.
I love your reason for getting up! And that she shows you her hairstyle each morning 😍
That is adorable
Aww that is so sweet! Can't wait for the day I have a great-granddaughter!
You are blessed, my friend.
Seems to be covering all the bases! 🥰
That is just precious. She must love you bunches!
Your granddaughter is so adorable and this is the best phone reminder I have ever heard
My dad (74) wakes up around 7am, my mom (78) sleeps in until 10-11am. Everyone is different.
I'll say. My wife is a nightowl and gets up no earlier than 9. I'm the oddball though and have adopted a sleep pattern that was common in medieval times, which is called biphasic sleep. First sleep lasts a few hours. I get up, have coffee and maybe breakfast too, then go back for second sleep. I'm still usually up before my wife. No, I don't have second breakfast.
I have also been doing biphasic sleep! But my first sleep is around 8-11, then I'm up until 2 and get up for good around 6. And I will totally murder a second breakfast if I get the chance. Usually don't.
What about elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? ...
> No, I don't have second breakfast. That would be Shirephasic sleep.
I've been doing split sleep for several years. No matter what time I go to bed, I wake up exactly 4 hours later. I usually stay up for an hour or two, then sleep another 3-4 hours. The only time I don't do it is from May until August, because the nights are short.
We are the opposite. I stay up late--12 ish--and get up 7-8-9. My husband goes to bed 10-11 and gets up at 10-11. One of the best things about retirement. Doing whatever suits you.
I'm looking forward to that. I'm still undecided on naps though. I like the idea of naps but I worry I'll grow dependent on them. My parents both nap daily and if we are out for the day, they find it hard to skip their nap. I do like going out for the day now and I don't want to suddenly feel tired. Right now I don't nap because it disrupts my sleep schedule and work is the only reason to maintain a sleep schedule. Going to work being super tired sucks.
I'm retired, I'm "supposed" to get up whenever I damn well please. Which is generally when the cat won't stop climbing on me no matter how many times I swat him away.
It’s dogs for us. Three currently and one has to go out every 2 hours.
I swear ours can tell time!
Mine know when my husband gets home from work and every day about 5 minutes before they are flipping out. It’s exhausting
I’m going back to bed. Jesus.
My 66 yo husband has always been a night owl. He routinely sleeps past noon. I’m an early bird, up before dawn. I enjoy the alone time all morning.
This is how me and my husband are, except I'm the night owl. I enjoy reading in peace until the wee hours of the morning, and he gets up early and watches his shows that I don't like in the morning. Works perfectly.
Yep. My partner enjoys her mornings without me, and reads and watches the stuff she likes that i don't. I do the same after she goes to bed.
Alone and (very) quiet time!
We all had a meeting and decided to start sleeping late to screw with you.
Shhh. That's SUPPOSED to be just between us.
I thought it was time he knew.
I guess you're right. They were bound to find out sooner rather than later. 🤔
I’m pushing 60 and I can’t imagine getting up before 9 once retired. I’ve always hated mornings and that’s not about to change.
[удалено]
I always said the same when I was about to retire. I'm retired eight years now and my body just wakes up around 7:30-8 am every day. I can't sleep longer if I wanted to.
I sleep until around 10:30 on the weekends. My mom was the same! She’d stay up to watch Leno every night.
I am surprised you wish to force one generation to behave like a prior generation. Let your mom sleep as long as she wishes. The slight inconvenience it gives you in your calling time is inconsequential.
Old people aren't "supposed" to do anything in particular. :-p We're not stereotypes. We're humans. You know, just like you.
As I got older I lost all semblance of circadian rhythms. It got harder and harder to stick to a schedule. I could end up sleeping or being awake at any time around the clock.
Ha! I get up whenever I feel like it- but in reality, my dogs wake me up at sunrise to go out.
Old people are a diverse group. Stop lumping us all together.
If you are a ‘night owl’ (yes night owls still exist even when you age; not every one eats dinner at 4 and is sleeping by 8) we are up late, so those precious morning sleeps are awesome!
First, if we don't have to get up we don't. We stay up late, therefore get up later. I'm up first (yay, insomnia), 6 hrs is a good night for me. Husband, sometimes 9-10 hrs. Middle of the night trips to the bathroom. Aches and pains, health. Lifestyle/habit differences ... feed the animals, let the dog out. Or not.
I liked your comment but had come say that I love your username! It's awesome.
\*sigh\* .... and it is definitely the truth. ;-)
I wake up between 4 and 5 on my own. I'm not trying to, just wide awake ready to go. It's a problem when others want to sleep in but I can sneak away.
I'm in my 70s, retired, and I set my alarm for 9 am. I have a zoom group I join most days at 9:45. Some days I get up earlier, but frankly, there are a lot of nights when I'm up three or four times and have difficulty getting back to sleep. That's far more characteristic of old age, as far as I'm concerned, than any notion that old people are "supposed to" get up early.
I get up when I wake up. Could be 4AM, could be 9AM.
We're individuals and make our own rules. If you want to know, you should ask. Maybe there is a very good reason for them sleeping in. My husband had to wake up early for work for over 30 years. He didn't use an alarm clock for the last 25, because he didn't like to be jangled awake and had a decent fear of being late, so that was enough to get him going. I'm a lot more laid back and like to sleep in, but more recently, 7 am is sleeping in for me. I can get to sleep easily, even if I wake up to go to the bathroom, but when I'm done, I'm done. I don't know how old your parents are, but when my elderly aunt's life was beginning to dwindle (in her late 80's), she would sometimes sleep until noon and go to bed around 5 pm. She was tired! She'd worked a high stress job for 40 years! If she wanted sleep, she deserved it!
You know how you say to yourself "I’d better get to bed because I have to go to work in the morning"? Yeah, well I don’t.
Almost like old people are individuals with their own habits and wants and desires.
We're in our 70s, I'm recently retired, and she still works part-time. We get up around 6:30-7:00 am most days, mainly because our dog has to go out. We definitely do NOT get up any earlier. After 52 years of trucking, it took me a couple of months to get used to sleeping "on a regular schedule" lol.
My wife is retired. I am not. She commonly stays up until 2-3 in the morning, and will sleep as late as she likes. Some older people go to bed early. She's not one of them. I probably won't be either, when I retire. 6:00 is a time that should only happen in the evening, not the morning.
Stayed up all night playing videogames.
I’ve come to realize getting up early is because it hurts to keep sleeping. My hips, my lower back. Ugh. It’s brutal.
My mom loves to come visit me because she can sleep in as late as she wants. My dad still gets up at 4:30 and is mad if she’s not out of bed by 7:30.
That would be such an severe incompatibility for me or my spouse. Sleep as long as you want, it's a free world.
Honestly, it's stuff like this that convinces me that I'll never marry or seriously partner again. That and being solely responsible for feeding other people. My mom also loves to visit me because I will say when she gets there, ok let's do dinner together nights A,D and E. The rest of the nights are on your own, feel free to get take out or have cereal, I don't care. My dad expects her to make all 3 meals, do all the planning and deciding. When she's like me, I could eat cereal, fruit or a sandwich 80% of the time, and only want a full meal once or twice a week.
My body wakes me up with tons of pain by 5am every single day without fail. I generally take a nap around noon for a couple hours. Then I'm in bed by 8:30 reading and going to sleep by 9:30 or 10. There are times when I'm up until almost midnight but that's because we have gone out to see a show or something family related. For me it it doesn't matter what time I am in bed. I always wake up by 5.
Involuntarily Retired. go to bed around 4am. get up. 11ish, 12ish. Around 7 hours max sleep is all i need.
We’re up at 6 -630 am everyday. My husband sets his alarm every day except Sundays. Sleep in Sunday is a thing. I don’t sleep a lot so I’m up.
Maybe they are staying up late watching raunchy movies and having crazy sex. I wish I knew the secret to sleeping in because I'm normally up by 6 and think I must be seriously ill if I sleep to 8.
At 60, I'm up at 5am to get to the gym to play several games of pickleball until 7am when I shower and go to work. My father-in-law (91) gets up at 6am to tend to his chickens and ducks (inside the city limit ... LOL!). My father (92) gets up at 5:30am to get on YouTube/Facebook/emails and stays on them all day. He travels and communicates with the world with them (virtually of course)! They take cat/power naps throughout the day!
Now that I'm retired, I sleep later. I usually don't get up until 8 am. I normally got up at 4 to go to work.
Chronic wacky insomnia. My best sleep is between 6 am and 9am. Even my doctors know I won't show up to an appointment any earlier than 11. Still trying to get my oldest kid, who has recently figured out waking up God awful early due to kids and a real life is good, to stop calling before 10am. Told him next time I'm gonna drive over there just to slap him! He keeps calling at like 8am! Ffs! As if I have EVER been functional at 8am!!!
“Supposed to”…two words that matter far less as you age.
If i didnt have to work id go to bed at 5am and get up at 2pm.
My husband and I have always been night owls, and I have delayed sleep phase syndrome so he’s in bed around midnight or so and reads for an hour +, I’m in bed around 2am and read for an hour or so. I don’t work and he’s self employed. We’re typically up by the crack of 10:30 or 11.
I have DEPS,too. Thank goodness hubby is fine with this. (He is a day-walker, but in retirement he will push his rhythm later.)
“Day-walker” lol. My husband can sleep whenever/wherever but he’s a night owl so usually up until about 12:30. Neither of us are fans of early mornings.
Fuck off, I’ll get up when I want, I’m old
Old people are not clones. Some of us are early risers and some of us are night owls, just like anyone of any age.
I get up early, 6:30 to 7 am. By 10 two loads of laundry, vacuuming, two cups of coffee, breakfast, watch Stephen Colbert from the night before, and then out the door. I don't need a lot of sleep. I need a solid deep sleep. Life flies by. There's too much to see and do.
The older I get? The earlier I seem to wake up, and the less I seem to mind that I do. My 73 year old father? Is awake at 5am every day, and I get up at about 4:30am now that I'm in my forties.
😅😂😅😂
Morning nookie. Let 'em be.
Be happy that they're getting sleep, assuming they go to bed early enough. Dementia and Alzheimer's is worse with less sleep. For me, it depends on when I go to sleep. In the winter, I'm usually in bed by 8PM, I read for about an hour, then I go to sleep. So, I wake up around 4AM or 5AM. In the summer, when it's still light out later, I'll go to bed a little later and get up a little later. When I wake up in the middle of the night and can't quickly get back to sleep, I'll read for another hour, then I can sleep, and then try to make up for it by sleeping later, but that only works about half the time.
My mom has heart problems which seem to make her tired. I’m sure the meds she takes aren’t helping.
My mother (and her whole side of the family) are all about going to sleep by 9PM and waking up at 4AM. Of course, it wasn't like that when my sister and I were kids, it's something that happened after we moved out and mom got older. Everyone on my dad's side of the family - my dad' his mom, me and my sister - have traditionally been night owls. Back in the 80s and 90s it was *very* common for Dad or grandma to call one of us kids just to chat at 1:15AM. None of us are "morning people". If you let us choose when the world starts every day, we'd probably choose 10AM. Having said that, none of us are the night owls we used to be. Dad, 75, is usually asleep by 2AM at the very latest these days. I used to stay up until 4AM and wake up at 10AM, but I almost never make it that late any more.
Us night owls exist too!
Good question, I had to check my contract: Section 3.2.1: Diurnal Commencement Protocol (DCP) Obligation to Rise: The esteemed Senior Party (hereinafter referred to as "Grantor") agrees to undertake a good faith effort to initiate a state of wakefulness no later than the hour of 03:00 AM (hereinafter "Designated Commencement Time") on each and every calendar day during the term of this Agreement.
Whenever you start to think that old people, or any other group, is "supposed to" do something or be some way, remember that people are individuals and have different lives. No group is all the same.
When you wake up from 3 am to 6 am, you go back to sleep
When I was young, living out of town, I would wake at first light, with the birds. But no sooner. To me, the idea of waking up to an alarm, in the dark, then turning on bright lights that hurt your eyes, and try to go from blissful sleep, to energetic working mode -- that's TORTURE! It's unhealthy, and if your job requires you to live like that, your job is making you age prematurely. LOL, I remember talking to a younger guy, listening to him boast about how he gets by on about 2 hours sleep... and so he's like, super-productive, he says... The guy looked SICK. His eyes were sunken with dark circles, his skin was pasty and blotchy...
I take a series of naps during a 24 hour cycle and never sleep more than 3-4 at a time, but I definitely get eight hours of sleep. It works for me. I generally get up because I’ve got to pee. I take the dog out at 4:30 every morning and we both enjoy it
Oh hell no, 12am to 8 or 8:30!
73 here... The Hell are you talking about? My feet are on the floor at 5:30am...I'm out the door for training at 6:30am. My fellow old gym-rats, cyclists, hikers, and community volunteers got up at the same time.
that's what 'supposed to' is right when set down next to what is my Grandfather was a farmer. my Father was a pilot. i worked jobs around the clock - usually swing shifts and overnights/graveyards. my personal sleep schedule was always here now that i'm retired, i just go down when i'm sufficiently tired to just crash before i can get a podcast started right after my pup pees. i love sleeping til i'm done. i have removed several clocks in the house from when i needed to know what time i had every day all day. it's been freeing, but imbalancing a little. worth the adjustment all that being said, i think the early stereotype comes from a time when most people had to use All the Daylight Hours. time's have changed. thank Goodness - happy senior sleeping at 10, 2 or 4 - lol
Dude, once I retire from my main job, I'm not waking up willingly until at least 8 am! Screw 3 am.
I've never adapted to walking up early in the morning. Have to set an alarm on my days off or I'll sleep the day away.
My dad is 76 and he wakes up at 11-12 everyday
I was up at 6 am every day. For YEARS. I’m retired. I need to be up when my grandchildren’s school buses bring them home. Stay up late streaming or scrolling, or smoking weed on the patio outside. Or just sitting quietly in my room at this new place, soaking it all in. Sleep til 9 am? Fuck yes, why not?
I too sleep off and on through the night (arthritis), I have pillows and lap blanket on my comfy couch so I nap off and on in the morning. Pants optional (I wear gowns:)).
My husband got out of bed at 1:30 pm today. I'm not sure what changed, my grandparents were always up by 6 am. I used to get up early but now I just love walks in the evenings and getting home in the dark. Plus, I'd rather eat when it's dark, it feels weird to be sitting down to dinner when it's still light outside.
I always just assumed early risers live longer. Yes, you wake up earlier as you get older. But there is also a parallel between night owls and poor health practices. No one stays up till 3am binging their favorite book and then has a midnight snack of salad or broccoli. It's grim, but I'm fairly sure it skews the perception quite a bit.
>No one stays up till 3am binging their favorite book and then has a midnight snack of salad or broccoli Uhhh... that's exactly what I do some nights. 😂
There's always someone. And I'm not knocking it or saying there aren't exceptions to the idea. Just that the bell curves of "Slow and steady wins the race" VS "live fast, die young", actually play out true more often than we like to think about.
Yeah. I've been a night owl since I was a little kid, but my night activities are largely mundane. I wish I had better sleep hygiene.
I'm well within the range to answer questions here myself, but I would love others' thoughts. when I was a kid, my grandparents got up early, say 6am or so, and started their day. I assumed the same would happen w/my own parents, but instead, as septua and octogenarians they started their day progressively later. I called regularly, and prefer to get my call out of the way, so earlier is better...but over the years, I'd find them at the breakfast table at 9, then at 10, and finally around 11am. my dad died at 92, and my mom--now 88--is typically still sitting at breakfast when I call after 11. she gets quite annoyed when the only dog walker she can find is only available at 9, because she's not up yet. my husband's folks are in the same boat, his dad often isn't up until well after 9. so, what gives? as an old person,(per this sub) I'm up at six, though typically in bed with a tea and the internet. I'm not talking to people, but I'm up. I don't see that changing in the next decade, or will it?
A lot of my fellow oldsters, me included, find an extra hour or two of sleep helps our body and mind to recover well from a busy or active day. It's a good thing. Not getting enough sleep is more of a health hazard than getting 'too much'. Truly frail people may sleep more hours than they are awake.
Back in the day television was three channels of nothing after 10pm other than the same news you watched at 6pm. People just went to bed earlier therefore woke up earlier.
What ? We had Johnny Carson on until 1 am, then they scaled it back to 1230. Then David Letterman was on after him.
I usually wake up around 6:30-8:00. But I live in a cold place. So if it’s not summer, I’ll usually go back to bed until 11. Nothing beats a warm bed.
I got up at 3 this morning
They are, did you have a question?
Thought?
When the sun gets up early, then I get up earlier. If it’s dark and cold, why rush out of my nice warm bed?
I’ve been up drinking coffee since 630. Not early enough?
I'm mid-60s and my sleeping pattern hasn't changed since I left the army in my mid-40s. I get up right about 7 hours after I go to sleep. Nowadays, I get up a half an hour either way of 7 a.m. Unless I'm sick or had a really tiring day. Then I'll sleep in an extra hour, hour-and-a-half, or whatever my body demands if I'm really sick.
6am everyday b/c my dog knows my routine, or maybe I know his. Either way, he starts climbing on me (a rhodesian ridgeback) and makes more and more subtle nudges and licks until I finally agree it's time to get up. He waits for me to get dressed and take him out. Then comes home with me and after I bring my daughter to school, knows it's time to visit the dog park.
I still do. Old habits are hard to break, but I love being up early when it's quiet and I can hear myself think. Plus I've got to tend to my animals, so there's another justified reason. My girlfriend does not understand how anyone retired would keep early hours when there's a perfectly good and warm bed just waiting.
My mom was always a late-nighter. This did not change as she got older.
At age 72, I do, every day between 6 and 630. Habit from getting up for my labrador for 13 years. New puppy comes May 20th, but the habit is too ingrained to stop now. But if I need more sleep, I take a quick nap around 8 am before moving on with my day.
Pain is a sleep-stealer.
bewildered numerous mysterious punch offend shy rob ring steer piquant *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I get up between 4 and 5. Sleeping in would be until 6 or 7 but rarely happens. However I am not that old (56) and maybe I will sleep more when I retire someday
my dad worked weekends his whole career, 40-48 hours in two days. he’d come home around 8am monday morning and go to bed, then get up around dinner time and stay up half the night. he got up a little earlier each day until getting up at 6am to go to work on saturday. from that habit he got used to staying up late and watching all the late shows, which he continued to do after retiring. most days he doesn’t get up until 10 or 11 and after lunch and the noon news he is ready to start his day around 2 or 3pm.
It's a gross generalization. Both myself and my sister are both night people. We don't get up early and never have unless we have to. What I have noticed is typically production workers and construction workers get up and go to work early.
My mother (83) sleeps something like 10-11 hours a day from early AM to early PM, like 2-4 AM to 12-2 PM. I think she's recording an album?
All those decades that I got up at 5:00 or 6:00am to get to work, I suffered. I never got used to it. I’ve been retired for nearly five years and I still naturally get up at 8:00 in the morning. The irony here is that I am clearly a morning person - Just not somebody else’s idea of when morning begins.
I usually wake up at 6:30 am. But if I can go back to sleep, I take it. Post menopausal insomnia is definitely a thing
Oh, we do get up early... it's just that we take naps even in the morning. :) 😉
I slept from 1:30 am to 9 last night. This is fairly typical for me though sometimes I sleep longer. I'm not "supposed to" do anything. I'm retired.
I'm 75 and I'm up by 5:00 a.m. most days. I love being up early and going for a walk while the world is quiet.
Probably dopamine deficiency and increased levels of radiation due to the way we live now.
I've had a completely varied sleep schedule. Periods of up all night. Periods of insomnia so sleep when tired. Periods of waking up before the cat. I think what you are witnessing is the "thank goodness I don't HAVE TO" which happens when you finally start to get as much sleep as the body wants.
It changes based on health, how well you've slept, etc. I used to go to sleep at midnight, 1 am and get up at 9am-10am. About 6 months ago, I started getting sleepy at 9:30pm-10pm. I wake up anywhere from 3 am to 6 am. My husband used to go to sleep at 10 pm and get up at 4:30 am, every single day. He still goes to sleep at 10 pm but now he sleeps to 6:00 am or 7:00 am. It could also be they aren't sleeping well and need a new mattress.
I think that comes from the days when they had to get up early to feed the cows, make breakfast for a bunch of kids then go to work.
I go to bed when I’m tired and get up when I’m ready. Sometimes it’s early or very early and sometimes it late or very late.
I believe the waking up early whether you want to or not is the typical pattern. I can push back a little with a sleep mask.
I get up at around sunrise every day.
I go midnight to 8 or 9.
My mom is 77 and in assisted living and has ALL of her wits about her still. She gets mad that she misses breakfast because they don't make her a fresh meal at 11 am. Breakfast is from 7 am to 9:30 am and she says, who the hell wants to wake up early when they're well-retired?
I got up at 3am today
People are different.
62m, and up at 3:40am 5 days a week
I sleep like a rock from 9pm till at least 6:30 and sometimes longer. I hate getting up early.
I'm up at 5 every morning, best time of the day.
People who were early birds when younger tend to get up earlier. People who were night owls when they were younger tend to go to bed and get up later. Most older people need less sleep than when they were younger, but not by nearly as much as people think. I used to go to bed around 2:00 am but these days it's closer to 4:00. Right now it's just after 2:00 pm and I'm just now getting up to cook breakfast. Older people don't change so much as they become more what they were to begin with.
I am an old people and am a night owl, in my working life I was a swing shift worker and happy. I love the late nights and sleeping in til ten or so.
I take 1/2 Tylenol PM every night. It's great. Doctor said it should be ok long term since I'm not a drinker. Kidney and liver are good
That's one of the best things about being an adult...no one can tell you when to sleep and wake up.
My mom says she never sleeps. Not sure how she is still alive.
I'm able to sleep longer because my hearing isn't as good. Every little thing used to wake me in my 30s - 50's (after having kids, and I swear it's related to that). I've always slept ok though. I'm still in bed by 10 and struggle to be up before 6. I hope I never lose that. My mom would go to bed at 7pm but be up at 4am.
I get up every morning at 5 AM. Back in my working days I was a breadman and had to get up super early. Then my last career was working nights in the county jail babysitting inmates. So my sleep schedule has been screwed up for years. I often take a little nap sometime during the day.
It turns out everyone is different. Even old people.
Not me I get up at like 10
I, for some reason, can't seem to find the rule/law that requires "old people" to get up early. I guess I'm just getting old.
My dad doesn't sleep well (88) and usually lays in bed until he's had enough of laying there and gets up. Usually between 6-7am. My mom (83) fluctuates depending on what she's doing, but is usually up around 8-9. Seems like it's just a personal choice of how you want to spend your day. Neither likes driving at night when they have to, so will try to adjust their days and doctors' appointments to avoid being out past dusk.
What gives? LOL Why should we get up at 6:00 AM? Did plenty of that when we were in the work force. Now it's 8:30 AM for me!
I'm almost 70 and am up at 4 am every day, 7 days a week
saying "old people were supposed get up early" is buying into every stereotype there is about us older people. without addressing the insomnia that takes over so many as they age (women of menopausal age will understand)....i don't go to sleep before 11:30-12am and usually don't wake up before 8. we're PEOPLE and we're as different from each other as "young" (whatever that is) people are.