European Tribune

When do you wake up?

by DoDo
Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:22:38 PM EST

Did you expect another Cassandra diary in the economy/environment/politics?... But this is just a quick questionnaire: when do you manage to leave bed when going to work?

There are deeper issues one could associate at: I contend for some time that waking hours can be a class marker (the lower one's class, the earlier work hours begin). However, this diary was inspired by my lack of toleration for standing up a 5 o'clock all week...


...while a colleague with long years of locomotive maintenance shop work behind him, wakes at or before 4am every day including weekends...
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password

Poll
So when do you typically wake up for work?
. before 3am 0%
. 3am-4am 0%
. 4am-5am 7%
. 5am-6am 17%
. 6am-7am 25%
. 7am-8am 22%
. 8am-9am 10%
. 9am-midday 12%
. I do night shifts, so... 0%
. I'm unemployed 5%
. I don't stand up 0%

Votes: 40
Results | Other Polls
Display:
When the alarm-clock rings...

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
by Melanchthon on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:30:49 PM EST


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:37:08 PM EST


"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
by poemless on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:42:41 PM EST
Damnit, Poemless, your cartoon got my dogs up on my work table trying to see the cat through the window!  Great cartoon, though.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.
by ARGeezer (argeezer a in a circle yahoo dot com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:48:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
)

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:22:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:26:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
We need another one in that series of a cat blocking the computer screen, trudgw#dsing across the keyboard, then sitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ttttttttttttttttting on the mouse.
by Sassafras on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:38:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Looks like you need to install Pawsense.
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:05:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
AS720IS_2008-07-12T21:12:42.JPG

Sam, competing with Rachel Maddow, guest host on Countdown.

Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.

by budr on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:28:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I don't remember letting you borrow my cat.  That IS my Babe you have nuzzling you, which is quite a feat, as she's feral (rescued from French Quarter in New Orleans.) You must have quite a way with the felines.

Karen in Austin

Thence comes our true nobility by grace, It was not willed us with our rank and place. Chaucer

by Wife of Bath (bakerswife13@yahoo.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 07:17:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Haven't seen this one yet - his cartoons are just amazing.
by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:26:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]
went looking for the other one, and found there was a new one instead.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 05:38:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, I wake up a bit after 7am.  7am is when the alarm is set for.  The cat's been good about letting me sleep recently (now it's 1am when she gets bored and starts yowling that unearthly yowl that's our problem.)  But once the radio goes off, the cat's in my face.  She stares me awake.  I wake up, and there she is, inches from my face, staring.  I try to ignore her.  Until she starts knocking things off my dresser.  By that time I really should be up anyway.  She's right...

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
by poemless on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:10:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Video evidence of my morning



Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:38:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A retriever cat?  Only one of my dogs retrieves that well, and he is not so good at surrendering what he retrieved.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.
by ARGeezer (argeezer a in a circle yahoo dot com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 07:45:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Rusty used to do that, but his pace was a good deal more leisurely.

Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.
by budr on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 07:50:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Meet my alarm clock: a 16 year old tabby with his species' well-developed sense of entitlement.

Well may he yawn, because he starts demanding breakfast at dawn.

In the winter, that's not so bad.

But 4am at midsummer isn't much fun.

by Sassafras on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 04:53:19 PM EST
Hah, I have two of those, and they both wake me up. It's a competition between them or my 4-year old daughter as to who gets to me first.

Wonder if the two cats are gonna be pissed when we put 'em in the cargo hold of a plane for 10 hours in 15 days.

"C'est un scandale !"

by redstar on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:21:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
We once moved from Tucson to LA with two one year old cats, a male and a female.  The wife got trancs from the vet. He instructed her to put the pills in little balls of hamburger, which she did.  However, the male quickly ate them both. By the time we had been on the road an hour, the male was walleyed stoned, disoriented and freaked.  This was in '73, before crates became so popular.  Fortunately, I was driving and he preferred the wife, on whom he proceeded to barf. Then he was lurching around the vehicle and yowling for another four hours before going to sleep. The female was fine.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.
by ARGeezer (argeezer a in a circle yahoo dot com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 07:52:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
in 1979. No pills, but we didn't get 10 miles before the male barfed in the back of the station wagon.

paul spencer
by paul spencer (spencerinthegorge AT yahoo DOT com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 09:36:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
What joy! At least it wasn't on anyone.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.
by ARGeezer (argeezer a in a circle yahoo dot com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 11:16:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Being self-employed, my schedule is pretty variable, in an average month it will include 2-5 of days up at 5:30am and 2-5 at 6:30am. Much of the rest of the time my natural waking time moves around between 7:30 and 8:30 or so.

Economically I can't say working for myself makes me much higher in class, but on average in terms of waking up time, I suppose it definitely does.

OTOH, I have a friend who is definitely in an higher economic class than me, but the trade off is that his commute gets him up pretty early, (5:30) all the time.

Of course, working night shifts is some ultimate kind of abuse.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:09:36 PM EST
Which time?

theres the 2:30  just got into bed wake up calll from the big ginger monster, needing reasurance that the food bowl isnt empty. If I dont get up then he willl go and poke the girlfriend awake, and she cant get back to sleep once shes been woken. then there's the seven thirty climb out of bed to make sure the house is unlocked, and the girlfriend is fed and watered for the day spent herding thenations ungrateful future prospects.

then finallly theres the 10:30 am visit of the postman.

Employment will make the whole thing somewhat lless complicated.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:17:58 PM EST
I wake up at local sunrise. This works well in the summer, and is problematical in the winter. I have not used an alarm clock for decades...
by asdf on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 05:56:49 PM EST
Move further north, that will  make it more fun.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:01:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
He could sleep through entire months in Chicago, if the sun is the only thing gettign him out of bed.

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
by poemless on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:11:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Similar in Wales.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:39:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I rented Orion's Belt, that Norwegian movie about Spitzbergen not too long ago. I suppose that if you lived there in the winter, you would need an alarm clock...
by asdf on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 09:12:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I guess I'm the earliest here.  4-4.30AM for me.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?
by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 06:20:43 PM EST
Ok, I dunno about you guys, but for me there is a HUGE difference between "waking up" and "getting up."  The alarm clock might go off at 7:30 (or whatever time is necessary, depending on the day, and it can be wildly different from day-to-day) but I typically hit the snooze button for at least half an hour, and sometimes just turn it off altogether and wake up all over again an hour and a half later.  I seem to subconsciously know when I really need to be awake, and will get up when it is required, but not sooner.

That's for now, at least, when my schedule is fairly flexible.  This will change in a few months.  Ugh.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 07:17:04 PM EST
If my schedule is even a tiny bit flexible and not too early I don't use the alarm at all. But when I have to be up, I generally have found that the alarm scares the bejezsus out of me and I get out of bed straight away.

However, I must admit I've started succumbing to "10 more minutes" syndrome more and more this past year.

Hmmmm. Food for thought there for me.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 07:52:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I've found that a good trick is to make sure that the alarm is on the other side of the room :-P

- Jake

Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 08:31:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
When I was back in LA for four months last year I got up about 6:00AM at least 5 days a week, often 6 days and sometimes 7 days.  I was there to work, had plenty to do and was paid by the hour, so I wanted to get into work by 8:00AM and often didn't leave 'till 6:00PM.

When I have pressing work from LA here in Arkansas, I get up around 8:00AM CDT. That way I can have walked the dogs, fed the cat, watered the plants, had breakfast and be into the work by 8:00AM  PDT and ready for phone calls, etc.

Otherwise, I get out of bed when I can't get back to sleep.  Unfortunately, I like to stay up late, 1-2AM and often am awoken by stomach growls or other bodily functions at first light and then can't get back to sleep.  When it is cloudy and raining I often sleep in until 10AM.  Can't walk the dogs anyway.  Half a Tagamet helps with the stomach if I remember to take it.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

by ARGeezer (argeezer a in a circle yahoo dot com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 08:08:38 PM EST
10:30am works well for me. I dream between 9:00am and 10:00am, and if I don't get that time, my mental health suffers. The trade off is that an earlier start gives me better energy. It's not a problem I've ever managed to solve.

Anything before 7:00am would kill me.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 09:19:56 PM EST
That's a really interesting thing to realise about yourself. It makes no difference when you fall asleep?

If I make myself go back to sleep then I also have that dream phase but I wake up too groggy and off balance, especially if the dreams were vivid.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:14:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I squeeze the muscles in a sequence starting at my toes and working up to my neck. Takes about eight seconds per cycle, and - usually - by the third repetition my eyes open wide, and I'm ready to go.

paul spencer
by paul spencer (spencerinthegorge AT yahoo DOT com) on Wed Jul 16th, 2008 at 09:41:45 PM EST
An hour ago, as usual. That's between 4 and 5 by the sun (the Greenwich meridian is not far from here, though official time is CET; in summer that's GMT+2, in winter GMT+1).

"Natural" waking: about the time I get up in summer, an hour or so later in winter.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:28:18 AM EST
the rhythm what I kinda always wanted to "when I would grow up". So that means 1) I haven't grown up (which suits me just fine) or 2) I'll never manage and need to accept that I'm an owl - I enjoy being an evening creature. Interestingly, when our neighbourhood went through a set of irregular blackouts in the evening, I'd notice that I'd grow tired much quicker, sleep longer and get up earlier with more ease. It's that damn electricity.
by Nomad on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 02:32:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I have totally noticed that.  When I'm someplace without electricity (either because I'm camping or because I'm working somewhere without it) I go to bed a lot earlier and wake up a lot earlier -- my body clock almost immediately realigns itself to the sun cycle.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:44:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I usually wake up with my inner alarm clock, which I set befor falling asleep by visualizing the time I want to wake up. I learned that a very long time ago, now I am glad as I would not hear the alarm clock.

I usually get up between 4:30 and 5.30 - sleeping longer I wake up with a headache and feeling all drowsy.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:32:35 AM EST
I get up a five monday to saturday, and am a bit more variable on Sunday.

I don't have to be in to work until 7:30, and many people think I'm a bit crazy for getting up so much earlier than I really HAVE to.  My friends, for the most part, are in the "sleep as long as humanly possible, then rush out the door without breakfast or a shower" camp.

However, as I start teaching right at 7:30, I want to be well and thoroughly awake, and I much prefer having a nice leisurely morning with breakfast, coffee, the internet, and a shower than rushing around and stressing.

by Zwackus on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:19:24 AM EST
When the sun raises... I lack dark curtains :(:( I dream on dark curtains...
by pereulok on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 04:28:47 AM EST
Speaking of curtains, and veering off-topic, your post reminds me of a friend who had beautiful gauzy red curtains in her bedroom.  She had to get rid of them after she found she was waking up every morning literally seeing everything in green.  It took her a while to figure it out, but she concluded that the sun, which rises early here, was beaming through the red curtains and bathing her in red light for several hours while she slept, and affecting her perception of colors.  She got rid of the curtains, and the problem disappeared.

I struggle with curtains here.  I need relative dark to sleep soundly, but also need light to wake up, and this is a very light-polluted city.  My neighborhood has a slew of absurdly brightly-lit billboard ads that are so bright that they actually illuminate my whole apartment if I don't keep the curtains drawn.  But if I pull the curtains to be able to sleep well, then I just don't wake up in the morning.  I compromise by keeping them sort of half-shut, and sleeping with my arm (or some bedcoverings or a pillow) draped over my eyes.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 05:07:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Hey, what you need is smart materials! Some nano-textile, changing colours, and why not, saying hello when you get up...

I will propose an FP7 (European Union Framework Programe on Research & Development) on that... :)

I have gold curtains (don´t ask me if I actually LIKE them)... Must think on the colour perception, might be true also for me...

by pereulok on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 06:55:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
all you need is a couple of cross-polarised layers, with one layer that turns off when your alarmclock goes off

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 07:01:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
LCD window panes? A neat trick if you can pull it. (Well, apart from the fact that you really want them both to turn off, because otherwise you'd lose a factor of sqrt(2) in intensity even when the "curtains" weren't "drawn.")

- Jake

Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 08:41:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I rarely wake before 9 am, but sometimes work till 11 pm. I hate rush hour and have trained my clients to not expect to see me for meetings before 10.30 am. Very rarely there will be an emergency that requires my presence in town at the god-forsaken hour of 8 am < shudder>

Most of my work these days is in the home office, and I like to do that in 2 hour stints with breaks in between. I can still do 10 hour days fairly easily like that - when necessary.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 05:17:30 AM EST
I wake up for my husband's work, not mine. I'm self-employed, so it doesn't matter when I get up, but Heinz is a baker/pastry chef and has a really hard time getting up.  So I awaken at 4:40 am, make his breakfast and get him up, run through the internet awhile, then decide if I want to stay up or snooze a bit more.

When I'm on the road, which is fairly often, I get up at 6:30 am so I have internet time before I go to the courthouse @ 8-9am.

When I'm home working on a report, I tendzzzzzzzzz (gad, I'm even boring MYSELF.)

P.S.  I could have reached over and touched Jerome at dinner at Threadgill's last night, but I didn't, since I don't like to bother celebrities.  He didn't look jetlagged at all.

Thence comes our true nobility by grace, It was not willed us with our rank and place. Chaucer

by Wife of Bath (bakerswife13@yahoo.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 07:14:43 AM EST
Celebrities?  Heh.

I think Jerome will be disappointed that you didn't say hi.  I'm sure he would have liked to meet you.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 08:09:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
with Bill in Portland Maine - he's the celebrity!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 09:20:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
we have to meet!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 09:20:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'll keep my eyes peeled.  And not a celebrity?  You must not have seen the comments on Kos asking if you'd been spotted yet.

Karen in Austin

Thence comes our true nobility by grace, It was not willed us with our rank and place. Chaucer

by Wife of Bath (bakerswife13@yahoo.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:46:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
LOL that you'd ask this question this week when I'm struggling with jetlag...

But in normal times:

  • on school days, I'll wake up around 7:20, in order to take the kids to school before 8:30
  • on the days I travel, waking up will be about 2 hours before the flight, ie in the 5-7am range;
  • on other days, I'll just wake up naturally, which means about 8:30 on working days (which allows me to be at work only 15-20mn than on school days as the commute is shorter from home) and 9-10 on week-ends.


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 09:24:12 AM EST
I get up for work at 7am, usually using my alarm clock but I do often wake up about 5 minutes before.  I like to have a leisurely hour at least to have breakfast, browse ET and wake up. Also to work out what the weather may do before I decide on my mode of travel to work.

Residual light means that I need to wear an eye mask at night usually (should I admit that?) because I don't sleep properly during the working week if there is too much light around me.  This doesn't bother me at the weekend or on holiday though, which I guess says something about work related stress.

On weekends I usually wake at 7.30-8 naturally. I get groggy if I sleep in so unless I stayed up very late or am super worn out, I'm rarely still in bed past 9.

Much easier to get myself up in the summer than in the winter.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:11:24 PM EST
(should I admit that?)

I do too.  Too much light from the street lamps, and black curtains are not an interior design route I'm willing to go down.  Why would you not want to admit it?  They're kind of luxurious.  I have one filled with some herbs that are supposed to aid relaxation.  I don't know if that is a legitimate claim, but it smells lovely.


"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

by poemless on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:21:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Urgh, herbs. Yukky.

The eye mask does help me to sleep loads better though, sometimes I wake in the night and can still see everything in my room in minute details despite heavy lined curtains.  But I usually sleep right through on the weekend, even without.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 01:24:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You forgot those of us who sleep till noon -- I think that's called the underclass...

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 17th, 2008 at 03:02:33 PM EST


Display:
Go to: [ European Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]