I Hate Mornings

[legion]

The winter is the worst. Dark when I get up, dark when I get home--and I only live 1.5 miles from work.

I get up at 6:00 a.m.. (Begin movement might be a more accurate term, as my brain is not up and running yet.) It's not uncommon for me to dose off several times while getting ready in the morning. In the shower...when putting on socks...pretty much any time I'm sitting or leaning.

I get to work and I don't speak to anyone for at least the first hour. Everyone knows better than to try to speak to me. I buy a single Lipton Iced Tea somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 and that is my only caffeine for the day.

I hit my stride somewhere in the late morning and this continues through the day (even after lunch, assuming I don't have a carb-laden lunch).

When bed time comes, I'm not ready to sleep. I'm a night owl. I go to bed and flip on the TV to drain my brain. I've learned if I don't have the TV on to distract my thoughts, I lay awake in bed with my eyes wide open. I think about things I need to do...right now! When I lived by myself, it wasn't uncommon for me to get out of bed 3-4 times to complete small tasks that I deemed necessary before morning. I can't sleep in a quiet, dark room--there's nothing to distract my thoughts. I don't have an alarm clock on my side of the bed anymore--I used to just watch the minutes tick by and I'd think to myself: "I'm only going to get six hours of sleep...I'm only going to get five hours of sleep..."

I fall asleep some time between 11:00 (on a good night) and 12:00. Sometimes (becoming rarer and rarer) as late as 1:00 or 2:00.

And then I wake up dead tired the next morning and the cycle repeats...

On weekends (when I don't have anything going on), I tend to fall asleep around midnight, and I might sleep until 9:00 or even as late as 11:00.

Sometimes I hit patches for a few months (usually after vacations or after time-changes--to or from daylight savings) where I fall asleep earlier and actually wake up and can hit the ground running in the morning. I actually made it all the way through the summer and into October this year before reverting to dead-tired-in-the-morning mode. I think riding my motorcycle in in October helped motivate me to wake up in the morning.

Anyone else hate mornings?

[red-beard]

Dude, you need some Ambien!

[Jim Richards]

I'm about as happy as I can be. Must be the meds.

[slow&rusty]

Winter time is typically terrible on all of us that experience some form of winter.

Dark in the morning before going to work, dark in the afternoon \ evening coming home from work.

I am sure the cold, damp, grey of IL does not help any, one reason I left Toronto 8years ago.

Recently, I have been struggling sleeping at night, as well, so can relate and getting up early is the last thing on my mind. And to think that next week I am going to start my resolution to go to the gym at 5am before going into the office.

Coffee is my friend!

Yasin

[ruf-porsche]

I love mornings. When I wake-up I realize that I didn't die in my sleep.

[Jim Richards]

so true

[legion]

And see, that's when I wish I was dead...so that I could sleep.

[jtfreels]

My first suggestion is a "do as I say, not as I do" thing, but you need to get some exercise, do something.
Second, melatonin, very low dosage (can't remember right now, but not the commn 10mg), helps you sleep, works for me.

Jay

[legion]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

My first suggestion is a "do as I say, not as I do" thing, but you need to get some exercise, do something.
Second, melatonin, very low dosage (can't remember right now, but not the commn 10mg), helps you sleep, works for me.

Jay

I hit the gym 3-4 times a week. I do 700 calories of cardio before weight lifting each time.

When I really, really, really drain myself at the gym, it helps me fall asleep maybe half an hour earlier.

I have to be careful though, I did overtrain for a few years in a row a few years ago. That makes sleeping even harder (as I'm not giving my body adequate time to recover between workouts).

I've been working out for 12 years with no more than two weeks breaks 2-3 times a year. I have a pretty high tolerance for exercise (I start to feel like crap if I don't hit the gym for more than two weeks) and I need to do a lot of it just to feel "normal".

[crustychief]

I used to do the same thing. My doctor told me no food / alcohol ( only water) after 7PM no caffeine after noon. and go for a walk or treadmill about 1.5 miles a day. It really helps a lot.

[Jim Richards]

crusty, that's generally my approach, except that I get in a 3-4 miles per day. It seems to work for me.

[SLO-BOB]

The only thing worse than morning is a Monday morning.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Case of the Mondays?

[Heel n Toe]

Chris, try these two things.

1) Seriously, get some melatonin... I use it sometimes when I think I might have trouble falling asleep, and it really helps. A friend told me about it years ago, and it is available in the herb and vitamin section of any CVS, RiteAid, Walgreen's, etc. IIRC, when I first bought some, it came in 1mg tablets, which seemed about right. Now I'm finding it in 3mg, which is a bit stronger than I need, so I cut them into four pieces at .75mg. Take it about an hour before you want to fall asleep.

2) Read instead of watching TV. Also, I read using a fairly dim light, a 40 watt bulb... it helps me get sleepy by not having a real bright bulb going. This, in combination with the melatonin, will help you wind down.

As a side note, if you follow this several nights in a row, the melatonin will sort of get you in a sleep groove and help regulate your sleep on an ongoing basis.

[sammyg2]

I'm just the opposite. I love mornings.
Up at 4:30 even on weekends, at work by 6:00, rearing to go. I get most of my work done before noon. In the afternoons I'm not as productive and I usually have trouble staying awake after 9 pm. I work 11 hours a day (4 days a week) and the last 3 or 4 hours really drag.

[rcecale]

WOW! Just WOW! This is me exactly! Well, except for the Lipton Iced Tea thing. I go through a half a pot of coffee between the time I wake up and the time I arrive at work. Water the rest of the day. But other than that, I swear, everything here describes me perfectly!

You're not alone, my friend!

Randy

Originally Posted by legion

The winter is the worst. Dark when I get up, dark when I get home--and I only live 1.5 miles from work.

I get up at 6:00 a.m.. (Begin movement might be a more accurate term, as my brain is not up and running yet.) It's not uncommon for me to dose off several times while getting ready in the morning. In the shower...when putting on socks...pretty much any time I'm sitting or leaning.

I get to work and I don't speak to anyone for at least the first hour. Everyone knows better than to try to speak to me. I buy a single Lipton Iced Tea somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 and that is my only caffeine for the day.

I hit my stride somewhere in the late morning and this continues through the day (even after lunch, assuming I don't have a carb-laden lunch).

When bed time comes, I'm not ready to sleep. I'm a night owl. I go to bed and flip on the TV to drain my brain. I've learned if I don't have the TV on to distract my thoughts, I lay awake in bed with my eyes wide open. I think about things I need to do...right now! When I lived by myself, it wasn't uncommon for me to get out of bed 3-4 times to complete small tasks that I deemed necessary before morning. I can't sleep in a quiet, dark room--there's nothing to distract my thoughts. I don't have an alarm clock on my side of the bed anymore--I used to just watch the minutes tick by and I'd think to myself: "I'm only going to get six hours of sleep...I'm only going to get five hours of sleep..."

I fall asleep some time between 11:00 (on a good night) and 12:00. Sometimes (becoming rarer and rarer) as late as 1:00 or 2:00.

And then I wake up dead tired the next morning and the cycle repeats...

On weekends (when I don't have anything going on), I tend to fall asleep around midnight, and I might sleep until 9:00 or even as late as 11:00.

Sometimes I hit patches for a few months (usually after vacations or after time-changes--to or from daylight savings) where I fall asleep earlier and actually wake up and can hit the ground running in the morning. I actually made it all the way through the summer and into October this year before reverting to dead-tired-in-the-morning mode. I think riding my motorcycle in in October helped motivate me to wake up in the morning.

Anyone else hate mornings?

[HardDrive]

I second the melatonin. Its not a drug, its a chemical your body makes that tells your body its time to go to sleep. I take it when my sleep clock is totally messed up. Take one around 10:30, and by 11:00 you should just have the urge to sleep.

I also bought a broad spectrum light this year. I'm not sold on it yet, but lets see where we are in Februrary.

[legion]

I'll give the melatonin a try.

[Heel n Toe]

Based on what dosage you are able to find, get a pill cutter if the tablets are over 1mg... otherwise, you may still hate mornings.

Higher dosages leave me with a semi-hungover effect. Not like I drank too much... more like a Benadryl hangover.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I'm just the opposite. I love mornings.
Up at 4:30 even on weekends, at work by 6:00, rearing to go. I get most of my work done before noon. In the afternoons I'm not as productive and I usually have trouble staying awake after 9 pm. I work 11 hours a day (4 days a week) and the last 3 or 4 hours really drag.

You people are whats wrong with this country. There is NO reason to get up before 10am. Well, Ok, 9:30ish is my norm.

Thats the one thing I hate about my job. Some days I have to get up real early, (4-5am ish) due to an early departure. I'm a biotch all day becasue of that and I drag all day long. People were not made to function that early.