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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThe Thing I Enjoy Most About Retirement
Is that I can wake up at 5:30AM and know I have absolutely no reason to get out of bed!
House of Roberts
(5,177 posts)knowing if I get sleepy later I can go BACK to bed.
chia
(2,244 posts)I have my best dreams in that second sleep, I don't know why.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,007 posts)... you fall back to sleep.
Also, dreams happen in the alpha sleep before and after deep sleep. There is also a hypnogogic drowsy state between wake state and true sleep; this is a dreamy state too and can be a source of ideas and inspirations for solving problems if you prepare a little.
chia
(2,244 posts)experience it, usually in the form of audible, spoken words or phrases. Very sui generis, there's no conscious world equivalent, and I just love them. I've been writing them down for years.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)the NYT on my made bed I fall asleep again. Hubby can hear me snoring lightly when he is in our "office" and working online. At first I thought it was my advanced age but your explanation fit. However, I do not think I dream. How can I "prepare" for this? Please let me know because I am trying to finish my second book and sometimes just can't "wrap it up," despite my having plans to the contrary.
chia
(2,244 posts)and sit upright while reading the paper? My mom and dad used to read the paper together and trade sections and talk about it over (more) coffee, maybe that's the trick to avoid getting sleepy?
When I want to continue a book, I have to set aside time for reading during the day when I'm less likely to be sleepy, like just before or while eating lunch. I used to read so much when I was younger.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)What I have started doing is getting on my exercise bike for 15 minutes at a brisk level of speed. It gets the legs warmed up. I use it watching TV in the evening also (and at lunch time if I am home). I get up to 45 minutes in total on it, if it's a good day and I don't have much to do outside.
chia
(2,244 posts)CTyankee
(63,912 posts)speed.
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)Especially in winter. But I know why I have good dreams then, as explained in the post above.
chia
(2,244 posts)was amazing, I was flying and I was able to control my flight and where I wanted to look to see the landscape below me. First and only time that's happened, but I've also gone to sleep thinking I wanted to dream about rooms and I've dreamed about rooms. Big architectural rooms, lofty, full of light and air and when I woke up I sketched them out before I forgot. If I were to live my life over again I would've gone on with my psychology degree and gone into dream research because I think it's one of the last frontiers.
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)Doing that, lucid dreaming, all my life. It's amazing, I have written out several of my experiences though I can recall most of them with ease as though they just happened.
chia
(2,244 posts)except by dreaming. It's literally a whole different existential plane.
I like it better there than here but I have to be here for some reason. At least I can go there when I have the time.
chia
(2,244 posts)Here's to the next good dream
tblue37
(65,408 posts)multigraincracker
(32,688 posts)making me feel a little more normal. I've been doing that for years. I thought it was just me.
modrepub
(3,496 posts)That's my wake up call, and gotta go to work (which is at least my home for the time being).
smb
(3,473 posts)...yeah, that'll work....
niyad
(113,348 posts)brewens
(13,596 posts)I like being up at what I call first chirp. That one bird that sets all the rest off.
BumRushDaShow
(129,103 posts)Except that I'm up before the first chirp, which in the spring comes from some song sparrow that hangs around my house and is making a racket in the dark BEFORE the robins even venture out of their nests.
And that "anytime I want" nap is a bonus.
doc03
(35,348 posts)hear the birds hopping around the roof over the bedroom at first light.
brewens
(13,596 posts)doc03
(35,348 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,743 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Do my exercise bike, drink my coffee ☕️, surf the net and enjoy the quiet time which I value greatly.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,134 posts)I live with two other people, and their schedules are later than mine. This is the only time I can sit, relax, and not worry about what they are destroying in the name of lazy indifference. heh.
panader0
(25,816 posts)I have time to shower and tidy up, make the coffee and chill for a while.
But I go to sleep by 9 or 10 pm.
NJCher
(35,687 posts)It says time for me.
MLAA
(17,298 posts)And I love Magrittes work. Are you an artist or art historian?
Goonch
(3,608 posts)Lot 196A: Moroney, Ken (b.1949) Original Painting Old Man Drinking Coffee pastel, uns
Description
Moroney, Ken (b.1949) Original Painting Old Man Drinking Coffee pastel, unsigned, framed measures 28.5cm x 31.5cm overall. Note: Ken Moroney is a gifted, versatile and self-taught artist, now a major force in British impressionism, his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy London, the Beax-Arts Paris and the Klines galleries Canada. The vendor originally obtained the example directly from Ken Moroney, as a personal friend of the family.
rurallib
(62,423 posts)I still get up around 5 but what comes next is much different that what it used to be
NCjack
(10,279 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)In fact, it's pretty much what I do on weekends. Maybe not up quite until 5:30am all the time (although I have done it), but more like 3:30 - 4:00am and sleep until 11:30 or Noon.
I wish I could be one of those people who could go to bed at a reasonable time and wake up around 6 or 7am naturally, but I just wasn't built that way.
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)Good Mornin', smirky!!
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)How are you? Hope you are hanging in there with all this craziness!
twodogsbarking
(9,759 posts)I think only three were not Reps out of seventy total. Myself and two others.
They cheered for days after TFG was "elected". I retired before
President Joseph Biden was elected. I don't think they were cheering.
llmart
(15,540 posts)After years of having to get up early and get moving right away and ready to go out the door, now I can still get up early but there is absolutely no reason to rush around. I can see the sun rise, listen to the first birds of the morning, walk at the park when there's hardly a soul there and I can pretend it's all mine to enjoy. There's so much nature to see early in the morning when the scads of loud people aren't scaring them all away.
Another one of my plusses to not working is that I worked in a corporate job and as a woman had to have a certain kind of professional clothing. I abhor shopping, and back in the day I had to always wear heels. Now I don't own one dress or skirt or pair of heels! I used to travel for one of my corporate jobs and can remember running through airports to catch a plane in high heels. Ugh.
I volunteer now and there is absolutely no pressure when you work at a volunteer job. Well, except for the fact that you can still run across other volunteers who you can't stand being around.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)....i havent owned a dress since my dtrs first wedding some 25 years ago. Its still in my closet! Lately Ive been dressing like Steve Bannon with lots of shirts and zip up hoodies...all worn at once. Its just me n the dogs and the turkeys and an occasional UPS truck.
llmart
(15,540 posts)If I had my druthers I'd live in a small house out in a more rural area with a couple of dogs. I've had dogs most of my life but at 72 and living in a climate that has winters I no longer think it fair to get a puppy and start over at my age. It's probably not fair to a dog.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)I have always wanted a dog and I think when I retire I will adopt senior dogs from the pound
llmart
(15,540 posts)I had my last dog put down two years ago and most of my dogs have lived to be 16. I like bigger dogs and dogs need walking, not just once a day either. I live in a neighborhood of mostly seniors and I've seen people who get dogs in their 70's and then when winter hits the poor dogs never get walked. One woman got a lab puppy and she would walk out her front door with it on a leash, expect it to do its business and then take it back in. She eventually gave the dog away after one year. I was p.o.'ed at her and people like her. She isn't the only one in my neighborhood who has done that. That's why they end up at the pound.
Senior dogs can be very expensive with the vet bills. I spent thousands on my last dog in her last few years of life. When you retire you usually live on a fixed income. There are so many considerations to getting a dog when you're getting older.
3Hotdogs
(12,391 posts)the most ridiculous piece of male uniform.
llmart
(15,540 posts)What's the point of them anyway?
My wardrobe is mostly long sleeved t-shirts in the fall/winter and short sleeved t-shirts in the spring/summer. Shorts or capris - spring/summer; jeans or tights or sweatpants - fall/winter. Easy peesy.
3Hotdogs
(12,391 posts)This was to identify the members of the army from their enemies.
French males thought the tie was a great idea and we all know the French are arbiters of taste.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)...and even if i could, i may just lie there a bit longer!
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)From midnight to 8:30 am this morning.
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)In reality, I'm up before 5 every day and couldn't go back to sleep if I wanted to and I almost never have time to watch TV at all.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)3Hotdogs
(12,391 posts)Hikes go on, sometimes one every day of the week.
Javaman
(62,530 posts)everyday is like waking up on Saturday.
Mr.Bill
(24,303 posts)No matter when you use it, it makes you feel like it's noon on Saturday. For awhile.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)MLAA
(17,298 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,829 posts)The alarm clock says: Get up...
The bladder says: NOW!
sarge43
(28,941 posts)You don't have to pee?
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)But, **sigh** it's up and off to work, still, for me.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)"It's 0500hrs. Rush and flush, Sweetie."
Hang in there; good times are acoming.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)at that hour of the morning!
sarge43
(28,941 posts)DownriverDem
(6,229 posts)having to rush and get out of the house. However right after I retired the pandemic started and I have been pretty much staying home. Just as I started to venture out, the Delta Variant started. So I am just going to be careful. (I'm vaccinated)
Tomconroy
(7,611 posts)sheilahi
(277 posts)Well, you can be expecting a delivery from FedEx within 5 to 7 working days. It will be my 18 year old kitty Jenny who is absolutely positive she will keel over in starvation if she's not fed by four. She sits on my pillow and stares at my eyes waiting for them to open. If they're not open by 3:45 she puts her cold lips on my eyelids and if that fails, she slaps my face. Take good care of her. She's a good girl.
Jenny likes Fancy Feast (slightly heated) with 2 tuna flavored Temptations for dessert.
multigraincracker
(32,688 posts)worked late afternoons. Get home at 3:00 or 4:00 every morning. I thought that was my normal hours and liked it. Then I retired and found myself getting up early every morning. I had been wrong all of that time.
I have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder and it suits retirement. I have several side-gigs that I love. I get to change focus every day. All fit my passions and sometimes I break even or make a little cash.
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)My body doesn't let me remain horizontal for more than a few hours at a time so I have been up once already by 5am which is also when I have to pee. When I get up within that hour, I'll just go into autopilot and make coffee, do some stretches and watch the sunrise, check DU and then go back to bed until I have to get up again. I try to keep all appointments at a late morning, early afternoon window so I can nap when I get home.
I just moved again so my daily routine is drastically different than I had the last few years, and I will move again when the lease is up here because I don't like it here. So my only common thread these days is my sleep schedule and coffee routine!
I do love the thought of looking at my calendar and thinking, hmmm, what do I want to do today? And naps whenever they are needed.
Ocelot II
(115,735 posts)and remembered I didn't have to get up and dressed and drive through that mess, and so I went back to bed. That's such an excellent feeling - not having to get up if I don't want to.
elleng
(130,974 posts)Meeting folks like you @ 5 a.m!!!
csziggy
(34,136 posts)And can't go back to sleep, I can bumble through the day knowing that absolutely no one is depending on me to make sense! It's so freeing to not have to be responsible for my actions.