As I mentioned, I love to sleep in. It’s my very favorite thing. I even love it more than donuts. Probably because sleeping doesn’t have calories. And I’ve always loved it. I was the only six-year-old in history who could be reliably expected to sleep in. Except on Christmas morning, that would be sheer lunacy.
My adoration for staying in bed is a source of frustration for my Mother but a source of amusement for most of my friends. They’ll schedule brunch for 11:00AM, but jokingly tell me that it’s okay if I show up at 2:00PM. Miss M will come by to use the pool at 10:30AM, and I’ll tape the pool passes to the door the night before so she can get her time in the sun without interrupting my slumber. I once scheduled a haircut for 11:15AM on a Saturday and my stylist called me the day before and started the conversation with, “Let’s not pretend you’re going to show up on time for this, how does 3:30PM sound?”
My name is Belle, and sleeping is my vice.
So here’s my question: Do you sleep in? I know some people can’t (my Nana still gets up at 5:30AM every day, has for 80 years). How late do you like to sleep? And, perhaps most importantly, how late do you think is too late?
My old Boss once told me that he’d never hire someone who could sleep past 10:00AM on the weekends because it was a sign of laziness. A couple of my co-workers, who knew of my penchant for rising around 11:00AM or so, just laughed.
P.S. I know that sleeping in is a luxury that some people cannot afford. Parents especially. You have my condolences. I pray regularly that should I ever be blessed with children that they be happy, healthy and heavy sleepers.
I’m 50 and I LOVE to sleep. I always have. I can still sleep until noon…in fact the rule at our house, now that I have an empty nest, is that nobody better touch me, talk to me, or bother me until my eyes open all by themselves on Saturday. And then after I drink a whole pot of coffee, I might just take a nap. When my youngest son graduated from HS last year after 20+ years of getting kids up for school that started at 7:30, I swore I wouldn’t get up before 8 am ever again. My husband is a lark and I’m an owl, and all 4 of my kids were great sleepers, so that helped. You are not alone. ;-}
I have to get up at 5 am on workdays due to my one hour get ready time and over one hour commute each way. So on weekends, I sleep until 8 at the minimum, 9 or 10 if possible. My son is 11 and also likes to sleep in, even on Christmas. I get so grumpy when my son’s weekend sports teams schedule an early game.
I’d say a good many of the conversations I have with friends revolve around sleep. We often talk about “single digits for double-digits” when you go to sleep while the hour is still in single digits (before 10 p.m.) and you manage to get double digit hours of sleep (I have occasionally gone to sleep at 9:30 and awakened at 7:30 a.m. Ten hours right there!). Sleeping too late on a weekend is anything past 11 a.m., I just feel like I’ve slept half the day away. But, 10:45? Totally fine. Sadly, I now wake up in the 9:30 range. #GettingOld
I’ve never been able to sleep past 7:30. I’m up at 5 most mornings wor work now. My husband used to sleep late, but he doesn’t do it anymore. My younger sister could still sleep all day if someone would let her do it.
I love to sleep in, but my problem as I get older is that I wake up and can’t fall back asleep. I hate waking up at 8 am on a Saturday and knowing that my body has decided sleepy time is over. But sometimes I’m lucky and I sleep until 11 am. Those days are glorious.
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I used to be the complete opposite. Through high school, college, and a few years afterwards I was always an early riser- old roommates and friends would always marvel at the things I could get done before 10 am. But suddenly, in the past year, I can’t get enough sleep. Waking up around 11am isn’t a foreign concept to me anymore and while a part of me is sometimes annoyed by what feels like sleeping away half the day, I’m going to relish the opportunity for sleep while I can.
Wow…your old boss sounds like a jerk. I LOVE sleeping in. I typically sleep until 10 on Saturdays and then get up to head out for a long run of anywhere from 10-20 miles. How’s that for laziness? I typically get up early (around 5) on week days to get in a workout before work but when it comes to the weekend? I definitely sleep in…usually no later than 11-11:30, but I relish that time…and if I’m not running? I’ll sleep in and then stay in bed reading until I’m too hungry to stay in bed anymore!
He was a good guy, he was just an old rancher, so he was a real early riser. I don’t think he’d ever slept in a day in his life.
I used to sleep all the time — in college, if I wasn’t in class or with my best friend, you could find me in my bed. I slept ALL THE TIME.
Now I’m one of those “early to bed, early to rise” people — my brain and body just start to turn off between 10 and 10:30 pm, and jumpstart at about 7 am. I used to get annoyed (college me would be so disappointed), but I’ve discovered it’s really nice to have those extra three hours on weekend mornings to get stuff done before everyone else wakes up (get groceries for the week, hit the gym, walk the dog). Silver lining, I suppose.
I can sleep until mid-afternoon on any day I don’t have to work, but the later I sleep the groggier I feel. If I’m not up by 10 or 11, I can’t ever really wake up for the day. Does anyone else have problems with that gross, “out of it” feeling that even coffee doesn’t seem to help?
Yep. Coffee doesn’t do it for me. The answer is Pepsi. Don’t know why.
YES, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I hate that feeling, and the only way to escape it is to get back in bed and nap, which only makes things worse.
I do LOVE to sleep but it’s probably a fact of not going to bed until 12 most nights (and later on the weekends). I honestly wish I wasn’t so and particularly wish I was an early morning riser but that’s just not how I’m hardwired.
I used to wake up between 6:30-7:30 every day. On the weekends I could never sleep past 9. Over the past year though that has changed. I’m lucky if I can roll myself out of bed before 8:30 on a weekday now. It’s just the routine I’ve gotten into. Of course I wake up on time if I have to be early, but if I don’t have a reason, I can’t make myself get up. I don’t know why I’m like this. I don’t stay up late either. I just really, really like sleep!
I am a morning person during the week and on the weekend. Since I schedule a gym appointment at 8:00 on Saturdays, I’m up by 5:45 so I can be eating by 6:00. Waking up any later than 10:00 and I feel like the whole day has been wasted.
I wake up at 6:30 during the week, and on weekends, I often wake for the first time around 8 or 9, and then I let myself go back to sleep until around 11. It feels like such a luxury, especially since I constantly feel tired during the week. I’m trying to enjoy it now while I can before I have children and have to say goodbye to sleeping in for at least the next 10 years! 😛
My alarm goes off at the same time every morning Mon-Fri, so while I may wake up earlier than I want to on the weekends, I can always always fall back asleep if I stay in bed long enough. I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who can reliably wake up on time without an alarm. In college if I didn’t have to be anywhere the first day after finals were over, I’d let myself sleep until I woke up naturally…several times I slept until 4 p.m.! But I have a sleep disorder so my sleep habits are all kinds of complicated. Also, as much as I love sleep, my weekends are so busy that I just hate feeling like I’m wasting time sleeping. I usually try to be up by 9 on Saturdays which is still 3 more hours of sleep than I get on week day mornings
This is such a great topic! I DESPERATELY want to be one of those “morning people.” However, no matter how great my intentions are the night before, I will always press snooze until the last possible minute in the mornings, which always make for much rushed mornings. This summer I am studying for the bar and I am trying really hard keep a 9-5 schedule but it just doesn’t seem natural to me no matter how hard I try.
On a related note, I would like to know how long it takes you to get ready in the mornings.
I know. I often think how much better life could be if I was a morning person.
Usually 55 minutes from in the shower to out the door. 40 if I don’t wash my hair.
I’m not at early bird, or a night owl, but I can rock 10:30 am like no one else!
I absolutely LOVE sleeping, and I hate the days when I actually have to get up early (7am or earlier) for work. I feel like I need to go to bed at 8pm on those days just to catch up!
I love to sleep too! I’ve always been a great sleeper, fall asleep easy and sleep as long as I want. I know it’s time to get up when I get kind of a light headachy feeling. That’s my body’s way of saying, GET UP LAZY! :c)
I was exactly this way until I had kids. Waking up at ridiculously early morning hours for so long reset my clock though I think. Now I could sleep in if I wanted but never ever do.
I fall asleep really easily and suddenly in social settings. Does anyone else have this quirk?
When it’s late and I’m on a comfy couch at a party, or even on a stool at a noisy bar, I’ve been known to start nodding and eventually power-nap for 20 minutes or so. And, even though I know I should be embarrassed, I usually don’t do much to stop it. In the moment, the idea of sleeping just feels SO awesome. This has been a lifetime thing.
I don’t think I’m narcoleptic, since I don’t have other symptoms. I don’t nap during the day at random. I think I do just, I just have a bit of a weakness for the awesomeness that is sleeping when you’re tired.
Has anyone else run into this?
(I met one other guy once with this habit. He started to nod off at a restaurant and his friend said “Oh, there goes Eddie again!” It turned out he had the same story. My sleep soulmate!)
There’s an atypical form of narcolepsy where people don’t fall asleep mid sentence or while driving, which is how people typically think of narcolepsy, but they do have sudden sleep attacks during the day and in strange settings. I’m the exact same way. I spend so many nights sleeping on my couch because I go from wide awake watching TV to sound asleep before I can even decide to get up and get in my bed. I keep meaning to talk to my doctor about it but I’m not sure there’s any point because I can’t take stimulants and I hate the idea of sleeping pills
I think I could be a professional napper. If I could nap for an hour from 2-3 pm every day, I would. On weekends, I don’t really like to sleep late, 8:30 is probably the latest. I like to get all of my chores and errands done for the day done in the morning and then nap in the mid-afternoon for a few hours. Then i’m refreshed to go out at night.
I love to sleep in, and picked up this trick from my late father. If I wake up because of the sun shining in my window, etc. I get up, brush my teeth, eat something and then go back to bed a half hour later. I can wake up at 6 a.m. and sleep in until 11 with this system!
I love to sleep, but I prefer to go to bed early (by 10) and get up at 6 and have a half hour of me time before getting ready for work. I don’t even set an alarm clock anymore. Even on the weekends I am up by 7:30. I love it and now I can’t imagine sleeping past 9 unless there were extenuating circumstances.
I often refer to myself as an extreme sleeper… In high schoo/college I could easily sleep until 12:00 or 1:00 and my parents always told me I would “grow out of it” when I had to get up every day for work. I’ve been at my job 3 years now, getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 and I can easily sleep until 11:30 on weekends….then run errands, nap, and go to bed at 10:30 just to repeat the cycle…. My husband wonders how I can possibly sleep 9 hours a night during the week, and sleep late on weekends.
And as an extension, once I wake up I can easily lay in bed for hours (or all day) and read.
I live to sleep in. Saturday is my favorite day of the week, mostly because I don’t set an alarm and sleep in as long as possible. When I have to work on Saturday or for some other reason can’t sleep in, it disrupts my whole week!
Oh, I wish I could sleep in! I get up at 0430 every morning for work and even on the weekends, sleeping in is 0630. What’s worse is that our puppy has gotten on the same schedule we are on – last weekend he was up at 0430 and 0445… 9:00 rolls around and I am ready for bed…
I am 22 and a hard core napper, if I do say so myself. Because of class/work schedules, I can only sleep until 8 at the latest.
Oh, sleep how I love thee! I have been a life long long sleeper. I agree with K, that naps need to be a part of every day! I am NOT a morning person, but my job requires that I get up at a ridiculous hour of the morning, which is compounded by my brain and body needing added time to function. My ideal life would involve me going to be around midnight and getting up at about 10am. I like to sleep in on the weekends, but my pets don’t believe that their breakfast should be delayed for my comfort. I’m excited when they let me sleep in to 6 am. But I have been known to get up to feed them and then stumble straight back to bed for a few more hours of rest. Now if I can just convince my brain to shut off before 11 pm, then the 4 am alarm wouldn’t hurt so much…
I am not and have never been a late sleeper. Part of that is just that I tend to wake up when it’s light out and have never had proper blackout curtains, the other is that my mother thought that allowing us to sleep in would make us somehow lazy people.
I distinctly remember being woken up by her screaming, “It’s 7:30! I’ve let you sleep the day away.”
What I do enjoy is waking up, getting in a workout, taking my shower and then climbing into my bed all clean and relaxed and just lounging, knowing I’ve already walked the dog, tidied the apartment, been active, etc. this is only enhanced by watching my guilty pleasure shows online.
I do the same thing on the weekends! I am a night owl by nature and have to force myself to go to bed early to wake up early during the week. So when I wake up early on Saturday I love to go workout, make breakfast, take a long shower, then climb back into bed for a nap in the middle of the day.
Ohhh, this is my topic! I LOVE to sleep! If the Olympics had a napping event, I would totally be there! Sleeping is my hobby. I still have two young children, but I never stopped my napping hobby, ever. When my girls were born, I had a talk with them within the first few days, telling them that mommy loves to sleep, and has to go back to work, so they need to get on board with that and sleep through the night as soon as possible. Well, my little talk helped, and they were both sleeping through the night by about 8 weeks. As much as I would like to/could sleep until about 9:30 or 10:00 am on the weekends, I try to get up no later than 8:00 am, so as not to waste the day off.
Ha! I didn’t have a little chat with my daughter (now 3), but she somehow knew that Mommy needed her to get with the program and she started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks too! I have a very long commute and have always gotten up early for work. But once she was born, it got even earlier because I needed to factor in the time it took to drop her off at day care.
I’m just like you — I love my sleep. If I wake up before 10:30 on a Saturday, it’s a miracle. I used to sleep until noon or 1 p.m. when I was a kid. Now, I wake up around 10:30 or 11 naturally.
I wish I was an early bird. I’ve shown up super late to work before because I’ve turned off all THREE of my alarms while I’ve been sleeping, without knowing it. I’m terrible.
I should probably be my own boss so I can’t get in trouble. haha
Before becoming a parent, it was not unusual for me to sleep until 11-noonish. I like to stay up late and sleep in. Unfortunately, after becoming a parent, sleeping in wasn’t an option. The kids are old enough now to be up by themselves in the morning, but the latest I sleep on the weekends or during the summer is 9ish.
This is EXACTLY me. I have always been a great sleeper — more or less show me a space and I could fall asleep in it. Also I think I naturally need more sleep than others. I understand that some people can function on 6 hours for ever and ever, that’s just not me! 10 hour please! Someone somewhere must wake up happy and refreshed when their alarm goes off at 7am but that will never be me, its forever a struggle to wake up.
I find it ridiculous that your boss said that, that being said I’ve found that at my current job although the day begins at 830, everyone is in at 730..which has become quite the change for me.
Love the blog!
I love to sleep, too. I try to wake up early to go to the gym on weekdays, but unless I’ve signed up (and paid) for a class, it’s tough. I am usually up between 7 and 7:30, though. Even on weekends, I still get up around then. Sarcadian rhythms and what not.
However, naps are my FAVORITE. It’s a very essential weekend activity for me (and my kitties, who are also great nappers). No kids or hubby probably make this easier. But I definitely sink a solid two hours into napping each Saturday (and sometimes Sunday).
I would not consider myself a big sleeper, per se, but I do have a healthy respect for it. I try to get no less than 7 hours a night. This helps me be in a better mood at home, more productive at work, and an added benefit – weight loss is much easier for me when I’m getting 7-8 hours. Less than that and the scale doesn’t budge.
I love not setting an alarm on the weekends. Sometimes I still wake up by 9am. Other times, it’s noon. Sure, I sometimes feel bad about sleeping half the day away. BUT, my husband and I decided that we might as well enjoy the sleep while we can without feeling guilty. Once kids come, there will be a long period of our lives when sleeping in is not possible. Why start that period of time before absolute necessity?
That said, I am not a good napper. Wish I was, but I just can’t seem to shut down and doze-off mid-day / right after work. So 20 minute power naps are basically out.
If I even sleep until 8 AM on the weekends I feel like I am behind on what I want to do. Even if what I want to do starts out with a mug of tea and reading the paper.
Finding out how to be a morning person (for me) is how some view a quest for the holy grail. I have searched and searched for remedies. Crazy sleep apps? Alarm you have to chase throughout the room? Check and check. If one goes to bed before 11, it would be reasonable to wake up at 6:45, right? Nope – not for me. It is so scary how I can repeatedly snooze without ever realizing – regardless of the donuts (Belle) or fun reading I have planned to coax my zombie self out of bed.
Maybe we should all submit ourselves for sleep studies? I hear it is like a getaway for an evening and you can learn about your REM cycles. Or maybe we all have mass sleep deficits from our party days and have never caught up? Who knows. Let me know if you find the answer!
8 a.m. on weekends unless you are under 25.
I used to be a much bigger sleeper – never up before 10:00 on the weekends, although I get up at 5:30 on workdays. Then, I hit 40 and, all of the sudden, I can’t sleep past 9:00 unless I stayed up crazy late the night before or I’m sick.