The Joy of NOT Getting Up Early
Jun. 15th, 2026 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAs I started my retirement a few months ago one thing I wondered was, "Will I still get up early?" Over my life I'd seen/heard from so many other retirees who kept getting up at early hours of the day, like 6:30am. All said it was because the routine was so ingrained from years of working or raising a family that it couldn't be changed. Well, my routine the last 12 years had been a M-F 6:45am alarm (occasionally earlier). How long after I retired would I be stuck on that schedule?
To my pleasant surprise the answer was Not at all. Almost immediately after retiring I dropped any getting-up-early habituation and slept in 'til I felt like it.
But that was only part of my concern. The other concern is playing out right now, in the month of June, when the sun rises ridiculously early. The past few years in June I routinely got up well before my 6:45am alarm. The brightening sky had me waking up at 6, 5:45, or occasionally even earlier. And once I was up, I was up. How is that going now?
Again, I have been pleasantly surprised. While I have often woken up at about 6am with the sunlight pouring through the windows in our bedroom (we have a lot of natural light and a south-east exposure) the difference is I'm not woken up-up. I check the time, roll over, and go back to sleep with no problem.
To my pleasant surprise the answer was Not at all. Almost immediately after retiring I dropped any getting-up-early habituation and slept in 'til I felt like it.
But that was only part of my concern. The other concern is playing out right now, in the month of June, when the sun rises ridiculously early. The past few years in June I routinely got up well before my 6:45am alarm. The brightening sky had me waking up at 6, 5:45, or occasionally even earlier. And once I was up, I was up. How is that going now?
Again, I have been pleasantly surprised. While I have often woken up at about 6am with the sunlight pouring through the windows in our bedroom (we have a lot of natural light and a south-east exposure) the difference is I'm not woken up-up. I check the time, roll over, and go back to sleep with no problem.
