Sadly I'm neither owl nor lark.... terrible in the mornings and falling asleep by 9:30pm 🙃 I have a brief moment in the middle of the day when I'm in my prime. Honestly, it's amazing I get anything done at all 😂 Is there a word for folks like me I wonder?!
Also a spoonie, I have swings. I love being a lark but CFS relapses will yank that rug out from under me at any moment. I tend to wake between 4:30 and 5:30 from pain and nightmares. After putting my joints back in their place, it's bliss to enjoy the world coming to life with a cuppa. I get a few quiet hours where I can write undisturbed by anyone. It's slow at first. Once I get going, though, I have to set a timer or I forget myself entirely.
But then there are times that my body demands me to be an owl. I cannot wake before 8 or 9, get going before 11, and stay away until 3. I get good writing done in the middle of the night then. Bursts of creativity spark through me like I'm being electrocuted at 1 am.
The pendulum swings have no rhyme or reason. I just have to give myself grace and change my life around it while it's happening. It's certainly doesn't hold a candle to most anything else my chronically ill body goes through, after all.
Yes I heavily relate to this. I get a lot of limb pain and discomfort at night and in the early hours, and well at any time, which pulls on my fatigue in a particular way. I can normally go back to sleep though. It does pass. My CFS has been key in shifting me into owl loving, I just realise I’ve been resisting it for so long. It’s only when I think back I realise I always was an owl. Sending much love and spoons x
Interesting…most of mine are larks!! Wanting to get up at dawn and hike or find a swim spot whilst I can’t move… my family are an owl parliament though - we are all late birds 💕
I ALWAYS think, it would be so lovely to do this thing (swim, walk, sit in the garden, write) before anyone else is up, when the light is gentle and magical. And I have, sometimes and I have never regretted it. I get to work early so I can walk by the canal (it’s also a traffic buffer) BUT - more times than not, when I have the choice, my alarm goes off and I think.. but I’m just so HAPPY here in bed. So Cosy and happy. Then I go back to sleep.
That’s exactly it…I can lie there looking out the window thinking ‘it’s a beautiful morning, I should go for a walk/swim…’ but my body just wants to snuggle, and my body normally wins. Now that I allow it to anyway.. ❤️
I’m definitely an owl, as is my daughter. It is tricky to go against societies norms - even slightly - but we are what we are. I work from home so generally get up about 8 to feed the dog and bed is usually around midnight. I like the quiet of a morning, but also the quiet of an evening too. And I must get down to the beach more often for a swim 💚
I’m a natural lark although now, in the depths of winter Downunder) I find my rising time is more 7.30 than 5.30. I’m often in bed by 6pm and ready for sleep by 8pm. My days get longer in the warmer months. Far from being praised as a lark, I’ve mostly been regarded as an unsophisticated weirdo by the many, many owls I’ve worked with, lived with, or socialised with.
Oh wow that really is lark times! Interesting that it’s been thought of as weird in your experience - we are continually pigeon-holed into a way we ‘should’ be by those around us and our societal constructs.. not much space for our circadian individuality 😘
I seem to have a split personality when it comes to sleeping- every time I want to succumb to being an owl, I start waking really early, like I did this morning, I school holidays. When I need to get up early, my alarm wakes me and I feel like the walking dead for a couple of hours.
It’s so weird isn’t it, and not helpful when you try and give into it and then the pattern changes argh!! I think there are so many factors that impact it, particularly for women at different stages of life… 💕
I wonder if you can be both! I'm always awake early (about 6) and I find the morning light totally energising.I am at my most productive in the morning. Then I slump in the afternoon/ evening, only to perk up again at about 10pm, followed by more activity till 1am. All without leaving the house, obvs. :)
I did wonder what you would be, as I know you’re often up til 1am and later!! But then you and I also often chat online at 7am??!! I can message at that time but not really speak or do anything constructive, but I definitely get the 10pm peak. It’s as if we’re related. (My sister folks 🥰🥰)
This reminds me of that meme discussing this but the person comes to the conclusion that they are instead a permanently exhausted pigeon! At the moment a pigeon sounds more like me, but I am waking from the aftermath of my burnout back to my larkdom, and it is a gentle rise and return, with much less 5am starts :)
Always have been an owl - had to be up at 8.15 this morning and ended up falling asleep (unusually) about 2pm and being woken by phone call at 4.30!! Where has the day gone?
I love it.. yes, I am an owl too! I too have always felt (and still feel) guilty or like a failure in some way, because I've got my productive hours all "wrong". 🙄 What I am now starting to realise and accept is that I'm just not built to be a lark and I try to be positive about the incredible productivity that flows out of me late at night, while all is quiet in the house.
I am of-course lucky that I can choose my work hours and I am extremely grateful for that 🙏 It gives me the ability to be truly present for my kids and also whilst working. Allowing for uninterrupted devotion to both and therefore a less stressful time overall ❤️
I love how you managed your uni schedule with your friend... pure genius! 🤣
It’s so true, night owls aren’t as appreciated in the capitalistic world we live in!
I’m a night owl 🦉 hoot hoot. Although I have a pooch now who needs walking on a morning, I’m not able for much till after my breakie and cuppa tea (or two or three, or coffee too depending on the day). Because of my early morning doggie keeping me walking and up, I’m finding myself sleepy on an evening and go to bed earlier.
Pooch schedule:
🌅 Wake around 8am Spanish time (which is 7am English time and no one told my darling doggie about the time difference)
🌃 Sleep around 11pm-11.30pm (10pm uk time)
Pre-pooch:
🌅Wake around 9am
🌃Sleep around 11.30-1am
I’ve been working evenings for the guts of 5 years now, but it meant my mornings have been wasted on not being at all with it. I think I like working in the morning as by time I’ve woken up, I’m a good bit through the day 😆 but not too early lads, 5am is the night before for me!
Yes your pre-pooch time is where I’m at. I agree with working mornings - even when I was a shift worker I preferred doing earlies so my ‘free’ time was when my body was happy rather than the other way around! I hated lates, as I’d feel rubbish all morning then have to work through til bedtime. Now however my work is very different and creative and can be within my owl time!
Fascinating and makes sense to work with your body’s natural rhythms. I am a lark. I read somewhere that the time you were born influences this. I don’t know if it’s true but I was born at 9.00am on the dot.
Hi dear Em, you have such a beautiful way of unrolling your essay and inviting us further and further in. I am neither lark nor owl, instead like so many, following elusive sleep patterns and responding to illness and energy, trying to be gentle with myself - a day of early, a week of late, a weekend of catch up. Inefficient me, nesting and occasionally soaring. Join you in the wee hours, Em.
Sadly I'm neither owl nor lark.... terrible in the mornings and falling asleep by 9:30pm 🙃 I have a brief moment in the middle of the day when I'm in my prime. Honestly, it's amazing I get anything done at all 😂 Is there a word for folks like me I wonder?!
Ooh we need to find a bird for you…I’m on it!
Also a spoonie, I have swings. I love being a lark but CFS relapses will yank that rug out from under me at any moment. I tend to wake between 4:30 and 5:30 from pain and nightmares. After putting my joints back in their place, it's bliss to enjoy the world coming to life with a cuppa. I get a few quiet hours where I can write undisturbed by anyone. It's slow at first. Once I get going, though, I have to set a timer or I forget myself entirely.
But then there are times that my body demands me to be an owl. I cannot wake before 8 or 9, get going before 11, and stay away until 3. I get good writing done in the middle of the night then. Bursts of creativity spark through me like I'm being electrocuted at 1 am.
The pendulum swings have no rhyme or reason. I just have to give myself grace and change my life around it while it's happening. It's certainly doesn't hold a candle to most anything else my chronically ill body goes through, after all.
Yes I heavily relate to this. I get a lot of limb pain and discomfort at night and in the early hours, and well at any time, which pulls on my fatigue in a particular way. I can normally go back to sleep though. It does pass. My CFS has been key in shifting me into owl loving, I just realise I’ve been resisting it for so long. It’s only when I think back I realise I always was an owl. Sending much love and spoons x
Nothing like chronic illness to force us to look in the mirror, no?
Sending spoons and gentle hugs your way too <3
So true ❤️
How charming, Em. I am a lark who would love to be one of an exaltation of larks but alas, my companions are owls.
Interesting…most of mine are larks!! Wanting to get up at dawn and hike or find a swim spot whilst I can’t move… my family are an owl parliament though - we are all late birds 💕
I ALWAYS think, it would be so lovely to do this thing (swim, walk, sit in the garden, write) before anyone else is up, when the light is gentle and magical. And I have, sometimes and I have never regretted it. I get to work early so I can walk by the canal (it’s also a traffic buffer) BUT - more times than not, when I have the choice, my alarm goes off and I think.. but I’m just so HAPPY here in bed. So Cosy and happy. Then I go back to sleep.
That’s exactly it…I can lie there looking out the window thinking ‘it’s a beautiful morning, I should go for a walk/swim…’ but my body just wants to snuggle, and my body normally wins. Now that I allow it to anyway.. ❤️
I’m definitely an owl, as is my daughter. It is tricky to go against societies norms - even slightly - but we are what we are. I work from home so generally get up about 8 to feed the dog and bed is usually around midnight. I like the quiet of a morning, but also the quiet of an evening too. And I must get down to the beach more often for a swim 💚
Yes those quiet times are beautiful, yet so different. I think the morning quiet is particularly beautiful…I just rarely get to experience it.. 💕
And yes to the swims 💙💙💙
I’m a natural lark although now, in the depths of winter Downunder) I find my rising time is more 7.30 than 5.30. I’m often in bed by 6pm and ready for sleep by 8pm. My days get longer in the warmer months. Far from being praised as a lark, I’ve mostly been regarded as an unsophisticated weirdo by the many, many owls I’ve worked with, lived with, or socialised with.
Oh wow that really is lark times! Interesting that it’s been thought of as weird in your experience - we are continually pigeon-holed into a way we ‘should’ be by those around us and our societal constructs.. not much space for our circadian individuality 😘
I seem to have a split personality when it comes to sleeping- every time I want to succumb to being an owl, I start waking really early, like I did this morning, I school holidays. When I need to get up early, my alarm wakes me and I feel like the walking dead for a couple of hours.
It’s so weird isn’t it, and not helpful when you try and give into it and then the pattern changes argh!! I think there are so many factors that impact it, particularly for women at different stages of life… 💕
Proud 🦉 here, reporting for (evening) class!
👋👋 class will commence in a few hours 🤣🦉
I wonder if you can be both! I'm always awake early (about 6) and I find the morning light totally energising.I am at my most productive in the morning. Then I slump in the afternoon/ evening, only to perk up again at about 10pm, followed by more activity till 1am. All without leaving the house, obvs. :)
I did wonder what you would be, as I know you’re often up til 1am and later!! But then you and I also often chat online at 7am??!! I can message at that time but not really speak or do anything constructive, but I definitely get the 10pm peak. It’s as if we’re related. (My sister folks 🥰🥰)
This reminds me of that meme discussing this but the person comes to the conclusion that they are instead a permanently exhausted pigeon! At the moment a pigeon sounds more like me, but I am waking from the aftermath of my burnout back to my larkdom, and it is a gentle rise and return, with much less 5am starts :)
Haha yes!!!! I am often an exhausted pigeon!! I love that you’re finding your gentle way back to larkdom 💕
Always have been an owl - had to be up at 8.15 this morning and ended up falling asleep (unusually) about 2pm and being woken by phone call at 4.30!! Where has the day gone?
I think 🦉🦉🦉must run in the family?! Bodes well for late night chats 🤣💕
I am an owl, although still trying to be more larkish.
By which I mean ‘up by 10’. 😂
Aah…up by 10. Delightful 💕
I love it.. yes, I am an owl too! I too have always felt (and still feel) guilty or like a failure in some way, because I've got my productive hours all "wrong". 🙄 What I am now starting to realise and accept is that I'm just not built to be a lark and I try to be positive about the incredible productivity that flows out of me late at night, while all is quiet in the house.
I am of-course lucky that I can choose my work hours and I am extremely grateful for that 🙏 It gives me the ability to be truly present for my kids and also whilst working. Allowing for uninterrupted devotion to both and therefore a less stressful time overall ❤️
I love how you managed your uni schedule with your friend... pure genius! 🤣
Haha yes the Uni thing was brilliant 🤣🤣. Isn’t it interesting that we feel that owl guilt though!! Time to let that go…
It’s so true, night owls aren’t as appreciated in the capitalistic world we live in!
I’m a night owl 🦉 hoot hoot. Although I have a pooch now who needs walking on a morning, I’m not able for much till after my breakie and cuppa tea (or two or three, or coffee too depending on the day). Because of my early morning doggie keeping me walking and up, I’m finding myself sleepy on an evening and go to bed earlier.
Pooch schedule:
🌅 Wake around 8am Spanish time (which is 7am English time and no one told my darling doggie about the time difference)
🌃 Sleep around 11pm-11.30pm (10pm uk time)
Pre-pooch:
🌅Wake around 9am
🌃Sleep around 11.30-1am
I’ve been working evenings for the guts of 5 years now, but it meant my mornings have been wasted on not being at all with it. I think I like working in the morning as by time I’ve woken up, I’m a good bit through the day 😆 but not too early lads, 5am is the night before for me!
Yes your pre-pooch time is where I’m at. I agree with working mornings - even when I was a shift worker I preferred doing earlies so my ‘free’ time was when my body was happy rather than the other way around! I hated lates, as I’d feel rubbish all morning then have to work through til bedtime. Now however my work is very different and creative and can be within my owl time!
My pooch kindly allowed a lie in this morning as she was pooped (as were we) after a hectic bbq at my brothers yesterday.
I hope one day to find a job that allows the same! 💚
Oh good on her 🤣🤣💕
Fascinating and makes sense to work with your body’s natural rhythms. I am a lark. I read somewhere that the time you were born influences this. I don’t know if it’s true but I was born at 9.00am on the dot.
Ooh I’ve not heard that…I think I was born in the afternoon but I’ll need to check!
Hi dear Em, you have such a beautiful way of unrolling your essay and inviting us further and further in. I am neither lark nor owl, instead like so many, following elusive sleep patterns and responding to illness and energy, trying to be gentle with myself - a day of early, a week of late, a weekend of catch up. Inefficient me, nesting and occasionally soaring. Join you in the wee hours, Em.