The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Rise and shine!

It's time to get up!

Do you have trouble getting up in the morning? I don't know what it is, but over the years we've gotten to the point where we can't sleep in. Even if we stay up late, we're pretty much always awake by 7:00am.

Or, are you the type who hits the snooze button on the alarm three times before dragging yourself out of bed?

I think the differences in the ability to get "up and at 'em" quickly is also related to how badly you are affected by jet lag. When we travel through time zones, right away we put ourselves in the current time and don't even think about what things were like several time zones away. We don't seem to have much of a problem adjusting to time zones, and yet other people are so bad at time zone adjustment (jet lag) that companies have actually made pills to try and compensate for it.

When we were younger, we used to be able to sleep in a bit, but even then sleeping until 9:00am was a stretch. I do remember times back in our working days where hitting the snooze button did happen occasionally though. I think the key is to not use the snooze button at all....when the alarm goes off, you simply jump out of bed right away. I found that this form of "wake up" makes your system ready to go for the rest of the day...gets the blood flowing or something!

Whereas using the snooze button a few times is just delaying the inevitable. You wake up slowly, and some studies have shown that you're actually resetting your brain's sleep cycle and when you wake up a second or third time you're in a deeper phase of your sleep cycle than what you would have been had you jumped out of bed the first time.

And then there's the afternoon nap. I find it better after a late night to get up at the regular time and then have an afternoon nap to compensate. Although, it sometimes takes me a while to fully wake up from my nap, and I have an hour or so of feeling dopey.

Most of the time, we sleep well. How about you? Are you a morning person?

Men's Ray-Ban sunglasses on "lighting deal" price this morning at Amazon.com. Even the regular price is a good deal...

Men's Ray-Ban Sunglasses at Amazon.com - USA

Two inch memory foam mattress topper at Amazon.ca. This is what we've been using on top of our original motorhome mattress (which is junk on it's own) and it works great!



23 comments:

  1. Yes, I'm a big time morning person always rising before sunrise no matter what. Big time nap person, too, even as a teenager, which I have always declared naps as good medicine. But of course that also means that when it gets dark, I get sleepy, no matter what. I love it.

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    1. I have heard and read reports that say even a 20 minute nap in the afternoon does wonders to the system. Some companies have have now made a room where you can go and nap for that 20 minutes or so, their employees are much more effective and happier.

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  2. I'm an insomniac so am always ready to get up in the morning lol.

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    1. Ohh, I wouldn't like to be an insomniac! I hate lying awake at night trying to get to sleep luckily that doesn't happen very often for me.

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  3. I can't sleep in either as I get older (I'm 54) -- although I often have an hour or more of wakefulness around 3:30 am, and in that case, I can log a few more hours and not wake up until the late hour of 7:30!

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    1. You're pretty much the same age as us and to be honest I enjoy waking up at 6:30 or 7am. If I sleep in much more than that I feel like I have wasted part of my day.

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  4. Since reaching that "magical" time in a woman's life that comes in her 50s, I can't sleep in. I'm super happy if I make it to 6 am. Most mornings its closer to 5 am. Of course, I'm usually sound asleep by 10 pm. Not much of a napper, never have been. Kevin has no problem sleeping until 9 or later. He's a total night owl and doesn't go to sleep until midnight or later every night. Funny how different everyone's sleep habits are. As long as it works for them!

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    1. I have to say that "magical" time hasn't really affected me or my sleep for the most part. I think naps seem to be a guy thing, I rarely take naps either.

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  5. Always have been a morning person my whole life. Very seldom can stay awake past 9:15 pm you can almost set your clock to that. Usually up between 4:30 and 5 am. I do love quiet the morning time, early morning walks and sunrises etc...
    Cannot nap in the afternoon, have tried but very rarely does that happen.
    Jet lag does not effect us either even travelling from west coast to the east coast, just have to remember to keep resetting our clocks.

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    1. Even when I worked at a job where I had to be up at 4am in the morning I couldn't go to sleep at 9pm, although I was known to fall doze off while we were watching a TV show. ;-)

      Kevin has no problems having a nap in the afternoon, unfortunately on the weekend here at the campground, he doesn't seem to have the time for one when he really needs it the most.

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  6. Kevin, you sound exactly like me - perhaps genetic?

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  7. We've always been morning people however, we don't get moving right away. Need that pot of coffee finished off first.

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    1. Most of the time we don't get moving right away either, we like a cup of tea first! :-)

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  8. I need my eight or more hours please.

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    1. Kevin is like that, if he can't get 8 hours then he becomes grumpy especially if it happens 2 nights in a row.

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  9. We rarely get up before 9::00 AM and sometimes later. Spent way to many years answering the alarm... Hate it anymore on those rare times we have to be up..

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    1. Even now working at the campground we don't use an alarm, we get up when we get up but as Kevin said we rarely sleep in past 7am anyway.

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  10. 5 o'clock here, everyday. I take a nap though and I love my naps. If I stay up until 1 a.m. (twice a year maybe) then I sleep until 6 or 6:30. Could never do the sleep all day thing, or get up at 7:30. Snooze, I wouldn't know how that works :)

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    1. If you get up at 5 in the morning I would be napping in the afternoon as well! ;-)

      Nope we couldn't sleep all day either, you have lots of time for that when you are dead!

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  11. Aw, heck, my head begins to nod at 10 pm (occasionally earlier, good grief), and 95% of the time I'm awake at 6 am. Ready to drink coffee, read the paper and get on with my day! Very seldom nap, either. Guess I have a high metabolism. I could've used a 2-hr nap after kayaking on Thursday!

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    1. We generally are good until 10:30 -11pm and then we call it a night. And yes, I agree getting up in the morning and having a drink and looking at the internet is our normal routine first thing in the morning.

      I am sure you could have used a nap that day bet you went to bed early though!

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