On Staying Up Late

Carol ReMarks on staying up late. I admit, this second shift is harder to get used to than I originally anticipated. For months now I have been wanting to go to second shift. When I originally interviewed for this job, last August (2019), I knew it was supposed to be for second shift.

Back up a little, 5 weeks of training and 5 weeks of on-the-job training all were to take place on first shift and then we were supposed to go to second shift. Then COVID happened and they didn’t want to move anyone around for a while, until they figured some things out.

Well, we are finally on second shift and it is harder to get used to than I thought it would be. It’s only been a week and I know myself, it will take a few good months to fully get into the swing of things or to get settled in to a routine and schedule. I need to be patient with myself.

A very long time ago, and I mean a very very long time ago, it took me a good year to become a morning person. I lived for years as a night owl as a youngster. So yeah, it took me a while to become a morning person. Now that I have been a morning person for over a decade now, it will take some time to transition back to night owl mode.

It’s not the staying up late that is the issue, it is the trying to sleep in late that is the problem! I have become so accustomed to getting up between 0400 and 0500 for YEARS now.

When I get off work at 11:30PM and by the time I get home it’s near the midnight hour. I don’t really need time to wind down, I can get undressed, brush my teeth, brush my hair, get in bed and fall asleep sort of quickly. So let’s say I get to sleep by 0100.

But then 30 minutes later, the dog wants up to get a drink of water or The Gent gets up and goes to the bathroom. I don’t know about you but once I start to fall asleep, and then get woken up, it is that much harder to get back to sleep. So let’s say, now, I don’t get to sleep until 0200.

And since my body is used to getting up so early, I get up at 0600. It’s not good. However, the last few days I have been able to sleep until 0730. Still, that’s only five and a half hours of sleep and I need my FULL EIGHT HOURS. Which means if I fall asleep at 0200 then I would need to sleep until 1000. And in my mind, 1000 is SO LATE in the morning. LOL

Still, if I could sleep until 1000, and be able to get up and out in the garage gym to workout by 1100 for an hour that would be okay. I wouldn’t have much time to myself though before I would have to get ready and leave for work.

Maybe I could up at 0900, workout at 1000, then I would have a little more free time to podcast or blog or do errands or whatever. Since I don’t need a lot of time to get ready, since I don’t do my makeup anymore I have more time. However, I will need time to let my hair air-dry. So there’s that.

Forgive me, I am just thinking/typing out loud now.

I won’t even mention that I never see The Gent anymore. But we knew that would happen. I see him for maybe 30 minutes as he comes in and I leave. We do have some of the weekends together though. So that’s good.

We will figure it out and I will get acclimated. I simply need to allow myself some slack to get used to it, to develop that routine.

Since I spent so long on first shift, I got used to all the people and felt at home. Second shift feels different. Now, I’ve only been on second shift for a week and I still feel like a visitor. I don’t feel at home just yet. Hopefully I will soon.