How long does it take you to fully wake up in the morning?

[Katy]

Assuming there's no emergency or huge surge of adrenaline, just normal coffee or diet coke or whatever your favorite form of wake-up drink is?  Does your DH wake up faster?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a male/female brain difference or not. DH says it takes me about 45 minutes before I'm ready for a complicated conversation.  I would have guessed 20, but that includes 20 inside my bedroom and 20 outside.  My mom used to say, "No questions before I've had my coffee."  DH says it takes her closer to 2 hours to be fully awake.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I prefer to ease into my day. So I kind of like being alone for a half hour at first. And I don’t mind longer. 😉 But I can certainly hold a conversation if I need to. I don’t use anything caffeinated to wake up.  

[Spryte]

45 - 60 minutes. 3 cups of coffee, preferably on the front porch, with quiet. 

DH is probably 20, maybe less.

 

Oops.  My answer may skew things.  I take morning meds that have to kick in.

I can obviously hold a conversation, and get up, get dressed and go somewhere.  This is just my relaxing morning preference.

 

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Spryte

[fraidycat]

Probably around 45 minutes to an hour. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I've never actually timed it, but I am like a sloth in the morning.

My DH is 10-15 minutes at most. He's annoying. 😂

[jen3kids]

If my eyes are open, I'm pretty much awake and ready for the day.   Generally, I would say if I've had anywhere between 4-6 hours of sleep, I can get up easily.  However, I do require naps in the afternoon when I don't get 7+ hours of sleep.

My dh and kids take forever to wake up - no coffee, no talk is their mantra.   It's so annoying when I try to have a conversation with them!

[Melissa in Australia]

I jump out of bed in the semi dark and go milk the cow. By the time the sun starts rising and the birds singing I am awake

Edited August 11, 2021 by Melissa in Australia

[Katy]

3 minutes ago, jen3kids said:

If my eyes are open, I'm pretty much awake and ready for the day.   Generally, I would say if I've had anywhere between 4-6 hours of sleep, I can get up easily.  However, I do require naps in the afternoon when I don't get 7+ hours of sleep.

My dh and kids take forever to wake up - no coffee, no talk is their mantra.   It's so annoying when I try to have a conversation with them!

Well I guess that means it's not a male female thing, just a personality thing.  Thank you!

[skywards]

I am awake as soon as the alarm goes off. I can't fall back asleep, it is annoying. Farmer habit I guess? 

[Wishes]

No time. Eyes open, I’m up.

[PeterPan]

I wake up pretty on the ball. Like I joke that I could wake up and do calculus, but it's not actually a joke. 

It's not gender. From my reading it's a factor of your brain waves and how far down into the sleepy waves (I forget the names, beta, gamma, whatever). So there are anxiety brain wave patterns (presumably me, haha) that tend to have their brain stay very *ON*. My dd is the total opposite, lots of the sleepy waves (a very ADHD thing) and she would go really really deep when asleep. Like you could NOT rouse her, not for a fire alarm, nothing. Stimulant meds for the ADHD moderated that a bit, so instead of 2 ½ hours to become functional she could be functional in 1 hour. 

So then, for your trivia, the women in our family, back a number of generations, have a history of blackout seizures when they hit 50/60. My grandma developed them and what I was *told* (and you know how that is when you're a teen being told things) is that the neurologist had said her brain was ON all the time and by the time she got older it was just fritzing out. And the seizures were totally weird. Like she would be driving but not coherent/present, go missing, and come to later in a parking lot somewhere. They put her on a basic med that cleaned it up and stopped it. She later developed dementia and alzheimers.

So I guess if I had an explanation (besides cortisol levels, which don't worry me too much) for why that happens, that would be nice. My mother has not yet begun having those blackouts, so who knows, maybe I'll miss them. I think most people wake up more moderately, like with an hour and a cup of coffee.

[wendyroo]

Pretty much instantaneously at 5:30 when I get up...if I have gotten at least 5 hours of sleep. I can pretty reliably go to sleep remembering a list of 2-4 items I need to deal with first thing in the morning, and recite them immediately upon opening my eyes. The last few mental cobwebs are washed away by the 15 minute mark when I exit the shower having thought through the day's general plan.

[bensonduck]

It takes me literally 0 seconds. I wake up and am wide awake, get dressed and out the door to run within 5-10 minutes of waking up. It drives DH crazy. I’m like, get up! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!!!  
 

On the other hand, I like to nap in the afternoons and am fairly worthless in the evenings. I get tired early and don’t feel my sharpest after like 6-7 pm. 

[Terabith]

I'm a night owl, but once I wake up, I am awake.  There's no long, drawn out waking up process, and I don't drink caffeine.  

[sbgrace]

I'm sure it's just wiring/personality.

Once I wake up or something wakes me, I'm awake and ready to go. It was really inconvenient when my boys were babies. I was absolutely wide awake and alert anytime I needed to care for them in the night. 

My husband takes at least a half hour, maybe more, to fully get moving. He does not get out of bed ready to roll so to speak. 

One of my boys is a wake up alert and ready to start his day type like me. The other takes after his dad, maybe is worse. 

[1234]

I’m up as soon as I wake. I have no reason for an alarm but I’m usually up around 7am. I do prefer to have my two cups of tea before doing anything but it’s just a preference and I can be ready to go within minutes. Usually on Saturdays, dh and I do roll out of bed and go before any tea. Dh also prefers his coffee first but he is wide awake as soon as he opens his eyes, which is also usually around 7am. 

[elegantlion]

An hour before I'm really conversational, two hours before I can do any amount of work. SO is a morning person, he's awake about 10 minutes after he gets up. We have coffee together in the morning, then take a quick walk before work. He's made me more awake in the morning because we just chat. Some mornings I'm actually chatty pretty soon after I get up, but not with anyone but him.  

 

 

 

[hippymamato3]

DH wakes up faster and requires less sleep. He brings me coffee every morning. By the time I've finished the cup, I feel almost human and am able to hold a conversation.

[ScoutTN]

1 hour ago, Wishes said:

No time. Eyes open, I’m up.

This. 

[Pam in CT]

28 minutes ago, hippymamato3 said:

DH wakes up faster and requires less sleep. He brings me coffee every morning. By the time I've finished the cup, I feel almost human and am able to hold a conversation.

That is super sweet.

[Not_a_Number]

I wake up instantly. I do like to read in bed for a bit, but I'm fully functional. DH wakes up slower than this and needs coffee to be fully awake. 

I tend to get sleepy in the early afternoon, though -- I can't really work during those hours. 

And I'm also very awake late at night, like right now 😛 . 

[mathnerd]

4 hours.

[theelfqueen]

My DH is like an on-switch. He is awake and that is all- fully awake and raring to go.

He gets annoyed when I dont "let him know I'm up" - because i am a lingerer and move slowly from asleep to functional and he thinks "once I am awake I should be fine" with whatever it is... (him wanting to noisily shave in our master bathroom, wanting breakfast or whatever) ... I can't get him to recognize that awake and asleep are a spectrum for me (even after 20 years together lol). 

[Selkie]

I am up and getting things done as soon as I wake up. Dh is the same way.

[Scarlett]

Coffee is our custom….not sure it is the t does it…..I just need a minute or 30……

[J-rap]

I think this is definitely a genetic thing. (But not a male/female thing.) I’m awake and ready to face the world in about 3 minutes. My dh has a hard time walking up, but a shower and a cup of strong coffee help.

[Arcadia]

If it is to have a complicated conversation, less than a minute. Basically anything that requires me to think and I am immediately mentally awake. If it is just waking up to make coffee, both my husband and I would laze in bed unless he has conferences calls early in the morning. If we need to go somewhere, I am likely the last one out of bed and first one ready to leave. 

[SKL]

It actually takes me hours to really be on my game.  Like if I get up at 6 or 7, it is normally after noon before I achieve a productive level of focus and energy.  On the other hand, I am usually at my peak at 2am.  Mornings are gonna kill me eventually.

My ex-boss once aptly observed:

"You are like a Mack truck.  It takes you a long time to get rolling, but once you are at full speed, there is no stopping you."

I would say its wiring.  I have other related issues too.  Like if a morning person tries to make me think beyond "bathroom ... coffee ... kids to school," I will get a bad headache that can last for days, often accompanied by a stiff neck.  I have a really hard time remembering words in the morning.  I may not remember what work was supposed to go out in the morning, until it's afternoon.

Yet if I am in emergency mode, then I am competent as soon as I wake up.  But this is more of an adrenaline thing.  I can't sustain it for more than a couple mornings.

[SKL]

Isn't there a Neil Sedaka song "waking up is hard to do?"  😛

[Frances]

My husband used to be instantly awake and going and most days still is unless he had a particularly exhausting day or days prior. He does get coffee first thing after dressing.

Since the pandemic and switching to working from home, I get up and start working immediately. Previously, I liked to read in bed for 20 minutes or so before getting up and getting ready for work and still do so for 30-60 minutes on the weekend. I don’t do caffeine.

My husband and I are pretty naturally complete opposites, he’s a morning person and I’m a night person. But age and circumstances have brought us closer to the middle. While I still generally don’t like getting up in the morning, I can now do it quickly and relatively easily when needed, and generally not be grumpy about it. And he can sometimes sleep in, naps more now, and can stay up later when needed, including for work.

[Laura Corin]

About half an hour for me. Husband is slower and more dependent on coffee. 

[Carrie12345]

Now I’m wondering if I’m ever fully awake, lol.

I don’t have to be up at any certain time, but my body wakes up generally anywhere between 4 and 6. I prefer not to speak to anyone for at least an hour, but I will do mundane chores while the coffee brews and once I get about halfway through my cup. And I’ll play on the internet uninterrupted by people, pets, or obligations. On average, I’m in my own head until 8 or 9, but I also tend to the house and dog. I like it.

Dh doesn’t always have the same time to be up, and his internal clock is all over the place. He might wake up at 5 and try to talk to me (and then apologize), or he might oversleep and then jump up and go. But he won’t move an inch beyond what nature requires until it’s time to start his day.

So, me - body go, English from mouth no do.  
Him - talky-talky sloth.

I guess we’re both “on” by 8/9. (Except weekends for him.)

[Kassia]

I have horrible insomnia and wake instantly.  Even before insomnia, I never had a problem waking up. 

But evening...forget it.  I'm a mess and ready to go to bed early and before my family is ready for me to be sleepy.  My clock wants me up very early and to bed very early but that conflicts with my family's schedule and that's a problem sometimes. Or when we travel (which we're doing soon).

 

 

[Lady Marmalade]

I wake up pretty instantly.  That alarm goes off and I am up! I can fully function as soon as I need to.   While I do prefer the ritual of a quiet cup of coffee before people, I can function without if needed.

But for a normal morning, I get up, have coffee while getting ready for work, and then go to work where I can get about 20 minutes of things done (and drink more coffee) before any other people show up.   I really prefer a quiet beginning to my day and I think I do better if I have a full hour of being awake before I people.  

[Soror]

Usually I'm awake pretty instantly. A slow start would be 15 minutes or so. I don't ever drink coffee . I don't eat or drink anything in the morning until about 3 hours after I awake.

[MEmama]

I’m awake and fully functional as soon as a kitty tells me to wake up—often at 4:30 or 5. Sleeping in until 6 is very unusual for me anymore. I tend to spend hours (ahem) reading online and drinking coffee, but that’s just preference not a true need for waking up. Once I’m awake there’s no going back to sleep.

[Pawz4me]

I'm a morning person who is pretty much instantly awake. I never use an alarm clock unless I have to be out the door really early, like before 7:30. I don't need coffee to be fully alert, but I prefer my mornings to start out peacefully with coffee and an hour or so of quiet time. I catch up here and read several news sites. But like a lot of morning people, I'd prefer that everyone leave me alone after about 4:00 p.m. I'm pretty worthless after that. Fixing dinner is a struggle for me, mostly because I feel sluggish (brain and body) by then.

[regentrude]

I am fully functional as soon as I wake up. So is DH. The morning coffee is for ritual, not needed for waking up.

Edited August 11, 2021 by regentrude

[Bootsie]

I am a night owl and wake up slowly.  No matter how much sleep I have had and what type of schedule I get myself on, I wake up much more slowly if I wake up early in the morning rather than later.  I am just not fully thinking straight until about 10am whether I get up at 6am or 10am.  

DH is much the same way.  However, I am much more grumpy when I first wake up than he is.  He is just quiet and in his own world.  If there is an emergency/unexpected early morning situation like a sick child, barking dog, someone knocking at the door I am faster to wake and have a reasonable response than DH is, though.  

[Wheres Toto]

I never considered myself a morning person and used to be able to easily sleep until 10/11/noon.   Now I generally wake up just before my alarm goes off, which this morning was 6am.

I can be up, dressed and out the door, functional and alert enough to drive in 15 minutes if I have to.   I used to get up for work and leave the house in less than an hour.  

Now, I prefer a nice relaxing morning routine.  I get up earlier, have a couple cups of tea while on my computer (I'm on cup number two right now) along with some breakfast, before getting up to get dressed and ready for the day.  The relaxing part usually lasts about an hour but the dressed and leaving part is about 15 minutes (easy hair, no makeup or anything, shower at night mostly).  

So slow and easy is my preference these days but not required.  

I definitely wake up and react faster than dh to any kind of crisis, phone ringing, knocking on the door, etc. 

[HomeAgain]

Is there a multiple choice answer here? 😄

I can wake up and be fully awake and functioning.

I choose to love my family and give myself half an hour of quiet before conversing with any of them.

If I try to get into complicated conversations before then, I'm likely to not take the time to consider all the factors or get annoyed at the direction they're taking.

[marbel]

I can wake up fully alert when I need to, such as when I had to get up at 4:30 am to take my kid to the train station, or when something wonderful is planned for the day.

On a more typical day, I am slow and prefer solitude and quiet for at least an hour before people expect me to be nice to them. Coffee or no coffee makes no difference. 

My  husband sleeps longer/later than I do, but he wakes up cheerful and wants to talk. He also starts making coffee and his breakfast almost immediately, while I cannot stand the thought of eating for several hours, even if I went to bed hungry the night before.

I think part of it is personality - I require way more solitude than he does - and part is how much  sleep is needed/internal clock. Three nights a week I get to bed between midnight and 1 am (due to work),  but I still can't sleep past 6:30am. 

Both my kids are late sleepers and hard wakers. One eats almost immediately but takes no caffeine. The other makes tea but doesn't eat. Neither is particularly friendly in the morning.

[DawnM]

It is always interesting to me to talk to co-workers about what time they get up.  If I don't need to wash my hair, I can get up 30 min. before I need to leave, take a 5 min. shower, get dressed, grab a cup of coffee, and off I go.   If I need to wash my hair, I need an extra 10 min. or so.

I have people tell me they get up 2 hours before they need to leave to have alone time to "wake up" I think to myself how much easier it would be for them to wake up if they got an extra 1.5 hours of sleep! 🤣

[teachermom2834]

I can wake up and be good to go to have a conversation or drive a kid somewhere they need to be early or whatever is needed. But- I will not be happy until I’ve had my coffee. So I can do all those things - I just am grumpier about it if I have to jump right into it versus easing into with my morning coffee. 
 

I have noticed I need more time (or enjoy more time even if I don’t necessarily need it) as I get older. I used to be able to set my alarm for the latest I could to jump up and get in the shower and be on my way. Now I will actually get up earlier just to have a couple minutes to sit and wake up. I really like to sit around and drink my coffee before I get going. Younger self would have found that ridiculous- to get up early just to sit and do nothing for 20 minutes. But that’s how it goes now.

[ieta_cassiopeia]

Immediately if I've had enough sleep, up to 2 hours if I'm sleep-deprived. Which is a good incentive for me to get enough sleep. Caffeine does not help, only sleep helps.

[marbel]

I often feel baffled by instructions to get more sleep. I feel like I have very little control over how much actual sleep I get. Sure, I can go to bed at a time that will allow me to stay in bed for 7-8 hours. That has nothing really to do with how much sleep I get. I can go to bed exhausted and lie there for an hour or more, unable to sleep. I can wake up 2-3 times during the night. If I wake up anytime after about 6am, I cannot go back to sleep and it feels like torture to just lie there, so I get up.

I know and follow all the sleep hygiene stuff, so I'm not asking for help. And I know my sleep is complicated due to working till midnight-ish 3 nights a week. Still, when people say "just get more sleep" the answer in my head is - I would if I could!

 

[ieta_cassiopeia]

13 minutes ago, marbel said:

I often feel baffled by instructions to get more sleep. I feel like I have very little control over how much actual sleep I get. Sure, I can go to bed at a time that will allow me to stay in bed for 7-8 hours. That has nothing really to do with how much sleep I get. I can go to bed exhausted and lie there for an hour or more, unable to sleep. I can wake up 2-3 times during the night. If I wake up anytime after about 6am, I cannot go back to sleep and it feels like torture to just lie there, so I get up.

I know and follow all the sleep hygiene stuff, so I'm not asking for help. And I know my sleep is complicated due to working till midnight-ish 3 nights a week. Still, when people say "just get more sleep" the answer in my head is - I would if I could!

 

This makes sense. Sleep deprivation is to do with amount and quality of sleep people obtain, not the amount of time or effort spent attempting to sleep (well). (Though people who try to burn the candle at both ends - sometimes unavoidable in busy families - can guarantee sleep deprivation no matter how good their sleep is).

Edited August 11, 2021 by ieta_cassiopeia

[Katy]

22 minutes ago, marbel said:

I often feel baffled by instructions to get more sleep. I feel like I have very little control over how much actual sleep I get. Sure, I can go to bed at a time that will allow me to stay in bed for 7-8 hours. That has nothing really to do with how much sleep I get. I can go to bed exhausted and lie there for an hour or more, unable to sleep. I can wake up 2-3 times during the night. If I wake up anytime after about 6am, I cannot go back to sleep and it feels like torture to just lie there, so I get up.

I know and follow all the sleep hygiene stuff, so I'm not asking for help. And I know my sleep is complicated due to working till midnight-ish 3 nights a week. Still, when people say "just get more sleep" the answer in my head is - I would if I could!

 

Yes.  This.  I’m a night person, but between DH’s work schedule (even working virtually he has meetings that start before 7am), and still having little kids I can’t sleep in.  And I can’t sleep early unless I’ve gone 3+ days with severe sleep deprivation. And if I get tired and someone comes in to ask me something, or DH says there’s a tornado somewhere and we need to get everyone in the basement… I miss my window and I often can’t sleep at all until closer to 2am.  And taking something like Benadryl often has a paradoxical effect and gives me energy instead of making me sleepy.

I know insomnia is normal in my family and it will get worse the closer I get to menopause.  

[Jenny in Florida]

11 hours ago, Katy said:

Assuming there's no emergency or huge surge of adrenaline, just normal coffee or diet coke or whatever your favorite form of wake-up drink is?  Does your DH wake up faster?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a male/female brain difference or not. 

It may also be an age/health thing.

I used to always be the one who was moving more or less as soon as my eyes were open, while my husband always needed longer not only to roll out of bed physically but also to be present mentally.

Nowadays, though, it often takes me 30 minutes just to force myself out of bed. It's a combination of nursing back pain that requires me to sit propped up on pillows for a few minutes, having increasingly week/sore/stiff hands and arms that make it more challenging to level myself into that position, finding that my eyes just physically don't pop open like they used to and need some time to be able to focus properly and also just not really wanting to face the day. 

Meanwhile, my husband's alarm goes off a couple of hours after mine, but when it does, he's out of bed and through his brief morning routine and at his desk within about 20 minutes.

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, DawnM said:

 

I have people tell me they get up 2 hours before they need to leave to have alone time to "wake up" I think to myself how much easier it would be for them to wake up if they got an extra 1.5 hours of sleep! 🤣

Your thinking may be false. I'm guessing at least some of those people are like me--I have no trouble at all waking up, to the point that I rarely need to use an alarm clock. Having quiet time in the morning is about setting the tone for the day, getting off on the right mental footing. If I start off w/o being hurried I stay mentally relaxed all day. If I start out hurried it stays with me, and I'm stressy all day, even if I don't need to be.

[Kassia]

20 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

Your thinking may be false. I'm guessing at least some of those people are like me--I have no trouble at all waking up, to the point that I rarely need to use an alarm clock. Having quiet time in the morning is about setting the tone for the day, getting off on the right mental footing. If I start off w/o being hurried I stay mentally relaxed all day. If I start out hurried it stays with me, and I'm stressy all day, even if I don't need to be.

ITA!  I haven't needed an alarm clock in years but I definitely would not do well starting the day off in a hurry.  I like to putter around a bit, do a workout without interruptions, read, etc. before my family gets up.