Welcome to a safe-space series in which women (and occasionally men) confess the stuff they don’t feel they can say out loud let alone share publicly. Because sometimes sharing is a relief. No judgement.
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“I’ve never had healthy sleeping patterns.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been the type of person who went to bed late and got up late. When I was a teenager it wasn’t so much of an issue. If family members heard I woke up at 1pm they’d laugh it off, putting it down to typical adolescent laziness.
But then I became an adult. And my sleeping patterns, no matter what my schedule looked like, remained terrible.
Sure, I can maintain a 9-5 schedule during the week, but when I have a day off, I revert straight back to my 16-year-old self.
Last weekend, for example, I woke up at 5pm. IT WAS GETTING DARK. I can’t explain the feeling of waking up, thinking you may have slept in a little late, and then realising the entire day is gone.
There’s nothing that attracts judgment quite like poor sleeping patterns. The early birds, who wake up at 5am, getting their errands done by 8 and spending the rest of the day living wholly productive lives, love to tell you how no matter how hard they try, they just can’t sleep in. It’s in their nature. There’s just so much to do! When the sun rises, their body naturally does, too.
Listen: How to get your teens off their phones at night. Post continues…
But it doesn’t work like that for me.
There have been several times in my life where I’ve described myself as “going nocturnal”. Not because my work or schedule demanded it – just because my body seemed to instinctively head in that direction.
When I worked nights at a bar (not finishing particularly late, maybe 11pm), I would go home, watch hours of TV, go to sleep in the early hours of the morning, and wake in the late afternoon.
No part of me enjoys it. But it feels like I can’t wake up.
As an adult, it’s not socially acceptable to have these poor sleeping habits. It’s expected that you’ll wake up early on weekends, and get all those pesky little tasks done that build up during the week.
For the most part, I try desperately to hide my sleeping patterns. If a friend messages me on a Saturday morning, I’ll reply on Saturday afternoon saying, ‘sorry! I went for a walk and forgot my phone!’
I’d never admit the truth.
I’m worried if people knew, they’d think I couldn’t possibly be a productive human being. But honestly – I am. Just at different hours.” Tanya, 28.
Do you struggle with your sleeping patterns? Is it OK to be an adult who sleeps in all day? Let us know in the comments below.
Do you have a juicy confession you’d like to share? Email us at submission@mamamia.com.au with the subject line ‘MY CONFESSION’.
Top Comments
My sleeping patterns are a huge problem for me. I usually go to sleep at 2am on my natural clock but I won't wake up til Midday or even up til 2PM unless I have alarms set. Plural. I have 4 alarms going off one after the other with different sounds and I can sleep right through all of them. I'm so fed up with not feeling like a productive adult that I've been speaking to my doctor about it, they can't find anything wrong, they say it's a psychological thing and I should not drink coffee, have sugar, cut out fast carbs, walk more, sleep earlier, get up at 9am no matter what each day - it doesn't change anything I can roll my sorry ass out of bed at 9am if my boyfriend has the conviction to stay there telling me to wake up until I'm really awake, get up have a shower, eat breakfast go for a walk, work and by 11am I'm so exhausted I literally fall asleep at my desk, I can try another walk, taking a power nap nothing helps except MAYBE a coffee but then of course I crash maybe an hour or 2 later because of the caffeine (plus I crash every afternoon at 3pm). If I can get to sleep at 9pm I will but I still won't wake up til after 12 the next day. I seriously struggle with this and it's really impacting my life in a negative way. I'm so frustrated with myself. I regularly think of all the time I've lost in my life just sleeping :(
Why cant people just have this sleep pattern? Why does it have to be a "problem"?
My roommate is up naturally until 5-6 am then he sleeps all day. He works in the evening to accomodate this. I understand not everyone can work when they are naturally awake but to call it a problem akin to a mental or physical problem is unfair. Just as some people are early risers or late risers, some people are moon risers.