Working hours, start 06:30

[kwackers]

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Regular hours don't damage your health.
It's just the equivalent of moving east a few hours, nobody over there complains of ill health through getting up early.

[landsurfer]

I get up at 0530hrs, 5 days a week... I'm at work for about 0700hrs having done a school run (really), and made a few (hands free ) calls.
I'm usually on my way home for 1500hrs and do an Email overview until 1630hrs ...
It seems just part of the background noise to me ....
I manage to fit in swimming lessons for the girls, I do dinner 4 nights a week ... and ... actually get to cycle ....
I go to bed just after 2200hrs and sleep the sleep of the dead ... or is that the "Just " ... ..

Use every hour you can ... enjoy every hour ... we're a long time dead.....

[pwa]

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Regular hours don't damage your health.
It's just the equivalent of moving east a few hours, nobody over there complains of ill health through getting up early.

Early starts are fine if you do it every working day. Your body clock adapts quickly. And 4.30 is pretty close to a natural time to rise, so long as you go to bed early enough. I'd be happy enough with that.

[Cyril Haearn]

In theory yes, in practice no
Work is carp, early or late

[Spinners]

Couldn't you get up at 05.00hrs and cut down on your getting ready time? e.g. Up and out and have brekkie at work or something like that?

[Cyril Haearn]

Couldn't you get up at 05.00hrs and cut down on you're getting ready time? e.g. Up and out and have brekkie at work or something like that?

Sort of, but I am a bit heavy in the morning, besides, the drive there goes over a bridge that is very occasionally (irregularly) opened to let ships through, so to be sure to be punctual one should have to leave 15 minutes early, then one would nearly always get to work too early

[pwa]

Some people do well with early starts and some don't. I often wake up at 5am on days when I'm not working, because my natural rhythms seem to work that way. I would have made a good dairy farmer.

[Cyril Haearn]

I have been able to wake up without the alarm nearly every working day, a few minutes before 6:00 soon became automatic

[softlips]

Work in medicine so lots of unsocial unpredictable hours. Today should have been 05:00 till around 15:00 but will now be until 22:30.

You just get used to it.

Surely one cannae think properly and makes mistakes if one works so long

Done 15 hrs today. You get used to it sadly.

[pwa]

I have been able to wake up without the alarm nearly every working day, a few minutes before 6:00 soon became automatic

I find that on the rare occasion I forget to arm the alarm clock I wake when I hear the faint click it does when it gets to the right time, even though the actual alarm does not go off. Which is handy.

[richardfm]

getting up in the dark esp in Winter is the worst?

I worked in the West of Scotland for a couple of years, and I didn't see daylight for the winter months. I did see it at the weekends though, thank goodness.

I would cycle away from home at 7ish in the dark for a one hour commute. I did a full day in a building without windows, then rode home at 4.30 in the dark. I seem to remember that the rain stared in October and didn't finish until February one year.

Awful and horribly depressing.

You don't have to be in the west of Scotland for that. I had a few winters like that in the steel works in Cardiff

[softlips]

I have been able to wake up without the alarm nearly every working day, a few minutes before 6:00 soon became automatic

I find that on the rare occasion I forget to arm the alarm clock I wake when I hear the faint click it does when it gets to the right time, even though the actual alarm does not go off. Which is handy.

You have an analogue clock?

I almost always awake before the alarm, even if I put it on at stupid O’clock for some reason. My wife has recently retired and writhing three weeks seems to be able to sleep in!

[pwa]

I have been able to wake up without the alarm nearly every working day, a few minutes before 6:00 soon became automatic

I find that on the rare occasion I forget to arm the alarm clock I wake when I hear the faint click it does when it gets to the right time, even though the actual alarm does not go off. Which is handy.

You have an analogue clock?

I almost always awake before the alarm, even if I put it on at stupid O’clock for some reason. My wife has recently retired and writhing three weeks seems to be able to sleep in!

I do have a Seiko analogue, which is more reliable than the Roberts radio alarm clock or my wife's phone alarm. But I often get up shortly before the alarm is due to go off.

[kwackers]

I have been able to wake up without the alarm nearly every working day, a few minutes before 6:00 soon became automatic

I find that on the rare occasion I forget to arm the alarm clock I wake when I hear the faint click it does when it gets to the right time, even though the actual alarm does not go off. Which is handy.

I've never used an alarm clock.
If I oversleep I figure I needed it and if I don't want to oversleep I make sure I go to be early enough.

[Tangled Metal]

I find early start means missing traffic. If I leave for work 5 minutes late I'm 10 minutes late at work. I start at 8am which isn't that early but rush hours start about then for some reason.

Working 8 to 5 means a short Friday. A Friday afternoon free makes the weekend seem longer. Weekends away start at our destination at 4pm Friday for 2 nights away. Working conventional hours we'd be leaving work at 5pm then getting to destination after 8pm. Chances are we'd go Saturday instead.

Small things but personally I find non- standard hours can have real benefits. Such as my old job with a 9 day fortnight. 8 to 5pm 5 days one week and 4 days the next. Every other weekend has 3 days free. Add in the fact other perks such as Friday's on duty finished early when last office worker left (only two of us had these hours and company policy said at least 2 had to be in any work area). Also, I could swap free fridays with my opposite number to get a full 2 weeks holiday with 2 less paid days off than the other workers. It gave us a extra day's holiday for every other week.

As to really early hours, well if early starts equals early finish you get used to it. I thought the issue is changing hours such as rotating shifts. At our work site there's day and night shifts. Most are on days and work 8 to 5 or 7 to 7. Only a few are on nights and do 7 to 7. The 12 hour shifts get overtime once they go over standard 8 to 5 hours (note standard hours finish early fridays). The overtime isn't guaranteed so they could finish on Thursday mid afternoon. Night shift workers get shift bonus. Not many like nights and many don't like it, it's optional.

I think irregular and rotating shifts are the ones hardest to live with. At the end of the day you can only turn the job or accept it your choice.