When you wake up at 3am, do you A - Get out of bed and start the day, B - Lie in and enjoy the calm dark, or C - Check in with the “Past our ‘best if used by’ date” virtual neighborhood?

Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See this post , the rules, and the sidebar for details.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Well hello. Been awake since the birds woke me up at 3:30am. Had to close the windows but now the room feels stuffy and I can't sleep. Apparently I read Reddit until I get sleepy again. Sigh.

Apparently I lay in the dark for about an hour listening to my spouse snore, then I move to the couch and spend some quality time with my phone. 

If the weather is nice we’re going hiking this weekend. Also updating my advanced medical directive and power of attorney. 

My granddaughter, her husband ,  my great-granddaughter and I will be in Brooklyn’s beautiful Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon to see the WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever with their superstar rookie Caitlin Clark who broke decades old NCAA scoring records a few months ago while playing for Iowa. Hottest ticket in town. Excited doesn’t describe my great-granddaughter. 

Luckily thee days I sleep until 5am, from 9pm, with only bathroom breaks. Jus after 5, my cats become active, jumping on bed, pulling at mosquito net and keep doing it until I get up & feed them, before opening my small convenience store on the front of the house, 7 days a week, until 8pm. The cats sleep, sit on front step or counter to greet customers and around 8.15pm, start settling down for the night, two on end of bed, 1 under the bed and 1 on mosquito net top.

When I wake up at 3 a.m., or any other time really, I lurch out of bed, take care of accumulated business, and then take pain pills. I have to move around a while, because of pain, so I can't go back to sleep. Fortunately I have no particular schedule, so I just do whatever.

Definately A. I can't remember the last time I've slept past 4am.

I'm a night owl, so I haven't gone to bed yet at 3am.

I woke up at 1 and am back in bed at 5 scrolling reddit trying to get sleepy.

I get up, make coffee, scroll reddit, play games or watch videos until I get tired again

I’m typing this in bed now at 3 am aggravated that I can’t sleep.

I try to fall back asleep for a few more hours. If I can't sleep, then I'm going to look at my phone for a while.

My morning routine is:

A. I get up

B. I get out of bed

C. I drag a comb across my head

D. I find my way downstairs and have a cup

E. And looking up, I notice that I am late.

F. I grab my coat, and grab my hat

... and so one.

My day usually finishes with a long crescendo, followed abruptly by a single, crashing chord that reverberates well into the night.

Put on a low key podcast and listen in the dark until I fall asleep again.

I lie in bed until I fall asleep again, usually within an hour

If I wake up before 4:30 I don't get up. After 4:30 I start my day. It is worst when I wake up with a song in my head. The other day it was 'Don't Fence me in" by Bing Crosby. No, I am not that old.

D; Grab my iPad and read Reddit

In a lot of non-Western cultures, it’s common and accepted to wake in the night. People use that time for meditation or quiet chatting. Only over here is it considered a problem. But just in case, I keep a quantum mechanics textbook by the bed, which works very well.

Tomorrow I shall be at my daughter’s home watching a mason pour her new concrete sidewalk. Nothing more exciting (yawn) than watching concrete dry. 

Lay in the dark and enjoy the calm.

Seeing as I wake up every night to pee, I’m often awake around that time. I grab my kindle and read while my wife happily snores away beside me. Fwiw- kindles are the best for reading in bed- no “book light” to bug my wife.

I spent the next two hours trying to get back to sleep because I still have to go to work in the morning. Then wake up groggy and bitter.

I try to fall back asleep because I know how tired I will be if I get up.

It usually fails and I get up.

I play video games until 6 am usually, then sleep until 1 pm. I've been programmed this way since high school. As a professor who usually taught afternoon and evening classes - my work schedule never really interfered.

I often D- ruminate in way similar to your question on repeat for an hour, then curse myself for neither going back to sleep nor getting up and doing something else.

I go pee, and then go back to bed.

For the past week, my brain has been waking me up at 4 AM. I normally get up at 5 or 530 AM, so my brain just says: "Hey, close enough." So I get up, do my morning routine of taking my stay-alive pills (one has to be taken alone on an empty stomach). Then I go back to bed for a nap.

I wake up at 3:00 am to go to work!

I usually put on a true crime podcast, grab my Bluetooth speaker to my ear and listen to ways to get rid of my enemies. I’ve learned a lot.

Depends on the day. If it's a work day I cuss a little then get up because the alarm is going off in 15 minutes anyway. Other days it's B.

Hoping to have a calm weekend involving lots of watercolor painting and maybe a movie with a friend.

I take my pain meds and wait 20 minutes for them to kick in so I can get out of bed.

I put whatever tv show I fell asleep to on my iPad and watch it. I don’t usually go back to sleep and am downstairs dressed and drinking coffee at 5:00. I would love to take an early walk on my property but that is feeding hour for the foxes, bobcats, skunks, raccoons and opossums so I’m scared because it isn’t quite light out.

I'm equally likely to be going to bed at 3 am as to have gone to bed at 10 pm only to wake up at 3. Unless I have something time-specific planned for the day, I keep it pretty relaxed with my sleep/wake cycle. I was that way when I was younger too, but the constraints of work and trying to somewhat align my waking hours with those of a spouse always kept me from veering too far from what most folks consider "normal."

If I feel like I really should get back to sleep for some reason, I read a history book. That way even if I don't fall back asleep, I'm at least resting and educating myself. That way it's not a total loss.

If I wake up at 3:00am - I probably have to pee. So I do that. In the complete dark.

Then I get back into bed and go back to sleep for 3 more hours.

Earplugs really help. Love having the windows open when I can, but some of those damned birds start in at 0500 and it wakes me up if I don't have plugs in.

I sleep about three hrs a night and that’s intermittent. No naps during the day. Never slept a lot and it’s worse now than ever. I usually sleep from 1am to 3 or 4. I read, get up and feed the cats, cook breakfast, etc. I try not to wake my husband up.

B. But I also think about art stuff, shapes, colors, what I want to do or combine and what's on my paint wall or sculpting bench currently. And once that starts happening, I get up and take a combo knock-out pill (melatonin, valerian, tryptophan) because if I start going down that rabbit hole, sleep will not happen at all.

Well, it's too wet to do much outdoors, so mostly art studio stuff. I got three sculptures and two paintings all going at the same time! "Bored" is not in my vocabulary.

Et vous, mon frère?

I pee and then go back to bed.

I'm a night owl. I'm washing the dishes, in the shower or coming home from a show gig at that time before lights out at 5 a.m.

I recite poetry in my head; and I learn new ones from time to time, so I practice them. If that doesn't work, I get up and go downstairs. Either scroll on the computer or iron shirts while listening to a podcast or audiobook.

Finally I'm sleepy again and go back to bed.

I get on Reddit until the sun comes up. Can’t turn on the light because it would wake up my bird.

Going back to sleep isn't an option?

3am? that means I've only been in bed for 2-3 hours. If I'm wide awake I'll get up and read for an hour, then go back to bed and sleep again until 8 or 9am.

Wtf? I roll over and go back to sleep.

If I'm awake at 3 a.m., I'm definitely going to try to go back to sleep -- at least til 5:00.

Plans for the weekend? Going to the air show at Dover AFB in Delaware, if it doesn't get rained out.

D... Go pee because that's what woke me up. Then I go back to sleep.

I get out of bed every night at 3 and pee then head back to bed. Sometimes, I don't get back to sleep and end up getting up. Sometimes I'll take a peek at reddit

I hate waking up before 4:45am. Because I usually can’t get back to sleep. I do try and lay there for a bit but I usually get up and start my day. I can nap later if I need to.

If I woke up at 3:00 am it’s because I had to pee and after that I went back to sleep

I have always had insomnia and always worked, but if anyone is interested, a sure fire back to sleep method is a textbook. The drier or more complex, the better.

Anything engaging has the opposite effect.

D. Read or surf the web for an hour, then fall back asleep.

⛈️ at 3am with loud thunder. B

If I’m up at 3am, it’s because the dog woke me up. So I get up and leash him up and take him outside, then when we are done outside I sit on the couch and surf for awhile. If something wakes him up in the middle of the night he is restless and often wants out more than once, I’d rather lose an hour of sleep surfing than lie down for 15 minutes, fall asleep and be woken up.

I don’t have any plans for the weekend, so I will probably pack and store all of my ski gear.

A or B

I read. If I get up the dogs think I finally lost my mind and it's time to eat- which wakes up my poor sleeping husband.

This weekend we're pouring foundations for new braces under the house. Dingbat 25 years ago who threw up another floor and apparently an inspector missed the fact you can't stuff 2x6's on rocks..... for extra load.

So holding up a HOUSE. Is our weekend.

D - read

I go to the kitchen and have a single piece of chocolate, and small amount of milk. When I go back to bed, I fall right to sleep.

I go to the kitchen and have a single piece of chocolate, and small amount of milk. When I go back to bed, I fall right to sleep.

I lie there for another 15 minutes muttering the F word and “I hate my job” then grudgingly get up for another day of misery. Nine more months and I’ll get up whenever I feel like it and the alarm will be turned off.

I hurkle-durkle.

D. Pee break

Finishing my balcony painting project.

Either lie in bed staring at the ceiling or try to start something with my wife. Latter rarely, if ever, works.

I'm an insomniac, so this is familiar territory for me. I'm also a 60 yr old woman, so there's not a chance in hell that I'm waking up in the middle of the night and not getting out of bed to use the bathroom. If it's past 5am, I get up. Otherwise, I'll try to back to sleep.

It's rare for me to wake up at 3 am. If so, I turn over the pillow to the cool side, turn on the heating blanket, count the good stuff that happened that day, and drift back off. It's not unusual to not even go to bed/sleep until 3.

I get up and start the day. When I had my granddaughter, her SO, and their baby living with me, it was just about the only time of day that the house was still and quiet. I'd get coffee and browse the news and internet. I still get up and start my day because, as you know, us old people don't seem to sleep as much as we used to.

I have a fellow retiree coming over at 9:30 this morning to put a metal , slide-in plate, on my doggie door. We're going on a cruise next week and want something more secure on the opening.

Depends on how tired I was when I went to bed. If I can go back to sleep, heck ya I'll sleep till 7 or 8. If not, I usually like the quiet in the mornings, so I'll get up and work or play video games or whatever. Those days my dog will follow me to the couch and give me dirty looks while she naps until walk time.

Get on up.

Thing about women I dated, where things went wrong, look at my wife sleeping and remember I am glad those went wrong. Maybe I’ll go read. Cats are confused why I am awake. Maybe have a couple of crackers or dry cereal if I am hungry. Look out the window and wonder who else is up or why neighbor X has their kitchen light or tv on. See if any wild life is in my yard.

I go back to sleep!

B.

Getting OOB and starting the day is for crazy people. What does C exactly mean??

I fall back to sleep. I don’t even know what that last option is.

Grab a beer, turn on MASH the tv show and read reddit.

I pee.

Then I get back in bed and go to sleep.

Failing that, I read for about an hour, then I go back to sleep. That usually works, and I get another hour or two of sleep.

If that doesn't work, then I'll get up, like this morning.

I didn't do jack shit last week, I'm thinking about doing the same this week. But, the weather is supposed to be nice, so I might get back to painting the trim on my house.

1 Tylenol, 1/2 glass of water, open bedroom window, YouTube video of rain, worked like a charm last night. Zzzzzzz

B. I have taught my brain that it gets no rewards for waking up at 3am. I just lie there and drift until I fall asleep again. It doesn't happen much because my body has learned that there is no reading or phone scrolling or anything to look forward to besides lying awake in the dark, so it might as well sleep through the night.

If I wake up and can't sleep after 7 or so, I just lie there and ponder the current issue of the day (where to move, what hobbies to try next) until my husband wakes up.

What does option C mean?

I go to the bathroom, then take a Melatonin 12mg, drink water, then look at flowers and fashion on Instagram for an hour and fall asleep.

I usually end up eating something from the icebox then I go back to sleep. It's partly why I'm on a perpetual diet.

Um. I glance at the clock and feel happy that I have 3 more hours of sleep left and go promptly back to sleep.

Freak out because I’m running late. I leave for work at 3Am. Yes it sucks.

I pee and take 1/4 of a Clonazepam.

Well, I’m usually just falling asleep at that time.

I automatically wake up at 4. My eyes open up and I don't even have to look at the time. I usually get up, why not? If I wake at 3 I try to lay in bed for an hour, but I have been known to be up and about at 3:30. I play some word games then go for a walk when it's light enough.

I did wake up at 2:45 last night. I turned on an episode of Outer Limits on my iPad and fell right back to sleep!

I’ve got ZERO plans this weekend and I like it that way!

I go take a pee.

I sit up for a while, debate going downstairs to sleep in my chair and usually just lay back down and go to sleep

I pee. If I wake up at 3 am I have to pee. If I am lucky it won't happen til 5 am, but it is still pee.

I don't know why, but I love this thread. I'm 14 years from retirement, so I have a way to go, but...IDK. This thread is just so...human.

I go to sleep between 2-3 am.

Browse reddit and/or youtube

D. Pee for the second time since 11pm and go back to bed, hoping against hope I’ll get back to sleep.

D. Use the restroom and go back to bed

I always wake at 3am, just to pee. Then I go back to bed.

D I go back to sleep