Why get up at 5am?

[Daenerys]

yep let's not make an idol of electricity!

Goodness! The Maxwells haven't thought of this one! They are going to have to give up electricity for the day to pray and fast :pray:

[Deleted03]

When it comes right down to it, there are the same number of hours in a day and you can't get any extra. I've tried adjusting my work schedule to get more free time, and there's no way to do it (except working fewer hours which isn't an option). If I go in earlier and leave earlier, then I have more time in the afternoon. But, I have to get bed earlier so it doesn't get me anywhere.

There's no reason that the Maxwells couldn't accomplish exactly the same tasks, but with everything shifted by one or two hours. They think getting up early makes them seem hard-working, but it's just as easy to pray in the evening as it is in the morning and they have to go to sleep at a ridiculously early hour to compensate for getting up so early. I also suspect they think it makes them more good and wholesome, because you know, people only do bad things at night. When I was a teenager, I never had a curfew. Instead, I simply told my parents where I was and what I was doing. My mom said that you can get drunk or do drugs in the middle of the afternoon so a curfew wouldn't help there. But there is a social perception that people only do "bad" things during the night. And I'm sure it's no coincidence that "bad" hours are associated with the biological sleep rhythms of teenagers and young adults, the groups who are considered the worst-behaved in our society. It does worry me though if they are forcing this ridiculous schedule onto every family member. Some people just have a later biological sleep cycle and it's very difficult to change that. And nearly all teenagers have their sleep shifted. It's not healthy to force a teen to go to bed at 8 p.m. and get up at 5 a.m. Even if they genuinely want to be "good", they will most likely lay in bed and won't be able to fall asleep until midnight, and then they will always be sleep-deprived. Chronic sleep-deprivation is worse for your health than drinking.

It is just weird that so many people have the same schedule of waking up at that time. I never had a schedule shift as a teen I'm an early to bed, early to rise (but like 11PM-7AM lol).

Why do they all have to get upt at the same time now that they are adult? Your family is better than friends but jeez you should never spend 24/7 with your friends, waking up at the exact same time, having the exact schedule... I know it would make me crazy!

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

I love getting up early, though recently my chronic pain issue seems to strike mostly in the a.m. and I end up waking up at 6 and not actually getting up for another hour or so. This summer, if I get the pain under control, I plan to start waking up at 5 again to run, then to work on my research, and by 3 p.m. or so I'm done for the day and can kick back. That's my preference, but it's not for everyone. If you're not a morning person, getting up at 5 is silly because you won't be functional until 7 or 8 anyway and you'll be dragging all day. OF course, the idea of individual preference and individual internal clocks is blasphemy to the Maxwells.

OTOH, it looks like that Duggars don't have a problem with people thinking they are lazy. ;p

[1004srs]

We are an early family. I got in the habit years ago. 5am was the perfect time for me to work out. I'd do it while still half asleep and be done for the day.

Now, I get up and have a cup of coffee before getting everyone else ready for the day.

[celestial]

I'd tell him: "Well, if you are always busy, you seem to work very inefficiently! I can keep normal hours and get all my work done on time!"

Yeah, this! I'm plenty productive during my working hours, so I don't need to spend my entire LIFE at work. I don't get the whole "aren't I special because I work soooooo much" thing. If you need to work 90 hours a week to pay the bills, or you actually take satisfaction from working that much, that's one thing. But working that much to prove how industrious you are is quite another.

[Koala]

I can't imagine how they all tolerate this scheduling. Every singe person in our family has different preferable sleep times. Obviously we can't always have what we want because we have you know, real world obligations, but when we can, we all prefer different hours.

I prefer sleeping in and staying up late. I am most productive after 7 P.M. (although I notice this is shifting the older I get). My husband didn't even wake me this morning (something that would never happen in fundie land), and by the time I woke up it was 10 A.M. and he and the kids had been up and about all morning. The flip side of that is that when he goes to bed early tonight I will stay up and hang out with our kids and take care of all of the late night stuff.

My husband loves early mornings. He gets up a 4 everyday to workout and relax. He's also the first one to bed, generally between 7-8 if he can.

My daughter likes sleeping in and going to bed early. This child was born loving sleep!

My son is the exact opposite. He would go around the clock if he could. He gets up early and stays up as late as I let him. He requires very little sleep. I was the same way before I had kids.

That said, I have a theory on why the Maxwells are all on the same schedule. I would bet my bank account the those are Steve's preferable hours and not only does he see it as the only "right" way since it's "his way", how else is he going to control all of those "kids" if they have the run of the house while he sleeps.

[lilwriter85]

I sometimes get up at 5 am to do an early morning workout. I work from home right now, so I can sometimes play with time. I know others who get up early for different reasons. Several years ago, I was waitress at a restaurant that opened up at 5 am. The owner of the restaurant rented the back room to a men's Bible study group on Friday mornings. They used to go in at 6 am and order breakfast right away. I don't find early morning Bible study sessions to be weird. One of the Christian groups at the college I attended used to do 6 am prayer meetings.

[No Fun My Babe]

For our family, it comes from Ben Franklin, who left us as many useful proverbs as well....Proverbs.

"Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Oh, how I hated hearing that growing up. I've had a sleep disorder since I was young that's pretty much never gone away even after meds, therapy, you name it. Now it's worse with illness, but at least I can finally sleep when I can without getting shit for it.

I just prefer to call myself a night owl. :)

When I worked, I always took a night job. There IS some weird obsession that a lot of people have with getting up early. Which was especially irritating when I worked nights and people would come knocking at like 10, 11 am, even when they knew I worked nights.

"What, you're sleeping?" "Yeaaaah. How about I come bang on your door at midnight and see how you like it?"

People are stupid. But there are lots of jobs for night owls because most people don't want to take them, and usually a nice shift bonus. :dance:

[snarkykitty]

Most criminals keep normal hours. They're not exerting themselves. If it's not particularly dangerous to go running at 9 am where you live, it's not likely to be more dangerous to go running at 5 am, or 3 am, or midnight, or whenever you like to run.

Most rapes, most robberies, most crimes are committed by people known to the victim. You're not particularly likely to be raped by some jerk in an alley, no matter *when* you go running.

On a hunch, I googled "at what time of day are violent crimes most likely to occur and got this:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_do_most_crimes_occur

"According to the NCVS, crime happens at all times of the day and night, though particular crimes exhibit different patterns. Violent crimes occur between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. in 52.7 percent of cases. Simple assaults occur 57.6 percent of the time during these same hours, as do 42.2 percent of aggravated assaults. Approximately two-thirds (63.2 percent) of rapes/sexual assaults occur at night. Most property crimes occur during the day, except for motor vehicle theft, which occurs 71.7 percent of the time at night.

http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/447/V ... IGGRjnPa&D

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_do_most_ ... z1u7satSSq"

A crime is more likely to be committed when the opportunity is "right" for the assailant. It's all about access to the victim and access to a quick getaway. Someone out and about alone, in a deserted, poorly-lit area is more likely to be victimized that someone in a group, where there's a lot of other people, and there are less dark corners/alleys/hallways.

I think it's ridiculous to think that being alone and "in the dark" is just as safe as being in a group in a well-lit/day time.

[PennySycamore]

I am not a morning person -AT ALL. Having said that, I used to get up at 5:00 or 5:30 every morning to go out for a run. I did it because the weather was cooler and I could shower easily afterward. It's also a nice way to wake up. I think I need to get back to at least taking a walk in the early morning before the heat of the day.

What's a big mystery that my mom's dog is such a nightowl. My mother was always an early riser. Their schedules did not mesh one bit. I have little Chloe now and she gets wound up just as my mom's day would have been winding down.

[fluttershies]

I enjoy birdwatching, and dawn/dusk is a good time for it. I've seen birds by getting up at 5am or so that I wouldn't see otherwise, so for me that was worth it - but it would only happen if I had other things to do early on in the day. I think for fundies it's partly keeping up with the Joneses and looking more productive/busy (which frankly I think is just human nature and no different to someone having a Blackberry so they can answer emails at 2am) and partly wanting to be like agrarian, off-the-grid groups who keep their waking hours pretty much to daylight hours. The weirdness comes from mixing Amish-esque shunning of modernity and selling IT resources like One Ton Ramp. It's like how courtship is a mix of modern romantic ideals with arranged marriages - it just doesn't quite work.

[SpeshulTaterTot]

It's definitely the whole being productive thing. I'm a night owl, many of my friends are early risers, and whenever there's a brunch or something I'll get stupid remarks about 9.30am being too early for me to be somewhere. Why yes, it is on my day off. And while you were already passed out in bed at 10pm last night, I was cleaning my bathroom, thankyouverymuch. As was already said in this thread, the day doesn't miraculously have more hours because you get up early.

I'm not a morning person at all, but I often have to get up at 4.30am for work. I can't do it for more than three days in a row, every single time I try I literally sit in the bathroom crying on day four because I'm so tired. I can't fall asleep before 10pm, and that's falling asleep early for me. My perfect day starts at around 9.30am, then I go to bed at 1.30am. That's my natural cycle, but if I've been sleep deprived, I can easily sleep until noon.

[browngrl]

I am sure the Maxwells get up early so as to remove just a little bit more happiness from their lives. However I get up at 5am because I like it. I am a morning person and I get my best work done before 2pm. I love the peace and quiet of the early hour. I like watching the sun rise. I like having time to organize my day. I like to be able to get a huge chunk of work done before everyone else gets up and starts interrupting me.

Usually I get up first and meditate. Then I get ready for my day - around this time my husband wakes up and makes us breakfast while I finish getting ready and then feed and take care of our pets. Then we have a nice breakfast together - if the weather is nice we eat outside on the deck - if the weather is cold and yucky we eat in front of the fireplace. Then we take the dog for a walk. After this we both get to work (mostly we both work at home so we just go to our separate offices). By early afternoon we are pretty much done whatever work we set out to do and can spend the rest of the day doing what ever we please (generally we just do fun stuff ). We both really enjoy this schedule. It is a nice gentle way to start the day. We tend to follow a similar schedule on the weekends too - out of choice not because we have to get up early.

We do tend to go to bed relatively early (about 11:00ish or so) but again this is out of choice not because we have to.

[FireIsCatching89]

There's a 5 am now???? Holy shit!

I am not a morning person, and the last time I saw 5 am, I was pulling an all-nighter to finish a BIG paper.

[alysee]

I get up early and go to bed early, even as a teenager my friends would laugh and call me a geezer, but I always got my 8 hours and wasn't tired during the day. Ideally I'm a 10-6am kinda gal, but on rare occasions I can sleep til 7:30. The latest I've ever slept in was 8:30 and that was after having 5 nights of almost all nighters(how I don't miss college).

I do think in the Maxwells case it's all about control.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

There's a 5 am now???? Holy shit!

I am not a morning person, and the last time I saw 5 am, I was pulling an all-nighter to finish a BIG paper.

Heh. There's that magic hour, often sometime around 3:30 or 4 AM, when you finally realize that you're not "going to bed really late" after all - nope, it's an all nighter, because the damn birds (BIRDS!!!) are up and squawking and the sun is rapidly rising, so you're not likely to get any more good sleep in, even if you were at home, which you're not, heck no, you're still in the lab.

Ah, graduate school...

Supposedly the time when the streets are the most dead is the 3AM hour. The late sleepers are mostly turning in, but the early risers aren't quite up yet.

In my actual life now I have to say I'm a morning person of sorts. I like to do some private studying first thing when I wake up when I'm still motivated rather than tired from a day of work. So I do like to do various personal tasks in the morning before I leave the house. But usually for me that's about waking up at 7, or perhaps 6:30. I had a job that started at 6:12 AM (yes, exactly) for a while, but eff that. On the weekends I wake up at 8 or 9. The "morning" part for me is just about doing stuff as soon as I wake up.

[Rosa]

I can't imagine how they all tolerate this scheduling. Every singe person in our family has different preferable sleep times. Obviously we can't always have what we want because we have you know, real world obligations, but when we can, we all prefer different hours.

{/quote]

This! I'm an early-morning person (or I was, before years of living wiht a night-owl broke me.) For a few years, I got up and left the house by 5:30 or 6, to be able to work out and get to my desk by 7:30. When I went back to work when my son was a toddler, I left the house before he & his dad even woke up; then I got done with work at 4:30 and picked him up and got him home & dinner on the table before his dad was done at work. I know Toni Morrison used to get up at 4 or 5 to write before her kids woke up, and Michele Obama has said she got up really early for years to get a workout in before everyone else woke up.

What's creepy about the advice/practice is the assertion that it's more godly, and the parents imposing wakeup times on grown children. Oh, and the assumption that there's no way for moms to get any alone time unless they get up at the crack of dawn.

[RR88]

I get up at 5:15 on work and school days. I like to have time to enjoy my breakfast and some music before hurrying out the door.

[AmyP]

I'm going to guess that Terri and Steve formed this habit while the children were young, and as the children have gotten older they have also adopted the early habits. When the kids are with you all day, every day, a few hours to get your act together before they get up is vital to any level of sane functioning. Many, many homeschool moms I know get up at 5, and many more are up by 6.

[fluttershies]

I have huuuge problems with insomnia and have been nocturnal for a long time. The dawn chorus has started here (it's 4.53am here) and being awake at 5am only because I can't sleep makes me feel spectacularly unproductive.

[Patsy]

I'm going to guess that Terri and Steve formed this habit while the children were young, and as the children have gotten older they have also adopted the early habits.

That implies an organic settling into eventual routine. Every single aspect of these kids' lives are regimented. Previously posted schedules show that the kids were told what time to change their underwear.

[Koala]

I'm going to guess that Terri and Steve formed this habit while the children were young, and as the children have gotten older they have also adopted the early habits. When the kids are with you all day, every day, a few hours to get your act together before they get up is vital to any level of sane functioning. Many, many homeschool moms I know get up at 5, and many more are up by 6.

I don't think their kids have "adopted" anything. They've never been given a choice as far as I can see.

I have 2 kids and like I said, they both prefer different sleep schedules. You can't convince me that none of these ADULTS prefer a different schedule than their parents. I think they have 1 kid still homeschooling. The rest of these people are ADULTS who have been brainwashed into blindly following their father. Sarah is 30. Her life is literally slipping by, yet she is frozen in the life of a small child. She is told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. It makes me want to scream. Giving a bunch of ADULTS in their 20's and 30's bedtimes is just another way for Steve and Terri to infantilize them. I swear I think they get high off the idea that they are able to keep so many ADULTS so tightly under their control. :(

[luckystone]

I've noticed this on a lot of fundie blogs, I agree with the "I'm sooooo virtuous and not lazy" and "better than you" theories.

[countressrascal]

I have not read the entire posting, here is my take I get up at 5am to run with my husband. It is great to start the day with a 2-3 mile run then coffee and breakfast, off to work. Even when we had kids at home we did it, some days it is the only time we had together until 7 or 8pm at night. We view it as our date everyday, after 30 years we still do it, mileage a little less and speed a little slower, but it is still happening.

[DowagerDuchess]

I geet up at 5:30am, two days a week for work and that is two days too many for me, but I have to do it and I love my work enough to do it. I think for the Maxwell's it is all about Steve and his power and control issues over his family. None of them work, so where on earth do they have to be that dictates they get up at 5am? They have to pray? Does God not hear morning prayers at 7am?

It appears that at least one person, in the family, is cleaning all day long so the house must be spotless adn then they pick-up at night before being allowed to go to bed. This begs me to ask what chore poor Mary is required to do at 6:30am, when the house is already spotless and picked up from the night before? Is she cleaning the toilets after everyone has used them that morning?

As for pajamas . . . Do the adult children really have to sleep in pj's. What if they want to sleep in their boxers or even nude? This begs me to ask how Steve and Teri explained wet dreams to their boys? I can't even imagine how this one was handled.

The entire scheduled lifestyle is simply crazy making behavior.