Larks and owls

Bits and pieces by Lois

Some people are larks, some are owls… some people can leap from their beds as fresh as daisies… or larks, whereas others struggle to creep out in time to do whatever it is they have to do. Some people stay up late into the early hours or not so early hours of the next day, bright and alive and active, others are yawning and nodding off not long after dinner.

I am definitely an owl… and I always have been. When I was little I was never ready for bed, although bedtime was strict when I was young. I would lie wide awake for hours, hearing my parents go to bed themselves. My mum used to take me out for walks in the evening, we would walk into Cambridge, or along the river in either direction and I’d come home, and being a good child would go to bed as I was told, and lie awake, telling myself stories in the dark. When I was a little older – and perhaps when my younger sister was older too, we had a radio in the bedroom and listen way into the night… well I did!

I don’t remember having difficulty getting up once I was woken. From the age of fourteen I did a paper round, up at six every day without a problem. Through my working life, it has never been a problem getting up early after a late night, but I wouldn’t really say I actually was a lark. I wake early with the alarm not naturally – although now I no longer have an actual day job, we don’t bother with the alarm!

My dad was an owl and a lark, he only needed four or five hours of sleep and would wake as soon as it was light. In the summer he would go out and do the gardening while the rest of the household slept, and when the milkman came round delivering milk from the horse and little cart, dad would invite him in for a cuppa. My son has inherited the owl aspect, but is not at all like a lark… even now he has to be virtually dragged from his bed!

At night I feel very alert and write here way after everyone else is in bed. I usually watch something on catch-up before I go to bed, and then I read before I settle down, and even then it sometimes takes a while to drop off. I think I need more hours – my day could be about twenty hours long, or a bit longer and then my night could be about six – allowing for a leisurely get up now I’m my own boss… so maybe a planet which has a twenty-eight hour ‘day’… which I’m not going to get in our solar system – Mars has 25 hours and after that it’s 5,832 hours on Venus… too long even for a larkish owl like me!

Here’s an interesting article about this very thing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25777978

 

10 Comments

  2. David Lewis
    Reply

    Time only makes sense when calculating speed, distance and position.Our Indians used the moon to calculate distance and position e.g. You have to paddle three moons to get to the nearest beer store!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lois
      Reply

      I think that is such a great way to measure time… except I think I would be saying “is that the second or third moon, or did I miss one and it’s the fourth moon…” especially on the way home from the beer store!
      And is it true that time goes more quickly on top of a mountain?

      Like

  3. David Lewis
    Reply

    Time doesn’t go faster but you cover more distance in one rotation of the earth and your velocity is faster.A day is still 24 hours but you have gone further. How long does it take to boil a 4 minute egg on the top of Mount Everest?

    Liked by 1 person

  4. David Lewis
    Reply

    The higher you go up the mountain the thinner the air gets and the lower the air pressure. Water boils 100C at sea level with standard pressure but at the top of Everest it comes to a boil at a much lower temperature so even if the water is at a boil you can stick your hand in it and not scald. Therefore you would maybe never get the egg you wanted.

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