Assuming, of course, that they both got the full required amount of sleep for their age.
In: Biology
Also, preschool teacher here, when kids get up from naps they are not always ready to go. They are groggy and grumps. Snacks are a very good incentive.
All things being equal, healthy sleep cycles and no sleeping disorders, children wake up just as groggy as adults. It takes a moment for any brain to boot up.
The thing that makes it seem like kids are ready to move the moment they get up is the difference between adult sleep cycles and child sleep cycles. Children usually go to bed much earlier than adults, and while children do require more sleep than adults, when a child goes to bed at 8 and an adult goes to bed at 11 there’s going to be a big difference in when they wake up. So while an adult will still be sleeping as part of their sleep cycle, a child will have already ended their sleep cycle and had a chance to wake up and get moving. And when the adult wakes up and is still getting moving, the child is already an hour into their day and is ready for food, toys, and disney+.
There’s no reason an adult couldn’t wake up and be ready for action too. It’s just that the life of a child is all about entertainment – a child wakes up and the only things it thinks about are whatever it wants to do right now – ie, something entertaining. This desire to do something fun overpowers any brief muscle stiffness or brain haziness. When an adult wakes up, it tends to think about all the bad parts of being an adult, which is a really demotivating thing to think about. With no desire to get up because if they get up they have to do boring adult things, the adult brain pays considerably more attention to all the minor aches and pains and by paying more attention to them makes you think they’re bigger than they really are.
Personally… when I wake up, I’m ready to go the moment I’m upright.
I don’t think it’s simply a function of age.
That’s not true. You’re obviously basing that on your own experience. You might need a change in your diet and exercise regime.
If I won the lottery the night before, you can bet I’d be waking up early. Usually I’d sleep in because no work, but with ‘rona there’s no work anyway. So I’d wake up excited about all the things I was going to buy and how happy those things will make me. All the little things over the years that I noticed and thought hey maybe that would make me happy, I’ll buy them all and then be the happiest man in America.
Adults sit in bed thinking.. what bills are due today? Why did I say that thing to my boss yesterday? Why does my back hurt? Did I forget to buy coffee at the grocery store..? Uugggh.
Little kids wake up and think I’m hungry/thirsty and I wanna play. Where’s my stuffy? Oh there it is. I wanna read this book.
I dunno, just my guesses! My kid is 17 months and he is occasionally groggy but it’s rare!
“Throughout adult life, dopamine levels fall by up to 10% every decade. ”
” … anger (high arousal) decreased with age, while sadness (low arousal) remained stable, and suggested that both positive and negative high arousal emotions will decline over the lifespan.”
High positive: Interest
Low negative: Contentment
High negative: Frustration
Low positive: Disappointment
h[ttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160602132424.htm](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160602132424.htm)
Kids tend to go to bed earlier and are less likely to be subject to alarms. My kids are my alarms. They’re pretty much guaranteed to get me up been 6 and 7, because that’s when they naturally wake up. No broken sleep cycles. This works for adults to. If you go to bed 30 minutes earlier, or even 30 minutes later you might find that you no longer wake up in the middle of a cycle and feel better.
People are different. I call myself a morning person. When I awake I am ready to roll and I’m 66.
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