LDS mission rules concerning bedtime
 

How often did you get out of bed in the morning "on time?"

I was usually pretty good, but nowhere near 100%.

I think for the most part, if I was late, it was usually within 15 or 20 mins max because in my mission, if you didnt get up in time, you weren't getting any breakfast (unless you wanted to make your own...and cooking on a hotplate in your room sucks).

I loved taking wake-up naps on P-Day, though. A technicality, but hey....a brother's gotta get some sleep!

We also took an old land rover and went jeeping in the mud with it while President was in Chile at some conference...got it stuck, so made a deal with the local ZLs......zones could get together the next pday if a few of them came and helped us dig out the car from the mud.

I've always been an early riser - 4:30 - no matter what time I went to bed. A 6:00 AM wake-up rule gave me an extra hour and a half of language study each morning.

Only two exceptions. The first occurred a few days after arriving in Austria when I forgot to set my alarm (honest), but I remember feeling so good that day having finally caught up with the jet lag and sleep cycle. The only other exception was the last day of my mission when, again, I forgot to set my alarm. I missed the train from Salzburg to Vienna, where I was to meet my parents at the airport and then proceed to the mission home. I caught a later train, feeling horrible I'd miss my parents' arrival. But my greenie companion knew the U.S. Consul General, who happened to be LDS. My comp called him and the guy, with his wife and kids, were waiting on the Vienna train platform and whisked me away in a nice Mercedes Benz with diplomatic plates. We ran red lights and got waved through a couple of nasty intersections. I walked into the airport terminal at the moment my parents and sisters walked out of customs.

Back on point... looking back my diligence in arising at 6 AM every morning but two over over two-year period, coupled with my steadfast refusal ever to venture outside mission boundaries (seven other countries were within an hour's train ride at various times) amazes me.

Was it 6AM? For some reason I was thinking it was 6:30AM.

Whoops! I guess I slept in almost every day. Sorry!

Perhaps your mission rule was 6:30.

Sometime after my mission, recognizing the wussiness of those that were coming, they changed the wake-up time to 6:30, so you're probably cool. But it's a pity you weren't part of the royal generation, as we were so described in the '60s.

P-day wake-up naps were indeed glorious. I remember at least getting up and going to the bathroom, sleep walking through a section of the Missionary Guide with the comp, and then flopping back in bed for a luxurious nap until 8:00 a.m. or so. Recounting this makes me realize how lazy I am now.

4:30 a.m., Il Pad??? Wow! I'm jealous to tell you the truth; it takes me forever to get going and before I do the world has left me behind each morning.

I may have overslept once or twice when first in country, but afterwards I rose early as IL Pad to make up ground in the language department. I was fascinated by the intricacies of the German language many of which I have long since unlearned. But I have unlearned the German word for that, "verlernen" curiously.

I love the early morning. Most of the time I rise by 5:00 but this morning it was 4:20 to head out to run. Nothing beats seeing the sun just rising as you're running or cycling.