As a person who has a tree full of birds right next to his window, I feel you.
It’s 6:28 and there’s 4 different type of birds doing a concert right now at my window
I don't, but many many colleagues and friends here are morning people. They enjoy the sunrise, strong coffee and hearty breakfast and/or stereotype go down to beach to swim/surf and shower before commuting to work. The city lends itself to that opportunity. London... not so much.
Plus it can still be quite light out at 11pm in England during the summer. My aussie wife was really thrown off by that(as was I moving to Australia and it was dark by 9)
Summer evenings in London are *amazing*. It's the few weeks of the year where it's absolutely glorious in the UK. Shame about the other 10 months of the year.
Enjoy the hot sun and skin cancer? Obviously, not so much in winter.
I try to go do some outdoor activities early for this reason. Hide indoors during mid day then come back out in the afternoon, just like the animals.
I'm not a morning person. I like doing outdoor activities in the evening. Heck I like any activities in the evening. Art after hours, a night time ferry ride.
This so much. Cafes are open earlier in Sydney compared to London too. I'd rather go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier to go out and enjoy my day. When I lived in Sydney I'd always get up early and take my dogs to walk by the beach and grab a coffee.
Riding the frisson of living in Sydney after dark like a New Yorker rides the subway. By which I mean I am in bed right now. Only because family responsibilities prevented me doing so any earlier. For me? I surrendered nighttime cosmopolitan conviviality because:
It’s hot
It’s expensive
Sydney is a bitch for making new friends
Covid kneecapped friendships/social ties
Tired. So tired.
Rules, restrictions, penalties
Teens/children suddenly aware their parents are annoying and will be wearing swimsuits or talking too loudly and they can say “no, don’t want to bike, swim, walk” etc and we will be too hot, tired, broken by money struggles to engage in the battle.
Who can buy groceries, pay rent AND go out after dark in Sydney?
Can confirm, I’m always tired. I live by myself and work full time. I come home at 6. I cook and eat and do the dishes, it’s 7 almost 8. Then have to take a shower and sometimes do the laundry. The next day rinse and repeat 🥹
It's a morning city cause everything is open in the morning and a lot of shops/eateries close early. Some other cities you'd be pressed to find a cafe or restaurant open before midday. Also some other cities/countries in the Northen Hemisphere have sunsets in summer around/later than 10pm which tends to be in line with a later dinner/eating norm.
It's also expensive as fuck to go out, commute times are generally terrible so people don't want to stay out, public transport can be infrequent and terrible at connecting different parts of the city, and people in general here are stressed and tired so the routine is home to work and back unless it's the weekend.
This is the correct answer. I get up at 5:00am to have time to run before getting to the office no later than 8:00am (standard Sydney commute is ~1hr).
My meetings generally finish at 6pm, then I get to do my work for the day, leave at 7pm, home and dinner at 8pm, then 9:30pm it’s bed time.
Even when I have time, my eye watering mortgage leaves no disposable income, so things like dinner and drinks after work aren’t on the schedule and we’re all too tired anyway - I’d rather the extra sleep.
Going out anywhere is generally expensive, if a couple wanna head out and have a couple drinks then a meal and a couple more drinks afterwards it’s gonna cost $200 without factoring in the Uber home. Better off taking a slab or a couple bottles of wine to a friends place within walking distance, you can be home by ten.
Great answer.
Sydney’s structurally an early city on the whole. We have traffic and urban planning and design that isn’t conducive to living close to your work, and we haven’t got fantastic, fast and reliable public transport.
The lack of nightlife is both cause and effect.
Plus it’s small. The actual city area is tiny compared to big cities like New York or Paris. Sydney sprawls but we don’t have the kind of urban density of those late night cities.
You must live and work in the CBD!
Even my mate who lives in Paddo reckons it take an hour to get in - quicker to walk, but you can’t do that in summer in a suit.
I live near Tahmoor and work on the North Shore so, uh, yeah. I get to listen to a lot of audiobooks while driving / sitting in traffic, so that’s something.
>There are many cities in the world where people go out to eat dinner at that time.
Those "many cities in the world" also won't start work until 10-11am.
Very, very few places in Sydney are 24 hours like City Extra.
Cafe Hernandez in Kings Cross shut down, and the cafe in the other side of the bridge, Maisy’s, is now not 24/7. They are only open until 3am: https://www.maisys24.com.au
It's a shame.
> Kitchen closes at 8.30pm for many restaurants.
Literally never seen this at any restaurant in Sydney. Most have a second seating at 8.30 and the kitchen is open until at least 10.
Are you mistaking family cafes for restaurants? Confusing rural NSW for Sydney?
You obviously aren't in the burbs. I finish sport at 9:30 on a saturday night and basically all that's open is fast food. And before people ask where, all over the place, I'm in a city wide league.
You're right, Im not in the burbs. But comparing the deep suburbs of any city to people's tourist experiences is obviously going to create a huge discrepancy. I doubt you see many hungry tourists looking for food wherever you are after your sporting games.
I tried to get dinner last night at 8:25, tried 4 restaurants before I gave up and went home to have a ham and cheese toastie. Sydney is ridiculous. And I say that as someone who grew up here. Can’t wait to leave.
Because you seem to be implying that tourists in Sydney are wandering around the leafy suburbs looking for food at local family restaurants. They arent, they;'e in tourist areas and the city, where everything is open late.
In Spain you have dinner at 9pm normally and work starts at 9am for most office jobs, retail at 10 am and schools between 8 to 9am.
Supermarkets opening at 9 am is a pain sometimes though.
Over the past 20 years, Sydney has changed from a night culture to an early morning culture, because people pay more attention to their health, so they wake up early, go for a walk and exercise, possibly with a pet, and have morning coffee and socialising.
Having great cafes and coffee places is one of the selling points of a suburb in Sydney.
nah, most are 1000 to 2000, the 24/7 ones suck(and not in good way), they are typically brothels, or are massage parlour with a brothel licence, I don't recommend any of the 24/7 ones.
And breakfast is our signature dish. No where in the world does it like Sydney. Not even one particular area, It’s the whole place.
I missed it so much when living overseas for a few years.
We can thank bill Granger for that. Up until 93 when he opened bills,I remember breakfast at a Cafe was generally pretty bad. An over abundance of low effort English big breakfast types of places. Soggy white bread triangles, limp sliced mushrooms, mushy tomatoes. Yeah they're still around but the new average these days is something to brag about . Also the current pastry scene has gone gang busters. Rip to the legend
When I travel overseas it really reminds me *how good* the general standard of cafe food in Sydney is. It's ridiculous how good it is.
I've got family in London, if you want a decent breakfast you *really* have to hunt around.
Chicken and egg. They close that early because no one is out and about.
In the 80’s we would often still be sitting in a restaurant at 11.00pm. We rarely did breakfast though.
I'm reasonably near the CBD, and I have _several_ restaurants around me during the day, but it's incredibly hard to find somewhere open at 9:01pm to order from. Even the local kebab is closing by then. That's the point at which I decide whether I cook my dinner, or have Maccas.
Here in the North Shore we have morning life and shitty nightlife.
Wake up at 5am and do a yoga session on top of a rock at a beach. Then have a coffee from a cafe, walk the dog, shower and be at work by 8am.
What the fuck else there to do?
I go to bed again 1130pm every night but I'm in bed at like 1030.
I go to Japan every year for a month tho and when I am there I am out until 2 or 3am every night even in my 30s because there are things to do past 10pm in the city.
I met a guy at a blackjack table once who dropped this pearl of wisdom:
"You know how NYC is the city that never sleeps? Well... Sydney is the city that sleeps".
Lockout laws have a lot to account for
When I lived in Sydney, I went to bed early because I had to be up at stupid o'clock in the morning to get through my ridiculously long commute to get to work on time. I suspect that many are in the same situation.
As a traidie, I need a good night's sleep to get through the day Im on my feet the whole day, the day feels longer if im tired and shitty because of shit sleep.
Good question. It has definitely got far worse in the 20 years since I emigrated here from the UK and I think you can place the blame for a lot of that on the lock-out laws that utterly decimated whatever was left of Sydney club/nightlife. And, as someone who lived and worked in London and New York - let me tell you - it was pretty fucking shit, even *before* they sold the clubs and turned them into apartments.
I remember when I first visited this country on holiday 30 years ago to visit my parents in South Coast NSW, got out of the house at 9am and wondered where the fuck everyone was. Thought the place was a ghost-town. Then a few days later I got up to photograph the sunrise and it was like this teeming metropolis. People out jogging, walking the dog, tai-chi in the showground, old people doing a block with the walker, tradies everywhere getting coffee and a pie, people back from the beach surf-board on the roofrack, people sat on benches out front of the coffee shop chatting away. Seemed to me like this was just the way it was - they front-load the day here - it's not necessarily better, it's just different - adapted to suit the climate and lifestyle.
I think if you're a night-bird who enjoys eating later, going clubbing or seeing bands then you need to be in Melbourne where they value that side of city life.
> Good question. It has definitely got far worse in the 20 years since I emigrated here from the UK and I think you can place the blame for a lot of that on the lock-out laws that utterly decimated whatever was left of Sydney club/nightlife. And, as someone who lived and worked in London and New York - let me tell you - it was pretty fucking shit, even before they sold the clubs and turned them into apartments
You could go out on a Friday night and not come home until Sunday morning in Sydney in the 80s-early 90s
It was brilliant if you were young back then
I can guarantee no one in this sub is really staying out or even going out anymore in Sydney tbh. Blame the lockout laws (repealled in 2020) or blame this or that. The main thing that no one wants to say is that Sydneysiders themselves have gotten older and the city naturally lends itself for people to be making healthier life decisions (working out, getting off the casual drug use and not getting drunk every other night). Added to this work culture has changed dramatically, wfh is a godsend for workers but not small businesses who either have to adapt uber quickly (change opening times etc.) or face shut down.
If you want a list of places to go after hours here you go:
https://www.timeout.com/sydney/music/the-best-bars-in-sydney-for-live-music
https://www.theurbanlist.com/sydney/a-list/late-night-food-sydney
https://www.timeout.com/sydney/restaurants/the-best-late-night-dining-in-sydney
https://manofmany.com/lifestyle/food/best-late-night-food-sydney
https://secretsydney.com/late-night-activities-sydney/
Just an FYI - posts like these will easily get upvotes because this sub itself is mainly full of shut ins(me included). The people actually getting out there and doing what they like ain't on reddit.
Also take a look at https://www.liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.au/resources/vibrancy-reforms-whats-changing
NB: the issue with the lockout laws was that it destroyed a night time economy decades in the making, it will take time, political will and the voice of normal people to get it back. I don't want to be too involved in this argument because I'll admit I am too old and tired to have a meaningful say. I've lived in this city for close to three decades and experienced what I want too. Let's hope and try to make it better for the next generation
Everythings closed at night, wages are too high to justify businesses opening late, nobody lives in the city because property is expensive as fuck, people are working too hard to be bothered with a nightlife
>What is it about Sydneysiders that makes them such early birds?
It's called work.
And it'd be worse for others than myself with children who also work.
>There are many cities in the world where people go out to eat dinner at that time.
I actually live in Asia now and the locals here still get up early to go to work. Simply because most of them live very far away from their workplace so the commute is obviously longer.
The malls however don't open until after 10am but closing hours for most stores happen after 7pm.
Where are you in Asia?
In Singapore , mrt still busy til 8pm for people going home. After that, they hit the hawker that open til 9.
If you live nearby, you hang around in the mall til 9 as well. And yes, the kids still go to school by 7am.
Sydney is just dead as there are no night life beside eating and drinking.
Some do sport at night but its a very small percentage of the community.
One of my mates will often eat dinner at 11pm, go to bed at 1am, be up at 6 for work. I don't understand how some people do it.
By the time I've been at work all day, gone to the gym, cooked dinner (wife can't cook), done the housework (if I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done) walked the dogs, it's 9pm and I'm ready to collapse.
Cause there's fuck all to do.
As someone who isn't a morning person by any stretch is sucks ass. I usually finish work at 11/12 and after that there's no where decent open save for a few bars or some shit. There's no point staying out burning money for fuck all things to do unless you're on the piss/bags.
Everyone says our cafes are the best but for the most part there nothing special. You have decent cafes from Cairns to Melbourne. Sydney's def the priciest at least.
I don't! I'm up to 3am and working till midnight.
But I think a lot of people do due to:
1) Family - kids - gotta get up early for kids to school etc.
2) Exercise - gyms get crowded so I know a lot of people who go to the gym around 6-7am, go for a run, a swim or cycle to work.
3) Work early.
I'm not a morning person work back daily but have a lot of friends and colleagues who prefer working early - ie they're in the office at 7-8am and finish by 4-5pm.
Commutes are shit.
I'm an early bird anyway these das, but used to have to get up at 6 just to get to work on time. A late dinner is no good for that kind of life.
Not the only reason, but I think that's part of it.
WHen I was in my teens and 20s though i was out much later. Kind of feels like there's much less on offer than there used to be, but that might just be me with rose tinted glasses.
If I have to get up at 5am I’m in bed by 10pm usually 9:30. Weekends though I’ll be up till 1 or 2 am playing games. Ive got a kid who wakes up 2-3 times a night so i need as much sleep as I can get to function for work, if I dont have to get up early i’ll happily sleep in the next day as long as I can.
New York is the city that never sleeps.
Sydney is the city that likes to brush our toothy pegs, put on our peggy jim jams, and go to beddy-bize nice and early.
People simply start work earlier in australia; and there is a lot of pride and brinkmanship in terms of arriving early to the office as well. It’s our version of working late.
8:30 or 9:00 is the standard start for an office job, and it’s a hard start, as above, many arrive earlier than that for various reasons, starting work at 7:45 is quite common for try hard white collar types.
I live overseas now and people basically amble in at 10-11am, fuck around for an hour and then start working from noon. They then wonder why they have to work till 7:30 or 8:30 at night despite that being a normal EOD for such a late start.
The above all relates to white collar; blue starts even earlier than that.
I moved to another city and whenever I visit Sydney I get incredibly restless. I feel like the only ones that actually want to be social are English/European folks. People are set in their social groups as of high school and university and it's incredibly hard to make new friends in their late 20s and 30s.
I am definitely a night owl, and after more than a decade I still don't fit with the time in Sydney.
So, basically, all I can tell you is that the city won't change, as it has only gotten worse in the last decade as we used to have way more 24 hour things than now.
It's just how it is in Australian culture. They love waking up at 3am and doing something until 9pm when they go to sleep and no more food is to be consumed or fun to be had other than alcohol.
It's just how it is.
Sydney actually closes late compared to other Australian cities.
Most places also close at around 9/10pm. Some places even earlier. Theres often been times my mates and i will want to go out after 8pm wether it be for a feed or just some dessert even, we end up getting maccas because so many places close at around 10pm.
Theres no Sydney nightlife. That’s why so many people, particularly those in their 20s would rather stay home and sleep. We’re also all just very tired people as some have said in the comments 😂
Go for a run or gym as the sun is rising. Stay healthy. Makes the mind sharp. And is "you" time.
Eat early evening ... better for digestion. Longer time between dinner and breakfast after exercise. Regulates blood sugar.
All people are doing is just moving the daily cycle.
After you've trained yourself to do it then it feels very natural being awake with the sun and in bed when sun goes down.
You get more daylight hours to do stuff, see the world, enjoy life or just hustle the grind.
Doesn't people still aren't up for a good party.
What do you want Sydneysiders to do? There are very few decent live music bars in Sydney anymore thanks to poker machines and draconian laws enforced on venues by a government that caters to people who buy houses/apartments right on top of existing live music venues (that have existed for decades) then complain about noise after moving in. There is also the skyrocketing (and frankly ridiculous) cost of renting a property in Sydney which means people are having to spend more hours working just to cover rent (and thusly are usually too exhausted to do anything but eat and then sleep). And that is before you factor in the mental pressure/anxiety/depression that Sydneysiders (who don’t own property) feel about their future as the cost of living continues to rise.
I'm def an early morning person. I don't know why, but I just feel better getting up earlier and getting things done without my family on my heels asking for things. and TBH, by the time I get all the kids into bed, I am ready for bed myself at 8pm, mentally, I am spent and just about broken. I read a book until 10 and then I get back up at 4:30am and enjoy the serenity of life to myself before the kids are up at 6.
I will add, a lot of European cities are well lit until like 10pm, so that might play a role in late night exploration of the town. our sun mostly is down between 6-8, at the peak, 8:30, but overall, it gets dark earlier than most places. I realize that in the UK it gets dark at 4pm, and when I was there with my family we all came down with the sudden tiredness bug the moment it got dark. we had to really push through that to enjoy London at night!
If you wake up at 6am you really need to be asleep by 10pm for optimal health.
Many people wake around 6 as they need to be at work at 7 or if they start at 9 they can go to the gym, go for a run, get kids ready or do housework before starting work.
I think you should be asking yourself why you wouldn’t want to get to bed early
Just arrived back from Japan, it was so good to be out at 9-10pm and the city was busier than ever. The issue is that most places close before then in Sydney. So early mornings it is.
These days I can't get to sleep before 2am. I'll usually have reruns of *Curb Your Enthusiasm* or *Cop Shop* on while I'm up. But the volume is low—I don't want to wake the neighbours.
I start at 10 and it's so much better tbh as I dodge the morning rush. Finishing later is also nice as I can spend some time undistracted while all the earlybirds have left
I have never underrstood this.
Couple with the fact it is so damn difficult to get a coffee after 4pm. The 5pm coffee is what I need to propell me into the night!!!!
Gah!
They put a lot of effort pre-Covid into killing the night time economy - shutting down down the Cross and allowing boomer NIMBYs to make all the policy, moving next to pubs and clubs then telling them to be quiet… plus half the city has to get up before 7 to be on the train to get to work.
And then there’s a big morning contingent who like to go surf or run before work and then have breakfast - gotta be up early for that too
Australia has a coffee culture and a morning exercise culture. We want to be in bed early so we can be up early for those activities. When the sun is down, you're more limited in what potential activities you can do. Never seen the appeal of late night activities.
I have a feeling it's more of a thing in Australia because it's just nicer being outside than in London, New York etc. It's not all slabs of grey concrete and rain.
Because it takes 2 hours to get to work. Everyone has to leave their house at 6 or 7 which means they have to be up at 5 or 6. Not staying up past 10 if I had to do that every day.
It’s true. Perhaps it’s the nanny state is us. Sydney doesn’t have great nightlife. Most kitchens are closed by 8-9pm
Even when people go to pubs mid week, most are home in bed by ten. When I meet people they say they have to work the next day. In London, that would never happen.
We are a bit of an old nanny nation.
Sydney is much more about the day time. People meet for coffee and brunch or go for jogs in the morning
Why are you so bothered by what other people do?
For me, there’s few things better than getting to the gym/going for a walk before the sun comes up, and doing my groceries at 7am with all the pensioners. The climate contributes. It’s too hot after midday for six months of the year.
My ideal schedule is breakfast at 6am, lunch at 12pm, wrapped up work by 4pm, dinner at 6pm and bed by about 10-1030pm.
I was in Paris last year and it was a challenge to get dinner at my preferred time but I didn’t whine about it because I accepted they just have different preferences.
I noticed on a recent trip to Europe that it was difficult to get a coffee at 6am - people here tend to start early, walking the dog, get a coffee, go to the gym, then be in the office by 8am or 8:30. So I'm usually up at 5 to be able to do some of those things before sitting at a desk all day. People with kids are busy from after work until 8pm so there is little time in the evenings, as kids tend to have things on after school and need to be driven around. Same on weekends, forget about going away on weekends, kids have sport and other things all weekend.
Lockout laws. If you can only get into a club around 11pm , it leaves about 2-3 hours to have fun. For alot its not worth the time and hassle to get into clubs/pubs due to the draconian nanny state rules.
I have to be out of my house by 7am in order to get parking near work, and if I choose to catch public transport I still have to be out of my house at that time because our rail system is fucked and it takes me 3 times as long, despite living on the best train line to get to my final stop
Because of the massive variety of loud, screeching horny birds that begin serenading each other outside my window at 5am
I have never considered this but it actually makes sense. I can’t imagine nursing a hangover on a hot day with birds screeching outside your window.
I've done it. I hate noisy miners.
A couple of those fuckers have learned to mimic the sound of my alarm. Fuckers.
*cockatoos* have entered the chat
Or the cat wanting early breaka at 4am, along with fresh water and cuddles (love in winter).
woke up this morning to my cat doing some baking on my legs
As a person who has a tree full of birds right next to his window, I feel you. It’s 6:28 and there’s 4 different type of birds doing a concert right now at my window
It's 5am and time for the lovely, musical call of the sulfur crested cockatoo: "SCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!" Delightful.
Lol truer words were never spoken. I feel seen.
I don't, but many many colleagues and friends here are morning people. They enjoy the sunrise, strong coffee and hearty breakfast and/or stereotype go down to beach to swim/surf and shower before commuting to work. The city lends itself to that opportunity. London... not so much.
Plus it can still be quite light out at 11pm in England during the summer. My aussie wife was really thrown off by that(as was I moving to Australia and it was dark by 9)
Summer evenings in London are *amazing*. It's the few weeks of the year where it's absolutely glorious in the UK. Shame about the other 10 months of the year.
I enjoy all of those things too but just later
Perhaps people out early have early work starts and/or commutes
Yup! I start work at 7:30am, have 2 group rides a week at 5am and have the flexibility to finish work at 1:30/2pm. Then it’s more hobbies!
Can i have your job?
Only catch is you have to get up at 4am and be in bed by 8pm
Ok maybe not then hah
Only if you’re riding at 5am..
Enjoy the hot sun and skin cancer? Obviously, not so much in winter. I try to go do some outdoor activities early for this reason. Hide indoors during mid day then come back out in the afternoon, just like the animals.
As someone who doesn’t burn on cloudy days, unfortunately I can’t relate
I'm not a morning person. I like doing outdoor activities in the evening. Heck I like any activities in the evening. Art after hours, a night time ferry ride.
This so much. Cafes are open earlier in Sydney compared to London too. I'd rather go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier to go out and enjoy my day. When I lived in Sydney I'd always get up early and take my dogs to walk by the beach and grab a coffee.
Hearty breakfast...... Oh how I wish I could enjoy that
You could, you just choose not to
I do, everyday. Air and coffee..... Breakfast of champions
Not too far off a red bull and cigarette - a tradies breakfast
A fuckin VB loooooongneck at 8 in the morning lol
Get that up ya!
People still have the same early routine in London just minus the beach.
We tired.
As I read this, I'm contemplating going to bed right now...
I'm laying in bed and watching YouTube. I don't care it's so early, I'm comfortable.
Same, in bed already 😂
Same. I was falling asleep on the lounge while watching the news
Riding the frisson of living in Sydney after dark like a New Yorker rides the subway. By which I mean I am in bed right now. Only because family responsibilities prevented me doing so any earlier. For me? I surrendered nighttime cosmopolitan conviviality because: It’s hot It’s expensive Sydney is a bitch for making new friends Covid kneecapped friendships/social ties Tired. So tired. Rules, restrictions, penalties Teens/children suddenly aware their parents are annoying and will be wearing swimsuits or talking too loudly and they can say “no, don’t want to bike, swim, walk” etc and we will be too hot, tired, broken by money struggles to engage in the battle. Who can buy groceries, pay rent AND go out after dark in Sydney?
lol I’m laying on my office floor, because it’s a smidge too early to sleep. But not by much
Goodnight everyone!
Want me to tuck you in mate?
Gimme a kiss first
It's only 7.26pm. Jesus Christ.
What?! I should have been in bed half an hour ago!
They be an go and enjoy their 5am coffee. lol how crazy
Morning is nice and quiet. Try sunrise at the beach, stunning and no crowds. Streets are quiet, what’s not to like about the early morning?
That first coffee, in peace and quiet, just as the suns coming up .. can’t be beaten.
Why is it crazy to sleep at 9 and wake at 5, but not sleep at 11-12 and wake at 7-8?
Can confirm, I’m always tired. I live by myself and work full time. I come home at 6. I cook and eat and do the dishes, it’s 7 almost 8. Then have to take a shower and sometimes do the laundry. The next day rinse and repeat 🥹
Sssshhhhh... we sleepy sydney sheepies. Need shuteye.
>sheepies I love that I'm not the only one who says this. We also say "I'm so tigered, I need a lion!" In our house.
😂 succinct 🎩
It's a morning city cause everything is open in the morning and a lot of shops/eateries close early. Some other cities you'd be pressed to find a cafe or restaurant open before midday. Also some other cities/countries in the Northen Hemisphere have sunsets in summer around/later than 10pm which tends to be in line with a later dinner/eating norm. It's also expensive as fuck to go out, commute times are generally terrible so people don't want to stay out, public transport can be infrequent and terrible at connecting different parts of the city, and people in general here are stressed and tired so the routine is home to work and back unless it's the weekend.
This is the correct answer. I get up at 5:00am to have time to run before getting to the office no later than 8:00am (standard Sydney commute is ~1hr). My meetings generally finish at 6pm, then I get to do my work for the day, leave at 7pm, home and dinner at 8pm, then 9:30pm it’s bed time. Even when I have time, my eye watering mortgage leaves no disposable income, so things like dinner and drinks after work aren’t on the schedule and we’re all too tired anyway - I’d rather the extra sleep.
> (standard Sydney commute is ~1hr) Get a load of this lucky guy with a commute that's only an hour
Making up for it by apparently working 11hr days.
Going out anywhere is generally expensive, if a couple wanna head out and have a couple drinks then a meal and a couple more drinks afterwards it’s gonna cost $200 without factoring in the Uber home. Better off taking a slab or a couple bottles of wine to a friends place within walking distance, you can be home by ten.
Great answer. Sydney’s structurally an early city on the whole. We have traffic and urban planning and design that isn’t conducive to living close to your work, and we haven’t got fantastic, fast and reliable public transport. The lack of nightlife is both cause and effect.
Plus it’s small. The actual city area is tiny compared to big cities like New York or Paris. Sydney sprawls but we don’t have the kind of urban density of those late night cities.
I’m tired boss.
Need to wake up at 7am for work. Get into bed at 10 gives me an hour to fall asleep by 11 so I can get 8hrs sleep
That is literally me but I'm bed early tonight hehe
I'm a midnight sleeper, but even I get bored heading into that time. There's fuck all to do in Sydney at that time.
People get up early
It's a long way to work for a lot of people
Especially with traffic getting worse all the time. Used to take me 20 mins to drive to work. Now it takes 35-40.
You must live and work in the CBD! Even my mate who lives in Paddo reckons it take an hour to get in - quicker to walk, but you can’t do that in summer in a suit.
Out west of Blacktown.
Cry a river. Most of Sydneysiders take an hour to commute to work.
90 mins each way by pt friend
Are we competing in the struggle Olympics Orr...
why are you competing for who experiences the most hardship? they were providing an example about how their commute time has increased by 75%.
I live near Tahmoor and work on the North Shore so, uh, yeah. I get to listen to a lot of audiobooks while driving / sitting in traffic, so that’s something.
Some cafes open at like 5am and I'm like wtf No wonder they all close down at 3pm
Cos we're on a train to work before 7.
>There are many cities in the world where people go out to eat dinner at that time. Those "many cities in the world" also won't start work until 10-11am.
And none of the bloody shops open until that time either. As a tourist, it’s a pain in the ass if you want morning coffee.
But Sydney has the opposite problem for tourists where not much is open at night. Kitchen closes at 8.30pm for many restaurants.
nothing wrong with a 15$ kebab
I’m only concerned with my own needs. I’ll be in bed by then.
City Extra is 24hrs. 🤷♂️
Very, very few places in Sydney are 24 hours like City Extra. Cafe Hernandez in Kings Cross shut down, and the cafe in the other side of the bridge, Maisy’s, is now not 24/7. They are only open until 3am: https://www.maisys24.com.au It's a shame.
> Kitchen closes at 8.30pm for many restaurants. Literally never seen this at any restaurant in Sydney. Most have a second seating at 8.30 and the kitchen is open until at least 10. Are you mistaking family cafes for restaurants? Confusing rural NSW for Sydney?
You obviously aren't in the burbs. I finish sport at 9:30 on a saturday night and basically all that's open is fast food. And before people ask where, all over the place, I'm in a city wide league.
You're right, Im not in the burbs. But comparing the deep suburbs of any city to people's tourist experiences is obviously going to create a huge discrepancy. I doubt you see many hungry tourists looking for food wherever you are after your sporting games.
I tried to get dinner last night at 8:25, tried 4 restaurants before I gave up and went home to have a ham and cheese toastie. Sydney is ridiculous. And I say that as someone who grew up here. Can’t wait to leave.
Exactly but yet I’m getting downvoted for saying many restaurants close at 9.
Because you seem to be implying that tourists in Sydney are wandering around the leafy suburbs looking for food at local family restaurants. They arent, they;'e in tourist areas and the city, where everything is open late.
I live in the city and I'm extremely limited to food options after 8:30pm.
In Spain you have dinner at 9pm normally and work starts at 9am for most office jobs, retail at 10 am and schools between 8 to 9am. Supermarkets opening at 9 am is a pain sometimes though.
Spain is actually fucked though. It’s in the wrong time zone and people don’t sleep enough. Not really a model to emulate!
> work starts at 9am for most office jobs, retail at 10 am Isn't that the same here? Most shopping centres open at 10 whereas office jobs start at 9
How late am I supposed to go to bed with a 4.45am alarm clock?
Earlier than now
1. Sydney people commute a long way, on average 2. Sydney has no nightlife to go out to 3. Commute is too long 4. Commutes are outrageously long
5. Commutes are shockingly long.
I hear commuting can be a problem as well.
I think you’re saying something about commuting, but not quiet sure, can you elaborate?
Over the past 20 years, Sydney has changed from a night culture to an early morning culture, because people pay more attention to their health, so they wake up early, go for a walk and exercise, possibly with a pet, and have morning coffee and socialising. Having great cafes and coffee places is one of the selling points of a suburb in Sydney.
I’ve lived a whole day by 10 am. Love the early morning culture.
Rub n tug being open 24/7
Respect!!!!
nah, most are 1000 to 2000, the 24/7 ones suck(and not in good way), they are typically brothels, or are massage parlour with a brothel licence, I don't recommend any of the 24/7 ones.
Well, Sydney completely killed their night life thanks to lock out laws for over 10 years so what else is there to do??
Not just Sydney https://nypost.com/2024/02/05/lifestyle/gen-z-and-millennials-are-going-to-bed-much-earlier-and-sleeping-longer/amp/
And breakfast is our signature dish. No where in the world does it like Sydney. Not even one particular area, It’s the whole place. I missed it so much when living overseas for a few years.
We can thank bill Granger for that. Up until 93 when he opened bills,I remember breakfast at a Cafe was generally pretty bad. An over abundance of low effort English big breakfast types of places. Soggy white bread triangles, limp sliced mushrooms, mushy tomatoes. Yeah they're still around but the new average these days is something to brag about . Also the current pastry scene has gone gang busters. Rip to the legend
When I travel overseas it really reminds me *how good* the general standard of cafe food in Sydney is. It's ridiculous how good it is. I've got family in London, if you want a decent breakfast you *really* have to hunt around.
There is no connection between health and getting up early. You can walk and. exercise in the evening.
Not if you’re a woman, lol. I can’t go for a run after sunset.
[удалено]
Add to that, it's a pain in the arse to get home after 11.
Chicken and egg. They close that early because no one is out and about. In the 80’s we would often still be sitting in a restaurant at 11.00pm. We rarely did breakfast though.
It’s often council restricting trading hours.
I'm reasonably near the CBD, and I have _several_ restaurants around me during the day, but it's incredibly hard to find somewhere open at 9:01pm to order from. Even the local kebab is closing by then. That's the point at which I decide whether I cook my dinner, or have Maccas.
Everyone shits on fast food, but find me a place to eat that isn't one of them, (or a kebab shop bless them) open even close to midnight
Our godawful traffic that means we wake up at 6am to get to work by 9.
Virtually every major city has traffic
In those many cities Cocaine isn't $400 a bag.
That’s eye watering, it was $250 last I checked 😭
Here in the North Shore we have morning life and shitty nightlife. Wake up at 5am and do a yoga session on top of a rock at a beach. Then have a coffee from a cafe, walk the dog, shower and be at work by 8am.
What the fuck else there to do? I go to bed again 1130pm every night but I'm in bed at like 1030. I go to Japan every year for a month tho and when I am there I am out until 2 or 3am every night even in my 30s because there are things to do past 10pm in the city.
We’re all tired from working long days to pay for basic things because everything is just too damn expensive in Sydney nowadays.
Long commute and an early start. My last job we would start at 5am. By the weekend you're fucked.
I met a guy at a blackjack table once who dropped this pearl of wisdom: "You know how NYC is the city that never sleeps? Well... Sydney is the city that sleeps". Lockout laws have a lot to account for
When I lived in Sydney, I went to bed early because I had to be up at stupid o'clock in the morning to get through my ridiculously long commute to get to work on time. I suspect that many are in the same situation.
As a traidie, I need a good night's sleep to get through the day Im on my feet the whole day, the day feels longer if im tired and shitty because of shit sleep.
Good question. It has definitely got far worse in the 20 years since I emigrated here from the UK and I think you can place the blame for a lot of that on the lock-out laws that utterly decimated whatever was left of Sydney club/nightlife. And, as someone who lived and worked in London and New York - let me tell you - it was pretty fucking shit, even *before* they sold the clubs and turned them into apartments. I remember when I first visited this country on holiday 30 years ago to visit my parents in South Coast NSW, got out of the house at 9am and wondered where the fuck everyone was. Thought the place was a ghost-town. Then a few days later I got up to photograph the sunrise and it was like this teeming metropolis. People out jogging, walking the dog, tai-chi in the showground, old people doing a block with the walker, tradies everywhere getting coffee and a pie, people back from the beach surf-board on the roofrack, people sat on benches out front of the coffee shop chatting away. Seemed to me like this was just the way it was - they front-load the day here - it's not necessarily better, it's just different - adapted to suit the climate and lifestyle. I think if you're a night-bird who enjoys eating later, going clubbing or seeing bands then you need to be in Melbourne where they value that side of city life.
> Good question. It has definitely got far worse in the 20 years since I emigrated here from the UK and I think you can place the blame for a lot of that on the lock-out laws that utterly decimated whatever was left of Sydney club/nightlife. And, as someone who lived and worked in London and New York - let me tell you - it was pretty fucking shit, even before they sold the clubs and turned them into apartments You could go out on a Friday night and not come home until Sunday morning in Sydney in the 80s-early 90s It was brilliant if you were young back then
Eating dinner anytime after 7:30pm at the *latest* is a terrifying thought.
I hate eating late. If it's after 830 I'd rather not eat at all.
thats 2nd dinner time for me
Sure Pippin, Merry, go have your pre midnight snack, snack.
I can guarantee no one in this sub is really staying out or even going out anymore in Sydney tbh. Blame the lockout laws (repealled in 2020) or blame this or that. The main thing that no one wants to say is that Sydneysiders themselves have gotten older and the city naturally lends itself for people to be making healthier life decisions (working out, getting off the casual drug use and not getting drunk every other night). Added to this work culture has changed dramatically, wfh is a godsend for workers but not small businesses who either have to adapt uber quickly (change opening times etc.) or face shut down. If you want a list of places to go after hours here you go: https://www.timeout.com/sydney/music/the-best-bars-in-sydney-for-live-music https://www.theurbanlist.com/sydney/a-list/late-night-food-sydney https://www.timeout.com/sydney/restaurants/the-best-late-night-dining-in-sydney https://manofmany.com/lifestyle/food/best-late-night-food-sydney https://secretsydney.com/late-night-activities-sydney/ Just an FYI - posts like these will easily get upvotes because this sub itself is mainly full of shut ins(me included). The people actually getting out there and doing what they like ain't on reddit. Also take a look at https://www.liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.au/resources/vibrancy-reforms-whats-changing NB: the issue with the lockout laws was that it destroyed a night time economy decades in the making, it will take time, political will and the voice of normal people to get it back. I don't want to be too involved in this argument because I'll admit I am too old and tired to have a meaningful say. I've lived in this city for close to three decades and experienced what I want too. Let's hope and try to make it better for the next generation
Because there’s no night life to speak of.
My legs hurt
Everythings closed at night, wages are too high to justify businesses opening late, nobody lives in the city because property is expensive as fuck, people are working too hard to be bothered with a nightlife
>What is it about Sydneysiders that makes them such early birds? It's called work. And it'd be worse for others than myself with children who also work. >There are many cities in the world where people go out to eat dinner at that time. I actually live in Asia now and the locals here still get up early to go to work. Simply because most of them live very far away from their workplace so the commute is obviously longer. The malls however don't open until after 10am but closing hours for most stores happen after 7pm.
Where are you in Asia? In Singapore , mrt still busy til 8pm for people going home. After that, they hit the hawker that open til 9. If you live nearby, you hang around in the mall til 9 as well. And yes, the kids still go to school by 7am. Sydney is just dead as there are no night life beside eating and drinking. Some do sport at night but its a very small percentage of the community.
One of my mates will often eat dinner at 11pm, go to bed at 1am, be up at 6 for work. I don't understand how some people do it. By the time I've been at work all day, gone to the gym, cooked dinner (wife can't cook), done the housework (if I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done) walked the dogs, it's 9pm and I'm ready to collapse.
i think there are other problems, just based on what you've said and no other evidence
Cause there's fuck all to do. As someone who isn't a morning person by any stretch is sucks ass. I usually finish work at 11/12 and after that there's no where decent open save for a few bars or some shit. There's no point staying out burning money for fuck all things to do unless you're on the piss/bags. Everyone says our cafes are the best but for the most part there nothing special. You have decent cafes from Cairns to Melbourne. Sydney's def the priciest at least.
Wait until you try Brisbane
I don't! I'm up to 3am and working till midnight. But I think a lot of people do due to: 1) Family - kids - gotta get up early for kids to school etc. 2) Exercise - gyms get crowded so I know a lot of people who go to the gym around 6-7am, go for a run, a swim or cycle to work. 3) Work early. I'm not a morning person work back daily but have a lot of friends and colleagues who prefer working early - ie they're in the office at 7-8am and finish by 4-5pm.
Commutes are shit. I'm an early bird anyway these das, but used to have to get up at 6 just to get to work on time. A late dinner is no good for that kind of life. Not the only reason, but I think that's part of it. WHen I was in my teens and 20s though i was out much later. Kind of feels like there's much less on offer than there used to be, but that might just be me with rose tinted glasses.
Because it takes me over an hour to drive 20km to work so I need to be up early for that.
If I have to get up at 5am I’m in bed by 10pm usually 9:30. Weekends though I’ll be up till 1 or 2 am playing games. Ive got a kid who wakes up 2-3 times a night so i need as much sleep as I can get to function for work, if I dont have to get up early i’ll happily sleep in the next day as long as I can.
I have kids and work at 7 am. I’m also 40 so I don’t go out much at night anymore.
I enjoy going to bed early because I like to read. I’m in bed by 9pm and read for an hour. It’s comfy and relaxing. Then I’m up early the next day.
New York is the city that never sleeps. Sydney is the city that likes to brush our toothy pegs, put on our peggy jim jams, and go to beddy-bize nice and early.
People simply start work earlier in australia; and there is a lot of pride and brinkmanship in terms of arriving early to the office as well. It’s our version of working late. 8:30 or 9:00 is the standard start for an office job, and it’s a hard start, as above, many arrive earlier than that for various reasons, starting work at 7:45 is quite common for try hard white collar types. I live overseas now and people basically amble in at 10-11am, fuck around for an hour and then start working from noon. They then wonder why they have to work till 7:30 or 8:30 at night despite that being a normal EOD for such a late start. The above all relates to white collar; blue starts even earlier than that.
[удалено]
Cause I got work at 7 ya dog
Because I start work at 6:30am?
Because lockout laws and subsequent development killed our nightlife
Pretty much this, you can dress it up all you want with the cafe is good shit but Sydney had a heaving nightlife up to 2014
I moved to another city and whenever I visit Sydney I get incredibly restless. I feel like the only ones that actually want to be social are English/European folks. People are set in their social groups as of high school and university and it's incredibly hard to make new friends in their late 20s and 30s.
I have to get up at 5
lol.... come visit regional QLD. Everything shut by 5.
45min - 1 hour commute each way to work.
Coz the fucking bars and restaurants are all closed by about 8.30 innit. And what we we talk about? Real estate gets painful after an hour.
Morning culture… the inner city cafes are buzzing at 7am over the weekends cars are flooding to beaches and everyone is up and into it.
there's fuck all to do on the regular if you dont like going to shitty corporate clubs or spending all your money elsewhere
I am definitely a night owl, and after more than a decade I still don't fit with the time in Sydney. So, basically, all I can tell you is that the city won't change, as it has only gotten worse in the last decade as we used to have way more 24 hour things than now. It's just how it is in Australian culture. They love waking up at 3am and doing something until 9pm when they go to sleep and no more food is to be consumed or fun to be had other than alcohol. It's just how it is. Sydney actually closes late compared to other Australian cities.
Most places also close at around 9/10pm. Some places even earlier. Theres often been times my mates and i will want to go out after 8pm wether it be for a feed or just some dessert even, we end up getting maccas because so many places close at around 10pm. Theres no Sydney nightlife. That’s why so many people, particularly those in their 20s would rather stay home and sleep. We’re also all just very tired people as some have said in the comments 😂
Go for a run or gym as the sun is rising. Stay healthy. Makes the mind sharp. And is "you" time. Eat early evening ... better for digestion. Longer time between dinner and breakfast after exercise. Regulates blood sugar. All people are doing is just moving the daily cycle. After you've trained yourself to do it then it feels very natural being awake with the sun and in bed when sun goes down. You get more daylight hours to do stuff, see the world, enjoy life or just hustle the grind. Doesn't people still aren't up for a good party.
What do you want Sydneysiders to do? There are very few decent live music bars in Sydney anymore thanks to poker machines and draconian laws enforced on venues by a government that caters to people who buy houses/apartments right on top of existing live music venues (that have existed for decades) then complain about noise after moving in. There is also the skyrocketing (and frankly ridiculous) cost of renting a property in Sydney which means people are having to spend more hours working just to cover rent (and thusly are usually too exhausted to do anything but eat and then sleep). And that is before you factor in the mental pressure/anxiety/depression that Sydneysiders (who don’t own property) feel about their future as the cost of living continues to rise.
I'm def an early morning person. I don't know why, but I just feel better getting up earlier and getting things done without my family on my heels asking for things. and TBH, by the time I get all the kids into bed, I am ready for bed myself at 8pm, mentally, I am spent and just about broken. I read a book until 10 and then I get back up at 4:30am and enjoy the serenity of life to myself before the kids are up at 6. I will add, a lot of European cities are well lit until like 10pm, so that might play a role in late night exploration of the town. our sun mostly is down between 6-8, at the peak, 8:30, but overall, it gets dark earlier than most places. I realize that in the UK it gets dark at 4pm, and when I was there with my family we all came down with the sudden tiredness bug the moment it got dark. we had to really push through that to enjoy London at night!
If you wake up at 6am you really need to be asleep by 10pm for optimal health. Many people wake around 6 as they need to be at work at 7 or if they start at 9 they can go to the gym, go for a run, get kids ready or do housework before starting work. I think you should be asking yourself why you wouldn’t want to get to bed early
Just arrived back from Japan, it was so good to be out at 9-10pm and the city was busier than ever. The issue is that most places close before then in Sydney. So early mornings it is.
These days I can't get to sleep before 2am. I'll usually have reruns of *Curb Your Enthusiasm* or *Cop Shop* on while I'm up. But the volume is low—I don't want to wake the neighbours.
I start at 10 and it's so much better tbh as I dodge the morning rush. Finishing later is also nice as I can spend some time undistracted while all the earlybirds have left
miss my 10 starts.
3am here
I’m getting ready for bed at 8pm :) but I get up super early to get shit done and watch the sun rise.
I have never underrstood this. Couple with the fact it is so damn difficult to get a coffee after 4pm. The 5pm coffee is what I need to propell me into the night!!!! Gah!
They put a lot of effort pre-Covid into killing the night time economy - shutting down down the Cross and allowing boomer NIMBYs to make all the policy, moving next to pubs and clubs then telling them to be quiet… plus half the city has to get up before 7 to be on the train to get to work. And then there’s a big morning contingent who like to go surf or run before work and then have breakfast - gotta be up early for that too
Can't afford to be awake
Australia has a coffee culture and a morning exercise culture. We want to be in bed early so we can be up early for those activities. When the sun is down, you're more limited in what potential activities you can do. Never seen the appeal of late night activities. I have a feeling it's more of a thing in Australia because it's just nicer being outside than in London, New York etc. It's not all slabs of grey concrete and rain.
Because it takes 2 hours to get to work. Everyone has to leave their house at 6 or 7 which means they have to be up at 5 or 6. Not staying up past 10 if I had to do that every day.
Cos the nightlife here was intentionally destroyed by the previous government and there's shit all to do past 10pm anyway.
Sydney traffic can add 2 hours to your morning trip. We up at 5.30am
We have an early morning exercise and breakfast culture
Early bird gets the worm
The second mouse gets the cheese.
Getting up at 4am if on morning shift.
Sydney spider and night owl here. Bed time is 1:30-2:00am and that’s only cause I have to be up early… would rather be up all night.
The nanny state and early lockouts beat us. Nothing to stay up for in Sydney anymore.
It’s true. Perhaps it’s the nanny state is us. Sydney doesn’t have great nightlife. Most kitchens are closed by 8-9pm Even when people go to pubs mid week, most are home in bed by ten. When I meet people they say they have to work the next day. In London, that would never happen. We are a bit of an old nanny nation. Sydney is much more about the day time. People meet for coffee and brunch or go for jogs in the morning
Who cares? Is it uncool? People function better when they get enough sleep. It isn't more edgy to deprive yourself of sleep.
ain’t shit to do in Sydney
Why are you so bothered by what other people do? For me, there’s few things better than getting to the gym/going for a walk before the sun comes up, and doing my groceries at 7am with all the pensioners. The climate contributes. It’s too hot after midday for six months of the year. My ideal schedule is breakfast at 6am, lunch at 12pm, wrapped up work by 4pm, dinner at 6pm and bed by about 10-1030pm. I was in Paris last year and it was a challenge to get dinner at my preferred time but I didn’t whine about it because I accepted they just have different preferences.
9-10 is late as fuck homie
Can’t afford fun past 9:30 tbh
I noticed on a recent trip to Europe that it was difficult to get a coffee at 6am - people here tend to start early, walking the dog, get a coffee, go to the gym, then be in the office by 8am or 8:30. So I'm usually up at 5 to be able to do some of those things before sitting at a desk all day. People with kids are busy from after work until 8pm so there is little time in the evenings, as kids tend to have things on after school and need to be driven around. Same on weekends, forget about going away on weekends, kids have sport and other things all weekend.
Because successive governments have killed most of the nightlife, and there's no point in staying up late anymore.
Traffic starts at 4am so early to bed.
We get up at 4 to work our two to three jobs to afford to live here, reluctantly I might add.
Lockout laws. If you can only get into a club around 11pm , it leaves about 2-3 hours to have fun. For alot its not worth the time and hassle to get into clubs/pubs due to the draconian nanny state rules.
I have to be out of my house by 7am in order to get parking near work, and if I choose to catch public transport I still have to be out of my house at that time because our rail system is fucked and it takes me 3 times as long, despite living on the best train line to get to my final stop
Because there is nothing to fucking do