Read the headline: yes mate, she is.

Read the post: Perfectly understandable, carry on.

Out of context, that's not normal.

In your context, there is no normal, but your actions were rational.

Hope you recover quickly, friend, and get the cup of tea you deserve.

Doing something productive when you can't sleep is, like, the most normal thing you can do. You're fine.

So you've stumbled into ADHD through the side door eh?

It may not be normal necessarily, but it's completely understandable. You wanted a comfort while you were uncomfortable, and you were willing to work for that comfort.

Fifty fucking minutes of cleaning for a cuppa?

I do all sorts of things at 3am too, thanks to my awful circadian rhythm. As long as it wasn't you who woke her, you can do what you want. Awake is awake, no matter the time of day. Just be mindful of your surroundings.

I mean there is being restless and there is being loud and starting a project at 3am.

I'm not saying you've done a bad thing here but yeah you are blurring trust line of weird behavior.

Not normal? Sure.
But it's also not normal to have a back injury that prevents you from sleeping.
So if you can use your sleep time to do something productive that helps you, that may not be normal (IE common) but it is a good idea.

It's not normal, but it's not not normal.

It is not typical, expected behavior by most peoples' standards, partly because the majority of people at that time of night are sleeping.

You'd be hard pressed to find support for this as being normal behavior. What's important is whether or not normal matters? If it's considered criticism, why? Is she being awoken by your behavior? If so, then that's probably warranted. Otherwise, if it's just a characterization of what you're doing, so what?

You are not in a normal situation so how can it be normal? Normal activity if you're awake. And you're awake.

Dude, dremels are loud. Don't use them while people are sleeping

If you have back pain this may not be the right activity for you. Scrubbing g while bend over a sink. I don’t care about the time but the activity doesn’t help your injury.

Lack of sleep can make you do weird things. It's not keeping anyone wake, it's not hurting you or anyone. Enjoy your tea.

I'll avoid the word normal, but definitely not something most people would ever do. (It's the sort of thing I might do though.)

Obviously I don't know the details of your back pain, but I would caution you that doing stuff like that (focusing intently on something in front of you, possibly bending over slightly, for an extended period of time) is probably not good for your back.

When you need tea, you need tea.

Not normal. But also not a problem. You couldn't sleep, needed something to occupy yourself.

I may be remembering wrong but in the middle ages people would often wake up at like 2am 🕑 do stuff and go back to sleep.

Nobody in their right mind would be awake at those times... when the body would cooperate.

My wife goes to the attic to do the laundry when she can't sleep. However, I sleep trough anything (even when they blown up an ATM on the parking lot behind the house) so I'm fine with that.

That your wife found you cleaning after she woke to go to the toilet, I see no problem. Having back issues keeping you awake isn't normal and on the pther hand, when you look around at what is 'normal', would you want to be like that?

Maybe next time skip the powertools, but enjoy your tea when you can't enjoy your sleep.

I'm with the others. It's not normal, but it's not an issue.

My boyfriend likes to come home around 11:30 at night, have some coffee, and maybe play a bit of a video game while he eats.

Seems weird. But he also works an over night shift from 7 pm to 7 am. So it makes sense in that he's awake at night. He sleeps a lot during the day. At first, seems weird. Once explained, not so much. At that point most people are understanding.

Yeah that's pretty fucked. Who uses a brass toothbrush?

Given the circumstances you have described it doesnt seem that far out of the "normal" ballpark to me. I've seen worse and lived with worse. Maybe not strictly normal but no big deal

A dremel is sacred.

How dare you wake it up in the middle of the night!!

Sadly, she is right.

I'm sorry to hear you married a muggle.

Whether it's normal or not should not be on anyone's list of concerns, unless they're trying to fit in through deception.

If my wife or I caught each other doing something like that, our instinct would not be to complain, and certainly not by suggesting there's anything wrong with being weird.

I'd much rather be weird than boring.

Totally normal, nothing wrong

Gustavo Fring would find your cleaning... ...acceptable.

who wants to be normal?

Time of day is a matter of cultural tradition and coordination with other people. For me it’s always been a relative matter to when I woke up. Got up at 8 am? I expect to go to sleep 12-1 am. Get up at 3 am? Normal to go to sleep at 6 pm. Get up at 4 pm? Totally normal to be cleaning tea strainers with a dremel at 3 am.