I am a morning person. Maybe to the extreme. It is 5:17 am, so it’s safe to say I qualify as one. My days seem to be longer than they should be. But that’s okay.
The Pros of Being a Morning Person
I wake up at 4 a.m. everyday for work. It’s been like this for so many years, that my body wakes up by itself usually. I’ve always been a morning person, even before babies. Let’s just say, they only made the lifestyle more prevalent for me. My brain is fresher in the beginning of the day, then toward the end.
I am more productive on the job, and tend to be more tolerant of negative situations, if they come up. When not at work, I am also up early at home. Once again, I am able to carry out more early in the day, when I have more mental and physical energy. As the evening comes on, I tend to feel a bit washed out. But then it’s been a long day for me, and I have gotten many things done.
Waking up early makes me feel as if I can experience more hours the day ahead has for me. It’s a feeling of not wasting my precious time, sleeping all the time. There is just too much to do!
The Cons of Being a Morning Person
Alright then, let’s talk about the cons of waking up before the sunrise. Once your body gets used to being on an early schedule, it is hard to break. It would be nice to sleep in for a bit on the weekends, but this rarely happens. My cats are also on my schedule, so their clock is the same, no matter what day of the week it is. I automatically wake up at 4 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. It can be lonely, since my husband is a morning person too, but later on the clock than me, 6:30 a.m.. When I try to go back to sleep, it rarely works, since my body is screaming time to get up! When habits are established, your body sticks with it, unless extreme changes are made.
Another con of being a morning person, is that I am no fun at really late night parties. You’ll find me in the corner chair, slumped down with a drink, yawning and forcing my eyes to stay open. I become the brunt of the jokes, and that’s okay. The common theme for everyone to shout at me is, hey it’s past your bedtime. Sad thing is, that’s so true. The question is, how do you break the habit?
So What’s Normal is Individual
We are leaving on vacation in a few days. I look forward to breaking my weekday habits for a while. This means waking up at 4, feeding cats at 4 and going to bed at 8. However, even being on vacation has taught me that your body still does what it wants to do. So I suppose that’s normal for me, but there can be a way to change the norm. We both try to stay up later on vacation, if only to sleep in at least until the sun comes up. We do enjoy our sunrises. One thing I won’t do is drink to excess. No matter what time you wake up, it’s not a good feeling. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol can actually make you have a bad night of zzzzz’s.
There is no real answer. As you get older, you tend to sleep less. I sleep enough, to still get me through my workday and then some. I used to think sleep was overrated. Sleeping 10 hrs. a day, would just take away a big part of my day. There are just to many things going on. However, sleep to me is very underrated. You can still get and need a good 6 or 7, and feel rested. It keeps me on an even level, and I still get the health benefits.
What is normal for me, is certainly not normal for everyone. Maybe after I retire, I can get into a different pattern. At that point, it wouldn’t even matter anyway. I will be able to sleep and nap, when I want!