Are you one of those people who are up and chipper at 6am in the morning? Or do you come alive around 9pm when everyone else is hitting the sheets? I’m a night owl, by nature. I could stay up half the night and sleep until 10am well into my 20s (when I didn’t have a class the next morning). But my environment has forced me to be a morning person (or at least get up in the early morning, but you can’t make me like it).
I have kids now (sickeningly perky morning children) and a job during the week that requires me to hit the ground running at 6am. And I do it. I’ve even gotten to the point where I’m not grouchy in the morning… much. This is one of the reasons I taught myself to drink coffee this year. That’s right – I learned to drink coffee in the mornings (even though I still drink it with 1/3 flavored creamer). But I needed something to make the mornings a little more bearable; a shower wasn't working anymore. And it worked. I function pretty well most mornings, and even get up early on the weekends to hit the gym before the hubby goes to work.
But nights are the hardest. I get tired around 8:30pm – its like my body recognizes the quiet in the house as soon as the kids are in bed and starts to shut down. I just want to pile up in bed and watch television. As long as I’m asleep by 10:30pm, mornings work just fine. Yet the lure of the night still calls me – and its even louder if I’m stressed or sick. I want to fall back into that natural pattern where I’m up during the quiet, deserted night house and sleep while everyone else starts their day. I can read uninterrupted, write uninterrupted, and just generally absorb the quiet.
Most of the time I’m disciplined enough (and my body is exhausted enough) to go on to sleep. But some days… Its time to hit the coffee.
So tell me, do you live this tug of war or are you able to work with your body’s natural rhythms?
Angel
8 comments:
Morning person - although I am never chipper. I am usually up by four am. I enjoy the quiet at that hour, much like you do at night. However, I usually hit the wall at around 2pm and need some coffee to make it the rest of the day. I can't stay up late. I can be found asleep around 9 (so exciting!).
I hate mornings. I like the calm, cool of early mornings before everyone gets up, but not enough to get up at that hour. Given a choice, I'd stay up until 2AM and sleep until 10AM. I write a lot better late in the evening, too. In college, I worked my schedule so I didn't have a single glass before 10AM. And my job was in my dorm, so if I ended up with an early shift, I could go down the hall in my PJs and flip flops. It was great.
They'd frown on that at my current job. And yet, I've taught myself to come in early because I don't want work eating away my evenings. I still don't drink coffee. But I drink hot tea. That gets me going. But I'd still rather sleep past 9 on any day.
I am so a night person. Most days I fight tired all day only to be wide awake at 8 or 9 when it's time to start settling in. I've always been this way - staying up to read all night and then taking a nap in the afternoon. But like you, my life doesn't exactly work with the schedule I'd like. So I make it work with the schedule I've got. But the idea of being able to stay up all night and sleep most of the morning is my dream.
Instigator
Add another night person to the group.
In a crazy twist of things, before I started working, I could stay up til after midnight and my body would automatically wake up at 6 AM and not want to go back to sleep. But now that I need to get up, the body still wants to sleep at 8 AM even when I've gone to bed at 10:30 or 11. It's just not fair, I tell you! Just not fair!
I'm a hot tea drinker too. I've had to reduce caffeine consumption because of stomach woes, but I still have my cup in the morning.
Night owl myself! I can make myself get up early if I have to but I don't like it at all. I love the quite evening hours to read.
I'm a morning person; always have been. I adjust my schedule to fit my natural sleep cycle, but I was lucky that my job required that I go in early. Perfect. I was usually at work before 6 a.m., and got a ton of work done before everyone else began trickling in at seven, eight o'clock. I would have worked the graveyard shift if I'd had to -- but I wouldn't have liked it, and I'd have made people suffer :-).
I'm a night person, but I've found that when I'm on deadline and really need to work, getting up early works somehow. If I get up at 4, I can get tons done before I take a break to send the troops off around seven. But I have to go to bed early to accomplish that, and it takes several days to get my body on board with the change in schedule. It also takes me several days to recuperate once I'm done. I can't do the early mornings for really extended periods of time, but I can get in that groove for a little while.
Ah, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loves the night life!!!! And while I can make myself get up and get ready and get everyone else ready, I can't write in the mornings. My brain feels very foggy if I'm up before 6:30am.
Of course, that might change with practice, but I don't really want to practice it right now. :) Maybe if I get desperate enough.
Angel
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