I think all of us night owls have dreamed of someday being the guy that jumps out of bed at 6:29, a minute before the alarm goes off, and doing 100 pushups, reading the paper, and eating “this complete breakfast” before work. For some reason, staying up late and getting up late is associated with laziness, no matter how much sleep you’re getting and what you devote your nights to.
Think about it: the dude who goes to bed at 10 and wakes up at six really has his life in order, right? I go to bed around 2-ish and wake up at 8:15-ish, and I’m a slacker right? Even though my day is two hours longer than that other guy’s, and I spend those two hours actually DOING stuff, not just vegging in front of the TV.
Anyway, this Slate article from Monday is awesome:
Can a Night Owl Become a Morning Person? The author tried it, and found two things: 1) You’re only going to be able to wake up earlier if you go to bed earlier; 2) The sacrifices involved in going to bed earlier weren’t worth the extra time in the morning. Too much stuff happens at night.
I think there might be something to that…I’d much rather have my midnight-2am time than add a 6:15 to 8:15 time. My brain is firing on all cylinders around 11 pm, and I’m blogging, reading good books, writing/recording music, working on band or work stuff, or even playing a show with my band.
You’re probably saying “well, just shift everything three hours earlier and your brain will be firing at 8 instead of 11.” I tried, it didn’t work. I had a long run at trying to be a morning person last year when I taught Bible study. It was a class full of high school kids that I taught four days a week before school. The class met in a building at Union Square at 6:20 am, and every day I had to have a 45-minute lesson and a sunny disposition to keep the kids awake. I wish I could say that after 8 months I was transformed into some super morning fanatic, but I actually spent most of the year in a zombie-like circadian haze.
When class was over at 7:20, I would head straight to work and put in a long day…I actually kind of needed to work a 9- or 10-hour day to make up for the slowness of my foggy brain. Overall, it was a good experience, and I learned a ton from preparing those lessons every day, but I also learned that no matter how long I go on an early schedule, I’ll always be faking the morning person’s routine.
