Contributed by Peter K.
I used to sleep in until about 10 am or so and I would go to sleep around 1 am. My shift at work was from 12-8 pm so it worked out fine. Then one day I was super tired and went to bed around 11 pm. When I woke up it was 7:30 am. I thought it was ridiculously early but got up anyway. I went to my to-do list and saw some items on it that have been there forever and started to get them done. Before long they were all complete and I still had time before I had to be at work to relax. I thought I would get up every day at 7 am. But the next day came, the alarm went off and I pressed the snooze button for an hour.
Remembering how much I liked waking up early make we want to try to make this new pattern a habit. Here’s how I went about switching from a night owl to a morning person.
Moving my alarm clock. Part of my problem was that when my alarm went off in the morning, I kept pressing the snooze button and sleeping in. I was getting 5 more minutes of light sleep then waking up, and repeating this pattern over a period of an hour. This never left me feeling more rested. If anything, when I finally got out of bed, I would feel quite groggy. I decided I needed to put some distance between me and the alarm clock on my nightstand. So, I moved the alarm clock to the furthest side of my bedroom. When it goes off, by the time I walk across the room, I found I was too wide awake to go back to sleep.
Go to sleep when I am sleepy. Some books say it’s best to go to bed at the same time every night. But this didn’t work for me as there were some nights when I was sleepy and others when I found I couldn’t fall asleep. Now, rather than waiting for a particular time to go to bed, I began to experiment with using my own body rhythm and going to bed when I am sleepy. Now I find that my body has set up its own, natural sleep-wake pattern.
With these simple steps, I have been able to convert myself to a morning person. I get more done, sleep less hours per week and always feel refreshed.
What do you think about being a morning person? We invite you to share your ideas in the comment box below.
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