Strange Morning
In the dark this morning, I slowly woke and realized I was itching in several spots. Then I heard the buzz of my nighttime visitor: a mosquito. I got up to inspect my wounds. Sure enough, five bites. It was 4:50 a.m. I figured I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for fear of being nibbled more, so I got up and tackled some Pokémon corrections on my borrowed Mac.
Early mornings are usually not my cup of sweet, beige coffee. Strangely, getting up so early today felt like just the right thing to do. I worked for an hour and a half, in the pre-dawn dark before any of my family stirred. When they woke up, I was able to greet them cheerfully, instead of in my usual half-asleep, crabby way. Our morning routine rolled without a hitch. We even had enough time to read Horton Hears a Who! together. Lucas was out the door with Grandma in plenty of time to make it to school. Ian drove away with Asher, heading for the babysitters’ house, just moments after 8 a.m. And then, I was on my own until noon! I managed to drive to my client’s office this morning, deliver the deliverables, schmooze, and negotiate for a potential new type of freelance work. Might be a once-in-a-while kind of thing, could become regular. Fortunately, the client seems to get where I’m coming from.
It’s 3-ish now. I nearly fell asleep when putting Asher down for his nap, but managed to drag myself back to consciousness to work some more. I feel good, if a little tired. I wonder if I should try to adjust my circadian rhythms enough to make early mornings a good thing? Early to bed tonight, I think.
September 8, 2008 at 8:04 pm
“…early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Now I can’t speak for the “man” part of that and while I’m working on the “wealthy and wise” bit, I can confirm that keeping a consistent schedule on both the weekends and weekdays has done a hell of a lot to keep me in a better mindset. Every day I’m up by 5am. Every night I’m in bed by 10pm. Keeping on this schedule has made me less irritable, of regular and healthy appetite (I no longer NEED caffeine or processed-sugars and rarely want them either), and I’m even finding that I typically wake-up naturally at about 5-10 minutes before my alarm goes off.
My natural circadian rhythms tell me that I should wake up at about 2pm and go to bed at 6am. As I’ve been having either long commutes or early-starting jobs that required I was up and out the door before 6am, I’ve had to retrain myself. For a few years, I tried to ‘sleep-in’ and then ‘stay-up’ on the weekends and all it did was make me grumpier during the week days because I was throwing my sleep schedule all over the place.
I’ve come to accept that for me (and my Daddy and my Mr.C), routines aren’t a bad thing. Routines keep us happy because our bodies and minds work better. And while I may occasionally take a nap during the weekend afternoons, its usually more because of my taking-in some kind of “special exercise” than my being exhausted from the week.
It sounds like your morning routine is good for you, too, because it gives you some personal time before having to be Mom/Wife/Household-Director again. And while it may take a little time adjusting to an earlier schedule, it may just be what the doctor ordered for a happier you.
*hugs*
September 8, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Sounds like a lovely morning. Weird. But lovely. Peaceful, even. Love you.