I grew up in a family where everybody woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning. Both my parents were convinced that unless they woke up unusually early, they could not be productive through the day. As a child, I didn’t have an option. I was woken up at a quarter to six, no matter what, each day of the week. I didn’t know anything else.
As middle school concluded and high school commenced, my work started to accumulate, and I stopped having a choice regarding bedtime. I had to stay up to get the job done because no one was going to wake me up at 4 AM to do it in the morning. Yet, I ensured that I got a good seven hours of sleep every night, although I had to wake up at six to catch the bus to school.
Promptly, my last two years of high school is when everything changed – the workload increased, and I could not cope, so I started to caffeinate myself and stay up post-midnight. However, the six AM wake up call for school continued.
While speaking to a friend, I realised that there are people who wake up at three in the morning to get work done instead of staying up till ungodly hours. I never understood how they did that. I did not have the mental capacity for it, my brain would either make me snooze the alarm or allow it to ring for four hours straight. That is when I understood my body – I was a night person, a night owl. I found it easier to stay up through the night then wake up earlier than usual. I figured out what time of day I found myself working and be most productive-the night time. Now, this was a natural process for me – over years of schooling I figured out what time of day I found myself working and being most productive. My verdict was that I was a night owl.
But you are still curious regarding which time of day is yours, perhaps the following paragraphs will help.
Studies show that the brain is most active in the morning[1]so I would say that if you are willing to put your mind to it and you have the mental willpower to wake up when your alarm rings, you are already a morning person. However, if you’re the kind of person that would rather stay up exceptionally late just to get 15 minutes of extra snooze time in the morning, your time to shine is alongside the moon. Another vital thing to add here is that apart from keeping your eyes open, the matter extends to mental state. Some people favour doing work the morning it is due but some others would much rather go to sleep late, less anxious and uneasy as they are fully satisfied that the work required for the next day is complete. Now, this is a simplified way of figuring out which kind of person you are.
Nonetheless, if you’d like to switch, here are some tips. This too is hugely simplified, plainly because it follows an uncomplicated fact. The human body requires approximately 8 hours of sleep between the ages of 18 to 25 (Sleep range is 7-9 hours[2]). Following this, you could drink a cup of coffee and decide to stay up till 12 AM and wake up at 8 AM having got the substantial amount of sleep, or you can’t skip the coffee, sleep at 8 PM and your body clock will wake you up at about 4 AM after getting a solid dosage of sleep (of course, please don’t forget to set your alarm, just in case) To summarise, all you need to do is ensure that you’re getting your full eight hours of sleep. No man (or woman) is the kind of person who can sleep at 2 AM and wake up at 5 AM on the same night, each night.
That said, I must also mention that some people are neither – they need more than eight hours of sleep. They find themselves most productive only when they are entirely and sufficiently well-rested. So instead, of staying up late or waking up early, they find their most productive hours during the working day. They wake up post getting their full fix of sleep, are incredibly productive through the day and fall asleep at a reasonable time, again to ensure that they get their complete and required siesta.
I would love to be the third kind of person I discussed – the one who can do everything during the 10 hour working day, but unfortunately for whatever reason, it takes me a tad bit longer to do the stipulated work, and I’m unable to finish it all during the day. Hence emerged my need to figure out whether I was a morning person or a night owl, and I hope this article helped you do that too.