Early Birds vs. Night Owls

I’m sure that some of you reading this may find that when you wake up in the morning you look a little bit like this:

But for the rest of you, it’s a totally different story. When you wake up you probably look more like this: 

While the latter has been me for the majority of my life, I’ve taken the New Year to transform myself into more of a morning person. You might be wondering why I would bother doing this… it’s not that I find being a night person necessarily a bad thing, but rather that I find that human existence was built to function during the day. We’re obviously not nocturnal creatures and it’s not that I was just sleeping poorly, but that I was eating poorly as well (if you’re going to be up late, loads of late night snacking is bound to ensue). 

Going to sleep at 2am was what I considered “early” because going to sleep at 3am was normal for me. Sleeping in was essential for me to function, of course, given that I was up so late every night. My mood was off and my eating was off. But I’ll say it again just to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with being a night owl. Some of us are just better off working late into the night and that’s totally fine! For me, however, ever since sleeping and waking up earlier I’ve found tremendous positive changes in my life.

Lately, I make sure to go to bed before 12am. I sleep at a generally consistent time every night and wake up at a consistent time too. I get a good 7-8 hours per night and I actually wake up feeling well rested. Being up earlier means I actually have a proper breakfast rather than a late brunch and it feels so much nicer to have time to relax in the morning rather than hopping out of bed and having to rush to work or class because I slept in until the last possible second. Sleeping at a consistent time has lessened my anxiety because I feel more prepared for the day without having to rush in the mornings. I eat better and don’t feel as sleep deprived. Don’t get me wrong, though, it took me ages to get to this point and of course I have flop days where I sleep in because I was out late with friends the night before. 

In essence, my experience with abandoning my night owl habits has proved to have a great positive impact on the rest of my life. If any of you night owls out there are reading this and finding your routine hard to keep up, trying sleeping and waking up earlier!

Let HCuO know how it works out if you give it a try in the comments below and hopefully you have fewer days like this:

Sources: Cover Photo

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