Whenever I decide to try to eat better, work out, and basically focus more on a healthier lifestyle, one of the first things I say to myself is “I’m going to try to wake up earlier.” I don’t know about you, but I love to sleep in. I have been like this for as long as I can remember.
Even though I still sleep in pretty much daily, I’m not as bad as I used to be. I used to easily sleep until 12 or 1 in the afternoon. Everyone used to get mad at me and tell me that I was “wasting my day,” but I just couldn’t get myself up in the morning.
Along the way, I have realized a few things about myself that contribute to me sleeping in: my body needs about nine hours of sleep a night, I am more productive at night, and I just can’t fall asleep.
Since being in university, I no longer need nine hours of sleep per night as that is just unrealistic. I can now function properly on about 7.5 hours, which is progress, so I will take it.
For my whole life, I would much rather stay up late to do things than get up early to do them. I realized that I study better and am more productive overall once the sun sets. I have absolutely no idea why this is, but I can complete a whole list of tasks at night that I would definitely not get through during the day.
Also, I have a really hard time falling asleep. I try my best to keep my bedroom just for sleeping: I don’t have a TV in there, I study at the kitchen table or coffee shops and I try to keep a normal bedtime routine to help myself wind down. Even when I do all of these things, I find it really hard to turn my thoughts off.
Over the past few summers, I have had a job where I worked afternoons (3pm-11pm) which works perfectly with who I am. I figured that I may as well stay on that shift for as long as possible since I know that when I get into a career, I am not going to have an opportunity to sleep in until noon every day and not have it affect my job.
I have just come to terms with the fact that people will judge me when they find out that I didn’t wake up until 10. To be fair, I probably didn’t fall asleep until three or four in the morning so it’s not like I’m sleeping for an ungodly amount of time.
Still, for whatever reason, whenever I find myself sleeping through my early alarms, I have a talk with myself about having to start waking up earlier. I know that at some point I will be able to buckle down and get on a “normal” sleep schedule, but for now, who cares?
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