Where was I? Oh, the battle thingy… Trust me on this. The battle of being a morning person is worth fighting. Now, why would someone want to be a morning person, unless absolutely necessary? Isn’t it better to be around the comfy pillows and blanket a little longer? It sounds tempting but not satisfying. Yes, Satisfaction is something that we seek throughout our lives. I know some of you will laugh, hearing that I consider waking up at 5:30 am to 6 am early morning. I know many successful (and satisfied) people who start their day at 4 am. The answer to why I would like to continue the battle to be a morning-er person is pretty simple. That satisfies me. Why and how that satisfies me is as follows.
More time with my family
Morning is a ritual time. In many culture, people start the day with morning rituals. I feel that waking up early in the morning, preparing for work, helping Dear Wife by appreciating the breakfast she puts on the table, and helping Dear Son eat his breakfast (which is sometimes another struggle, by the way), are all a ritual to me.
I remember that morning was longer when I was a child. 🙂 Many memories surround the breakfast table and the kitchen. In some weekend mornings, even before the breakfast time, Grandpa and Grandma showed up without any prior notice. Those surprise-weekend visits were the best. Now that I can think about this because my brain is more functional than it was as a child many years ago, I realize that my grandparents had to wake up very early in the morning to travel a few hours to visit us. They made the best utilization of their effort and time to visit us by waking up early in the morning, which gave me and my siblings some of our finest memories. I want to spend more of my fresh-times with my family. That satisfies me. 🙂
No feeling of being rushed and overworked
I do not want to be a person who is always absent or late in meetings. I do not want to be that person who looks always rushed and overworked. Many people look rushed and overworked not because they do not wake up early in the morning but because they are given too much work that they cannot finish on time. I am not talking about the real cases where people are overworked due to workload. I am talking about those cases where people look overworked because they started the day late. I want to make sure that I have the time for coffee-breaks when I am at work. I would like to go for lunch a few days every week with my colleagues but still would get all my work done on time. Yes, there may be project deadlines in some weeks making it hard to find extra time for a group lunch outside the office. Yet, I would like to manage a few minutes to grab a cup of coffee and chat with a few colleagues in those weeks.
If I start my day early, I can manage to keep my image to myself as a well-in-control and unrushed person. That makes me happy. That makes me satisfied. 🙂
More reliable
Stated in a study by American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Morning-students have better grades in college. Haha… obvious. It is hard to study during play times. Of course, daily play time can become a little longer in college. The key is just the quiet time of my own and that would be the morning time.
No one relies on a person whom the question to ask is — will you be able to wake up to give me a ride to the doctor’s office at 8 am? People rely on a person whom the question to ask is — will you have time to give me a ride to the doctor’s office at 8 am? People will not rely on me if I am in a deep sleep when they need me the most, which would be the daytime. I want to be reliable. I want to help people around me because that makes me happy. To achieve that happiness, I need to wake up when the world is waking up.
Mental and emotional boost
When I try to remember the faces of my college-friends — some faces appear in mind as neat, some faces are tired, some faces are nervous, and some faces are careless. The faces of those friends who woke up early in the morning appear as calm, quiet, and thoughtful. I think, they started to gain their wisdom earlier than many kids. Many times, I got great advice from my quiet and calm friends. By the way, I was not a morning person while I was in college. I did not do parties either. I was just that kid who had to achieve the highest grade in the class, even if that took several sleepless nights every week.
Where was I? Oh yes, mental and emotional boost. We can have a mental and emotional boost by waking up early in the morning and having a little exercise. Early birds have more time to think; they have more of quiet time to plan their day; they fall under that group of people who are known to possess a calm personality. They are not easily stressed out, especially because their plans are stronger and backed up by risk-mitigation ideas. That is all possible because they have more of quiet-time to think. I do not want to be a stressed out person. Not being a stressed out person satisfies me. 🙂
Better situational awareness, safety, and alerts
Have you ever seen people driving and texting. Duh! Where do you think the phrase “Don’t Text & Drive” comes from? Lately, I have seen too many cases of text-and-drive and get into an accident. Why do people text and drive? Because they do not have enough time to text before they get into the car. Why don’t people just call instead of texting? Why don’t people use bluetooth to call, if calling is really really essential when they are driving? If texting is necessary people should pull over. Oh, I forgot. People who text and drive do not have much time to pull over. Right? If people do not have time why don’t they wake up early?
People who are calm and quiet are better observers than nervous people. Observant people are more aware of their surroundings and situations. I have seen many people driving without looking through the front windshield. I have seen people tying a tie-knot while driving. I have seen people driving while doing makeup. I get it… they did not get enough time in the morning to prepare but hey, how about waking up ten minutes earlier to tie the knot or to get the makeups done and save one or two lives every day?
I do not want to text and drive. I do not want to eat my breakfast and drive. I do not want to use my phone while I drive. I do not want to do these because these multitaskings do NOT make me happy. For the safety of the people around me, for the people who are driving around me, for the safety of my family, I would wake up early and I would expect that people who drive recklessly in the morning because they started the day late should give a serious thought about taking a look at the children on board in the vehicles surrounding them.
Settle in El Paso team
Note: There are many professions including law enforcement, security, caregiving, rescue, and media, that may require working at night shifts. Kudos to everyone who work day and night and put their lives in danger for the safety of others, and make the society more beautiful.
I am a night owl. I stay late in the night and work. I work until 1 am, sometimes I work until 4. Since I work in the night, I sleep all through the morning. They say there is a lot of benefits of being an early bird. However, since I was a teen aged boy, I have been staying late. When I was a student, I studied in night. The silence of the night helped me in concentration. When I started working as a writer, I felt more creative.
Waking up early is definitely good because it can just make your day so much better. Maybe it’s just me, but if I wake up slightly earlier than I am meant to it just makes it easier for me to get ready and go through the full day without feeling tired. Whereas, if I am woken up by an alarm, I just feel a lot more tired especially during the first few hours of the morning. Waking up early also gives you the chance to get ready and not have to rush which enables you to not forget anything as well.
I also like waking up early for some of the reasons that you pointed out. I mean I am that kind of person that enjoys spending some morning time with the family and afterwards, I can prepare early for work. I have had some issues of coming to work late which is the reason I tried to always wake up early nowadays.
I was a night person and I always wake up very late and I realized it is not good anymore. I started to adjust my routine and you are right, it is worth fighting for to wake up in the morning. We, as a Filipinos, we do a lot of rituals in the morning. And it is good for the employees for them not to be in rushed in the morning. It can really boost our mental and how our day will be productive. All of your statements are true! Great article!
I am still a night person. Sometimes I wake up at 1 am and work until 7 in the morning. Sometimes I work until 5 in the morning and go to sleep when a new day starts. I have never experienced any problem because of my sleeping habit.
It’s a great article thanks for that. I wake early because first, I want to prepare myself, my duties, and schedules so that I will not be late in my work.
I am glad to know that you liked the post. Definitely, waking up early give the time to schedule the day well. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
We have a saying here that we should wake up early to reach very far. I wake up at 5 am to reach my job at 7 am (my job is far away and I drive 60 kilometers until I reach my work). I don’t take my son to school that is my wife job. It is very hard to wake up early especially when I go to sleep around 23 a clock.
I wake up early because it makes me feel more productive all day. Usually, when I wake up late, it’s like I have less energy. However, I know it does not work that way for everyone. I know people who are more productive during the night and that’s why they always wake up late.
But on another note morning is essential in my culture. Although I don’t know much about the ritual thing. But we don’t joke with morning, we even have proverbs to support this. And in my cultural it is generally believed that a successful or success driven person will rise early in the morning before click crow while a lazy, poor ,good for nothing will still be in bed.
But to wake up early, then you must go to bed early. I will use a saying in my place to support this early to bed early to rise.
Thank you for sharing the belief regarding success associated with mornings in your culture. Definitely, “early to bed and early to rise” is the key. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
When I was younger I hate waking up early in the morning. I enjoy the comfort of my pillow and my sheet back in those days. I mean sometimes it could take splashing water on my face to wake me up. That is really terrible and it can hurt badly especially on a cold Monday morning. And yes I hate Monday morning until I start to work and see how essential Monday morning is to the corporate society. But weekend when I was a kid was fun. I am at liberty to wake up even in the noon.
Haha . Yes, many do not feel the rush to wake up early, especially the young ones. Many study overnight and sleep till noon. 🙂 Things change over time and age. Our four year old wakes up earlier during weekends. He is so happy during the weekends that he does not have to go the daycare and he may play all day long.
Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend.
For most of my life I’ve swung between being a morning person or a night person. Morning is winning at the moment but it could change at any time.
This is interesting, indeed. The key is to have enough sleep. Thank you for visiting and commenting!
I am not a natural morning person – but I do have to be up early-ish as my husband (who teaches in a school) has to be in school by 7:15am, and I often drive him.
Your reasons for being up early are great ones! More motivation for me to be up! I often go for a run after I drop my husband off – that is my me-time & reward for being up at that time of day.
Definitely, me-time is a great reward! Thank you so much for visiting and writing a wonderful comment. Have a great weekend!
While I admit I have a hard time getting up early (no, I actually mean “wanting to get up early”, as I am perfectly capable of jumping straight out of bed from the moment the alarm clock goes off), living with nature, as in getting up with the sun is very satisfying. The best part is that you get sooooo much done during the day, because it, indeed feels like it lasts longer! 🙂 So, I think getting up early works, as long as you get enough hours of sleep.
Well said – following the nature and getting a longer day give a satisfaction of accomplishment. Yes, enough hours of sleep is important as well. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
A couple years ago I wouldn’t have agreed. I used to have super-quick mornings. Like if I had to leave at 7, I got up at 6.45 ? I’m a night owl by nature and love my sleep but I made a conscious decision to start my day early to have some time for self-care and morning routine. And it works unless I get stuck in the black hole of the Internet lol
Haha ? nicely put — the black hole of the Internet. Perfect ? naming of the scenario. Thank you for sharing the story. Have a great morning. It is 5:50am mountain. I hope I will not get stuck in that black hole. ?
I was up at 4 a.m. when we had the restaurant. Now retired so get up at 8 a.m.
Wow 4am is hard; I can imagine with a restaurant the closing must be late too. Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. Have a wonderful week.
I was always a night person and for my first career that worked well as I worked at night. Then second career involved being up at 5:30 and working till 7 when I got the kids up, breakfast, walk to school and then back home to work ( I worked from home). Now I am retired and busier than ever. I don’t have time to sleep in and i’m somewhere in the middle between night person and morning person. Thanks for this post I like the way you have divided it up.
Yes. Definitely, work-hours influence our routines. I know some remarkable people (mostly relatives) who became busier than ever after retirement. This must be very exciting and definitely extraordinarily.
I appreciate your visit to our blog. Thank you for writing such a wonderful comment.
I love this. I’m home now, taking care of myself and trying to fight depression so I sleep as much as my body wants to. When I get back to work (I start at ten and have to leave home at 9) I plan on waking up at six and getting things done before work, like not rushing breakfast or showering, working out. This is a great post! xx
I am so glad to know that you liked this post. I agree it feels great when we have ample time to get things done and started. Thanks for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend.
Very important. I used to be a morning till I married a late night family? And now I’m a residue of both? But, constantly striving toward mornings because, of the benefits I know.
? haha ? I can completely relate. We also had many night endeavors including midnight shopping at Walmart and watching the last show in the theater. All those were replaced by something that dropped on the Earth around four years ago; importances, values, and priorities shifted; life started to seek routine. Thank you for visiting and leaving a wonderful comment. Have a wonderful weekend.