Do you think a person can change from a Non Morning Person into one of those Morning People? It’s something I’ve been pondering lately, wondering if there’s some kind of training you can undergo that will magically transform you into someone for whom getting out of bed in the morning is an experience to embrace with vim and/or vigour, rather than someone for whom the first thought upon waking up in the morning is a calculation to determine the soonest opportunity one can to return to bed. Or is it something that’s hardcoded into your DNA, and trying to change it is an exercise in frustration with no useful payoff, like switching from left-handedness to right-handedness, or learning calculus?
I would say I’m just making conversation or “asking for a friend” but nobody who knows me would believe that, because if you look up “morning person” in the dictionary, the definition would use words I find obnoxiously cheerful/enthusiastic, and the antonym section would just be a picture of me, bleary-eyed and still wearing my penguin pajamas at 10:00 in the morning. Having a baby has somehow cured my insomnia, and I feel so much better in general than I ever have before, but even after 8 hours of sleep, I think I could only bound out of bed if our house was on fire, and only after glancing around quickly to see how long I have before things get really DIRE, because maybe I could snooze for 5 more minutes if I leave the photo albums behind.
Ellie used to sleep until sometime in the 7:00 hour (I know, I KNOW, best baby sleeper ever! believe me, I know) and after the recent time change she started getting up sometime in the 6:00 hour, and then this week she has gotten up in the 5:00 hour, and while I eventually feel okay — and even good, and alert, and capable of operating heavy machinery — my first thought upon hearing the initial peeps from the other room is always “Urrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh …” And I’ve started drinking coffee in the morning. Honest-to-goodness COFFEE.
If there are any morning persons out there, please report in. Or any groggy persons who have managed to a) come to terms with their lot in life or b) somehow change their assigned personality type: you can report in too. It’s been 30 years of this, and it’s not like it’s a character flaw, and the coffee actually tastes pretty good, so there’s probably no point in trying to remedy this situation, right?
I hate to be a pessimist, but my thoughts include “hopelessly impossible.” Since we live in the boonies of the dessert, FAR away from our school, we hop on the bus at 6:00am every day. Rob and I had a for-serious discussion the first week of school about how NOT long it would take us to get ready each morning in order to have the alarm set at the latest possible time. It appears that this time is 5:25am and every morning for the last 3 months, I have contemplated quitting just so I could stay in bed. I am glad, however, that becoming a mom has had curable effects on your insomnia and general morning attitude…that means that at least it won’t be WORSE than my current existence!
BLARGH! DeSert….not the tasty kind…but wouldn’t that be grand! lol
I have one thing to offer here (although I am so firmly behind you in the bleary-eyed, penguin-pajama’d camp):
Embarassingly early bedtime. Like 8pm.
It may be better not to tell people if you decide to try it.
I get looks of shock and pity when I tell people. Sort of like they’re convinced that I have a serious health issue and am in deep denial about it.
It doesn’t make it perfect, but it helps.
I think the best way to cope with it is to marry a morning person.(But, obviously, if you are not already married to one, disregard this advice because you are clearly otherwise very happy.)
Brent and I made a deal (or, okay, *I* made a deal, and he lives with it) that since I was the one getting up to nurse the babies every few hours all night long for the first year of their lives, he will be the one to wake up with them in the mornings, either until they become teenagers and stop waking up voluntarily before 8:00 am, or until the end of time, whichever comes first. Works for me!
I agree with the embarrassing bedtime – that has been the only thing keeping me alive, because as Anna mentioned… I didn’t marry me one of those morning people.
I am not a morning person in any sense of the word, but necessity has dictated that I become one and therefore night time (MY time) I have to go to bed, in order to function in the morning (not my time), therefore I’ve become one of those horribly uncool folks called MOM and I left Lindsay hanging out somewhere in Hamilton in 2007.
I’m sorry to say that it only gets worse when they go to school, because I refuse to stand in the freezing cold, waiting for the bus in my jammies… but since it seems to have cured your insomnia (which I’ve had) I’d say you’ve won, because I’d rather be a little grumpy in the mornings versus a zombie all day.
[…] Remember when I wondered if it was possible to change from a non-morning person into a morning perso… Scientists have decided that no, it is not. Apparently there is a morning person gene. I do not have it. Pass me a mug of something warm and caffeinated. […]