No, I don’t wake up at 5 AM as the watch on the bird’s hand (or wing.. whatever :)) suggests but I do wake up at 6 AM basically every day. And usually go to bed around 10:30PM.
I definitely haven’t had this kind of rhythm all my life, just a past few years. But at least for me it’s the best solution!
I just love the first hours of the morning when everything is quiet and it seems that the whole world is still sleeping. Usually I get up from bed, let my dogs out and feed them plus the cat (since they have also got used to my schedule) and then most often I will read or listen to a book, do some work that needs a high amount of concentration or just brainstorm and write down the ideas that come to my head. In the summertime it’s really nice just to go outside, breathe fresh morning air and enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch, currently it’s a bit too dark and cold for that :).
By the time most of the people get up it feels like I already have so many things done. Which is true since mornings are definitely most productive time of day for me. It also gives a good positive perspective to the rest of the day! Additionally one thing that I really like about these long mornings is the fact that I can do everything calmly and without rushing. I remember back in the day when I had to be somewhere 8.30 AM for example then I woke up at 8.00, brush my teeth, ate, washed, put my stuff together, put my clothes on, all in the time span of 10 minutes and then just flew out of the door. In one way efficient but not the way I like it.
Obviously occasionally when I’m up longer, visiting friends for example or just like to have a longer evening I’ll adjust my schedule since as we all now sleep is very important and in my case if I get less then 7 hours of sleep I’m not as energetic and happy as normal. It depends person by person but generally speaking 7-9 hours is the average. Once again, if for some reason I sleep more than 8-9 hours I’m just like a zombie walking around for the most of the day which is not good also. Luckily for 95% of the time I naturally stick to my rhythm.
At the moment I honestly don’t understand how some people can only sleep as few as 3-4 hours but I think that the saying “exception proves the rule” applies in this case and at least in some way it’s also trainable. So let’s see how things are 10 years from now 🙂
All the best!
Lauri
The World As It Is 