become an early riser

Well, it’s been just about two months now since I set this goal, and my habits have definitely changed.

I’ve been getting up between 6:00 and 7:00 almost every morning. I’ve only slept in beyond that a couple of times. (The latest by far was one morning when my fiancee and I slept in until like 9:00 – we’d stayed up the night before having a Scrabble tournament – I know, we really live on the edge, don’t we?)

I’ve had a few (only a few!) late nights, but by ‘late’ I mean, like, 12:30am, which isn’t that bad. I’ve usually gotten to bed by 11:00, often by 10:30. I still want to be more consistent about getting in bed at 10:15 and waking up at 6:15, my target times. I’ve just been a little more lenient with myself lately because it’s summer. But still, I want to be ready for the onslaught of my fall schedule when it comes!

Only 29 more days until I can call this goal accomplished! And this is definitely a habit that I plan to stick with for good….

As of today, I’ve made it through one month of getting up early!

This past week, I seem to have been getting in bed around 10:45 or 11:00 instead of my target of 10:15. It hasn’t kept me from getting up early, but I’d still like to get back to 10:15; I think I just need to give myself a little more down time late at night, like just spend the last half-hour reading or something, so that it’s not so hard to tear myself away from what I’m doing and get ready for bed.

There have also been a couple of mornings when I seem to have unconsciously turned off my alarm and gone back to sleep. But even then, I haven’t gotten up later than 7:30. Other than those instances, it’s been 6:15 or at least 6:30 for me.

So overall, this is still going very well. I have two months to go before I’ll check this goal off and say that I have indeed “become” an early riser.

Getting to sleep at 10:15-10:30 is becoming easier, I’ve noticed, and I don’t wake up in the middle of the night quite as much as I did at first, but waking up at 6:15 has actually become a bit harder now that the novelty has worn off. But I’m still keeping it up and loving it!

Made it into bed by 10:30 last night—my fiancee had washed our sheets but neither of us had remade the bed, otherwise I would’ve been been there at 10:15!

And this morning I woke up at 4:25, having been bitten by whatever evil insect keeps getting into our bedroom and biting any uncovered parts of my body (I guess it must be a mosquito, although I don’t know how they get in). I was too itchy to go back to sleep, so I just decided to start the day. It was a bit annoying, but fine, as I feel great now! And I’ve now been an early riser for two full weeks!

I actually did amazingly well these past two days, considering that this was the last week of class for me and I had a ton of assignments to get done. I did them all and got plenty of sleep!

Let’s see. The night before last, I was in bed by 10:15 and got up around 6:10. And then last night, I was a little late to bed (10:40) because I decided to call my mom, whom I’d been playing phone tag with all day. It was about something important, too, so I suppose as reasons for staying up go, this was a good one. And I got up at like 5:45 this morning, well before my alarm clock, feeling totally awake and happy!

I’m pretty proud of myself. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten through the last week of a semester without staying up until all hours of the night (or skipping any classes)!

I did really well last night—finished the essay I had to do and got in bed at 10:30. I had to get up early to finish the other essay that was due today (the perils of being an English major), and I actually woke up earlier than I had intended, at around 4:45. I didn’t get up for a long time but didn’t really fall asleep again either, so I’ll definitely be ready for bed when the time comes tonight.

If I make it until the end of the week, I think I’ll just do weekly entries from then on. I wanted to have a daily record early on to keep myself accountable, but I think I’m safe now!

Was slightly late for bed last night, as I really wanted to grind out the last few words of my Shakespeare essay (I succeeded)... but I still got in bed at 10:30 and was up just after 6:15! (Although once again I woke up in the middle of the night! This is so not normal for me! Maybe it’s the end-of-semester stress…)

The next couple of days are really going to be a challenge in terms of maintaining this habit… I’ve got so much schoolwork to do. I’m not even sure I can get it all done without staying up late or getting up extra-early. I’m sure going to try, though.

Rocked it again last night as I was in bed right at 10:15! I still haven’t really been feeling sleepy, unfortunately, when I get in bed this early. I think it’s partly because I’ve been deprived of exercise lately… end-of-semester projects have been occupying pretty much all my spare time. I don’t have trouble falling asleep though, so it’s OK.

This morning, woke up at 6:15 and got out of bed at 6:30, so I’m still on track… also, my fiancee has been doing this with me! He’s not as devoted to it as I am, but for the most part he’s been going to bed and getting up with me. I never even tried to push my agenda or convince him to join me; it just naturally happened. It’s amazing how often not trying to control your partner, and just working on yourself, gets the best results (if you have a well-matched partner, of course). Seriously, I need to try to keep that in mind. I think the more I work on all my goals, the more I’m going to see it in action.

Finally beat the clock last night and was in bed at 10:14! Now to keep doing that consistently…

I couldn’t believe it, but I woke up right at 4:00am for the third night in a row! And I felt totally energized! My limbs all felt like they were buzzing with energy. Does this mean I should be getting up at 4:00? I didn’t want to feel sleepy later on, as I have to write essays all day today, so I went back to sleep until my preferred time of 6:15. But I wonder if I should just get up the next time that happens.

Well, last night was decent, but not my best. I was 20 minutes late to bed because I foolishly chose to get in an argument right at my bedtime. Yet again I woke up in the middle of the night (at exactly the same time as the night before, oddly enough) and had to go back to sleep. I ended up getting up 10 minutes late (I think I turned off my alarm clock and went back to sleep… bad Meredith). 6:25 is still pretty good for me, but I did feel strangely sluggish this morning. I think the end-of-semester stress is wearing me out a bit.

Tonight my head’s going to be on the pillow at 10:15.