become an early riser

Let’s see, I went to bed at 12:15 (ugh…) and woke up at 8:30, that means I got 8.25 hours of sleep. It’s a little bit less than most days, but I still feel refreshed!

I went to bed at 10:30 (but I really fell asleep at 11:00) and woke up at 8:00. I feel better already!

Normally, I go to bed at 12:00 AM and wake up at 10:30, but today I woke up at 8:30 and went to bed at 11:30 the night before. Guess what? I actually feel much more refreshed waking up earlier! Tonight, I will aim for going to bed at 11:00 PM and getting up at 8:00 AM the next morning.

Success! Well, sort of. I woke up really early today. Around 4:30. I got up at 5:00, as the longer I lay there the more I realized I wasn’t going back to sleep. I went to bed about 9:30, so I got 7.5 hours of rest.

Now I just need to stay up all day and get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight and I should be on my way to becoming an early riser!

Wow, I failed miserably today. I took a melatonin and some Tylenol PM when I went to bed last night, and didn’t get up until after 13:00. I knew I shouldn’t have taken those Tylenol PMs, as they usually make me sleep for an outrageous length of time (like 12+ hours), but I thought maybe I could get up anyway. I wasn’t tired by the time I needed to get to bed so I took them, and that was a mistake.

I’m going to see if I can get an Ambien from someone for tonight to help me get back on track.

It’s past midnight, and I’m tired but not enough… last night I stayed awake in bed for 2 hours before falling asleep, which isn’t normal for me but I’ve been stressed and feeling alone… I’ve got some very calming, relaxing old jazz on and I’m hoping it’ll do the trick by 1:00. I tried waking up to an alarm today, but I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed… I’m thinking that I should just set my alarm at a late time, and keep pushing it back by five minutes each day… Maybe 9:00am tomorrow to start… Then I can probably get at least 7 hours in.

Today I woke up at about 11:45 AM. It’s the last weekend before a hellishly busy semester starts up on Monday, and I need to get my sleep habits under control.

I’ve been going to bed around 2:30 AM lately, so I’ve been sleeping in until around 11:30 AM. I’d like to be able to get up consistently around 7:00, maybe earlier. This will allow me plenty of time in the morning to get my work done before classes start, and I will be able to just go home after my classes get out. Or at the very least I shouldn’t ever HAVE to stay up at the school working on stuff into the wee hours of the morning because I could never get anything done before my classes started.

So, starting tonight I’d like to begin moving my sleep schedule back. I’ll plan on getting up at 9:00 tomorrow morning and continue that through Tuesday morning. Then 8:00 for about a week. After that I’ll start moving my rising time back by 10 minutes ever day or two until I reach 7:00.

I was reading other comments from this goal, and realized a big obstacle for me is that I love being up at night alone and away from the world, kind of decompressing the day and being alone with my thoughts…

But the times I have started the habit of waking up early, I feel that you do get a little alone time (drinking tea in the morning quiet, going for a morning walk) but also mixed with a cool feeling of community with the other early risers (waving hello to other people out on their morning run for example, or people on the earlier train to work). For some reason I feel like early risers have a go-gettum energy that is nice to be a part of. The thing about morning “alone time” also for me is that it makes me feel proud of myself, and more in control of my day, than night “alone time”. I may always enjoy the night alone moments more than morning, but the tired feeling all the next day isnt worth holding onto. WIsh me luck!!

I have been abandoning this for a while and I really would like to do it. I feel like when I get up early, it effects the entire day with such a good positive energy, even if all I do with the extra time is dress nicely, do my makeup and watch a little morning TV. Even better would be getting up early enough to run outside, or stretch, or write, or read or walk to work, etc etc. It’s about 9PM here and I am planning on going to bed after I am off this site.

My plan for tomorrow is to get up at 5:30 and go running. Wish me luck!

i have never been an early riser, but i want to be.