**In my best announcer's voice** We apologize for the interruption to our regularly scheduled program (de-cluttering, working on new habits and playroom problem solving) to bring you a little something you didn't expect... A personality quiz.
Okay, I'm not an announcer... and this isn't a quiz... But I do have a question for you.
Which are you- a morning person or a night person?
I love this discussion because people are usually so strongly one or the other. Take me for example. I am DEFINITELY a night person. No question. In the morning, I am irritable. I am tired. I cannot problem solve. The only thing that wakes me up is a shower taken in the semi-dark bathroom. After that I am fine. If I don't get a shower then I am half groggy all day long... until dinner time. Then when the sun goes down I go all nocturnal. Every day like clockwork at 9:30 or 10pm, Christian looks at me slightly annoyed and says, "You are such a night person." Then I realize I have begun talking... and talking and talking, while my morning-person-husband's brain is shutting down, struggling to process my very fast and active thought processes. At night, my brain goes crazy into creative mode (I thought about the idea to write this post last night right before I went to bed) and it is hard to shut off. I am ready for fun at night. I am ready to clean the house at night. I am ready to do basically anything... except sleep.
Then there is my darling baby Melody. (Who is not a baby anymore. I've really got to stop calling her that. :) ) She is a morning person (like her Daddy) and at 7 AM the girl is up. She doesn't need to do anything to wake up. She just wakes up. She doesn't need wake-up snuggles, she is just happy and ready to play. She and her daddy are cute in the morning. They are each others' favorite people at that time of day. At 7 am, you will find me dozing on the couch or rocking chair while M plays with her toys or wandering around listlessly trying to wake up. Maybe I'm in the dark shower if Christian is feeding Melody her breakfast for me.
That's where I was this morning when he thought it was a good idea to bring Melody to say hi to Mommy. I was so annoyed. After all, it is the morning- it is my shower. I will be with this girl all day- can I not take my shower in peace? Isn't the bathroom where mommies go to be alone? "You are frustrating me so much this morning!" I snapped.
He's a morning person. He didn't understand why I was so frustrated. Post-shower, I realized that I was only frustrated because my brain was still in the OFF position.
Not only does morning v. night orientation affect my mood at different times of the day, it also affects what I remember. Did I have a conversation with you in the morning? Chances are I put it in the back of my mind the rest of the day, and it may get lost back there! Devotions in the morning? At lunch time, I probably couldn't tell you what I read or what I prayed.
Devotions at night though- I will be thinking about those all day the next day. I will wake up thinking about them.
So I guess I'm not totally straying from my flow of posts lately since one of the reasons I am thinking about these things is because of my new going to bed by 10:30pm habit. I have definitely been better rested this week (for the most part) and I don't wake up AS tired after getting 7-8 hours of sleep, but I know that my night time orientation will probably never change. Just like my husband will always be a morning person, I will always be a night person.
Do you know what else is a little comical? I LOVE being a night person. My husband LOVES being a morning person. We both think the other one is missing out- haha!
Anyway, what I am most interested in here is - What are you? Morning or Night? Do you love it? Do you wish it were different? Do you have to go against your own grain sometimes to fulfill your responsibilities?
Thanks for satisfying a curious friend :)
Love, Rachel
So, I do my best work in the morning, AFTER I wake up. The waking up part is hard. And I definitely never wake up early. It doesn't matter if it's early by anyone else's definition or not. If it's early by my book, it's not going to go smoothly.
ReplyDeleteI find myself trying to get Tristan to follow my schedule, which isn't too difficult so far. He usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00 and then takes a good nap from 9:00 until 11:00. I nap during that time too and after our naps, we have tons of fun! :)
Is it possible for one to be an afternoon person??? Because if so, that's me! I like the hours between 2 and 5. Probably because that's the kiddos' naptime. ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Nikki! I'm so glad you left a comment! Waking up is hard for me too. I also feel weird since I'm up and awake for an hour or two and then I want to crash- I am also a fan of sleeping during that morning nap!
ReplyDeleteLindsay- Sure! Why not? :) I guess that's the time when you write for your blog? Because you always seem totally energetic. :)
Great topic :-).
ReplyDeleteI am an evening person by nature, but life with a tradesman DH, sun-rising DS1, and school-age kids means I have to be functional at 6.30am at the latest every morning. So I have tried a bunch of different strategies to get myself moving by that time.
9.30pm bedtime, NO COFFEE after 4pm, and a wind-down routine in the evening are some of the obvious solutions that work for me, along with getting out of bed as soon as I awake (no snoozing allowed - duh!). The hardest bit is doing it with a good attitude ;-)
Love your answer Penny! That is where I am right now... trying to learn strategies that help me be functional in the morning! My day usually starts at 6:30 or 7am also- A shower first thing in the morning really goes a long way to helping me "wake up". I will have to try some of your strategies!
ReplyDeleteI'm slowly being converted by Clare. She falls asleep around 8 or 9 p.m. and sleeps until 4 or 5 a.m. After she's fed and eats, if we refuse to play with her, she's back out around 7ish. But there is a squirmy time in the middle. I'm starting to get work done during that time...
ReplyDelete