July 12, 2026: Confessions of an Early Bird

I am an early bird.  An obsessively early bird.  I am getting up when my night owl friends are going to bed. Literally.  By the time the sun comes up, I have been up for hours.

         When people discover what time I rise in the morning, most react like it is a hardship. But I feel it is a gift to myself. The hours when the world is still dark and quiet and I am alone. They are peaceful and productive hours for me.  I do my morning yoga and meditation.  I write.  I plan. I read. I may answer emails, write letters, or grade papers.

         Admittedly, getting up so early means I go to bed early as well.  Really early. During the school year, my bedtime is before many of my elementary students’ bedtimes.  So that means I miss a lot.

         Conversations on the latest tv shows, or evening news casts usually mean I cannot participate. (Kimmel who? Fallon?)  If friends or family text me after 7pm, I do not see it until the next morning.  While I will absolutely participate in important evening events, I am very picky about which invitations I accept and which things I pass on.

          I have also found that there is another silver lining to going to bed early as well. I do not know about most people, but the evening hours for me are when I have less energy, ambition, and will power. Yes, some of that may be due to the fact that I am by all accounts an early bird and our circadian cycles tell us that we all have those rhythms. But the late in the day hours are when my self-control requires work. Those evening hours are when I want to just sit in my chair, surf the web, watch TV, and snack.  While a little bit of all of those things is not a problem, I know myself and if I stayed up until 10 or 11 every night, I would be doing far more of those things than is healthy.  I will go down the rabbit hole of social media. I will snack too much. I will fill both my head and my body with junk.  

         So, going to bed before the sun sets and getting up before it rises, helps me avoid temptation, so it is the healthy choice for me!  (And that is what I will keep telling myself!)