I Must Ask . . . Are You A Morning Person or a Night Owl?

Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed. –Newton's First Law

Last week's poll results are in. The votes are divided almost exactly down the middle and there wasn't much middle ground. It looks like for most people, either you do make the bed or you don't.

This week I thought I'd continue with a related topic about sleep. More specifically, whether you're bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go at the crack of dawn and in bed promptly at 10:00 pm, or if mornings are just not your thing and you like to stay up late. Me? I'm a night owl. I kind of, sort of want to be a morning person. It sounds good in theory, but actually dragging my sorry hide out of the bed any earlier than, say, noon, is really not appealing to me.

I think that I have an inertia problem. According to Sir Isaac Newton {and who are we to argue with somebody who is titled?}, a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Conversely, a body at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Once I get going for the day, I don't stop until I'm so tired that I drop. I am much, much better at staying up late to finish something than getting up early to get it done, because once I am at rest, I like to stay that way. See? Physics do come in handy in real life.

You've heard the little couplet, early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise. On the rare morning I do manage to get out of bed when the alarm goes off, I really enjoy that feeling of accomplishment first thing off the bat. I aspire to be a morning person. But any early morning, no matter how successful I feel at being up early, I find myself thinking how nice it would be to climb back into bed. I guess I have a hard time getting going in the morning. I usually feel the most alert in the evenings and so I usually stay up late, even though I know I'll pay for it the next morning. I tell myself that staying up late is going to make getting up harder. But I like to stay up late and I promise myself that I will promptly get up when the alarm goes off the next morning. And every morning, I hit the snooze button at least six times because it feels so good to be still and quiet in my bed. I lie awake at night so often trying to fall asleep that I've just formed the habit of staying up till I'm so sleepy I can't think straight. This helps to minimize the lying awake. But it also creates a desire for 5 more minutes in the morning.

School is starting soon for the Little Bugs, which means that the snooze button will no longer be an option. I'll have Little Bugs that have to make it to school on time. By default, I'll have to be a morning person. I think that this year I'm going to pack their lunches the night before.

Now that I've told you all about me and my upside-down sleep schedule, I must ask . . . are you a morning person or a night owl?