Quiet Mornings

I sometimes loath the fact that I've become a morning person. My job has forced me to do this. I have to be at the office at 7:30 in the morning, and because I wanted to keep this job for a long time, I learned really quickly what I needed to do to ensure I was rested and coherent when I arrived at work. This involves such things as getting to be no later than midnight if I can help it and keeping my wake up time consistent.

I used to have lots of trouble sleeping. I often suffered from insomnia and when that finally started to go away, I was cursed with restless feet that started early in my pregnancy and haven't stopped since. To make matters worse, while I was pregnant, I suffered from horrible pregnancy insomnia (look it up, its a horrible truth) that lasted until I gave birth to Hunter. Thankfully it went away shortly after his birth, but guess what? Those horrible restless feet decided to stay around and haunt me every once in a while.

To be honest, my sleep troubles are no where near where they used to be. I wake up in the morning and usually, I feel rested and ready to take on the world. The odd night where I am annoyed by the restless feet, I can deal with. Besides, it usually means I need to up in iron intake, that's all.

So, why the change? I started working for my employer back in 2005, so since then I've been getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 AM every weekday. We can't attribute my good sleeping to popping out the child. Ever thought Hunter is a fantastic sleeper, thank god, my nights are not as peaceful as they used to be and those rare days when I can sleep in till noon, it doesn't happen as kiddo is usually up no later than 8:30. No, my good sleeping came with a lot of difficult and adjustment. It also came with some personal sacrifices. I work early, so no late week nights for me. It would be rare to see me out past midnight on a weekday. I keep things consistent and here I am, awake and dressed at seven AM. I was up at six even thought I didn't need to be. I could have gone back to sleep but why? I enjoy the peacefulness of the morning. I love the hum of traffic 21 stories below me. I like the quiet. When I sleep in now, I feel the day has been wasted. I do love to sleep in sometimes and on weekend, when I am able, I will sometimes curl up in bed till almost eleven. But over time I've become a believer in the tune 'early to bed, early to rise.'

This knowledge of my sleep patterns and misadventures is coming in very hand. Punk boy has started a new job that requires him to leave the house at seven in the morning, the same time I am usually starting my walk to work. Anyone who reads this or knows me can understand what a shit storm this could be. Punk Boy loves to stay up super late and sleep in super late - ever since I've known him. This is mostly attributed to the fact he used to work nights, so some of it is ingrained in him. Weekend nights I would kiss him good night at about eleven, crawl into bed and wake up at 4 in the morning to find he isn't in bed next to me. A quick step outside the bedroom would find it locked into his computer, playing video games or just checking out things on the Internet.

My darling has had to change his sleep habits completely. He wasn't looking forward to it and I know he wasn't confident that it could work for him. I shared a few things with him that helped me get over my insomnia and work towards getting to bed at a decent time and waking up feeling rested and read for the day.

• Use your bed only for sleeping (and, well, other 'bed' sanctioned activities). What I mean by this is don't use your bed as a desk, or as a place to talk on the phone. Your body needs to associate 'sleep' with your bed and by doing other activities in it, it is harder for your body to make that connection
• Try to do the exact same thing every night before sleep. For me, I read. It doesn't have to be a lot, even a page or two, but try to do it every time before you go to bed. By doing the same activity, your body will realize that its time to start shutting down for sleep. It works best if this is an activity you can do in the bed, like reading, or writing in a diary or watching the late news.
• Go to bed around the same time every night. We hammer this into parents heads that if you want your child to sleep well, you have to be consistent with bed times. Why do we forget for ourselves? There is really no reason for it. Do we somehow thing we are beyond having a regular bedtime? We really shouldn't be.
• Take the time to learn the cycle your body is on. I am a firm believer that everyone's body goes on a sleep/awake cycle. Most people it's about seven hours. You sleep seven hours, you wake up and in about seven hours, you hit a bit of a wall where you feel a tad tired. This is the exact schedule my body works on. I wake up at six AM and usually between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, I get a bit tired. Pay attention to your body and note what time you wake up and what time during the day you feel a bit tired or played out. Use this to judge how many hours of sleep a night your body needs. This used to be about five to six hours for me before, but its changed to seven to eight. I don't know how scientific this is, but I find if my sleep is crazy, I pay attention to this sleep/awake cycle my body has reassess how much sleep a night I need and I usual feel better.

 I had to admit we are having success with Punk Boy. While mornings are not really his thing, and he does need some help from me to get up and get going, it is a vast improvement. And its nice to go to bed with a warm body next to you then to sleep half the night away alone in bed...