Familiar Rhythms

Another familiar rhythm of my life: a cute kitten lounging on the couch.

About a month ago, my brain went berserk.

In the blink of an eye, this long-established night owl inexplicably became the earliest of early birds. Four thirty in the morning was no long my natural bed time - this suddenly became the hour when my eyes flew open. Tossing back the covers with a flourish, I was that person who hits the pre-dawn floor with a skip and a hop, and takes on the day by its early morning horns. And like any respectable morning person, I also crumpled into bed shortly after dinner, swapping out what used to be my evening mid-day nap with full-on bedtime.

If this sounds like jet lag, that's exactly how it's felt. 

And I'm going to admit that in the midst of this mess, a tiny whisper popped into my head, a long-silenced voice who dared to offer this observation: Finally, you're sleeping like a normal person.

For a flash, I agreed. This is what I've always wanted for myself, what I strived for decades to become: a Morning Person! Bright Eyed and Shining in the Early Morning Light! Eager to Take On the Day!

But all I ever got for my efforts was a life lived painfully out of sync with my body's needs, and a bunch of health issues to boot. 

Now I know better. 

I know that my sleep habits are perfectly normal and perfectly healthy. 

I know that I feel one billion times better when I let my body sleeps when it wants to. 

And thanks to this month of life as a morning person, I more deeply appreciate the natural rhythms of my normal sleep cycle. I love the way I've organized my life around my own sleeping and waking hours, and I've discovered that being a morning person ruins my flow. 

I now know that I don't want to be a morning person.

I don't think I'll be a morning person too much longer Already, a few minutes each day, my sleep is drifting back towards normal. Normal for me. Last night, I fell asleep around midnight, and as always, woke up without an alarm exactly eight hours later. I expect that by Valentine's Day, my hypothalamus will be back to its old self and I'll be back in my long-established 4 a.m. to noon groove.

And though it's not always easy to be a night owl, I'll be glad to settle back into the familiar rhythms of my normal life. 

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Read more about my life with Delayed Sleep Phase:

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome