Morning person

Before the wife and I left for Michigan, we took our car into the body shop for some repairs. The shop was unable to finish the repairs in time for us to leave, so we had to take the car to drive to Michigan before the final details had been complete. Anyway, to make a long story short, I had to drive her to work today. And just like the few days last week where I had to drive her, it makes me realize how much I am not a morning person.

If you are one of masses who are a morning person, let me tell you something: people that are not morning people are not lazy. And it’s not a matter of routine. No matter how long I am on a day schedule, it is always a challenge for me to wake up in the wee hours of the morning. It probably has some science-y explanation I am far too dumb to comprehend. People constantly imply that because I start my day later than most people start theirs, it somehow means that I am doing so because I have nothing to do other than sleep 16 hours straight. It’s almost as if those people assume I go to bed at the same time as them. Quite the contrary. No matter how hard I try, I can rarely get to sleep before 3 a.m., which means I get between 5 and 6.5 hours of sleep a night (except on the weekends; I do sleep like nine to 10 hours a day on the weekends to make up for the sleep I don’t get during the week). Conversely, even if they get that you go to bed much, much later than the “normal” person, some people still assume that if one is up all hours of the night it somehow means they are partying or otherwise being rambunctious, as if the only thing one could be up to so late is trouble.

Sorry to disappoint, but some of us just have different schedules or different circadian rhythms. You wouldn’t cock and eyebrow or say something snarky to someone because they don’t eat lunch at the same time you do. So why do it to someone who has a different sleep schedule than you?

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