I am far from a morning person. The number of times I’ve considered switching majors or dropping out of Mercer for an 8 a.m. class borders on absurd. I consider 9 a.m. as ungodly early, and I would gladly sleep until noon if I could. Getting up at 6 a.m. everyday is basically my worst nightmare. So of course, I decided to try it out for a few days.
The main issue I faced was that I had late commitments for the first few days which meant I was getting up at 6 a.m. and doing things all day until 10 p.m., meaning that I didn’t get into bed until 11 p.m. or midnight that night. Since my last all-nighter freshman year, I’ve made it a priority to get at least eight hours of sleep because I function poorly with anything less.
To put it simply, I was exhausted. The first day, I ended up snagging an extra 45 minutes of sleep because I hit the snooze button instead of facing the world. Still, by the time I went to RUF at 8:30 that night, I felt so exhausted that I nearly fell asleep in the five-minute car ride on the way there. Thursday, I immediately headed to the PODs in the CSC for coffee after class because I was already desperate for a nap before noon. I’d planned to go to the gym after work that night, but once I got off at 9 p.m., the only place I was going was bed.
However, getting up that early also allowed me the extra time to finish doing things that I hadn’t done the night before, like studying for a test Thursday or finishing a resume for my Center for Career and Professional Development appointment Friday. It also meant that I had enough time to get ready and get breakfast at the Caf with a friend or drag myself over to the UC for a chicken biscuit. That extra time was extraordinarily helpful this week especially, since I had a test and an internship application deadline.
It was pretty interesting to see how few people are around in the morning, too, which gave me extra time to myself in the morning. I’m so used to being constantly surrounded by people when I leave my dorm that I was surprised at how relaxing it was to do some homework in the UC in the morning.
While I don’t think that getting up at 6 a.m. every day is in my future plans, I do think that the whole “early to rise” idea has some truth in it. That extra time was very useful to me, even if it meant that I was more tired in the evening. As a bonus, it meant that I fell asleep faster, too! I’d actually recommend giving something similar a try, even if it’s not 6 a.m. Even getting up an hour earlier can give you a little more time to get stuff done in the morning, after all.
How waking up at 6 a.m. can impact your life
