How to be a morning person?

[mrRed]

Have a baby and two working parents with demanding full time jobs!

We have to get our kid to day care at 6:30 AM to get enough time to work during the day which means that the baby automatically wakes up between 4:40 and 5:30 AM 7 days a week. When we're really lucky on a Saturday or Sunday he'll sleep until 6:15.

I can't workout in the morning though. As exercise is a stress relief tool for me, I like to workout right before eating dinner at night after a full day's worth of crud has built up in my system and needs to be exorcised.

[morethanjustamom]

No practical suggestions to add, you've gotten some good ones here. Just wanted to say that you can't make yourself a morning person, even after you've established the habit. I am not a morning person, but I'm up and working out at 5:30 every morning because that's the only time I can.

Afterwards, I'm still grumbly and need my space, while my husband is waking the kids up by crowing like a rooster. He's not a morning person either, but working out perks him up. It just irritates me, I don't get the good mood benefits until about a hour later.

[ellystar]

I get up at 6:15am, make my fiance's and my lunches, and then go back to bed. I used to have to leave for work at 6:50am before I started my new job last year, so it's a hold over from that (he still has to leave at 6:40am). I try to avoid going back to bed and do other things, but I always just go back to bed. I don't have to be at work till 9am and I have a five minute commute, so I'm lucky if I'm out of bed by 8am. Today it was 8:25am.

The thing is that I'm not that tired when I go back to bed. It's only one thing - laziness. I know if I stay awake, it's a good full hour of time that I could work out, and instead of trying to find time after work. But I'm lazy and my bed is so comfy. And when I have stayed up and just read or watched tv or even cleaned my apartment, I end up feeling great throughout the day. Today I feel tired. I think going back for that one hour might be messing me up. I think I need to set up some kind of incentive system for myself for staying awake.

[Strawberry Squatcake]

I wish I could remember where I read this so I could reference it. A study I read (it was pop culture, so probably like 100 tmz.com readers or something!) said only 4% of people are morning people. That means the other 96% of us want to throat kick everyone and everything near us first thing. Hi, friends! For some reason knowing this brought me comfort. And motivated me a little more. I guess knowing if others could overcome it feeling like I do, then I could, too.

If I have a class I like, I move more quickly. So I know I can do it. I just need to be more motivated.

In the last six week challenge, one of my mini challenges was getting 8 hours of sleep. No matter what I was doing (watching TV, surfing the web, cleaning the kitchen, sexting - wait, just seeing if you're paying attention), I dropped it at the appropriate time and got in bed. In a week, my habits had already started to change.

[JanObe]

I am the worst morning person on the planet BUT I have noticed that if I get a good nights sleep it is MUCH easier. So my goal right now is just getting to bed early, sleeping through the night, and getting up when the alarm goes off.

Once I have made that a routine I'll probably add new goals like walking the dogs in the morning rather than in the evening.

[jswbach]

I've always been a morning person! I voluntarily get up at 4:30AM on weekdays and I'm at my most-productive before lunch. However, for some strange reason, I simply CANNOT make myself workout that early in the morning.

My advice: don't fight your natural biological rhythms. Instead, become aware of when you are most energetic vs. focused vs. creative and when your low-energy times of day are, so you can plan your activities to go with those natural tendencies and not against them.

For example: I'm most focused and creative before lunch, so I work like a maniac, do my best planning, do any of my work that requires writing or numbers. After lunch, I have zero energy and little focus, so I do research/reading/watching/listening activities. The hours just before and after dinner I have another burst of energy, so I do housework, cooking, preparing for the next day. The hour before my bedtime is when the kids are in bed, and I have time to work out at home. I use the last of my day's energy on that, and within 30 minutes of completing my workout, I'm totally drained and have no problem getting to sleep (by 9-10PM).

My boyfriend, however, is NOT a morning person. He has to wake up very slowly, and you can't ask him to make any decisions or think about anything before noon. During the middle of the day he has energy, and does his best working/thinking. At night he's much more alert than I am, and has a hard time winding down to get to sleep early. His best time for exercise is mid-day, so he would be a lunch-time workout person.