What Time Should You Wake Up?

Is it my upbringing or my choice? It is neither. It is just me. I best function with 8 hours of sleep and I prefer stretching through the night than waking up early in the morning.

Being a mindfulness life coach, I asked myself, if it is essential for me to wake up early to meditate and do some soulful work. I did put myself in to a rigorous habit of waking up early and learnt a valuable lesson.

I was born in a small town that buzzed with activity early in the morning. The woman of the house cleaned the front porch and decorated it with kolam( art drawn on the ground in front of the house ) did the other chores even before the sun was out. Men went out to have a small social conversation over tea and newspaper and also did shop fresh vegetables for the days cooking.

Things were almost the same in my house too, and still is with my parents. With me it was always different. I have rarely seen the scene I have described as I had the best of my sleep at that point in time, the early morning. I used to just wake up and rush through the morning routine and reach school on time. I used to be late for school in my early years and get punished for being late. Seriously the punishments never had an impact on the time I woke up. Over the years I learnt to manage time and now being on time is one virtue that I have. Still I never managed to alter my sleep schedule back then.

When I entered college to do literature, I remember my professor telling me being with nature is the best way to learn literature. So in my college days I was an early riser and did enjoy my early morning jog in the campus filled with lush green trees. That was just a 3 year short period in my life.

I got married and had no choice but to wake up early not to enjoy nature but to do the chores of cooking and cleaning. I missed my sleep so much when I had my kids. Then their school happened and life took a fast forward.

Waking early became a no choice for me.

This lockdown, where nothing is in a hurry except for corona, I just wanted to relax and have my sweet 8 hours undisturbed sleep. But then this guilt peeped in. I was guilty for sleeping late and waking up late. Tough nothing got affected by that. I did my meditation, fitness, art, reading ,work and social calls, still I was guilty. That is when I put myself in to a test of waking up at 4:45 A.m. Thanks to the self-development gurus who preach about waking up early. I got to test myself first hand.

There is no denying fact that there is a serenity in the early mornings, there is that energy u get before the sun comes out. But what happens through the day. I was acting like a zombie only thinking about when I can sleep next. I was dropping and yawning hard. I started feeling heavy. I was not myself at all.

If it was supposed to be, I would have naturally prefered studying early in the morning in my school day. If it was supposed to be I would have naturally enjoyed the activities around early mornings. Why did I as a child not like it and I still not like it. It was neither my upbringing nor my choice. It is how my internal clock is set.

Now I have learnt to respect my internal clock. I accomplish a lot of things in a day with exuberant energy when I respect my internal body clock. No more guilt and judgements. Each one has an unique pattern of sleep like the duration of sleep, the time to sleep as wake up. If you have one for yourself. Respect that and live happily and mindfully with it.

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