Getting up at five rocks!
No, really, it does!
It gives me time alone, extra time in the morning to be productive (I love me a bit of productivity!) and I just feel more prepared for the day.
I love getting up at five…
However…over the past few weeks, I have noticed that by Thursday and Friday I find it really difficult. If I manage, I spend the rest of the day falling asleep!
Now, you guys know how difficult I find sleeping at night-time so falling asleep during the day is super unusual for me.
Over the past six months, I have been learning to listen to my body. And I feel like falling asleep during the day might be my body trying to communicate something to me.
Obviously, over the week I am building up a sleep deficit so that by the end of any given week I am more tired than I should be.
What to do?
One option is going to bed earlier. Thing is our children do activities which go past nine and I do activities which go past nine # social butterfly
So unless our whole family go down the recluse path, I’m thinking earlier bedtime is not the best solution. And frankly, and earlier that ten sounds positively daytime!
The second option was to have a nap during the day. I’m not sure about this. I guess it could work…I mean I seem to be napping unintentionally anyway. However, usually if I nap I feel groggy for the rest of the day and I things to do and people to see!
My third option, and the one I’m trialling this week, is to wake up at six instead of five.
This has it’s own set of disadvantages, such as having an early rise daughter which means that elusive time to myself becomes even more…well, elusive.
It also means I get significantly less done each morning.
But…I am thinking, I could set up the bread machine the night before and just turn it on in the morning. I could make the oat milk at night instead of in the morning. Maybe by rejigging some of the stuff I want to get done to the night rather than the morning, I can achieve all I want and get an extra hour sleep as well?
How do you ensure you get enough sleep whilst also getting done everything you need to get done?
I am rarely awake at 10… if we’re busy and out doing something I can make it up that late but it’s a struggle for me on nights when we’re home and just watching TV. I typically sleep from 9/9:30-5 but I will sleep in until 6 on days that I’m tired. I try not to nap though as I too am left feeling groggy the rest of the day.
I think I might be able to go to bed early only all my children are up past that time and I’m anxious they’ll forget to lock the door…or close the windows…or take the dog out…🤣 (Thank you so much for following me back over here after switching ❤️)
Hmmm…maybe a nap is just the thing. Just on the days when you feel that you need it, of course. To avoid grogginess, you could try limiting the nap to 20 minutes or so. My husband always has said that he read a study that said a 20-minute nap is the ideal length. It provides enough energy to recharge you for the remainder of the day but because you don’t fall into a deep sleep, you won’t feel like you’re waking up in the morning. Recently I tried a practice that I was nervous about messing up my long-standing routine and have been so pleased with the result. I live in a climate that gets incredibly hot during the summer months, and getting all of my garden work accomplished is difficult if I want to avoid heatstroke. Last summer, I made myself physically ill working in 100F temps. Hauling loads of soil, mowing lawns, etc. This year I knew I needed to find a way to avoid working outside during the heat of the day but as I looked at the schedule this way and then that, I realized the only way to accomplish my work and avoid the heat is to have another block of work in the evenings. At first I was completely opposed to the idea. I have long been known as someone who is “done after dinner,” as far as my workload goes. I always wake at 6, then work steadily from 7 am – 7:00 pm with few to no breaks. By the time dinner is cleaned up, I’m done! But I really do want to enjoy having my garden tidy and all the produce from it. And I really do want to avoid working in hot temperatures. So I decided to give it a try and have been pleasantly surprised at how nice it has been, and how easy! I don’t put pressure on myself to get any certain amount of work done in the evenings, but I do work steadily. I go out with my husband after the temps cool down (usually around 8:00pm) and we visit while I prune, tidy, tie up, and mulch my garden. I also use the evenings to pull weeds. Another wonderful benefit of this time is that I can let our chickens out to free range while I work. (They can’t free range when we aren’t out there to watch for hawks). After I’ve done my work for the day, we sit down and talk until it gets dark. Often the kids (why am I still calling them kids? I need a new word that isn’t “offspring.” haha), come out and join us and we have a great time chatting and laughing at the crazy antics of the chickens. So that has been our evening routine most evenings this summer, and I really love it! There are still days when I don’t feel up to squatting and bending at night time, but most of the time I find that I have energy enough to do a few little chores and that makes me feel so satisfied. Plus I think it’s better for me than sitting on the couch, watching a show.
I hope you find a way to help yourself through those Thursday and Friday slumps! I’m sure you will–you are good at assessing your situation and figuring out what you can do to tweak it and make it work better for you! 🙂
I LOVE the idea of going outside in the summer evenings and gardening with Gary, watching the chickens (which we don’t have – but I can imagine, right?!). And with your ‘offspring’! What a wonderful way to spend an evening ❤️❤️
I definitely don’t get up at 5am but I do really like the quiet time of being up before the children. I still haven’t mastered the self-control of going to bed early though!
I completely get the trying to get to bed early and failing – mainly because again everyone is in bed and as an introvert I just love the silence. That said, as the children have now grown to adults that elusive evening time is diminishing rapidly!