It’s 7:45 a.m. and I have already cleaned the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher from last night, completed a load of laundry, read through all of the emails I neglected yesterday, made my coffee, and started a big writing assignment. I feel accomplished and proud of myself, and I also keep glancing at the clock, shocked at how early it still is. A few months ago, two major life changes happened to me: I became a mom, and I became a morning person.
Before I had my daughter, getting up early was not a part of my life. I’m a freelance writer who works from home, and I enjoyed the benefits of my flexible schedule by sleeping until 9 every day, sometimes later. Before that, when I worked as a full-time editor, my workday didn’t start until 10 a.m., and on weekends, my husband and I would get out of bed between 10 and 11. I always knew that I could be so much more productive if I would just get up earlier, and I truly wanted to be a morning person—I just couldn’t bring myself to actually do it.
A few months ago, two major life changes happened to me: I became a mom, and I became a morning person.
Then I had a baby, and everything changed.
Like every other new parent, I had been warned about the lack of sleep I was going to experience. But I didn’t truly understand it until my daughter was born. Instructed by my doctor to wake her for feedings, I was getting up every two to three hours to nurse and pump, and I was exhausted. I slept whenever I could, and I was pleased to discover that after her 5 a.m. feeding, she typically slept until about 8 a.m.. I slept until then as well.
This quickly became a struggle. By the time she woke up at 8, she wanted to be fed immediately. I would get up with her and nurse and pump right away, with no time to put on my contacts, brush my teeth, grab some coffee, or even go to the bathroom. So I’d do those things after feeding, all while juggling an infant who cried if she wasn’t being held. I wasn’t able to get anything done in the morning, and that rarely changed during the day, when I barely had any time to myself.
I was desperately craving an hour or two that was just all about me. It felt impossible.
Things got more hectic when I started working again. Sure, I didn’t have to go into an office, but I did have to sign on and start writing at some point during the day, and it was hard to find time for that in between nursing, pumping, changing diapers, keeping my daughter occupied, and trying to take care of myself. I was desperately craving an hour or two that was just all about me. It felt impossible.
One morning, not long after going back to work, I woke up at 4:45 a.m. to feed my daughter and felt anxious about how messy my kitchen was and the long to-do list I had for the day. When she fell back asleep immediately after her feeding, I stayed up. As my husband got ready to leave for work, I started quietly cleaning the kitchen. When I was done, I glanced at the clock and realized that I had nearly three hours before my daughter would likely wake up again. Thinking about all of the things I could accomplish in that time invigorated me, and any sleepiness faded away. I made some coffee, started on my to-do list, and felt like I got more done in that two and a half hours than I had in weeks. Even better? The house was quiet, no one was demanding my attention, and I could do whatever I wanted.
I craved that morning time to myself, and without it, I felt like I wasn’t getting the right start to my day.
I was hooked. From then on, I would wake up to feed the baby around 5, then stay up and get things done while she slept. I quickly got into a routine of cleaning, sitting with my coffee in peace for a few minutes, and starting to work. Sometimes I got a workout in or I made myself a nice breakfast.
At around two months, my daughter dropped her 5 a.m. feeding and started sleeping straight through the night to 8 a.m. (I’m very lucky that she’s generally a good sleeper.) Since waking up at 5 had been leaving me exhausted, I started waking up at 6 or 6:30, and although I didn’t have quite as much time to myself, it was enough. On the days that she did happen to wake up earlier, or that I hit snooze too many times and overslept, I would feel completely out of sorts. I craved that morning time to myself, and without it, I felt like I wasn’t getting the right start to my day.
Admittedly, waking up this early every day isn’t easy, no matter how much I enjoy the time to myself. So how did I go from being a late sleeper to being an early riser? Three important elements were key to my transformation:
Establishing a routine. Having a routine is what keeps me going. Mine looks like this: Get out of bed, brush my teeth, wash my face to wake myself up, clean whatever mess was left in the house the night before, make coffee, cuddle under a blanket on the couch for five minutes, then go online and start working. Everyone’s routine will certainly be different, but simply having a predictable start to the day makes waking up earlier feel natural.
Waking up at the same time every day. In the beginning of my morning-person days, I let myself sleep later on weekends, when my husband was able to take care of the baby. But I quickly discovered that that made it harder for me to wake up early on Mondays and dropped it. In fact, research supports the idea that having a consistent wake-up time helps balance your circadian rhythm.
Making it enjoyable. I realized that it doesn’t make sense to wake up early just to do things that didn’t make me happy. If you’re miserable every morning, it’s not really worth it. So I made my mornings about the things I love, whether that’s drinking a cup of coffee in silence, working out, or even just watching a little TV. Mixing it up between fun things and productive things lets me really benefit from the early start to the day.
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