I’ve never really understood earlybirds (aka “morning people”).

I’ve been a nightowl my whole life. Some of my earliest memories are being awake in bed, staring at the ceiling or the walls. I’ve never really been able to sleep before midnight. Even when I was working corporate jobs and had to be at work at 7AM (which generally meant that I needed to be up around 5AM),  I wasn’t able to sleep before midnight.

I’ve tried so many “tricks” and “tips” trying to be an earlybird.  Trying to be one of those people who could just greet the day cheerfully and effortlessly get up early in the morning. But, nothing ever worked and I struggled for my entire corporate career. I spent years being chronically exhausted.  Most days by the time the end of the workday came around, I was ready to go to bed, but I always had things I needed to take care of when I got home.  Meals to prepare, cleaning to do, bills to pay, things to take care of… It seemed that the list of things to be done was never ending.

Since I’ve been self-employed, I set my own schedule for the most part. Every now and then I will have an early meeting or some obligation early in the morning but for the most part, I’m in charge of my schedule, so I don’t have to get up early.  This has been somewhat complicated recently by a change in the schedule of someone I do support for, but at least I don’t have to be up at 5AM anymore (to be fair… most days I AM up at 5AM, but that’s because I am STILL up, not that I have gotten up at that time).

But, I am much happier being able to live my life as the nightowl I am meant to be.  I refuse to buy into the societal “norm” that there is some moral “goodness” to being a morning person. I can guarantee that I am not “lazy” because I have a different sleep schedule.