You might be a night owl if…
In the morning, you are stoic and sloth-like, furtively mapping out the next napping opportunity while standing in line at Starbucks and kicking yourself for not getting more sleep.
After about 7pm, however, you undergo metamorphosis. Suddenly, you’re chatty and hyperactive; brilliant ideas emerge and flow and resist being silenced by sleep.
Well-meaning friends watch confused as you stay up until 4am on the computer (playing games on Sporcle, researching conspiracy theories, or attempting to finish some last-minute homework…) and roll out of bed the next day with ten minutes to get to class, firing complaints about it being too gosh-darn early.
You often hear things like:
“Just go to bed earlier! It’s not that hard!”
“Come on, you can wake up for an 8am run around the lakes.”
“You know you shorten your life with every hour of sleep deprivation, right?”
All legitimate concerns, but if you are a true night owl, you know that nothing will cause you to change your natural ways. However, without defying your physiology, there are some ways to make the morning more bearable:
1. Start with something fun.
Music! A long shower. Twenty-two minutes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you and the morning don’t get along, trying to cram in some homework or a sprint workout will just make it worse. Reward yourself and the day will start off on a positive note.
2. Coffee.
Or tea. Some form of caffeine– Find something you like and make it part of the routine. If you don’t like coffee, first I urge you to try it again – one can learn to love it – especially if you start out with something sweet like a mocha latte. Plus, there are many purported health benefits. If you still don’t like it, there’s always tea or soda.
3. Eat something.
The last thing you want to be is tired AND hungry. (Add getting rained on while walking to class and you might be a danger to other students). If you simply cannot wake up in time to get to the dining hall or a café, granola bars are a good option, as you can store them in your room and eat them while trudging to class.
4. Give yourself time.
Yes, this is difficult. The snooze button has magnetic force at 8:30am, and the alarm buzz is often confusing or disguised as part of your dream.
When you don’t give yourself enough time in the morning, the day begins in a frenzy, and you are forced to make decisions like: “Is it more important to brush my teeth or to wear something other than sweats today?”
Don’t do that to yourself or to your classmates. Make a playlist, get yourself to Starbucks, and wake up in time to wear a killer outfit AND wash your face. Remember that the night is only hours away!
For more tips and the source of my inspiration, check out: “The Night Owl’s Guide to the Perfect Morning” from the Huffington Post.
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