Which Came First: Being a Morning Person or Being a Light Sleeper?

I’m a morning person. It doesn’t mean I’m chipper and want to have a full conversation with you the moment I get out of bed, but it does mean that I get up when my alarm goes off. You have more control over your day when you get started early. I start my morning with a run because that’s the surest way I can guarantee fitting it into my day. I suppose night owls can make a similar argument – you just stay up as late as it takes to get everything done for the day – but I find it less stressful to start early. Making my run the first priority of my day means that I don’t have to plan my meals or meetings around a running break, and there’s no danger of an unexpected project or emergency to pop up when I want to go run. Those don’t tend to happen at 6am Eastern. 😉

I’ve also always been a light sleeper. For years I used my watch as an alarm because the soft beeping was enough to wake me up. I also still have a clock radio, and the slight noise it makes right before it goes off usually wakes me up before the radio does. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve hit the snooze button. An extra 9 minutes has never been enough for me to fall asleep again, and I seriously don’t understand the concept of setting 4-5 alarms starting an hour before you actually need to get up. That is my definition of sleep torture.

College roommates and marriage increased my tolerance for noise and ability to sleep through it. I’m still a morning person, and Josh and I manage his love for multiple alarms by me always getting up earlier than him.