I think an argument could be made that God wants you to be fully the Jennifer F. that he created, and as long as it is not sinful for you to be up late (ie, you are neglecting your children in the a.m., you are neglecting your husband in the evening, you are not taking care of your body properly) you could do so in order to maximize your creative time.  Your idea about sriving for moderation (getting up a half hour earlier than everyone else) seems to be a good route.  Maybe two or three hours earlier than your kids in the morning is not for you!  There is something to be said about disciplining your body as the saints suggest - however, I think being responsive to your family at all hours of the day and night is a fairly good disciplinary tool for moms.  It’s 8 a.m. and I am off to exercise - you know, morning exercisers are the most consistent or so they tell me at the Y .......

I’m guessing that you’re waking up to a baby through the night, since you had your fifth child not that long ago, right? So you’re going to be tired, even with 8 hours “asleep”. Being so tired after that much sleep (I can’t remember what 8 hours of sleep in a row feels like) might mean that your quality of sleep isn’t great. Anyway, there might be other ways to get some of the benefits. Some of the reacting in the morning could be dealt with by organizing your day differently. I take care of the dishes in the evening while my husband gets the kids ready for bed, for example. Maybe you could have breakfast ready the night before, or a diaper station set up and ready, the kids’ clothes laid out, whatever makes a busy morning more efficient. I agree with the above poster that getting up with kids is a discipline in itself. I can’t sleep through the alarm of my daughter crying. It is for me, and I’m a night owl, too. I use nap time the way you use that 6am time, a chance to be alone (I’m introverted, too) and get some stuff done. I conquer inertia at night, with a strict routine that gives me a sense of accomplishment and sets the tone for my husband and I to have some time to reconnect before we go to sleep. So basically, you could look for ways to get those awesome benefits you described while actually getting the work done when you’re not drooling on the keyboard.

Oh, Jennnifer, you’re speaking my language! I feel like I’m in a constant battle between happy-I-got-so-much-accomplished!-early-morning girl and the girl who spends the day in reactive mode. I can always sleep more and it’s so easy to find a reason to stay in bed. Thanks for the encouragement to get up. :)

I am also not a morning person, and I finally gave up this whole morning person “waking up early is awesome” ruse. It is awesome for them.  It is painful for me.  But starting the day with the Lord, this IS good and right and needed.  So God has blessed us through his good servants, those lovely British Jesuits at prayasyougo.org.  Friends of mine clued me in to their ministry and for the past several months I’ve been letting them lead me into my day with God as I lay in my bed and gently come to.  The alarm goes off, my husband passes me the iPad, I pull up their website, and into prayer and meditation we go.  Some of us need help.  I am one of those people.  I know the creators of this site envision us listening to their meditations during our commutes, but they’ve got me waking up for time with God consistently and painlessly for the first time in my life and I praise God!  You should totally check it out.  Bless you.  I know God blesses you for every sacrifice you make for him.

I have the same arguement with myself.  Night owl or morning person?  The quotes from St. Josemaria Escriva stung just a bit.  No answers - just someone fighting a similar battle.

There used to be more real reasons for getting up early – the need to make maximum use of the daylight hours and the fact that the pre-Communion fast used to be from midnight, so Mass was early and pious people would arrange their lives accordingly. I think there are things to be said on both sides of the question. I am a natural night owl and for the time being I’m not planning on tampering with my natural schedule, since those midnight hours are valuable to me. I get up early now and then to prove to myself that I’m not the slave of my own sleeping habits. (By the way, I find I need a bit more sleep than average to be at my best, and I used to feel vaguely guilty about this until I had a bad bout of insomnia and experienced the havoc that really messed-up sleep habits wreak with one’s life. Since then I thank God for the gift of sleep!)

There is no reason on God’s green earth to be awake before 7am… and even that is pushing it!
7:30 feels great.
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I’m so tired of all the morning people thinking they can run the world just because they’re awake first. Smug!
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I heard recently (it was talk on am radio so I was half asleep for the details and therefore don’t know the source…) that scientists had identified the “morning person” gene.  hallelujah! Now maybe they can cure it!
I kid.  But I am vindicated that at last there is proof that the rest of us aren’t just morning people who are lazy… we are sort of our own species or something.  I’d say it better but it’s not yet 10am so my brain isn’t fully functioning yet.
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p.s. - it’s the worst thing… waking up tired every day. I mean every single day of your life.  ugh.

I think I love you! :)

#nightowlsunite

I began this homeschooling year by creating a beautiful schedule, to the half-hour, that started bright and early at 5:30 AM.  I planned on rising before all the kids so I could pray, exercise, and shower before beginning breakfast.  School time was scheduled, meals, rosary, outside time…

And then reality set in.  I have three children under 4 and one more on the way.  The probability of all three sleeping through the night is 0.12.  My middle child is currently in a phase of waking up around 2:00 AM and being too tired to go back to sleep until he drops off in exhaustion around 4:30 AM.

We wake up around 9:00 AM.  Breakfast turns into brunch.  My oldest does school in his pajamas.  My chores wait until the afternoon when the baby takes a nap.

But it works for us!  Someday, when the kids are older, I’ll probably impose a more rigorous schedule.  For now, we do what we must to make it through the day.  It’s one of the lovelier things about being a stay-at-home mom and homeschooling.

Jennifer, I don`t care what St. Josemoria Escriva said, some people are biologically just wired differently. Some people, such as myself, are nocturnal. Can`t help it, God created us that way. Now I`ll grant you the Saints are correct in saying there is merit in the self discipline of regulating your times of sleep, so I won`t go there, however realizing early on that I was made that way I was fortunate enough to regulate my work schedual for nights and my sleep time always came around 4 or 5 AM. I was often up by ten or eleven and felt pretty good. The Trappists get up at three am to pray and the Carthusians get up at midnight and again at three to pray. I`d never make it. My wife of 48 years and I were able to adjust and we, mostly her, raised five children. Now that I am retired I still stay up late at night and find that quiet time with God for reading and praying and I have even been fortunate enough to live close to a Church that has Mass two times a week in the evening, wonderful fit.
I have read other stories on a Jesuit blog of people with the same structure and I am convinced, from not only what they say, but also from my own experience, that there is much to be said about the ‘alone with God’ and peace and quiet time you find when everyone else is asleep. Much has also been written about the phenomenon of the 3 AM wake up that most people experience automatically, where some find that they cannot return to sleep.Of course that is a subject all it`s own for another discussion.
I used to think that I was very different from most till I found out many share the same makeup. Oh, and there was one other great benifit, in my line of work, all the bosses were sleeping while I did my thing. Pax

I’m a definite night owl myself. And I’ve always had a sense that early wakers are better people. But couldn’t put my finger on it. Until it occurred to me - it’s the difference between wanting two things (going to sleep, waking up) and NOT wanting two things (same things).

I don’t know if that makes any sense to you. It made me set the alarm at 7:00 (hey - hard enough!)

The fact remains that people have different daily hormonal cycles (or Circadian rhythm - I’d link to Wikipedia, but some bozos in DC are on to screw it), making some early-risers and other night-owls.  Yet, such facts don’t stop some to hint that being a night-owl is a matter of lack of virtue.  Note that St. Josemaria recommends setting a time to wake up, not to wake up earlier than what brother body requires.

As you said, there certainly was a time when night-owls suffered a lot for having to wake up before dawn in order to milk the cow before the calf.  But in a century of white-collar jobs and the Internet, this is hardly the case anymore.  The milk will still be in the fridge at 9AM, unless our little calves gulp it all before we have a chance to trip our way to the fridge.

Besides, as Msgr Sawyer of Our Lady Maronite said, God doesn’t wake up before 8AM.  So we’re in good company, fellow night-owl.

The fact remains that people have different daily hormonal cycles (or Circadian rhythm - I’d link to Wikipedia, but some bozos in DC are on to mess with it), making some early-risers and other night-owls.  Yet, such facts don’t stop some to hint that being a night-owl is a matter of lack of virtue.  Note that St. Josemaria recommends setting a time to wake up, not to wake up earlier than what brother body requires.

As you said, there certainly was a time when night-owls suffered a lot for having to wake up before dawn in order to milk the cow before the calf.  But in a century of white-collar jobs and the Internet, this is hardly the case anymore.  The milk will still be in the fridge at 9AM, unless our little calves gulp it all before we have a chance to trip our way to the fridge.

Besides, as Msgr. Sawyer of Our Lady Maronite said, God doesn’t wake up before 8AM.  So we’re in good company, fellow night-owls.

Jen, my mom used to be a night owl. She thought it would be more fruitful for her vocation if she became a morning person. So she asked God for that. He listened. She still enjoys staying up once in a while, but she does not find it quite so difficult to get up early as she used to.

The fact remains that people have different daily hormonal cycles (or Circadian rhythm - I’d link to Wikipedia, but some geniuses in DC are on to mess with it), making some early-risers and other night-owls.  Yet, such facts don’t stop some to hint that being a night-owl is a matter of lack of virtue.  Note that St. Josemaria recommends setting a time to wake up, not to wake up earlier than what brother body requires.

As you said, there certainly was a time when night-owls suffered a lot for having to wake up before dawn in order to milk the cow before the calf.  But in a century of white-collar jobs and the Internet, this is hardly the case anymore.  The milk will still be in the fridge at 9AM, unless our little calves gulp it all before we have a chance to trip our way to the fridge.

Besides, as Msgr. Sawyer of Our Lady Maronite said, God doesn’t wake up before 8AM.  So we’re in good company, fellow night-owls.

“St. Josemaria Escrivá stressed the importance of setting a time to get up then sticking to it strictly”  but he didn’t say that if it’s not early you are being lazy.  The point is deciding on a time and sticking to it because you have discerned that (for now) it is the best thing for you, your family and your relationship with God.

I am not a night owl, and my poor husband is.  For our sakes, and I suppose for his because he dislikes his job, he gets up at 6:20 and then can get home early.  I tried the Josemaria thing and I still have my alarm set, but, while I am sure he did have his “interruptions” they were nothing the same as multiple children under the age of…  Our (I say our because it seems like most are mothers here) is motherhood.  Our schedules often go by the wayside because of our vocation, not in spite of it.  I only have 3 kids and any time I add one extra thing (i.e. trying to paint over the horrible color on any one of our walls, go skiing with my son in the back yard, clean the vomit from yet another illness) the schedule goes awry.  If we do not care for ourselves, we can not care for others.  If we are able to get up before everyone, great!  If we are able to stay up later than everyone to get things done, great!  Either way, when we get up, is victory over our bodies, and our souls if we do it joyfully (think 5 yo up a wee bit early wanting breakfast, or, the ever popular, baby at 2 am)

This is something I’ve also pondered.  I’m more of a morning person (except in the winter: I could seriously get into hibernation!) and start yawning around 9:30 and getting cranky if I’m not getting ready for bed by 10.  I’ve often envied my night-owl friends and family their night time productivity, but figured different sleep patterns are pretty hard wired.

Just recently, though, my son, who has epilepsy, started having problems during sleep.  His doctor talked to him about his sleep schedule—typical young adult crazy hours—and strongly recommended not only a regular schedule with at least 7 hours of sleep, but a fairly strict 11-7 schedule.  My night owl son had to adjust to this, but his sleeping problems disappeared and he’s much more focused and even tempered during the day.

Now, I don’t know.  Maybe humans are more adjustable than hard wired.  Maybe we need to see a few hours of daylight per day.

I really wonder how people who work nights or shift work handle this!

One could argue that it is, in fact *objectively* better to get up early - just as the religious vocation is objectively higher than marriage. BUT not everyone is called to religious life, and I am certainly of the opinion that not everyone is called to get up early! I know tiredness well - all sorts, from serious illness to thyroid problems, to a baby who, every night, wouldn’t fall asleep until nearly 3am. All of that is behind me at the moment, but also behind me is the prayer I prayed during my first attempts to defy serious fatigue: “God, help me love you more than sleep,” praying out of the conviction that if I really loved God, I would be able to conquer this overwhelming tiredness and get up early to pray. There are seasons for setting aside some sleep to pray. But my wrestlings with fatigue have taught me that sleeping to the point of being fully rested isn’t lazy or gluttonous, as I’ve realized I unconsciously thought of it - it’s sound health. And getting less than that is a form of fasting - if God is calling you to that, great, but if not, thank him for the restful sleep, instead!

I think there are people wired for being morning creepos and for being night creatures like ourselves.  No matter how little or much I sleep -my core hours of pure nirvana of rest is between 3 and 8 am.  Waking up any earlier I feel pure pain in getting out of bed and takes me an hour to become conscience…therefore that is why I drink two monster drinks in the morning. 

So - how do we reset our sleep clock?  Alcohol?  Sleeping pills?  Melatonin??  Anyone?  I’ve tried all these. Thank God I retire in 3 years.  I will get an afternoon job so I can sleep in - and find a church that has a mass later than 8 and before noon :)

I need to do this. I don’t pray enough otherwise. I so desperately wish there was another solution to my lack prayer. (Lord, couldn’t you please ask something else of me?) Alas, the only solution is that I set my alarm.

If I were the rich young man of biblical times, Jesus would not ask me to sell all my wealth. I don’t have any. He would ask me to get up earlier and pray. And (most days) I would leave sad. At least I can say I am working on it.

You may be different though. Some need more sleep for reasons other then sloth. Truly. You need to figure that out for yourself. I’m just saying that for me…

I think our time clocks are biologically based.  I’m a morning person, I always have been.  To me, it’s torture to have to stay up late.  I’ve never owned an alarm clock, and I’ve never been late for work.  This is not because I’m a virtuous person.  I’m just a congenital early riser.

@ Ellen,  people like you make me sick! ;-p

(please read humor, because that’s how it was written!)

Go figure… I am a night owl, my hubby a morning person.  Our first child (a girl) is also a night owl.  Our second (a boy) is a morning person.  Who knows about the baby, he’s too little to have much of a pattern yet.  And we’re not just off by a little, we’re off by a LOT.  DH would love to be up & at ‘em by 6 a.m.; same with our toddler.  (In fact, he has only slept past 6:30 less than 5 times in his short little life.)  Daughter & I would love to sleep in ‘til 8 every day.  (She still has a hard time falling asleep by 8:30 each night, no matter when we put her to bed.)  So when our daughter started school this year, we had to ALL get up by 6:30 in order to get everyone where they needed to be on time.  Painful, to be sure.  My take: it’s mostly hard-wired, though you can retrain your sleep patterns.  It might take some people more work than others to do so, but it can be done.  So what to do?  Well, I cry “uncle” and just accept that I, personally, can not do anything hard & fast with my own sleep schedule until there comes a time when I am neither pregnant or nursing.  I “offer it up” (not with joy ... must work on that…) and sacrifice sleep, acknowledging how much I desperately want to sleep past 7:30, for the sake of my family.
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That, and we don’t skimp on the coffee around here.  Thank you to the Carmelite monks in Wyoming!!! (www.mysticmonkcoffee.com)

I do not think there is an intrinsic superiority to rising early (night owl speaking here) but it does make it easier to operate in a world that’s set up on a morning-person-oriented schedule.  While I can see that waking up an extra 30 minutes earlier in the morning helps start the day more smoothly for your family, whether you wake up a few hours earlier for your writing really depends on whether you actually write efficiently and well at that hour.  I do nearly all of my creative work after dinner.

I wonder if the coffee is a big part of the problem.  I used to be a night owl, and to some extent I still am.  But since giving up caffeine many years ago, I have been less of a night owl, and have had an easier time getting up early (and of being alert and functional soon after rising early).

But to add to my previous comment, the one thing that is still VERY difficult for me is getting up before dawn.  As long as the sky is no longer black, I usually don’t have any trouble getting out of bed, even at a very early hour.  But if it is still dark, then getting out of bed is somewhat akin to torture.  I just don’t think that God made us to get up before the sun.

I’m such a night owl. The night hours are so quiet and peaceful. Getting up in the morning is torture. The dull ache in my head and the fact that I feel like I was hit by a truck always tempt me to sleep wayyyy later than I should. Why is it so much easier to stay up later?! Grrr…

Hmm…. Paul H. good call on the coffee. I have not acquired the taste for coffee and I’m a die-hard night owl.
Perhaps there is a correlation.  That might be a worthwhile study!!

1) I am so very much with you on this one, and I always feel so guilty for fixing a full pot of coffee after 11 a,m,;

2) Thank you!!!! for the link to the vacuum riding kitties, I needed that laugh right now.

I am a night owl and I truly HATE mornings… (they should not exist :D) but it is true that ‘the early bird catches the worm’...  if I wake up early I can get so much done…

Truly one should train himself to be an early bird… especially if you have a carreer

“I felt great, and realized that my peak hours of alertness occur between eleven in the evening and three in the morning.”

Yes. Yes. Yes. Once it’s midnight, I am productive. I can Get Things Done between midnight and dawn, tasks which would take me twice as long and be done half as well during the daytime. Waking up at any time before noon requires large amounts of caffeine to have me get anywhere at all, and falling asleep before dawn also requires sleeping pills. I have tried everything—medical, spiritual, physical—to change that pattern, but my body does not work that way.

If anyone does discover a way for a complete night owl to function in this early-bird world, please let the rest of us know!

Oh! You wrote this for me. Last night I said, Lord wake me up tomorrow morning, and I will go to mass. I woke up this morning without an alarm fairly refreshed, sat up and it started pouring rain. No joke. I went back to sleep. I am a horrible human being. Weak… pray for me… ugh!! :)

Jen, if you really wrote this while sleep-deprived and foggy, it’s hard to tell.  It seems well-written to me.  But anyway: St. Josemaria did not say to set the alarm at 6:00, he said to have a set time.  Sounds to me like you might need to get up at 7:00 not 6:00.

I’m right there with you. My normal waking time is up till 4 or 5 am and sleep till 2 or 3. During the summer I can’t do it, but in the winter I natrually drift to it. I am very alert in the wee hours of the night. The biggest problem for me is you can’t get out and do some of the stuff that needs to be done out of the house at 1 or 2am. If I could, I’d sleep every day away.

I guess I would call myself a “mid-morning person”.  I think it’s a sin to get up earlier than 8 am or later than 12 noon.  That’s my “peak” time for getting stuff done (unless I’m in the exhaustive stages of pregnancy, then it’s more like 10-12).

My husband and oldest daughter are definite night owls.  My husband was just on Christmas break and he wasn’t coming to be until 7 am and sleeping until 3 pm.  It’s totally killer on our electric bills, and it makes it hard sometimes for me to do things that need to be done in our room.  I try to accommodate my oldest (age 9) by letting her sleep in until 9:00 (thanks, homeschooling) because she is a bear to get up and moving early in the morning.

My second daughter (6) has always been the sort to wake up with the sun in a chipper mood.  While my third (3) seems to have more night owl tendencies as well.  It’s made some of the room sharing very interesting among them.  But it is interesting to see how this characteristic among many others can be so naturally different among kids with the same genetic contributors and up-bringing.

I think to key is to find a moderation that helps you get the rest you need while making sure the needs of your family are met.  For instance, the 9am wake-up allows my night owl child to get a little more rest but allows for us to get her schoolwork done while I have the brain cells to help her (as well as make it easier when she needs to be ready for 10 am Mass on Sundays or early ball games on Saturday morning).

“So if anyone would like to make the case that it is not objectively better to be an early riser, I’m all ears.”</br>
Nighttime or daytime is merely a human sensory phenomenon, an accident regarding a particular degree of the earth’s rotation with respect to the sun.  How can the rotation of the earth affect the morality of a given action?  What people deem to be night, is actually morning with respect to other stars in the universe (they’re just too far for their light to be very perceptible).  If God decided to blow up the sun one day (but somehow keep us alive), that wouldn’t change the resolution of any moral question.  At best it boils down to a prudence analysis, but you know your body best and what is best for it (body and soul).</br>
I don’t know if that’s convincing, and half is tongue-in-cheek, but hopefully that helps. :)

I have an old “Family Circus” cartoon posted on my desk at work where one of the little boys asks his mom “Why do I hafta get up when I’m tired and go to bed when I’m not?”  Those are my thoughts exactly.

It’s the last point, that early rising “allows me to be proactive”  that trumps all others.  The hills are alive with the sound of music when I get at least a half hour headstart on the littles.  When I sleep in & they come knocking at my door, first there’s the jolt of adrenalin that sends me skyrocketing to the ceiling; then there’s the creaking, slow motion, muttering, squinting me that stumbles around to tripping over everyone. *Not* the example I care to set!

The ‘proactivity’ argument is the one that convinced me that my early rising is better for our family. However, God knows how I am wired, God knows my heart motivations, and God is there to help me when I am weak.

If I have discerned through prayer that early rising is the best way to serve and love God and my family (and I have), then God will grant me grace (to be my strength) when I fail and grace (to give him glory) when I succeed. 

Let us not turn early rising into Law; but let us instead live by the Spirit, so that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

“So if anyone would like to make the case that it is not objectively better to be an early riser, I’m all ears.”  Nighttime or daytime is merely a human sensory phenomenon, an accident regarding a particular degree of the earth’s rotation with respect to the sun.  How can the rotation of the earth affect the morality of a given action?  What people deem to be night, is actually morning with respect to other stars in the universe (they’re just too far for their light to be very perceptible).  If God decided to blow up the sun one day (but somehow keep us alive), that wouldn’t change the resolution of any moral question.  At best it boils down to a prudence analysis, but you know your body best and what is best for it (body and soul).

I have no doubt at all that my waking up earlier would benefit the whole family, including myself, in many ways.  The reality is: My husband wants to talk with me every evening after the kids go to bed.  I need more sleep than him. Unbreakable biological wall, no amount of willpower can reduce the amount of sleep I need. Therefore, I’m the last one out of bed most days.

It’s not ideal.  But marriage trumps housekeeping.  Fallen world.

“I got eight solid hours of sleep, but it makes little difference. No matter how well I rest at night, I always feel like I’m part of some dastardly sleep deprivation experiment until around ten-thirty. I am hard-wired to go to bed late and get up late.”

You just described my mornings exactly Jennifer. After 52 years, I can count on one hand the number of times I woke up feeling ‘refreshed’ or ‘ready to go’ in the morning - even after 8 or more hours of sleep. I’ve heard what seem to be far to many people describe this type of beautiful feeling regularly experienced when they wake up. Being wary, I usually mentally ring them up as being a little nutty (in a nice way). For as long as I can remember, I’ve had to bench press a couple of elephants to fight my way out of bed every morning. If only they made a clock alarm wakeup ringtone with an elephant call..

Wow…I’m up at 12:06 am, the rest of the house is asleep and I was feeling guilty for sleeping “late” this morning.  I agree with other moms that home schooling is great for night owls.  No pulling kids out of bed at 6:15 to get them up and dressed. 

I’m a nurse and usually have NO PROBLEM getting up at 0800, doing stuff with the kids all day then heading off to work a 12 hour shift at 7pm.  Now, I couldn’t do that often (I only work part time), but it works for me because I am a night owl.  And I love to sleep late, but no matter how early or late I get up - mornings just aren’t fun.  Maybe it’s because I’m not proactive about my wake-up time. 

I think I’ll go set my alarm for 0730.  Maybe I’ll actually get up.  :)

Here’s my response, “5 Reason Why You Should Wake Up Early”:

http://www.thinveil.net/2012/01/5-reasons-why-you-should-wake-up-early.html

Dear Meg, I did find the way to function as a night owl in this morning-people world: self-employment! However I have never had a family, and it seems obvious that mothers have to be awake at least in time to send the kids to school… I have been a free-lance translator for the last 35 years, and developed a reputation for being able to do urgent work overnight, so it has worked to my advantage. And, strangely enough, I used to choose vacation activities that required getting up early and at a regular time for a week: courses, 6-day retreats and such.

I’m just so relieved to hear you say all this, Jennifer, because I’m a night-owl as well.  I have such a hard time making myself go to bed at a decent hour and a horrible time making myself get up early.  Every single word you said was straight out of my playbook.  But that quote from Escriva is what got me, especially since your Saint’s Name generator chose him for me this year.  I shall have to print that out and keep it with me.

I have to reluctantly agree that my days and my coming year will be better spent if I retrain myself to get up early and take on the day, instead of letting it run me over.  Good luck to you!  I’m in the same boat with you.

Kittens riding vacuums is awesome!

Enjoyed all your comments here, and just have to add a bit. I agree that your rising time isn’t basically a moral question. Having said that, however, it can become a moral question if you’re rising late and up all night and not happy, not participating in community (or family), not progressing in life. My observations come from watching a lovely young woman of our acquaintance who developed the sleep all day habit during the latter part of high school. Prior to that she was an early morning person. Since then she has become increasingly depressed, separated from friends (who can’t stay up all night), a poorly functioning family member (wants to do her chores while others are trying to sleep or doesn’t do her chores at all). She bemoans that businesses and community events don’t match “her schedule”...and on and on. I’m sure you get the picture. If she would buckle down, set a better schedule for herself, and discipline herself to follow it, she might see some remarkable changes in her life and attitude. I don’t think any of us are stuck with a certain body clock. To say you are hard-wired for a night owl life conjures up the same type of excuse (hard-wired) for homosexuality and other moral issues. (To those of you who are struggling with being night owls, please don’t be offended. I am not comparing sleeping late to serious sin. I’m just looking at the way we talk to ourselves about the reason for our choices.) The bottom line is this, I think: If you are a healthy and happy, contributing member of your family and community, participating appropriately in both and fulfilling your goals, then your daily schedule is probably fine, whatever it is. :) But if you are constantly struggling against the needs of family, community, work, etc., feeling out of sync all the time, tired all the time, unfulfilled…then take a look at your choices and your “self talk” about them. Sometimes we just need to reevaluate our thoughts and choices.

@Louise,
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You may (not necessarily, but may) have the sleep schedule/depression thing backwards. One of the symptoms of depression is that it can disrupt your sleep cycle, making it harder to sleep, making it harder to stay awake, and changing your schedule. It also makes you want to avoid others and see small requests as burdens.
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I am NOT trying to diagnose this young woman based on your description. Her behavior could be a result of her sleep cycle, or it could be normal teenage rebellion/hormones. But it’s not clear either way.

I very surprised you aren’t waking up to Relevant Radio!  Quiet contemporary jazz?  No wonder you don’t want to get out of bed!

All joking aside, I encounter the same challenge every morning.  It’s like my pillow and head are magnetized.  Thank you for reminding us of St. Josemaria’s “bold proclamation”.  I’ll do my best to be inspired by his words tomorrow morning before I hit the snooze bar.

@Amy…
Thanks, yes, depression can be the cause of changes in sleep etc. In this case, since she still wants to see everyone, go everywhere, etc., the depression seems to be more the result of her choices. She simply wants everyone else to match her night owl schedule so she can surf the Web and chat, etc., all night, sleep all day, ad infinitum. She doesn’t eat right because she’s not available for normal family meals most of the time. Gets little daylight. Not a realistic schedule in her world. At some point, depression and poor choices blur together, and it’s not easy to break the cycle. But honest self-talk and self-discipline are key factors to building a less stressful, happier life. Even if your schedule is just a little bit out of sync. :)

I’m also a night-owl. I don’t really understand the purpose of mornings.

No matter how many hours of sleep I had, getting up before 8 is a struggle - before 7 and I’m walking wounded all day.

My most productive time is late afternoon into early evening. My boss insists I come in for a daily morning meeting, so she is missing my best work. Ah well.

Jennifer, I’ll share with you my personal go-to quote from myself to myself: “No one ever became holy by sleeping in.”

This little reminder slaps me in the face as I slap the alarm clock and debate whether I want to leave my warm bed for daily Mass. Yes, I have too small children and another on the way. But I can slip out and return from Mass before they and my husband wake up. This will not always be the case. If I sleep in, I miss the Eucharist! Morning person or not, what kind of lame-o Catholic am I if I miss the Holy Mass for another 40 minutes of sleep when there will be a time when I can’t go other than Sundays???

Seriously, everyone from Parde Pio to Louis de Montfort to Josemaria Escriva. They didn’t allow themselves luxurious sleep. Is this a coincidence that they are all…saints??

These are the questions I ask myself. Not at all a criticism of anyone else.

You are a night person in a morning person’s world, and what everybody is writing makes me think immediately of what it’s like to be an introvert in an extroverted world.  In my old (not Catholic) church, I was not looked on favorably because I didn’t “do ministry” the “right” way.  Then some guy wrote a book about introverts and church, and I was relieved to find out that being wired differently didn’t mean I was wrong or lazy; it just meant I do ministry differently.  You are who God made you, and morning people who have time in the wee hours with God are no better and no worse.  There is no objective moral component going on here.

I go to bed at 8pm when my kiddos do, and get up at 5:30am.  My social life is sometimes limited by this, but I am *done* at about 7pm, at least in the winter.

I’m a morning lark. I don’t even set an alarm clock and wake up between 6 and 7am (a bit later in the winter). In the evening I sleep as soon as I go to bed - or before that. I have slept at birthday parties and in Star Wars in theater with all the explosions going on.

That said I don’t see why a night owl should try to stand up early, if he doesn’t have to. That’s like forcing me to stay awake in the evening and then telling me to stay in bed in the morning, when I’m awake anyway. Our bodies know what is best for us (unless we put enough artificial stuff into it to mix it all up).
There have been enough experiments that have proven that making people go against their natural rhythm lowers their productivity significantly.

Mornings are difficult for me.  I stopped fighting it when I realized what happens to me when I try to get up early: I become an irritable, dull-witted, awful human being.  I am also convinced that espresso is somehow God’s very special gift to me to combat all that ugliness.
My main profession is pretty conducive to a night owl’s schedule, but not so much my desk job.  They did, however, change their office hours to start later.  I’m not sure why they did it, but my answer was “YESSSSSSS!”
Now when I do get up early for something, you know it’s for nothing less than a darn good reason.  That can have an impact under the right circumstances.

More evidence of my Vampire Theory about Jennifer Fulwiler

My husband and I realized, during our second child’s infancy, that we have different sleep cycles.  if I am awakened between 11 pm and, say, 4 am, I am grumpy but functional and sane.  However, if my husband gets awakened then, he is borderline psychotic (I say this humorously).  However, he can wake up at 6 am and be alert and functional, while I lapse into a coma between 4 am and 8 am. Thus, it was decided a long time ago that if the baby got up between bedtime and 4 am, it was my turn; between 4 and 8, my husband would get him.  This works brilliantly for us. He is most productive in the early morning, while I am slouching around loooking for a cup of tea.  I wouldn’t say I’m a night owl—-I can’t do much of anything after 11 pm but stare at a book or watch TV—but we have different circadian rhythms, for sure.

I, too, have always been a night owl, and I can’t help but think that perhaps we night owls are also more naturally contemplatives.  :) 

Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!
—St. John of the Cross

I am a night owl and love it. However, last year I learned a great lesson concerning my night habits. I spent “my time” catching up on projects or prolonging the work hours beyond what is respectfully human. Ultimately, I was out to save the world after 11 pm and I grew increasingly self-centered. Jesus had left the room and I was no longer doing His will, even if I was doing good things. The “wake up call” came when I discovered my spelling skills decreased at a certain point in the night. I had responded to an email of a priest who requested a presentation for his high school. My intention was to reply, “Hello Father, I’d love to give a talk on chastity.” Instead, I typed and unknowingly sent, “Hell Father, I’d love to give a talk on chastity.” Mortified, I accepted the limits of my humanity and decided to go to bed early (by 11 pm) for Lent. This was a hard penance for me but it taught me to trust God with my work and to let Him be the Lord of “my time”. Now, I am striving for a healthy balance between late nights and early mornings as my life and duties allow. I also intend to be a saint who loved coffee. I may need to strive for some moderation there as well…

I’m a night owl, and according to my parents, have been so since infancy. I compromise by going to bed between 11-12, about 2-3 hours after my husband. I get time to work on things without any interruption (aside from nursing sometimes), but I still get 7 or more hours of sleep. I’m too mean to my son if I try to run on 3 or 4 hours consistently. I also gain weight. :/

I do think getting up a bit before the kids helps. I did that today and I was way less testy about the serial demands that swamp the first half hour.

I loved your reason #3, firedrill mode. That’s so true, feed kids, do dishes, shower, lunch, do dishes, somehow get some lessons in, cook dinner, do dishes, put kids to bed. Stay up late! No matter how much I try and convince myself that I can still be a responsible person and sleep in late, I know that I will never be able to reverse the reality of early risers = responsible.

You are who you are—that’s who God made you.  When you’re a night owl and you’re blessed to be surrounded by early birds, everything you do to accomodate those early birds you love is a prayer, a prayer of charity, a prayer of selflessness.

The same can be said for you introverts living among extroverts.  You know who you are.

Let such times be opportunity for prayer and thanksgiving—and also embrace and give thanks for those times you’re in your cycle alone, “productive,” and joyful.

As a night owl/writer, I find that it is virtually impossible for me to work well before at least 3pm. My brain usually simply does not function at normal speed before then. This has always been true for me - even when I was nine years old, I would get up at 2am and scribble away until the first streaks of dawn crept through my father’s office window. As an adult, I have held 9-5 jobs until this past year, when I told God: “Dear Lord, I want to glorify you through my work. I know and You know that I am simply incapable of that unless you find me a job that is more suited to my natural clock. I am counting on you to provide this!” And He did - I now have a job where my hours are about 1pm-9pm, and I am happier and more productive at work than I have ever been. I take this accommodation as an affirmation from God that He is ok with a variety of schedules! I also find that as a writer, I feel I can focus best when the more practical work of the day is over - errands, dinner, etc - these are things that crowd my mind when I try to be creative earlier on in the day. Perhaps this is a matter of mental discipline (or lack thereof)but I prefer to see if God will work with nature before I try to be overly heroic :)

No answers here, it is difficult being an introvert night owl in this crazy world :)

November 6, 2011

« November 5 |  November 7 »
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 154
Reading 1 Wis 6:12-16

Resplendent and unfading is wisdom,
and she is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire;
Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed,
for he shall find her sitting by his gate.
For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence,
and whoever for her sake keeps vigil
shall quickly be free from care;
because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude.

Now… having cited this reason to support your premise I might add that id does not decry or speak against one seeking wisdom at other times of the day.  Padre Pio advocated also for a routine schedule…

I myself have much trouble keeping any schedule because my work referrals in the healthcare industry are not “even” and sometimes demands require that I stay up late one day and recuperate in the next, waking up later and perhaps getting less done.  Still, I always strive to look for the signs from heaven about what is best when I advise others and I do try to navigate towards the morning even though I am by nature more of an afternoon or evening person.  Hard to know how much I should just accept my “uniqueness” and how much I should try to exercise a change beyond my current limited ‘remedy’.

May God Bless All Who Read This.

RSW

“A Night Owl Asks: Is it Objectively Better to Get Up Early?”
—-
## No - because one size does not fit all people in all circumstances. What may be best in principle, is not necessarily best, or good, or even desirable, in all instances.

“A Night Owl Asks: Is it Objectively Better to Get Up Early?”
## No - because one size does not fit all people in all circumstances. What may be best in principle, is not necessarily best, or good, or even desirable, in all instances.

FWIW: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/so-you-think-you-can-be-a-morning-person/

I wrote this for something else, but think it fits here also.

I have been an early riser most of my life. In the last couple of years chronic illness has played a major part in changing that. It has thus leaded me to consider if all my kids fussing about being early to bed and early to rise hold any real ground. Sure if your holding a job or have some sort of early commitment. But, what of the Home-Schooler? Is getting up early really important, or is the routine of the day? Why do I feel the need to impose on them or myself a standard that is not relevant to our life at that moment? Is it really so bad that we get up at 9 instead of 7?
There has been many studies on how much sleep children, teens, and adults need and they all say something different. I know my husband likes 8 to 10 hours of sleep but can be happy and function great with just 6. I on the other hand have never been good with anything less than 8 to 9, and now that I’m sick sometimes it’s more. God has made each and everyone of us beautifully different. So what is our goal?
I don’t claim to have any clear-cut answers, but I have come to the conclusion that we need to figure out our children and ourselves on a much deeper level. How much time does Maggie need and how much does John need. How much time do dad and I need? While Maggie may only need 6 hours, John may need 8, I may need 10, and what about dad? Lets see if we can make this work for all. After all isn’t this why we have our children home? So we can know them and they can know us, and by doing so we all can adjust to each other’s needs.
I personally would rather my kids get up at 9 and be able to say the Our Father with all their heart, than be up at 7 and fall asleep in the middle. This can also teach our children to understand their own needs or compassion for someone else’s. Talking with our children instead of arguing. Reminding John he needs 8 hours of sleep to do whatever God asks of him the next day. Giving Maggie who only needs 6 hours of sleep a book-light and tell her she can read in her room for an hour. Asking the oldest to put everyone to bed for mom because she is not feeling well and dad is working the night shift. Letting them stay up and reap the consequences of being tired the next day, when they argue they can still get up at 9. Let them understand that God expects them to be responsible in every aspect of their life. Who knows, we may find our day runs smoother when we allow ourselves a little extra sleep. It may also giving us more tolerance or ability to think clearer. Everyone’s family is different. My kids are teenagers and your may be still very little. I am also by no means saying kids should set their own bedtime. I do think that there can be room for compromise. If our goal is Holiness and if a few more hours get us there, is it really a bad thing?

Please read Chesterton’s essay “On Lying in Bed.” He says, “If there is one thing worse that the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals….Instead of being regarded, as it ought to be, as a matter of personal convenience and adjustment, it has come to be regarded by many as if it were a part of essential morals to get up early in the morning. It is upon the whole part of practical wisdom; but there is nothing good about it or bad about its opposite. Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before.”

To Harrison: I do like this quote you have offered. My 2 cents on this matter is that, in those very old days before electrical light, if someone slept through till noon, of course it would be seen as lazyness, half their working day was gone by then. It would seem rather difficult to do farm work by candle light! But now that we have other sources of light than the sun and candles or oil, anyone can choose the most convenient time to go to bed and get up in the morning (in my case I often go to bed in the morning and get up in the afternoon and work all night!)
On the other hand, the description of the ideal wife in the Book of Wisdom (I think… if my memory is correct!) does not seem to leave her any time to sleep at all.

Totally me!!!!  I decided a week ago that for Lent I’m going to sacrifice 30 min sleep time in the morning for prayer.  When I read this article today, I thought it was HILARIOUS!!  It’s so good to hear there are others just like me, esp. when my husband and three kids are morning people!

I know this is going to be difficult, but I have to remember that I need to lay down my life for my family.  We also see in the Gospels where Jesus prayed before He went out to the people.  This requires me to wake up before the kids so that I may be the faithful witness to God (unlike when I wake up with them and get upset by every small thing they do that annoys me). 

I’ll pray for you…please pray for me!

Hi Jen,

I agree with most people. It’s not objectively better to be an early riser. I am in the same exact situation as you, and I have been rising at 5:30 solely because of the your reason number 3. lt is much better for me to work through my morning foggy period (which occurs no matter when I wake up, no matter how much sleep I’ve had, as you say) while the children are still asleep than for me to be yelling at them to just give me a second if they get up before me. I simply must have breakfast ready before they come down or else the entire day is gone and I am in a bad mood all day.

I actually find it easier to wake up insanely early (like 4:30/5:00) than reasonably early (like 6:30 or 7:00) so as to maximize my “alone in the dark with God” time.

The only reason I think it might be objectively better for people to wake up early is that, based on my reading in nutrition, exercise, and biology, I think it might be objectively good for bodies to get outside and be physically active (like take a walk) as early in the day as possible—it’s better for setting your sleep cycle, for your sense of well being, for your appetite control, and for your kids to get exercise and outside first thing. But I still haven’t made up my mind on that one.