A Single Middle-Aged Woman...

I'd say by now, in spite of the occasional sleep-ins, that I am officially "trained" in the brain to wake before dawn...wake, not rise.  I can go back to sleep, especially if I was awake until midnight.  Even when I manage to sleep beyond that, I still wake and rise with the light of day, almost regardless of what time I went to bed....lamps not so much, though I have the timer on one to pop on at 5:30, except on holidays and weekends.   Thus, my sleep-in days are still early by some standards, rising between 7 and 8 a.m. depending on the season and when the sun rises. As I've stated in previous posts, I am not by nature a "pre-dawn" early riser, but I would say I am now at middle-age, an early riser.  I no longer sleep until noon.  My body won't let me and my ocular nerves sense the light of the sun beaming against the back of my light blue curtains covering my Northeast facing bedroom windows as it makes its way up and over the horizon.  Were I in a...

I meant to write this two days ago, on Saturday.  I let other things distract me. Anyway, I'm like a backsliding Christian what with the way I let summer lull me into a habit of rising with the sun well over the horizon and staying up until midnight...it is after all, my natural rhythm, but still...that's what I'm trying to overcome. As I wrote that last sentence, I thought to myself, what if I had a job that would allow me to start my work hours at 10 a.m.?  I could stay true to my natural rhythm.   Don't get me wrong, I love my job because I love what I do...I support others, solve minor problems, and have a different schedule every day as I have the freedom to set it...but what if? An audiobook I'm listening to,  "You Are a Badass..." by Jen Cincero , encourages her readers to go ahead and dream those "what if" dreams, to put forth that positive energy and have faith, even if you don't know how you're going to make it happen, it ...

I've allowed my schedule to shift over the summer from a 10 p.m. bedtime and 5:30 a.m. wake up to 12 a.m. to 7:30...no bueno now with the impending start of another school year. Today, I attend a professional development class so I made myself go to bed around 10 p.m. and set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. I hit snooze. At least I hit stop after the first round.  I was freezing so I stayed snuggled under the comforter a few more minutes before making myself sit up.  I actually put on my robe and slippers, that's how chilled I was.  A sign I've not had enough rest.  That's something I've learned over the years by paying attention to what my body is telling me...I get cold easier when I'm not well rested. Plus, I didn't sleep well because my brain was worried I'd sleep through my alarm and be late for class. It was hard getting up...not excruciating, but harder than it was in May before school let out.  Now, with hot coffee in hand, Hallelujah radio playi...

Well, my 5:30 a.m. rise time has gone by the wayside!  Oh, I woke up this morning at 5:30; could have gotten up as I ''felt" rested but decided to roll over and give myself more sleep time.  I'd gone to bed late, as I've done for the last two weeks since my daughter returned home.  I don't know why her presence is a factor, but it is.  I'll have to explore that but for now, suffice it to say, my routine is wavering.  Oh the desire is still there, but I rationalize and make excuses for sleeping in.  It's a darn shame to because now I have a headache.  That happens to me sometimes when I let myself go back to sleep.  It's hardly worth it. I've noticed that when I'm making plans, like I did with a friend for this weekend, I don't dread it when they want to do something early because I know I will have been awake and ready to socialize by the time they want to go anywhere.  In fact, yesterday I was slated to help a neighbor with computer is...

I did it!  I woke at 4:30 a.m.  It wasn't enough sleep because I didn't go to bed until 10:30 last night but I woke feeling rested and awake, so I got up.  I have much I want to do today before the fireworks tonight.  That's assuming we can see them from the neighborhood.  My eldest, who lives with me at the moment, came home on Tuesday evening from a month-long job in Dallas with a stomach bug.  So, I do what I do as a mother and nurse her, in between household projects, which I keep piling up on my to-do list!  Hopefully, she's well enough to go outside this evening and explore.  We were going to go to Kerrville to see Robert Earl Keen, but I think that's a bit much considering how badly she felt yesterday.  Poor kid, she really wanted to go, too. First on my list today is a visit to the hardware store to buy two 2x4's to go with the 1x2's I bought yesterday to make a full-size bed frame to lay on top of the storage boxes that will act as...

I feel as though I'm sloughing off.  But, is it really sloughing off if I'm rising around 6:45-7:30 on summer vacation days?  I mean seriously?  Ugh, my gut says yes, I'm only rationalizing.  Still, I would not have gotten up this early any other summer vacation in previous years unless I had a plane or train to catch.  Egads, last July I was up at 4 a.m. catching a train to Seattle.  Wow, maybe one day I will blog about that trip. I'm getting SO much done to the house this summer and I credit that to getting up early.  I work long, long days, sometimes not eating dinner until after 8 p.m., which naturally puts me late to bed and thus late to rise, well later than 5:30.  So, I'll make a deal with myself.  I've one more big project to complete...the spare room!  I've saved be best/worst for last.  Once that's complete, I'll revert to rising in the dark again.  We've such a short summer vacation this year, and though I've loa...

Back from vacation.  I woke up early, not 5 a.m. early, but before 8 a.m. almost every day while visiting my sister last week. I felt so... productive .  When I get up early, I feel so much more productive; probably because I am! :) Plus, with the summer months and going outside to work in the yard, or do fun things, it's so much cooler. I have a ton of summer projects to complete, so I'm going to make good use of early rising to get them done before 2 p.m. so I don't pass out from heat exhaustion. So, I'm how many weeks into this adventure, six or so? It's starting to feel natural...you know, to wake early, to desire  to wake early, and to go to bed early so I can wake early. Last night, around 10:30 or so, a friend of mine brought over some furniture she was selling to me, and my sister, but now not my sister because I'm keeping the hutch...tee hee, it matches my dining table perfectly.  Another story for another time, but I had driven back fro...

Short entry to introduce a method I am trying out. In several of my posts I have mentioned that I am sensitive to light and prefer to wake up when the sun is up.  In a previous post or two back, I mentioned a how a lamp was helping with that. Well, last night, I decided to not use my phone alarm, which by the way I've moved from the dresser across the room to my nightstand, but more on that in a minute.  I turned off the phone alarm and decided to see if I would wake to the light of the lamp alone.   The lamp is on a timer to come on at 5:30 a.m. and go off around 6:30, because the sun is rising about that time right now.  (It's late spring here in central Texas...just in case you're, you know, in Australia or some place south of the equator where its winter.) I reasoned that since my consistency with this "becoming an early riser" transformation is kicking in and it feels kind of natural now to wake before dawn, that if I could train my brain to wake to t...

Beached but not ditched. So, on the first Monday of summer vacation, I woke up at 5:30 a.m., thanks to the glow of the lamp I installed in my bedroom with a timer switch last Wednesday.  When it clicked on this past Thursday morning, I woke very easily as the light is a soft golden color, much like a slow sunrise. You see, I went to the beach this weekend, so rising early today was not my intention and I could have forced myself to go back to sleep but that would defeat the purpose of this transformation and when I do that, I generally feel sluggish the rest of the day anyway, so I'm up and at it.  I do have a patio to install after all, which is my main motivation for rising early in the summer.  But, once that's done, then what?  We shall see. At the beach this weekend, I woke Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. without an alarm!  There was light streaming in through the windows, so it was inevitable.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am sensitive to ...

I may be losing my resolve.  I got up and turned off the alarm at 5:15, headed back to bed and told Siri to set an alarm for 6:00 a.m., which the virtual obedient 'she' did.  45 minutes later, I'm still exhausted, turn it off and laid back down for 7 minutes, forgetting there was a snooze button.  I'm up now, but I worry I am wavering. I sure didn't get up at 5:15 over the weekend. The research I've read, research being maybe one scholarly article and the rest blogs and articles, say consistency is a key component to success in changing a life long habit.  On the contrary, I read an article or two last week that said it's in our DNA, which I posted about, and don't bother trying to change what's likely inherent in one's nature.  Maybe that works for some folks, but I have at least five more years of work ahead of me before I can retire and have the luxury of rising with the sun, which by slipping back into bed this morning, I did. It's so...

This shit is hard.  I totally did not adhere to the schedule this weekend. Friday night I was up late... Ray Wiley Hubbard concert at Gruene Hall. Saturday morning...slept until 9-ish (a.m., not p.m.) 😜 Saturday night...I worked at my 2nd job until 9 p.m.  Ate a late night snack and I think I went to bed around midnight.  Jeez...middle-age sometimers again...I forget exactly. Sunday morning...up before 9. Sunday evening...dinner out with my daughter, ignored the 9 pm alarm to begin my bedtime routine and instead stayed up late watching "Chernobyl."  That's some grim stuff there, but interesting all the same. Monday morning (Memorial Day holiday)...up again around 9 a.m. Monday evening...will likely be a little late starting my bedtime routine because the family is meeting for dinner to celebrate my daughter's 37th birthday, (she will be out of town on her actual birthday, so we're doing it early). A negative verbal exchange where my daughter, who is curr...

Faltering...that's how I describe this little exercise as I close out my second week...it has been two weeks, right?  I checked, yes. Another annoying symptom of middle-age...remembering, or the lack of, I should say.  I think it's not because I can't, it is because I have so many electronic tools at my fingertips nowadays, that I just don't HAVE to.  Once upon a time, I could recite all my family and friends phone numbers and birthdates without so much as glancing at a calendar or address book...oh, I knew their addresses too!  Not today; not without my phone or laptop and internet.  It's sad really, and reconcilable, but that's not what we're here for. Today, we talk sleep or the lack there of, and will I continue to falter, or hang tough? I'm not really sleep deprived.  I have been pretty faithful to being in bed right around 10 p.m., give or take 10 minutes.  I read a page or three and then lights out. I'm probably getting more sleep, or ...

One week in and so far so good. Granted, I stayed up late on Friday night, but Saturday night I was in bed by 9:30.  I also did not set the alarm on Saturday or Sunday morning, but was up before 9 a.m. both mornings, which means I slept almost 11 hours Saturday night! So, here's a dilemma...what do I do this summer when I'm off contract and I don't have to be a work every day and every night is essentially a weekend night?  Do I stick with my 10 p.m. bedtime, 5:15 a.m. morning alarm?    I have plans to build a patio, by myself might add, but in Texas, one cannot live long doing that in the afternoon, so maybe there's my answer...my motivation to rise early, work on the patio before the heat sets in...which in July is 10 a.m.  Yeah, no shit.  Already, this morning when I went out to cover up the 'whatever it's called that my chimes bang against,' so they wouldn't wake my neighbors, it felt too warm to me, for 5:30 a.m., that is.  So, July's going ...

The sun rose while I was in H-E-B! I laid back down after getting up to turn off the alarm, only for a couple of minutes, but still... Don't do that!  Luckily, I was resolute enough not to be tempted to fall back asleep and made myself rise and, if not shine, then at least fake it. This morning I decided to use as motivation, my disdain for grocery shopping at busy times of day, to go pick up a few things at the store.  I admit, it was worth it.  No crowds, quiet, quick check-out...all good, except, and not really an exception as it was more of a 'duh' moment when I thought I'd forgotten to put my apple empanada in my bag so I circled back through the parking lot, ran to the cashier only to discover it wasn't there.  Back at the car, one more glance into my bag revealed I'd put it in there after all. Short post today.  Just a little H-E-B adventure to tell.

Day two: I'm going to need a nap today. I won't get one, unless I take it after work but then that would interfere with my bedtime...so no nap.  I'll power through.  I woke 10 minutes before my alarm went off and made the mistake of lying back down for those glorious 9 minutes.   I've read that when you wake alert like I just described, you should NOT lie back down.  It appears someone has done this before. I was alert the first time...second time...not so much.  I'm groggy, even with 12 oz of coffee, a donut and sitting in my car by the Blanco River watching the sun light up the cliff as it rose. Yesterday, was different.  I wanted to lie back down after the alarm went off at 5:15, but I resisted in spite of not having slept very well.  It was like my brain knew I was going to throw it into a tailspin by getting up almost 2 hours earlier than usual, so it wouldn't settle down.  Instead, I seemed to have been half asleep most of the night....

I'm not a morning person...never have been.  It could be my DNA but both my parents were early risers, so I don't know from whom I would have inherited this trait.   However, I believe humans have an enormous capability to change almost anything about their habits, IF, they're willing to.   Therein lies the rub of becoming an early riser...am I willing?  What is my motivation for rising early?   I say I like to sleep but that's antithetical because if I liked to sleep, wouldn't I go to bed as early as possible and still sleep as late as possible?  But I don't go to sleep early.  I like to stay awake until midnight and rise when the sun is bright and high in the sky around 8:00 - 8:30 in the morning.   Even on a cloudy day, say on a Saturday morning like today, I still rise naturally around 8:00-8:30 after having gone to bed around midnight last night. So, does that mean I have a natural circadian rhythm?...