I used to set my alarm clock knowing in advance that I would allow myself a half hour of snoozing before actually getting up. If I needed to wake up at 5:30, for example, I would set the alarm for 5:00. Building in the 30 extra minutes of snooze time made me less anxious than setting my alarm at the actual time I had to get up, despite the scientific evidence that resoundingly concludes what a bad idea this is.
When you grow up among Virgos (my mother and older brother), you quickly learn to be responsible, punctual, and prepared. Too groggy to wake up at 5:00? No problem! Set your alarm for 4:30 AM and get woken up 3 times for practice before waking up for REAL. It is an insane logic, but beholden to my older brother's wisdom, I followed his lead. He never overslept. In my idolization of him, he never appeared groggy.
Sometime in the last decade, I stopped needing to hit the snooze button. Most mornings my internal alarm wakes me before my iPhone alarm sounds. My circadian rhythms favor the early morning, my favorite time of day, when the world is still quiet. Dawn never ceases to amaze me.
This morning, though, I fell back into a deep sleep after waking up as usual without an alarm. When my alarm sounded at 5:00 AM, I was not ready to get up. Friday morning. Let me see if I remember how to hit snooze... oh yes, here it is.
I must have fallen right back into a deep slumber, because eight minutes later, when the alarm sounded a second time, I woke up feeling as though an hour had passed. It was the sweetest 8 minute snooze I've enjoyed in quite some time. What a world of difference in 8 minutes! I gave thanks to the universe for the windfall of deep sleep on a Friday morning snooze and got out of bed for real.
On my morning walk with Hagrid, we said goodbye to the 6:00 AM sunrise, as we head into the weekend of daylight savings time. Goodbye for now, beautiful morning walks in daylight. We will love the longer daylight hours in the late afternoon and early evenings, but we won't have another 6:00 AM sunrise until April 16th. Can't wait to see you again, morning walk daylight!
I am addicted to my snooze button. No circadian rhythm ever wakes me -- now it's just a whining toddler. :)
ReplyDeleteSo sweet your 8-minute snooze that felt much longer! How sweet! It felt like one hour. This has been a tiring week. Wow, your brothers does not look tired when he wakes up. I hope you and Hagrid have been enjoying your sunny morning walks!
ReplyDeleteI like that you have marked when the next 6a.m. sunrise will come. I used to love those early morning walks with the Corgis. And I've always gotten up early. It's my own time and I'm selfish about it but yes, some days, all I want to do is sleep, so I do. It's more than 8 minutes though, lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to light when I walk my dog in the early evenings. Not excited, though, about losing an hour of sleep tonight!
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