I’m 38 years old and I’ve been hitting snooze my whole life. Once I stopped, everything changed. Are you familiar with the trend of working as soon as you wake? It caught my curiosity because I’ve been following practices to improve my flow state. Two weeks ago after a lot of reading I decided to adjust my daily schedule to match my chronotype. A chronotype is our biological predisposition to be a morning person, night owl, or in between.

I’ve always enjoyed waking up early. In highschool I started working at a bakery that had a start time at 5am because it meant being halfway finished with work before most people were even awake. This continued into my adult years as I embraced positions and activities that required early morning meetings. I jumped into 4am meetings with Europe. That was my prime time.

My struggles came when I would hit snooze. Snooze came often, and also came the more time I spent with others. Living with a night owl or wolf - someone who naturally is awake at night - caused constant friction in my schedule. I suppressed my early waking around friends, relationships, and even work interactions so that I could participate in late activities and maintain my presence in those environments.

Waking up early comes natural to me. I started tracking my sleep schedule more than 10 years ago and saw these trends where I typically woke up between 3:30am and 4:30am. I was wide awake every time. Struggling to fall back asleep, and then waking up late and groggy all day. This led to overeating, oversleeping, and overworking because I wasn’t correctly using my brain at it’s peak times.

Two weeks ago, when I woke up at 3am the grogginess disappeared. My flow state is consistent and I’m getting most of my work done between 3-6am. This gives me 4-5 hours of time completely alone in the morning. There is no better way to focus and get work done for me. I’ve found my path towards my improved work environment.

But I’ve been struggling with the change this means for my life.

My social life has been making me unhappy and unbalanced because I’m struggling with late nights when I just want to be in bed. The people that I enjoy being around, the people that I like, all want me to exist in the nighttime. But waking at 3am after going to bed at midnight has not been healthy for me. It’s caused me to sleep longer during the daytime and begin reintroducing the vicious habits of overeating, oversleeping, and overworking.

So what do I do? I’ve played with some workarounds that allow me to sleep in the evening and wake up for an even earlier morning.

But I’m focusing on living the best version of my life to the best of my abilities.

I’ve spent my whole life snoozing for them. It’s time to wake up and be fully me.

And in the process, I have to say goodbye to my night owls, to my night life, to my current view of life and the environments I love.

I know my highest functioning state is 3-6am. And I know there are others like me out there, I just need to find them.

Have you tried changing your schedule based on your chronotype? How did it work out for you? What did you learn?

I've spent my whole life snoozing...it's time to wake up and be me

Waking up to my chronotype or circadian personality is forcing me to change my whole life.

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