I need a lot of time in the morning to make myself ready for sociability of any kind. On the days when I teach, I get up at six in the morning because I need at least three hours before I'm ready to communicate with students or anybody else. This doesn't depend on when I wake up. I just need a lot of time to go into the fully awake mode. Unless I'm allowed to spend my three + hours in the morning in a happy self-absorption and silence, I will find it very difficult to walk into the classroom at 9:30 am in a fully functional mode.
As much as I try to explain this to people, though, they never seem to understand. Family members, friends, colleagues, students, people on the bus and in the coffee-shop persecute me with their morning chirpiness. For some reason, everybody seems to be eager and willing to engage in loud animated discussions with me in the morning.
For me, the hours between midnight and 3 am are the time when I'm alert, active, sociable, and willing to communicate. I understand, though, that most people do not feel like socializing at that time. I respect this and abstain from calling them on the phone to share my midnight talkativeness with them.
While we, the night people, are always considerate with the morning folks, they never return the courtesy.
While we, the night people, are always considerate with the morning folks, they never return the courtesy.
7 comments:
I'm also most awake and aware in the hours between midnight and 3AM.
But you're right, morning people never seem to realize that there are any other sort of people. I wonder how much being a morning person is correlated with extroversion?
-Mike
I wonder too, Mike. There seems to be a large degree of correspondence.
It took me *months* to get my roommate and my ex to stop chattering at me over breakfast and the morning paper. My ex, especially, was like a irrepresible spout, who also insisted on grilling me solicitously abot my monosyllabic answers. Was the tea too weak? Too strong? More honey? Perhaps the eggs were not runny enough for me? (my preference for soft-boiled or liquid-centre eggs were a source of constant astonishment for me) One more piece of toast? A slice of apple? No? Cantaloupe?
Of course, this made me feel like a super-grump, and then made me feel indignant that I was being made to feel like a super-grump when all I wanted was to be left alone, and altogether spoiled my mornings.
Later I found out that my ex preferred silence in the mornings too. He'd just had that preference shamed and harrassed and scolded out of him by his parents, his housemasters and peers (he went to a private boarding school), his roomies at college and most of his former partners... till he believed preferring his own company was an unnatural, freakish 'issue' he had to get over.
It never fails to amaze me how the opinions of others make some people feel guilty about their own instinctive preferenes. But then I suppose, being an instinctive loner, I don't understand their need to be accepted as 'normal'.
1.Around 3 a.m. - hmmm -it is actually those who tied to devil. Nothing personal. To wake at 3am means some devilishness... Never mind. What I like- to sleep well,sweetly ...suddenly with no reason to wake and to see on fluoriscented digital watch the scary time: 4:44 am . Why always. Ummmmm. 2. With age its known all the haevy night birds bacame a larks. I mean if you are the owl- its not forever. So the conclusion- is there hormonal work. Whatever. Stalin had his "soveshanie" always according to devilish schedule.At night./181/
You know how Žižek gets really excited about something he's talking about, considerably more so than his interviewers or audience. I'm like that 24/7 now. I literally have to keep eating all the time because I could easily fall from this high point to a 2-4 hour nap.
Looking from the other side, it's quite frustrating to have all this energy to pass on to others, but they're always so serious, so down. I'm introverted. I don't mind socialization at all. Any time of day is good for me, but it be it better be stimulating, perhaps funny and relatively high energy to correspond to my state. I'm certainly not going to keep a list like
Lisa-morning
James-not morning.
Mike - not morning
Leslie - not morning
If want to share my energy with James and Mike, am I seriously going to have to wait until 9 or 12 or whenever? Vice versa for Lisa?
My solution. 3 different countries
Morning people - move to the north east, north midwest, and Alaska
Energetic all the time people - West coast + Hawaii (I don't make the rules here. We have the most energy so we get the best weather!)
Afternoon, Night people - you can have the rest.
That way, in the west coast, we get up high energy and stay high energy since high energy people tend to amplify each other's energy simply by proximity. This is where you will find 24/7 stores, businesses. We might need a subdivision for high energy introverts mostly because high energy extroverts get on my nerves with their silly chatter. Robin Williams is the de facto president for life.
Morning people get up have their coffee and breakfast, go to work super early. There day ends relatively early. Unluckily George W. is the only president I've heard of who gets up early and go to bed early. Something tells me I'm going to end up in this region once I turn 70.
Afternoon/Night people - can silently eat breakfast. Roads are empty in the morning since everyone goes to work at noon, so Everything is quiet at time. Oh yea, You can keep Barack.
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So yea, everyone start packing!
My hub is just like you -- antisocial till noon, happy and alert midnight to 2 am. My brain shuts down at 11 pm but I am chipper in the morning, and hate my hub for killing my morning cheer with his grumpiness and gloom when we're carpooling to work.
fairykarma: Your comment is so funny that it even dispelled my gloom of a person who has been teaching all day on three hours of sleep. Thank you, my friend!
Oh, no, three hours of sleep? Yikes.
I too, take a long time to wake up. Don't know what I am, really. I've been waking up at 4:40 am for the past week, and I'm not liking it at all -- even though I'm in bed by 10.
If I ran my own time, the workday would start at 10 am and end at 6pm -- so I could avoid traffic and be more alert. I would never be required to be awake and sociable before the sun actually rises. Optimally it takes me a half an hour to wake up at the best time anyways.
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