You know what I don't get?

Physics.

No seriously, what I don't get is morning people.

I mean, intellectually I understand that there are people who are bright-eyed and chipper at 5:00 AM. And that there are people who struggle to stay up much past 9:00 at night. And that there are people who have not seen the clock hit midnight - even on New Year's Eve - for decades. I comprehend this fact well enough.

I, however, am a night person. I am of absolutely no use before 9 AM, but I usually have a good burst of energy in the mid-to-late afternoon, and staying up until midnight is nothing special for me. It's actually pretty rare that I feel at all tired before 10 PM. If I had my "druthers", as my great-grandma would say, I'd get up at 9 or 10 every morning, and stay up until 1 or 2 (or 3) AM. This is just how my circadian rhythms work, you see. I am a night person.

No, what I don't get about morning people is how they all seem to think that we night people should be able to transform ourselves into morning people if we wanted to. And they think that we should want to.

I admit, it is somewhat inconvenient to be a night person in an 8-to-5 full time job when I have to drive an hour each way. My first hour of the work day most days consists of getting coffee, chatting with my coworkers, reading my e-mail, and trying desperately to make sense out of something productive.

But morning people seem to think that I should just be able to go to bed earlier at night, and then get up earlier (or just get up at the same time but more refreshed) in the morning. Trust me. It doesn't work that way. If I tried to go to bed at 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening, I'd just lay there and think about all the stuff that I need to get done, or come up with great ideas that I absolutely have to get up and write down, and toss and turn until I finally get up and read until 1 AM. If I try it the other way - make myself get up extra early and hope I'm extra-tired at 9:00 at night, I will just be crabby all day, and about 7:00 PM I'll get a burst of energy and I'll be up until 11:00 blogging or playing computer games or something.

I am fully able to accept the foreign nature of morning people - why is it that they cannot accept the nature of the night person? Comments anyone?

Comments

[stephanie]

i'm a bit of both - i'm forced to get up early but i always enjoy staying up late. if i don't get at least 6 hours though, i'm toast.

my mom stays up late and can't wake up early, and it annoys the crap out of me. i call her early just to be annoying. :)

did you hear that amber alert on the radio this morning? that's the first time i've ever heard an actual message after the annoying warning signal. two year old girl abducted - white truck - az plate 722 mgk. call 911 if you've seen it.