varn.dev

People are a bit shocked when I tell them that I get up every day at 4am. In an industry that is known for late night coding sessions and then starting the day at 12pm, I feel like I’m a bit of an outlier for sure. But I enjoy waking up as early as I do, starting the day the way I’d like to.

I’ve never been someone who needs a lot of sleep, from as long as I can remember. On a normal day, 5-6 hours is all I really need to feel energized and refreshed for the day. Back when I was a teenager, I was also never the type to sleep in much, partially because my parents didn’t want me “sleeping the day away” but also because I felt…gross I guess, if I slept past say, 10am, even if I went to bed very late at night. In college, I would be up till 2 or so most nights, sleep and then get up and go to work or class at 8:30 and it never felt that weird or unusual for me.

Back in June, I took a quiz from the New York Times about “What’s Your Sleep Type?” and got “The Lark”, which is a definite morning person and I think that fits:

You are a rare bird who might be up between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., ready to start the day even when everyone around you is still sleeping. This is what scientists call a “definite morning” chronotype. Larks are sharpest between 6 a.m. and noon and find it difficult to concentrate in late-afternoon meetings. If it were up to you, you’d be asleep by around 9 p.m.

My current wakeup time started years ago when my daughter was an infant. She would wake up around 3:30 or so (as babies do) and after getting up to take care of her, I would find myself awake. So I started staying in this routine, even after she started sleeping through the night. I found that I enjoyed getting up when the house was quiet, taking care of quiet chores around the house, checking email and getting started on my day. I started including a workout routine into it as well and now either walk about 2.5 miles or bike 10 miles, 5 days a week, usually starting at 4:45am. I’m fortunate that in Florida I can basically do this year round, so I not only get the benefits of being awake early and enjoying the quietness of the world, but also all the good things that getting a good workout can do for you to start the day - energize you, keep you in shape and help you focus, at least for me.

The tradeoff for all of this of course, is that by 10pm I am 1000% ready for bed and try to go to sleep about that time, so evening plans can be a bit hard. And on weekends, when I can “sleep in”, I’m usually still up no later than 6, even if I go to bed much later. Thankfully the rest of the folks in the house are morning people too (including the kids), so it works out well, but no one is up as early as I am.

I imagine as I get older, and our bodies need even less sleep, this pattern might change. But there is something nice knowing that by 8am, all of the stuff around the house is taken care of, I can sit down and focus on work and have a nice productive day.