THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 5:20 and 6:00am

Only forty minutes separates these two times, but what a difference between them. Last year I got up at 5:20am four times a week. It was awful. This year I only have to do it once, with other days having the alarm clock set at 6:00 or 7:00, thanks to some schedule changes and my deciding to reduce the ‘hanging around at work’ time before I’m actually on the clock.

There’s just something psychologically bad about getting up at 5:20. It’s nothing to do with the actual physical act of getting out of bed at that hour - that’s never been a problem for me. The difficulty lies in what you have to do the night before. You’re forced to start winding down at 9pm and be in bed by 10, which for me is near impossible. It just doesn’t feel right since my natural cycle would be to go to bed at 2am and get up at 9. Plus, my wife gets home between 8:30 and 9:30pm, so it plays havoc with the evening meal arrangements. Put the alarm clock back to 6am, and suddenly that pressure to get to bed is gone. Somehow I feel much better. Dinner isn’t rushed and I can be in bed at 11pm and still read for a bit.

But I do have to sacrifice to get up at 6am instead of 5:20, mind. It’s a compromise. I have to take a hideously crowded train, which isn’t very pleasant for a sociophobe like me, but it’s still worth it.