{"id":63577,"date":"2019-03-12T18:53:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T02:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=63577"},"modified":"2019-03-13T19:38:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T03:38:20","slug":"the-rules-of-sleep-hygiene-made-me-rethink-my-mornings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-rules-of-sleep-hygiene-made-me-rethink-my-mornings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rules of Sleep Hygiene Made Me Rethink My Mornings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I think our modern compulsion to optimize the living hell out of our mornings is counterproductive.<\/p>\n

Okay. Maybe I shouldn\u2019t make such a sweeping statement.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try again. For me, personally, when I tried to apply takeaways from the seemingly infinite number of Medium articles depicting the morning routines of highly productive people, it made me\u2026<\/p>\n

Less productive.<\/p>\n

Maybe not in the mornings! But overall. And isn\u2019t the holistic picture of productivity, of how productivity plays into our deeper senses of accomplishment, the real point?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about drinking turmeric tea in the morning instead of coffee. When I do that, I get a headache (I know that means I\u2019m addicted, I\u2019m okay with it, don\u2019t @ me). It\u2019s not about running 6 miles before dawn. I\u2019ve tried that, too, and it results in a massive energy crash around noon. The rest of my workday is useless. It\u2019s not about rising at 5am and following the arbitrary schedule that someone (usually a male someone) decided was how we ought to spend our pre-work moments, else be relegated to the ranks of lesser beings.<\/p>\n

Many have critiqued the morning routine trope, to be fair, often positing that the mornings detailed are far from replicable for normal humans. But my critique is less about feasibility, as that\u2019s discussed ad nauseum, and more about the deep-rooted motivations behind those routines: they focus on the noise of productivity, not the signal: accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Where Sleep Hygiene Comes In<\/h1>\n

We\u2019ve all heard the rules of sleep hygiene.<\/p>\n

Avoid screens an hour before bed. Give your mind time and space to wind down. Make your bedroom as dark \u2013 and as quiet \u2013 as possible. Take comfort in routine. Turn off notifications in the nighttime hours. Use your bed for sleeping and sex, and nothing else. Don\u2019t scroll through Instagram, don\u2019t check your email, don\u2019t respond to your Slack notifications, don\u2019t swipe through Bumble.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found sleep hygiene to be historically difficult to recapture when I\u2019ve let it slip, but quite easy to maintain. When I\u2019ve been intentional about creating a routine that allows me to truly rest, I revel in the comfort of my bed and will do my best to methodically ensure the trend continues. But when I haven\u2019t\u2026 I dread 11pm.<\/p>\n

I suppose all habits are like that. At least the ones we know are good for us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been quite good at maintaining my nighttime routine over the past several months. I fall asleep within 15 minutes of closing my eyes and wake up without an alarm 8 hours later. I\u2019m sleeping well and sleeping enough. Many would envy me, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

And yet, every morning was marked by exhaustion, freneticism, even stress. I couldn\u2019t figure out why. I wasn\u2019t running late or oversleeping. I obviously wasn\u2019t undersleeping, either. I don\u2019t have kids, or a pet, or a partner, or even a roommate to add chaotic curveballs to my morning routine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just me. I\u2019m only responsible for me.<\/p>\n

Note: This is a privileged place to be, and a situation that enables a level of sleep hygiene others are unable to pursue. I\u2019m owning that.<\/em><\/p>\n

So\u2026 why was I so tired at 9am? So completely frazzled that I could barely focus when I started my workday? I felt ridiculous, even self-conscious about it; I had no reason to be this drained by my very-easy-to-handle life.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago, it clicked into place: I was following the rules of sleep hygiene, but I wasn\u2019t giving myself the same kindness in the morning.<\/p>\n

Treating Mornings as a Treat<\/h1>\n

I\u2019ve always been a morning person. I often wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6am, sans alarm, much to the chagrin of anyone who might share my bed.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m falling victim to the narrative that our mornings must be optimized or else what good are we, I take my morning-person tendencies as a sign that I need to spring out of bed and immediately start work. I should harness that morning-person energy and use it to do great work before dawn because what else would I do? I have travel backpacks<\/a> to market!<\/p>\n

Except that, per the above paragraphs, doing so makes me miserable. And I love my job.<\/p>\n

So what if I\u2019m bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6am? I\u2019m also bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9am. And at 11am. I don\u2019t have to start work at the crack of dawn. I don\u2019t have to work out at the crack of dawn, either. Nor do I need to rush to get dressed, or gulp down my coffee, or sprint through the ritual of packing my work bag.<\/p>\n

I can savor morning moments. In fact\u2026 it\u2019s more holistically productive for me to savor morning moments instead of trying to \u201cdo more.\u201d<\/p>\n

My old morning routine:<\/strong><\/p>\n