This semester, I signed up for an 8 a.m. Organic Chemistry class — by choice. When my friend Christine first proposed the idea to me over the summer, I didn’t even hesitate to laugh and reject it. Before this year, I worked hard each semester to carve out the perfect schedules, ones with my earliest classes pushed back as far in the day as possible. Last semester, I slept through my 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. classes multiple times. As a result of having a horrible sleep schedule, I couldn’t help but frivolously disregard my friend’s notion to sign up for an 8 a.m.
Things changed over the summer because I had a job that required me to wake up at 7:30 in the morning every weekday, and I began to realize waking up early isn’t so bad. I decided to enroll in the 8 a.m. class because I hoped it would fix my sleeping habits and make me more productive. I haven’t regretted it once this school year.
There are so many amazing benefits I’ve felt in the past couple of weeks as a result of waking up early for my classes. First, I have much more energy when I wake up early. For some reason when the sun is low and rising, it’s easier for me to get out of bed and I don’t snooze my alarm clock every five minutes. Second, Grounds is even more beautiful in the morning, and although I’m not a spiritual person, a sense of divine relaxation washes over me as I make my way towards Newcomb. This leads to the last benefit — breakfast. Eating breakfast has been a transformative experience for me because I get my money’s worth at Newcomb, hug Ms. Kathy and chat with her and finish readings I didn’t do the night before.
Although it’s easy to say waking up early is beneficial, it’s really hard to actually do it. This summer I taught myself how to wake up earlier, so I have two game-changing tips if you want to go on a run in the morning, have early classes or want to feel productive.
My first tip is to take a cold shower right after you wake up in order to get rid of any drowsiness. Some people don’t shower in the mornings, but I’ve made it a habit to take a shower the night before to clean myself, and then another quick shower in the morning to just wake myself up. If you have problems getting out of bed to get to the cold shower, playing music helps to kick things into motion.
My second tip is to go to sleep earlier. This was the hardest change I had to make to my lifestyle. I would always visit The Castle at 1 a.m. or stay up and talk with friends, but I’ve realized that sleep is truly a blessing. Forcing myself to go to sleep earlier has also made me focus and manage my time more wisely, because I would not be able to wake up for an 8 a.m. if I consistently went to sleep after midnight.
Overall, I’ve seen such drastic changes in my life for now, and I’m glad I chose to sign up for an 8 a.m. this semester, even though it sounded like a horrible decision at the time. Although I’m definitely showing signs of becoming an old man because I am waking up early and can’t stay up late, I’m enjoy these new changes. For now, I am doing well but I shall see how my lifestyle change will affect me during midterms and finals week when sleep becomes scarce.
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