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People who get up early are called early risers. I have until recently about larks speech not commanded. I was a withered fly. You saw them at the end of September, they seem to fly, but so sleepily, according to the pattern they know, but in general it doesn’t matter where and how.
Didn’t realize I was depressed
Such was my life. The third year on maternity leave, she raised the child alone, no help – all relatives and friends in other cities. I didn’t realize that I was in a deep depression. I didn’t even have time to think about myself. Wrapped up, eternal groundhog day, bagel on the head. I didn’t look in the mirror, I couldn’t. I’ve already given up on myself: who needs me like that?! Only for a child…
But one day (maybe the instinct of self-preservation worked) I was horrified: is this my life? The daughter always sees a tired, sad mother, and also annoyed … I realized that this is no longer possible. Need to do something. I thought to myself, what is it that pisses me off the most? Constant fatigue, joylessness. I have already forgotten the last time I read a book (so that not two pages, but to the end), watched a feature film, did exercises. I just hit myself. After all, everything that I liked, that inspired and delighted me, the last time I did before the decree …
But even now I can afford it! And I started trying. As soon as I spread the yoga mat, when the child wakes up, I have to go cook porridge. Movie? “I want a cartoon!” Book? “Well, when are we going for a walk?” And so the whole day. Plus, I got used to doing something around the house at any free second and could not stop, lie down, rest. Vicious circle.
“One day I can’t make time for myself, I’ll do it in the morning,” I decided. And I changed my daily routine.
Wake up at 5 am, hang up at 21
I started getting up at 5 am. And going to bed at 9 – 10 pm – with a small child, an early lights out was even more logical. Before that, I woke up with my daughter at 8 or 9 in the morning. We went to bed at 12 at night, sometimes later. Switching to the new mode was not difficult. The main secret is to fall asleep early and not jump up in the middle of the night. Why did I do this before?
- The first reason is water. I heard from someone that before going to bed you need to drink a glass of clean water. And I did it for a long time. As a result, she ran to the toilet in the middle of the night, and in the morning she felt overwhelmed. Basta! I decided that I would drink more during the day. And two hours before bedtime, I stop.
- It’s the same with food. Falling asleep on an empty stomach (2-3 hours without eating anything before going to bed) turned out to be easier than with a full stomach. And what a thrill to wake up hungry! In the morning I want to have breakfast so that my legs themselves lift out of bed.
- The phone is my enemy! Already lying in bed, I constantly went to social networks and, without noticing it myself, stupidly spent an hour, or even more, flipping through other people’s photos. What for? I understand now: then there were not enough personal positive emotions. So I dived into the Internet … At night, I began to turn on the phone in airplane mode, set the alarm and put the mobile phone away, into the next room.
- A doctor I know told me that at night, for proper rest, a person must sleep in absolute darkness. No nightlights, streetlights. I bought myself new blackout curtains. And I immediately felt the difference: in complete darkness you quickly relax and fall asleep.
- Before going to bed, we read a book with the child or listened to calm music. No cartoons, let alone TV shows.
- Be sure to ventilate the room!
All. So I began to fall asleep early and get up at five in the morning. Of course, I woke up with an alarm clock. Sometimes she lifted herself up like Munchausen by her hair. But that was rare. After all, I had an incentive: three hours of extra time. Only for myself!
Eat yourself in the morning
What did I spend it on?
It’s funny, but the first thing I did was wipe the floors, put porridge in a double boiler. The old program worked! But on the other hand, I did not return to cleaning during the day and was calm about breakfast: it was already ready. It was from this moment that all the most interesting began. I did yoga for about an hour, then I slowly had breakfast and savored an interesting book for my own pleasure. Nobody distracted me! I didn’t hurry. Lived.
I started drawing pictures in the morning, not by myself, but by numbers, such sets are sold in any department with needlework. I embroidered. Sometimes I studied English. Traffic Laws. She kept a diary. Sometimes I went to bed again for half an hour, seeing that the child was still sleeping! I liked being the master of my time.
And I began to notice that my day has changed dramatically. Ease appeared. And joy. I became kinder and calmer, stopped being so tired and annoyed. I understood: today I have already done something important for myself. And this mantra helped me a lot.
During the day, of course, I wanted to sleep. I put the baby to bed and went to bed myself. But she woke up broken, and at 21.00 she could hardly fall asleep. The regime was broken. Then I decided that I would rest like this: in yoga there is such a pose – shavasana. This is when you lie down on the mat, cover yourself with a blanket and for 10 minutes you won’t even move your finger. It is done after all the exercises in order to properly relax and unwind. But experienced yogis advise shavasana to those who have not had much sleep. They say: 15 minutes in this position is better than an hour of sleep that breaks daily biorhythms. In general, get up cheerful and full of energy. Indeed, this rest was enough for me.
This freed me up another hour or two during the day while the baby slept.
A month later, I felt serious changes: I began to do a lot of things – for the child and for myself too.
“Girl, are you a child prodigy?”
For almost two years now, I have been living in this rhythm. My decree is long gone. The child goes to the garden, I go to work. And I still get up and go to bed early. How is this possible for a busy person? In my case, thanks to the company: our company has branches throughout the country. And I asked them to give me those that are in Siberia and the Far East. They wake up before Moscow, and I go with them.
Now, of course, I can afford to get up an hour or two later and go to bed after 22.00 p.m. (but not later than 11 p.m.). But it’s not out of laziness. My personal life settled down, and it became more difficult for the whole family to stick to the same daily routine. And most importantly, I stopped chasing! After all, maintaining this daily regimen all the time, when you can’t go to bed early, is also too much.
Everything has changed, even my gait and facial expression. Before, I was always some kind of gloomy beech. Now I can fly to work with a book in my hands and smile. By the way, that’s how I met my lover. He caught up with me at a traffic light and asked:
– Girl, are you a child prodigy? Can you read on the go?
– I’m a lark! I replied…
Specialist commentary
“Getting up and going to bed early is very wise!”
– Pure owls or larks among us – only 10 percent. The rest can change their daily routine as they want. The surest thing is to get up and go to bed early. With this approach, a person is as close as possible to natural rhythms, – explains the head of the Center for Sleep Medicine of Moscow State University. Lomonosov Alexander Kalinkin. – With the onset of darkness, the body begins to produce melatonin, a sleep regulator. It sends a signal to the cells that it is time to turn off the daytime work and turn on the night mode. And a person, for example, does not lie down and generally delays sleep – this is how he deprives himself of the highest quality rest, restorative. In general, the correct daily routine affects not only the quality of sleep, but also life in general.
It is also very important to get enough sleep. The norm is 7-9 hours of sleep. To understand how much you need, experiment on vacation. First, sleep well, and then calculate how much sleep you need to get up in the morning cheerful, in a good mood and keep this fuse for the whole day.
Alas, with the advent of artificial lighting, sleep duration has decreased from 8 hours to 6; in megacities, people sleep even less.
Even if you constantly steal only an hour of sleep from yourself, such a regimen can lead to serious diseases, including cancer. As for daytime sleep, everything is also correct. An hour or more destroys daytime biorhythms and the quality of night sleep. Who can lie down during the day is for those who are sick or have not slept at all. And, of course, children.