I am an appalling morning person. Help!

This article frist appeared September 9, 2010.

Dear Aunty B,

I run a manufacturing business. My problem is that I am an appalling early starter. I find that until mid-morning I cannot tolerate talking to anyone and I feel very grumpy and it’s hard to concentrate. I find it hard to be optimistic about the business and a problem that might be easy to overcome in the afternoon seems huge in the morning. I almost feel hung over but I am only a social drinker. By evening I am on top of the world and only go to bed before midnight because the wife, who is a morning person, makes me.

I have tried to hide this but the other day when I suggested an early morning catch up, a staff member made a joke that the staff like to keep away from me until lunch time. It made me vow to do something, but what?

Half asleep ’cause it’s morning
Victoria

Dear Half asleep,

Oh I like you. You know who I hate? Those highly annoying people who on waking, leap out of bed, a smile on their dial, fresh as a daisy and chirpy and cheerful. OMG. Some of them (like my son) actually hop out of bed singing! They are just happy to wake up. They are happy to embrace the world. They are happy to see me when all I want to see is my pillow.

Typically, like a man who thinks that the pain in childbirth is similar to getting root canal, they have no understanding about what the rest of us go through.

They don’t need to stuff their gobs with sugar in order to speak. They don’t need to stand under a shower for half an hour because at that hour drowning is preferable to breathing. No. They are early morning people. And guess what? Apparently my friend, they do better in their careers, than us night owls.

There is an interesting study in this month’s Harvard Review called “Early Bird really gets the worm”. The researcher asked 367 university students about what time of day they were most energetic. Now I remember one of the hallmarks of my university days was sleeping until midday so I am not sure of the wisdom of using uni students as guinea pigs. But anyhow, the “morning” people agree with statements that indicate productivity such as: “I spend time identifying long range goals for myself” and “I feel in charge of making things happen”.

The researcher had already done previous research and concluded that when it comes to business success, morning people hold important cards as they tend to get better grades at school and then get into better colleges in the US, which lead to better job opportunities. So from this latest research, they hypothesise that early morning people were more willing and able to take action to change a situation for their advantage while the rest of us are busy just waking up. They also try and anticipate problems and minimise them while we are struggling to eat our breakfast.

The good news is you can do something about it. You can be trained to alter your “chronotype” a little but not significantly. One idea is not to let yourself sleep in on weekends. For example, morning people get up at the same time on the weekend while evening people sleep in. I reckon that will just make you more grumpy but what would I know? It’s still early.

Another thing you can do is wait until you turn 50. Apparently you then turn into an annoying morning person like your mother.

But seriously, I think you are handling it well. Do desk stuff in the morning and keep big decisions and meetings until the afternoon. If it is too bad, go and see your doctor because you might have mild depression. You could also make sure you get a bit of sunshine before work or force yourself to get some morning exercise… yawning doesn’t count.

Maybe some of our other readers will have some suggestions.

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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