630

630am is a wonderful time. It is cold, the light is soft and blue and even before the yellow steals in, the birds are chirping in the trees.

For that, I have to thank Jo.

Because I have to make the lunchboxes and comb her hair, I open my eyes to 630am for the first time in a long time.

And therefore, my life clock changes.

From sleeping between 1-ish am to 8am, I sleep between 1130pm and 630am.

Same number of hours. But it is mind-boggling – to me at least – how simply moving bedtime back makes such a huge difference.

First few days, it was all negative. I complained incessantly to KK: I can’t wake up. How am I going to do my work? I am a night person. I need to stretch work into the night. What if my income is halved just because I have to do stupid lunch boxes?

Then on Day 3, I suddenly realized I didn’t need the afternoon nap anymore. I just didn’t feel tired and sleepy and rundown at 2pm or 6pm, the traditional times when I felt like death.

Research has shown that the deepest and most regenerative sleep occurs between 10pm and 2am. Successful case study here.

From 630am, I could go all the way until 9pm or so when I would feel sleepy. Throughout the day, my head feels lighter and seldom, if ever, heavy. Sleep comes easy, unlike at 2am when I sometimes had difficulty going down. And overall, a lot more productive work is done, from household chores to jobs to exercise time to quality time with kids.

So I decided to go with the flow. Am I really a night person just because I say so? What if I discipline myself to do productive work – without any surfing of the Net or getting onto Facebook – in the day?

And if I have to do fewer jobs because the time usually spent on the night stretch is spent preparing two kids for school in the morning, why not? For my own welfare?

It’s only been a week.

But I really really like what sleeping at the right time has done for me. I feel like I popped a wonder pill.