Fulltime Mama My name is Elizabeth, and I am the happy wife of ten years to Fabio and fulltime mama to four beautiful children: Joshua-9, Dominique 7, Israel- almost 5, Johann-3 and expecting a new baby in April 2012! We are currently living in Brazil as missionaries and life never ceases to be an adventure!!! I love motherhood with a passion and am passionate about providing a place here at MamaKnowsBest where mothers can learn, grow, and share ... pooling the wisdom of many into one big jackpot for mothers. View all articles | Contact author

Night Owl or Early Bird?

One night we had a provoking talk at our church, for ladies, about women being "busy at home", from Titus 2.  The notes from the talk are also posted here at MamaKnowsBest. The thing that stuck out to me most, that night, however was this little quote, by Martha Peace:

"I have heard of women who pride themselves on being "night people". That means they have trouble getting up in the mornings because they come alive at night. They may stay up till all hours reading, watching television, or pursuing some sort of interest.  They next morning they are too tired to get up and care for their family... these women are not "night people". They are lazy and selfish. Who would not rather stay up late to do whatever they please and sleep late the next day? Once a young wife begins getting up earlier than her children and husband, she will cease to be a "night person". She will be tired and go to bed at a reasonable hour so she will be there to serve her family the next morning."

Now, I really don't mean to step on toes by posting this.  So if reading this makes you feel like throwing rotten tomatoes, throw them at Martha Peace! (lol!)  I guess you could throw some at me too, since I agreed with her enough to post it, though.  Anyway, I would like to share some of my thoughts on the matter.

I do believe that there are people with a natural tendency to be either morning or night people. I grew up with an extreme morning-bird mother and an extreme night-owl father. You could not pay my mom enough to stay up late, and you could hardly pay my dad enough to go to bed at 9pm. And, come morning, my mom would spring out of bed, while my dad would drag out of bed.

But even with his natural tendencies, dad never slept late, and he never allowed us kids to sleep late. On occasion, if we were really "lucky", he would let us stay in bed until 8am on a Saturday morning, and then it was "up and at 'em"!  I didn't always appreciate that at the time, but I am thankful now for that early training.

I think I am more of a night person by nature. Once I was living on my own, my work schedule was 2pm-10pm, so I would get home around 11pm, without having had supper yet!  By the time I had supper and let it settle and "chilled out" a bit, it was always at least 1am by the time I'd hit the sack. At first I thought this was fun, but after a short time I quit liking it.  I would wake up at 10:30 or so, and still be dragging. Half the day was already gone!  It seemed I never got anything productive done.

So, I started making myself get in bed almost immediately upon arriving at home, so I could wake up at a decent hour and then, I had the WHOLE day until I had to be at work at 2pm to do as I pleased. I felt so much better that way.

Ultimately, I believe God designed our world and our bodies so that we would sleep at night and be awake during the day. Sounds almost silly to say so, because it is so obvious!  Back not so long ago when people didn't have electricity, Im sure "night owl syndrome" was not nearly so prevalent as it is today! They had to "make hay while the sun shone".

And, as is always the case, modern science confirms the wisdom of God's design:

-Every hour of sleep we get before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight! 

-It is not healthy for our metabolism to eat after 8:00 pm.

-Morning is the best time to exercise.

... and the list goes on.  If you do some research, it will speak for itself.

And more importantly, what does God's Word say?  "Rising early" is all over the Scriptures, from David in the Psalms, to Isaiah, to Jesus Himself who rose to pray while it was still dark.  Even the Proverbs 31 woman "rose while it was yet dark" to begin working.  (Although it also says her candle goes not out by night - when does this lady sleep??)

I almost always have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Actually, I think I could safely say "always", not just almost always!  But I find it is SO worth it!  When I get out of bed, even a half an hour before the kids, take a quick shower during which I begin meeting with the Lord in prayer,  and then have a quick quiet time, even if only reading one chapter of the Bible - then I feel so ready to greet the day and greet my children with a smile when they wake up!  On the other hand, on those days when I give in to staying in bed instead until they wake me up, things do not go so well. I have a hard time getting a shower once they are up, so I feel grungy instead of fresh. I don't get to spend even a moment before the Lord, so I tend to be grumpier as well. And as I have not had a chance to get in the "driver's seat" of the day and figure out what direction we are headed, I feel the day takes off with me being carried along with no control of the direction.  Did you ever have this feeling?

Now, I do usually snatch a few quite moments at night after the kids are in bed to spend time with Fabio, read a bit, blog  a bit, or whatever, but I try to limit these activities to not more than one hour after they go to sleep.  A kitchen timer can come in handy if you find it difficult to limit time spent on certain activities.

I feel the necessity to add in here that there may also be family situations that require a different schedule and that is okay. If your husband is working late, it may be the most loving thing to do to stay up until he gets home, or even keep the kids up later to accommodate that.  And while waking at 5am would be fabulous, I don't find I am able to make that happen very often! For me, it is being able to be up before the children to feel refreshed and ready to meet the day when it starts - which typically means 6:30 or so in our family at this season.

I think the gist of Martha Peace's quote, and of my article, is to address those mothers who stay up late past the time their families are sleeping in order to have "me time" to pursue their interests until way too late, and then are unable to drag themselves out of bed in the morning to serve their families. If you are in this category, you would do well to heed; if you do not feel that this applies to your situation, do not heep unnecessary condemnation upon yourself.

But to sum it up, I think Ben Franklin had it right when he said, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."  (Well, healthy anyway, and maybe wise. Still haven't figured out the "wealthy" part yet.... )