Since the start of my junior year of high school, my sleep schedule has been increasingly inconsistent, with late nights leading to late rises. The complexity of my classes has jumped, going from all regular classes to three APs and an Honors class— which has come with more work, and many late nights—causing me to have less sleep on a daily basis.
In an attempt to keep from oversleeping, I’ve set several alarms on my phone to get me up on time, but the ever so accessible snooze button keeps me from being successful. After thinking of what I could do, I decided to get rid of the feature completely in order to stop my snoozing.
On any given day, snoozing would enable me to wake up even later, sending me into a rush of making the bed, brushing my teeth, taking a shower, packing all the materials for the day, preparing and eating breakfast, and getting into the car. This usually leads me to forget things and possibly skip breakfast, adding to the stress of the morning commute.
Entering the second semester, I knew I needed to make a significant change, and so, I deactivated my phone’s snooze button in hopes that my mental clock would snap me into consciousness without the security of a second alarm waking me up.
Starting the first couple of days of this challenge, I got up abruptly at 5:10 a.m. feeling groggy, with a strong desire to just go back to sleep. But a feeling in me forcefully got me to rise, sleepy-eyed and zombie-like, into the habit of rushing through my morning routine of tidying my room, washing up, and packing my belongings. By the time I had finished preparing, I realized that I had a significant amount of time to spare and could have a longer time for breakfast before entering the commute.
In the few days following, I developed the habit of waking up exactly on time or even a couple of minutes before the alarm which not only left me feeling more energized and positive, but also mentally satisfied. With this newfound energy, I was able to slow myself down, and put in more effort into cleaning up my room, taking slightly longer than 7 minute showers, and checking over everything I need for school multiple times before having breakfast.
However, in the last remaining days, I had lost my ability to wake up earlier than usual, but still managed to get up on schedule at 5:10 a.m., this time slightly less active. Still though, I was able to stay on track with my newly adopted routine, putting in a considerable amount of effort that was better than when I first started the challenge.
Overall I found the entire experience to be beneficial to my mood and productivity as I was able to create a healthier morning routine that wasn’t as stressful and chaotic as it has been for the past few years. Through this, I now realize how meaningful and a simple ten minutes can be and how impactful it can be on one’s daily life.
