Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to not sleep in on weekends. Yes,
Speaker 1: a little Saturday or Sunday morning snooze seems like a
Speaker 1: good way to catch up on sleep, but committing to
Speaker 1: get up at a reasonable hour can open up all
Speaker 1: kinds of time. When I first became apparent about thirteen
Speaker 1: years ago, I soon realized that weekend sleep would not
Speaker 1: be the same for a while. Little kids often wake
Speaker 1: up at the crack of dawn, and they do not
Speaker 1: care if it's Saturday or if it's Tuesday. My husband
Speaker 1: and I would switch off for the early mornings, which
Speaker 1: I recommend if you're in a two parent family. But
Speaker 1: this meant the other party could maybe sleep in until
Speaker 1: eight am or so nobody hit double ditch it. Of course,
Speaker 1: children do eventually grow up. There was a magical movement
Speaker 1: about a year ago when none of my kids were
Speaker 1: under four years old. The older ones were sleeping later
Speaker 1: on weekends and the little ones either slept or entertain themselves.
Speaker 1: But I also realized that continuing to get up early
Speaker 1: had some merit. For instance, if you're training for a race,
Speaker 1: or just like longer exercise stints, these runs or bike
Speaker 1: rides can be hard to fit into the middle of
Speaker 1: a Saturday that during normal times might feature kids, sports,
Speaker 1: birthday parties and the like. Run from six thirty to
Speaker 1: nine thirty am, and you can train for a marathon
Speaker 1: before many other household members get up, or if neither
Speaker 1: you nor your partner cling to the idea of sleeping in,
Speaker 1: each of you can get a long exercise stint in
Speaker 1: on one of the weekend mornings, taking the kids on
Speaker 1: the other one. This is how people who have careers
Speaker 1: and toddler's run marathons. They don't have access to special
Speaker 1: hours that no one else does. They just don't sleep in.
Speaker 1: Of course, exercise doesn't have to be the only option.
Speaker 1: Many people's minds are freshest in the mornings. I'm writing
Speaker 1: before Breakfast episodes right now, which is seven am on
Speaker 1: a Saturday. Now. Of course, this is my job, and
Speaker 1: in theory, it's nice to have a break between weekends
Speaker 1: and week days with schools closed for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: Though my week days are often interrupted, weekend mornings are
Speaker 1: a time to get stuff done. There are also a
Speaker 1: time to tackle those bigger creative projects that tend to
Speaker 1: get shoved away when life gets busy. From six to
Speaker 1: nine am on a weekend, you could spend ninety minutes
Speaker 1: working on your novel, then an hour running, and start
Speaker 1: your day feeling accomplished. Now, to wake up at something
Speaker 1: close to your week daytime on weekends requires two things. First,
Speaker 1: you need to be reasonably well rested going into the weekend.
Speaker 1: Sleeping in is often about working off a sleep debt.
Speaker 1: It might work, but in general you'll have more energy
Speaker 1: by figuring out how much sleep you need and doing
Speaker 1: your best to make that happen during the work week.
Speaker 1: If you need seven and a half hours and you
Speaker 1: need to wake up at six am on weekdays, then
Speaker 1: your bedtime is ten thirty. Simple enough, and you'll be
Speaker 1: thanking yourself every morning as you wake up ready to
Speaker 1: wake up. But then, of course, to keep this up,
Speaker 1: you have to go to bed at a reasonable time
Speaker 1: on weekends too, and this is often the biggest challenge,
Speaker 1: not because there's any particular reason for most of us
Speaker 1: to stay up late. If you and your spouse want
Speaker 1: to watch a movie, you could watch it from eight
Speaker 1: to ten pm, go to bed, and then pop up
Speaker 1: on your own at five thirty. I suspect the problem
Speaker 1: is that, in our minds, going to bed early on
Speaker 1: weekends seems kind of not so fun. No, we haven't
Speaker 1: gone clubbing until one am in years, but we could.
Speaker 1: And if we're not, at least we're still awake at
Speaker 1: the same time as people who are in the clubs.
Speaker 1: Well as I'm writing this. We're all social distancing, so
Speaker 1: no one is in clubs at one am or any
Speaker 1: other time. So with the fear of missing out gone,
Speaker 1: why not try going to bed at a deliciously early hour.
Speaker 1: If you go to bed on time on Friday and
Speaker 1: Saturday nights and wake up on time, you might be
Speaker 1: able to use the mornings for all those things that
Speaker 1: we say we want to do but then don't do.
Speaker 1: Not sleeping in on weekends opens up time for things
Speaker 1: that make us feel energized for life. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M Hey, everybody, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's B the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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