Not a Morning Person
I would never call myself a "morning person." Don't get me wrong. I tend to function the best in the morning in that I am much more productive at that time of day. However, I think that is because by the end of the day I am so damn tired regardless of what I do.
Years ago when I first started teaching, I was always given 8am classes. Why? Because no full-timer in their right mind is willing to teach that early. The best and brightest students go for the post-9:30am classes. This means, the 8am classes are the last to fill and the students who do fill it are the least motivated ones out there. Namely, they were too lazy to register in advance which means they got stuck with the only class still open: the 8am one. Even when I was a student I avoided that time slot like the plague. However, my Russian classes were only held at that time and it was a three day a week class. 8am on a Friday is just pure evil. An 8am Russian class on a Friday? That should be unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment.
Also, as I was the newer adjunct I was really low man on the totem pole. Hell, other adjuncts avoid that time slot, which says something. We're usually happy just to get a class regardless of the time or topic. A paycheck is a paycheck.
So crazy me agreed to the 8am classes. Even as I have moved up the seniority ladder, I still take those classes. On average the students are not the best and half of them look like they literally just rolled out of bed. I even had one student show up to class in PJs, which takes effort as this was a commuter college. Still, I look at it as a paycheck. Money is money and people do worse for less.
For this upcoming semester I am not only teaching two days at 8:00am, my internship which is over an hour away starts at that time as well on another two days. As I had the pleasure of not needing to get up early in the morning most of this summer, I've been training myself the past couple of weeks to get up earlier and earlier. Thankfully my usual wake up alarm was 7:00am throughout the summer so the switch to 5:00am has been relatively easier.
My problem? The going to bed early part. I have chronic insomnia to begin with so sleeping has always been problematic for me. It's just hard training myself to be in bed by 9pm so that way I can hopefully by asleep within a half hour or so. This really is the hard part. I'm just too wired until around 11pm or so. I avoid caffeine after 2pm so I not it's not that. I just think it's the way my mind works. Though I am noticing a change: by 9pm I am getting very tired. Maybe enough nights of less than 6 hours of sleep is finally catching up to me.
Years ago when I first started teaching, I was always given 8am classes. Why? Because no full-timer in their right mind is willing to teach that early. The best and brightest students go for the post-9:30am classes. This means, the 8am classes are the last to fill and the students who do fill it are the least motivated ones out there. Namely, they were too lazy to register in advance which means they got stuck with the only class still open: the 8am one. Even when I was a student I avoided that time slot like the plague. However, my Russian classes were only held at that time and it was a three day a week class. 8am on a Friday is just pure evil. An 8am Russian class on a Friday? That should be unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment.
Also, as I was the newer adjunct I was really low man on the totem pole. Hell, other adjuncts avoid that time slot, which says something. We're usually happy just to get a class regardless of the time or topic. A paycheck is a paycheck.
So crazy me agreed to the 8am classes. Even as I have moved up the seniority ladder, I still take those classes. On average the students are not the best and half of them look like they literally just rolled out of bed. I even had one student show up to class in PJs, which takes effort as this was a commuter college. Still, I look at it as a paycheck. Money is money and people do worse for less.
For this upcoming semester I am not only teaching two days at 8:00am, my internship which is over an hour away starts at that time as well on another two days. As I had the pleasure of not needing to get up early in the morning most of this summer, I've been training myself the past couple of weeks to get up earlier and earlier. Thankfully my usual wake up alarm was 7:00am throughout the summer so the switch to 5:00am has been relatively easier.
My problem? The going to bed early part. I have chronic insomnia to begin with so sleeping has always been problematic for me. It's just hard training myself to be in bed by 9pm so that way I can hopefully by asleep within a half hour or so. This really is the hard part. I'm just too wired until around 11pm or so. I avoid caffeine after 2pm so I not it's not that. I just think it's the way my mind works. Though I am noticing a change: by 9pm I am getting very tired. Maybe enough nights of less than 6 hours of sleep is finally catching up to me.
Comments
not that there isn't 10000 websites on getting a good night sleep and I'm sure you've seen most of the tips.. so my comment is pretty pointless and yet I'm hitting submit and not delete..