By Anna Trevathan, Managing Editor
The season is shifting and with it comes the evenings where the sun is setting before most of us even eat dinner. With the change in season comes a serious change in vibe, as seasonal depression starts poking out its ugly head. One way that this proves especially true is for late risers; it’s hard to give your day a chance when you’re only getting to see six or seven hours of sunlight.
Two years ago, I was starting my “morning” at 11 a.m. on a good day and finishing the day at roughly 2 a.m. each night. This was also the time in my life where I experienced depression the most, and I had never put the two together until afterwards. In my mind, this wasn’t even a decision I was making, it was just an after effect of not being able to sleep.
4:30 a.m. – When the Birds Begin
However, this changed when I took a Data Analytics job that started at 6 a.m. There was no more choice; I was waking up at the jaw-dropping and truly disgusting time of 4:30 a.m.
This is not the time I would suggest for anyone to wake up at, nor is it the time I choose to wake up at anymore. However, it was the time that fixed my situation. Suddenly, there was no bedrotting on my phone until the last possible moment I could leave. Instead, there were birds outside of a window that I never got to hear before. Mornings became a reset button, rather than an impossible daily chore.
At first, the extra time didn’t really feel like much. I noticed, though, that I had more time available and started putting an Eggo in a toaster instead of grabbing whatever was on a breakfast dollar menu. I started adding little things, like reading a few pages of a book, or making a coffee at home and taking it with me. It felt like suddenly I was in control of the day, not the other way around.
Now, my early hours are so intentional. The morning of writing this, I made a breakfast croissant and an iced chai latte, watched an episode of The Great North, and hung out with my husband before he started working this morning. These are the threads that hold my morning and the rest of my day together.
For the Night Owls
For those that love the night, I did too. There is comfort in being the only one in your house still awake. This is not slander against my night owls; I’m instead suggesting that there might be a way to make your mornings more gentle. That waking up, even an hour or two before you normally do, can shift the way you take on your day. That feeling of being the last one awake also applies to being the first one up!
The Morning Person: Debunked
There is this myth that “morning people” are the only people who can enjoy mornings. These are the people training for marathons, posting pictures of sunrises, and accomplishing more by 8 a.m. than some do their whole day. “Morning people” are not born, they’re made – people like this don’t have a “prefers mornings” gene in their DNA, they are created by their decisions. They’re shaped by small choices, like getting out of bed and making a coffee. These are things that anyone can do, no matter how many snoozes they hit before making it there.
These small choices worked for me, but I will not sit here and pretend that waking up early is your one-stop shop for fixing seasonal depression. There is no guarantee that it will, but there is a chance that it might. It’s an act of resistance against the bed that you can’t get out of, the voice saying that the day will be bad, and the thought that you’re better off waiting ‘til tomorrow to go outside. Each morning is a declaration that you are still here and that you’re choosing to meet the day again.
