Since I was a teenager, I’ve always stayed up late. Working over 50 miles away from home leaves me to not wanting to spend any more time in traffic than I need to. As a result, I head in to work early in the morning to beat the majority of traffic. That requires me to get up early to be able to get in early. No biggie, I’ve been doing it for years and it works out great. The problem is, I like staying up late. Having to get up so early for work, I only get the chance to do that on the weekends. That makes Monday mornings particularly challenging.

In addition to that, I’ve noticed that while I typically only get about 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night, the times I get 7 or 8 hours leaves me feeling more tired rather than more refreshed. Sleep studies have long busted the concept that 8 hours is required for everyone. Different people need different amounts so it isn’t terribly surprising that I generally get by with less.

Studies have also suggested that keeping the same sleep schedule helps which leads me to an experiment. For the next month, I’m going to get up at my normal time seven days a week. I’m not thrilled with the idea about getting up earlier than I need to, but this could work out well. Heck, the last time I did something like this I greatly reduced my Google Reader, Facebook, and Twitter consumption so part of me is looking forward to it, kinda.