I, like so many others, suffer from Altschmerz. So, with each new year, I ask myself what changes do I need to make to my life to deal with some of these lingering problems? And, with my already full-to-bursting schedule, when can I do even one more thing?

I have several buddies who regularly get up at 4 am. One of them has bladder issues. The others do it because it’s the only way they can pursue their passion. One likes long bicycle races. The other grooves on ultra-marathons.

Let’s be clear. They are not training for the Olympics. These are middle-aged guys with families. They have jobs, responsibilities, and kids. One is even a single parent with a kid who has Down syndrome. But, they still haul their butts out of bed before the sun rises to do something that I would consider more punishment than pleasure.

Despite being comfortably padded, especially around the midsection, I do work out. I go to the gym three times a week and pick up heavy things and then put them down again. I have done this for more than 30 years, and I don’t think I have ever taken more than 6 weeks off from it.

I understand that exercise can give you a buzz. But, if I had to get up at 4 to work out, I don’t think I would.

I don’t consider myself particularly lazy. I have a job and a family. I have written three novels. I made this blog. I won NANOWRIMO in 2011(only 18% of competitors do). I speak 6 languages, and I am a dab hand at baking and grilling. I make decent cocktails and a very nice home-made Limoncello. My pickled jalapeños and orange marmalade are quite good. But, none of these things required that I get up at 4 am to do them.

I don’t hate mornings. I have taught 8:00 classes for most of my twenty years in the classroom. Most days, I am up at 5:45 to make breakfast for myself and my family. But, to give up nearly two hours of sleep, or go to bed two hours earlier is almost unthinkable. I’d have to go to bed at roughly the same time my kids do.

I have, of course, gotten up extremely early to catch planes, trains, buses, etc. But, these were all one-offs. And, they all were largely unavoidable. It wasn’t so much a choice as an ultimatum; if you want to get from point A to point B, you get up.

Is there anything I want so badly that I would get up, day after horrific day, at 4 am to do?

It would have to be something wondrously pleasurable. Or, the consequences of not getting up truly awful.

So, my loving wife suggested that I try it. After all, I wouldn’t really know what it was like unless I tried it. So, I set the alarm on my iPhone for 4:00am and went to bed around 10:30 as I usually do. When the alarm sounded at 4, I popped out of bed like a cork leaving a champagne bottle and switched it off. My loving wife, too, heard the alarm and asked groggily, “What’s that?” I told her it was the 4am alarm. She said “Oh,” and turned over.

I took a quick survey of my my feelings and surroundings and determined three things: first, it was dark and cold (for the UAE, I mean-about 50F/10C); second, I wasn’t all that tired. I have been zombie-tired many times because of jet-lag. This was not that bad; and third, the thing that I most wanted to do at that time was not make a pot of coffee, go for a run, write ten pages of a novel, or do yoga. I wanted more than anything to go back to sleep.

So, I did.

Ironically, my loving wife, whose idea it was that I get up at 4am, found she couldn’t go back to sleep after the alarm went off. So, she was a bit worse for the wear the next day. I fell asleep immediately and woke at the normal time feeling fine. I think the 4am wake-up is just not for me.

In fact, the following morning, as I didn’t have to go to work, nor get my children off to school, I slept in for about an hour. It was bliss. I really love sleeping.

Perhaps, I haven’t found my true passion. Maybe, I lack the ability to feel that motivated about anything? Or, since there are only a few members of the 4 am club, they are the strange ones, not me? At this point in my life, I have determined that a sleep is one of the best things in life…

What would get you out of bed at 4 am?

-S