Let There Be Light!

By nature, I’m a night owl. Still, in May I started waking around 5 a.m. to write before anything else. The new wake-up time was hard starting out, but not terrible. And once I woke, I helped myself stay alert with exercise and coffee. (I hadn’t been a regular coffee drinker before.)

 

Over the months, my wake up time crept up. The snooze button saw more action. I adjusted the alarm to 6 a.m.… to 6:30… And so it went. I got to writing later in the day than I liked. Recently I evaluated matters and decided to go back to a 5 a.m. wake up and writing time.

 

This time around, it was extremely difficult. I realized quickly why. Whereas in May it’s light outside around 5 a.m., now it’s dark.

 

Just about then, browsing through writing books at the library, I came across the following on page 6 of The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice W. Flaherty.

 

“[…] many writers who hate themselves every winter for their sluggishness and lack of productivity could be aided not by “more motivation,” but by bright full-spectrum light for a half an hour every morning to treat their brain’s seasonal response to the shortened days.”

 

Wasn’t this serendipitous? I don’t know about you, but I’m off to get some full-spectrum light in my life. I learned they make full-spectrum light-bulbs now that fit in a regular lamp. For myself, I may also get a timer, to have the light go on before the alarm. That way, I’ll think it’s dawn outside, and be ready to wake.

 

This fall and winter, let there be light!

-Sabina I. Rascol