Can't believe how long it took me to realize I am a morning person

All through my (drinking) 20s and most of my 30s, I just thought I hated mornings in general. Who in their right mind would want to get up before 10am if they didn't have to???

Now that I'm in my early 40s, and have been sober for probably about 80% of my 40s (though not terribly long this time yet), I've realized how much I actually enjoy getting up rested at the crack of (or even before) dawn.

Heck, often I get up naturally 15 to 30 minutes before my alarm even goes off!

It's almost like having an entire extra 'mini' day to myself to ready, meditate, work out, journal, or just relax before the day HAS to "officially" start.

(On top of that, I realized I actually don't need as much healthy sleep as I used to need "pass out and subsequently recover" time). Like 7 hours compared to 10 a night.

I knew sobriety had the potential to give me benefits. Didn't realize how much I actually would appreciate the extra *time* it ended up giving me.