Why getting up at 4am is not happening

This morning I saw that someone retweeted an article “Why productive people get up insanely early”  

I read the article mainly to see what they term as insanely early, and to read the comments from the people. But it made me realise that somewhere along the line my life went wrong. In the article they suggest getting up at 4, and for the next 4 hours nobody is expecting anything from you.

My daily life goes like this. I’m suppose to get up at 4:30 for everything to go calmly and smoothly, but I usually only manage to fall out of bed at 4:45 or sometimes even at 5, and usually only when the 2 year old cries. From when my alarm goes  off I just lie there and repeat to myself just 10 seconds and then get up. I’m not very good at listening to myself.

When I eventually get up it’s a big rush between getting milk for Arno to stop his crying, getting Andrea out of bed and dressed and getting myself ready for work. I’m suppose to leave at 5:40, but on some day I only get out of the door at 6:00. At work I’m just functioning partially because I’m just trying not to fall asleep and I’m daydreaming of the weekend coming and maybe being able to catch a nap somewhere during the weekend.

I usually get the kids from creche at about 5:30 in the evenings, and I’m home a few minutes after that. Most days husband gets home a few minutes before me then he cooks, and I’ll start with some washing and packing lunches for the next day. If he gets home late then it’s cooking in between washing and packing lunches and trying to give the kids a little bit of attention, because they haven’t seen us for the whole day. The rest of the evening goes very quickly in a haze of eating, watching tv while eating, bathing the kids, cleaning the kitchen and hanging up washing and packing away previous days washing that doesn’t need to be ironed. I shower and wash my hair in the evenings so that I can sleep half an hour later in the mornings. Then it’s usually just past 10 and I try and read a bit (either for work or just entertainment) but usually I fall asleep while reading.

And during that few hours of sleep I have to get up anything from 1 to 6 times for Arno to settle him or put his blankets back. I keep on telling myself that is only temporary but I’ve been saying that for 2 years so I don’t have a lot of hope.

And all of this to struggle financially 😦

I know I’m someone that needs 8 hours of sleep to function 100%, but I wish there was a magic pill to be able to sleep less and still be fine.

So no, I don’t think getting up at 4 will make me a happier, more productive person.