When the alarm went off at 5:20 AM this week, I jerked awake, feeling confused and as if there was no way that morning could have arrived so quickly. Every instinct was to turn off the alarm and reset it for 7:00 AM. I knew, however, that it was time to reset my body clock and rebuild my waking habits. Unlike most professions, those in education generally get a chance to create a very different work schedule in the summer – and I had been taking advantage of that opportunity. Over the years, I have come to understand that the body needs time to acclimate to changes in schedules. Thus, it is time for me to rise as I would during the school year. By the time the school year begins, I will be ready for the rigors of the school year schedule.

It took me a long time to buy into this acclimation. As a younger man, I felt that I should sleep-in at every chance I had. Sure, it was hard to get up for the first couple of days, and I was lacking energy for the first week or two – but wasn’t everyone? As I got older – and I would like to think, wiser, I realized that by acclimating at the end of the summer, I could hit the ground running at the start of the school year.

I would urge you to encourage your children to begin this acclimation process as well. Of course, they need not rise as early as I do, but it might be useful to have them return to the practice of rising to an alarm. Not only will it help them to reset their body clocks from summer, but it will also reinforce the notion that they should be able to get themselves up in the morning. I know that many of your children will take the same stance that I took when I was younger – let me sleep while I can, can’t I live while I’m young! In the end, they may need to learn through experience, as I did. Or you could simply introduce the idea as something that Mr. Johnson recommended in The Update.

I know that students will be addressing sleep and schedule in Skills classes this year – it will be interesting to see if any share that they took this advice.