Since having a kid, I’ve been trying to expand both the amount and type of work I’ve been doing during the day. Like everyone who has a kid, this has involved an adjustment to my sleep schedule.
I do admit that this hasn’t been entirely involuntary. In my final year or so of college, I was voluntarily waking up to get some time in the gym and in a practice room before my 9 am classes.
While I didn’t (and don’t) always enjoy getting up early, I do enjoy the results of getting up early, and so when I feel pressed for time, I’m much more likely to try and add things on to the front of the day.
Anecdotally, this seems to be the opposite of most musicians. I know it’s definitely the opposite of my wife – she can (and has) worked late into the evening (or early morning), while I become almost useless after about 10 or 11 pm.
So many things happen early for classical musicians – church services, rehearsals, and auditions – that it’s worthing knowing a few ways to shift your sleep schedule in anticipation of these early-morning events.
A new blog entry over at the BulletproofMusician covers a British study which examined the effects of shifting around a person’s “peak performance time”.
While this certainly isn’t a definitive article (the sample size alone is quite small), if you feel perpetually handicapped by your sleep patterns, this article does have some concrete steps you can take to shift them around. While you definitely won’t be able to make the shift from a night owl to morning lark overnight, if you’ve got a big audition coming up, maximizing your early morning performance is something that can be done.
Check out the entire article at BulletproofMusician.com, and don’t forget to check out the actionable tips at the end!
