The Problem With Being a 'Morning Person'

Being a mom of two young kids turned Liz Krieger into a morning person, and even though those kids are not so young anymore—12 and 16—she never shook the habit. The upside is that those early hours "feel sacred," Krieger writes in an Atlantic essay. "They're the only portion of the day reserved for just my own needs—and for a parent, that kind of time is hard to find." Her piece, however, is about the downside:

• "(E)very transformation comes with a price. And mine has been paid in evening hours—those crucial moments when families traditionally reconnect after a day apart, when teenagers may be more likely to open up, when friends gather and marriages deepen in the comfortable darkness after responsibilities have been met. I have become a person who gives the best of herself to the morning and offers only the dregs to the night."

Krieger ticks off example after example in the piece on how she has missed out on such dynamics because she begins to fade in the evening and is utterly spent by 9 or so. She is now trying to forge a "middle path," one that leaves her with more energy after the sun goes down. Krieger knows she will never morph into a true night owl, "but I am learning to stretch the boundaries of my days to let a little of the night in." Read her full essay.