Early bird

As I recently went to extremes in my over a decade established habit to go to bed later and later and coming to the conclusion that 10 AM is NOT a time to go to bed and 3.30 PM NOT a time to get up, I decided to break my habit by force and skip a night of sleep in order to be so tired that I will be able to comply to a normal time schedule.

So, after almost falling asleep over an important mail, unable to grasp my own sentences, opening my eyes and figuring out that half of the mail contains the phrase "öööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööö" because I my hand rested there when my eyes closed last, I close my laptop at exactly 10 PM and set my alarm clock to a reasonable time, providing enough recovery from the lack of one night of sleep and getting me up early enough for starting a nice early day. I immediately fall asleep.

When I open my eyes again I'm immediately awake.
I lie there for a moment, unable to believe this feeling even though just having slept. It is still dark outside. I'm confused about what to do.
"Well", I think, "take the chance or let it be" and have a look at the time.
It's exactly 5.30 AM. I had slept exactly 7,5 hours.
I remember studies saying that a sleeping phase takes 1,5 hours and I'm astonished by this exact compliance of my body.
"Hm", I think and don't know what to do.
It's too early to start working on anything or going to the office, too early to eat breakfast, too late to chat with anybody and I don't have any kind of morning practise in that term, too cold to go running. So I decide reading a bit, while observing myself and looking for signs of being only accidentally and temporarily in such a fresh state.
I'm not very concentrated.

After an hour of reading, I turn on my computer, check my mails, surf around in the internet, discover a new tool and play around with it a bit.

The first light of the morning crawls over the roof of the Cathederal of St. Stephan that I can see from my window. Usually that is a sign for me to hurry up finishing my stuff and going to bed. Now I'm confused experiencing the same sensation even though it's a new day.

A good friend is online. He writes "Early to bed, early to rise - keeps a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Let's see about that.

It's 7.30 when I decide to start the "real" day and go to have a shower. When I'm finished I meet my flatmate, who reacts with a tired and completely puzzled look to my cheerful "Good morning, Hannes! What a wonderful new day, eh?". I start talking about how good it is, to rise early, be a productive member of society and comply to the system with a slightly ironic undertone. After 15 minutes of doing so my flatmates says "I don't know, if it's really a good thing that you wake up so early..." and laughs.
I'm still confused about how to structure my day now. When should I eat? Obviously I needed to get back to the classical 3-meal-structure. When should I sleep? That is a harder question and I postpone answering it to the evening.

When I arrive at the office at 8.45 there is nobody there. Of course.
I always enjoy working alone in the nights, now I experience the same for the morning. I thought it would be harder to get myself into this.
The doorbell rings, the post-woman gives me a letter. She also looks a bit surprised. Then she asks "Are you always here at that time of the day?". "Well, from 10 AM onwards we should be here, but I'm here a bit earlier today." I say and smile.

I sit down at my desk and greet the new working day.
My alarm clock rings. It was set to 9 AM.
I smile and start working.