Waking up on time has always been easy for me. Despite the illustrious college years of going to bed at 3am and waking up at 1 in the afternoon, I seem to have a biological clock wired inside of me that says Jenna, its 6:30. Get up now! No matter what time I fall asleep at night, my eyes seem to open at 6:30am sharp! To tell you the honest truth, I have never owned an alarm clock in my entire life. Growing up, I lived about a half hour away from school and my mother, being a school teacher, meant she needed to be at her classroom around 7am. My mom would enter my room at 5:15am every morning in her sing song-y voice, yanking me out of my slumber. Sometimes she would literally glide in singing “You Are My Sunshine” which would especially drive me nuts! Then when I moved out of the house and started living on my own it must have stuck! Perhaps I should start using an alarm clock though, because I have an intense fear of being late!

Every morning I do have a ritual. First mission: to sneak out of bed using ninja like reflexes to make sure I don’t wake up the two sleeping toddlers next to me. This sometimes consists of removing a hand from my face ever so slowly that the body attached to it doesn’t start to twitch! After I manage to slither out from between the little ones, I brush my teeth, grab my work outfit for the day and head downstairs. Once down, I make a bee line straight for the Keurig and make a 10oz extra strong cup of Starbucks House blend. Then I really wake up! I scramble to try and get enough housework done until I hear the calls for MOMMY! Then it’s time to prepare breakfast, sing 10 rounds of If You’re Happy and You Know It and then get ready to head off to work for the day!

This got me thinking. How does my morning ritual and sleep patterns compare to others around the world? It turns out that in developed societies like America, we tend to get a little less sleep in general. This has to do with artificial light and electricity. Because we have the option to leave the light on till the wee hours of the morning, we extend our awake time to finish the rest of the latest novel or to watch our favorite series. In less developed, nomadic countries without the luxury of electricity, when it gets dark outside not much more can be done. Sleep makes sense. Also, as strange as this is, for some reason, with the introduction of electricity we started sleeping for longer stretches throughout the night. This could be because by the time we turn off the TV we are exhausted. Residents of nomadic countries tend to fall asleep earlier, but sleep for shorter stretches and nap frequently throughout the day. These frequent naps amount to more sleep than we end up getting. Regardless of where we originate from, the morning signifies a time to wake up and start the day. Whether it’s hopping into your SUV and heading to work; arising to milk the cows and tend to the farm or even rushing out to gather berries and hunt for the next meal, we begin our daily routine with the intent to complete what needs to be done!

With the introduction of artificial light, we end up staying up a little later….but it sure can be pretty!

Jenna Kagawa is a Bedding Specialist at SlumberWorld in Kailua Kona. She is the happy mother of twins, Hali’a and Makoa. When not busy finding clients the perfect mattress or chasing her little ones – Jenna enjoys making jewelry, reading, shell collecting, and eating really good food! She is a total social media addict and loves photographing life.