I fought against my nature for years and tried the “push through the pain” method for most of my career. I burnt out of yet another job at the beginning of this year and decided I never wanted to work 9-5 again. I retrained to be a teacher and now I give afternoon and evening classes. I do sub work on the occasional morning but I won’t do two days in a row.
I’m finding a lot of my executive functioning is better now that I’ve had enough sleep! I’m no longer living in survival mode constantly.
The improvement in my quality of life is incredible. I feel like one of those people who starts their day at 5am now. I have time in the morning to eat, exercise and get ready for the day before I head in to work. But instead of getting up at 5 I’m getting up around 10 instead. It’s glorious.