I discovered that I have an odd hangup about going to bed early: I’m afraid of being old. If I go to bed too early, I’ll make jokes about eating oat bran and watching Matlock.

Let me briefly consider this from another perspective: Noted bad-ass Benjamin Franklin thought it was good to be early to bed and early to rise. Kant isn’t as much of a bad-ass, but he was a famous early riser too.

I do like the idea of being an early-riser. In college, instead of working on essays until the dead of night, I’d wake up really early and work up until class. I found it much more productive. Even now, I’d like to wake up early and do things before work. I find that I’m way too tired after work. (I recently had an epiphany that even though I wake up really early for work, it is still possible to wake up even earlier than that.)

So, the other side of being an early-riser is also being an… early-bedder? Er, anyway, I guess I must ask myself what will I miss out on by sleeping so early? On weekdays, I am not missing any great activities because most of my friends have to go to work in the morning. I’m also not making any late night phone calls. I guess there are the Matlock jokes, but I am the only one making those jokes.

After considering these factors, it seems that my fear is unfounded and I would be better off waking up earlier even if it means going to bed earlier.

And now I will go to bed once I finish this episode of Matlock.