TT's post about getting a sleep mask prompts me to write about sleep and sleep masks and sleep patterns.

I have an east-facing bedroom window, so I know all about early morning sun, especially in summer, with these long daylight hours now. And the racket of the birds! It starts getting light about 4:30 and by 5:30 it's light outside. Dawn is at 5:45 or so these days.

I, too, have sleep masks. I got my first one years ago during a cross-Atlantic flight and was sold immediately. Since it does tend to rub, I've bought a second one that fits differently (so it rubs in another spot). On the occasion that I forget to put the sleep mask away or for some reason can't lay my groping hand on it, I grab a tee shirt from the drawer next to my bed and drape that over my face (nice and soft and smells like laundry softener).

Unlike everybody else in the world (well, unlike everybody in my world), I'm an early riser by nature. A lark, not an owl. By sundown I'm thinking of bed, and I'm fully awake by 5:30. My idea of "sleeping in" is to put on my sleep mask and doze off until 7 a.m. If I stay in bed longer than that I'm logy and headach-y and grumpy, my body making it perfectly clear that the earlier schedule is the natural schedule.

Over the years I've had lots of practice with tiptoeing around, shoes in hand, until I get to the front stoop (porch). It's been my practice all my life to go barefoot whenever possible or wear sandals, so the tiptoe part is easy. None of the others in my household--not one--has been a morning person, too, so I leave them abed while I go on about my business, having the whole world to myself in the early light of day. Me and the birds.

With the coming of hot summer weather, I'll be up at 5, taking my walk by 5:30 to avoid the heat. In the winter I can sleep a bit later, or even walk mid-morning.

Are there any other larks out there?