You're Not A Night Owl. You're Body Is Out of Rhythm.
I love to sleep. In fact, I love it so much that at 36 years old, in a very happy relationship and a very secure financial position, it is one of the main reasons I hesitate to step into motherhood. Call me selfish, but I function best with a lot of sleep. It keeps my autoimmune at bay. It allows me to rest after insane Mondays to Fridays that sometimes turn into Mondays to Sundays. Yes, sometimes I work 7 days a week. I am not ashamed of it, I love it, but I am also working on it.
For years, I thought being a night owl was just who I was. I believed I was more creative at night, more productive after dark, more alive when the world was quiet. And to some extent, all of that was true. But the deeper truth? I just hated mornings.
In my 20s I had discipline of steel. My 5:30am alarm would go off and I'd be up, espresso in one hand, cigarette in the other, heading to the spin studio to get on a fixed bike going nowhere. I didn't know it then, but I was starting every day on fake energy and adrenaline. People assumed this made me a morning person. But the truth was, I was never a morning person. I didn't wake up ready to take on the world. And every weekend, without fail, I would sleep until 9, 10, even 11am. So it made sense that I thought I simply wasn't built for mornings.
The Science of Chronotypes
I started looking into chronotypes. Yes, some people really are night owls. There is science behind it. Chronotypes are your genetic preference for when you feel most awake and alert. Researchers generally categorize people into four types:
The Lion (early bird): Natural early risers who perform best in the first half of the day.
The Bear (majority of people): Energy rises and falls with the sun.
The Wolf (true night owl): Peak energy in the late afternoon and evening.
The Dolphin (light sleeper): Struggles with consistent sleep but functions best mid-morning.
Some people genuinely are wired to perform better in the evening. But I wasn't one of them. I even took a genetic test with Stride Health and it didn't identify me as a Wolf. It showed I was a Bear. I was designed to wake up with energy.
So why didn't I?
Because stress and years of pushing my body had blunted my cortisol awakening response. High cortisol, adrenaline, late nights, blue light, scrolling, overworking, over-travelling. All of it disrupted my rhythm. My biology wasn't broken. It was dysregulated.
The Hidden Role of the Cortisol Awakening Response
Your body is designed with a natural ignition switch: the cortisol awakening response (CAR). It is a spike in cortisol that should rise sharply within 30 to 45 minutes of opening your eyes. That spike pulls you out of sleep inertia, clears brain fog, and tells your body it is time to go.
My CAR? It was flat. And for so many high-performing women, business owners, and corporate high-achievers? It is the same.
When the CAR is flat, mornings feel heavy, slow, impossible. You beg for 30 more minutes of sleep. By lunchtime, adrenaline finally kicks in, helped along by caffeine. By nighttime, you feel wired and alive. That is why evenings felt easy for me and mornings felt unbearable.
That wasn't personality. That was dysregulation.
Why Your Cortisol Awakening Response Gets Blunted
A lot of modern life is inherently dysregulating. The relentless pace of work, technology constantly pulling at our attention, notifications flooding in all day, and most of us living in busy, natureless environments completely different from the ones our biology was designed for.
Your body is built to wake up with a sharp cortisol spike that clears the fog and gives you ignition. But when stressors pile up, that natural rhythm flattens. Here is why:
Sleep-related factors: Poor sleep quality, nightly disruptions, snoring partners, shift work or irregular wake times, insomnia and late-night overthinking.
Biological and health factors: Adrenal fatigue or insufficiency during or after chronic stress. Weeks and months of high HPA axis activation eventually lead to dysfunction and exhaustion. Metabolic issues, blood sugar dysregulation, ageing, and certain medications can all flatten the curve too.
Stress masquerading as identity: This is where so many of us get confused. We accept "I'm just bad at mornings" as a personality trait. We joke about needing five coffees before 10am. We romanticize being night people. But often, what we are really describing is a flat CAR caused by long-term stress and overwork, a nervous system stuck in survival mode, and adrenaline stepping in to compensate.
It feels like personality. But it is physiology
How I Rewired My Mornings
When I understood this, I realized I needed to restore my CAR. That meant working with my biology, not against it. As I qualified as an Integrative Health Practitioner, I started to understand that the cornerstones of a healthy morning were actually things that came naturally in the morning. Did you know that in early human history, we would always hunt at sunrise?
At dawn, humans would move their bodies, take in early light, breathe fresh air, and sync with the environment. Light, breath, and movement were baked into the morning. The exact same cornerstones you now use to restore a healthy CAR. We have moved so far away from our natural cues, morning light exposure, breath, movement, that our biology is struggling to function the way it was designed to. I am just as guilty as anyone (sitting at my desk 8, 9, 10, 11 hours a day with two blue light screens, one iPad and one iPhone next to me).
1. Morning Light
Light is the first signal for our beautifully primal bodies. Sunlight in the eyes within 30 minutes of waking resets your circadian clock. It tells your body it is time to rise. I sleep with my phone in another room and always use red light mode before bed, which does not interfere with circadian signals.
2. Breath and Oxygen
Oxygen is the second ingredient. Without it, glucose burns inefficiently, creating stress and fatigue. Intentional deep breathing after waking floods tissues with oxygen, supporting cortisol's rise and sharpening focus. Big, deep, circular nasal breathing that expands the rib cage and activates the diaphragm literally charges your cells with energy at the source. Just a few minutes can leave you feeling clearer, sharper, and more awake.
3. Minerals and the Thyroid Spark
Think of your cells like tiny engines. Oxygen and glucose are the fuel, but without a spark, the engine won't turn over. That spark is thyroid hormone T3, which flips the switch inside your mitochondria so they can convert fuel into ATP, the energy currency of your body. For so many busy women today, the thyroid is totally off. Equally, when we are deficient in minerals, the whole energy chain slows down. I always support my mornings with clean electrolytes and mineral blends. They don't just hydrate, they give your cells the raw materials they need to spark energy from the inside out.
4. Movement and Circulation
The days you feel like moving the least are sometimes the days your body needs it the most. Movement is so much more than exercise. It is biology in action.
Every step you take generates piezoelectricity, tiny electrical charges that signal and energize your cells. Movement acts as a lymph pump, clearing waste from your body. It acts as a lactate and metabolite shuttle, recycling byproducts of stress. And walking specifically has a unique power: the bilateral stimulation of left-right-left-right foot strikes rhythmically calms and regulates your nervous system. It is not just physical flow. It is emotional regulation in motion. It switches your energy on and allows you to reconnect to your own essence, your power and your potential.
Why I Created The Morning Rally Walk
Even with all this knowledge, there were mornings I still wanted to stay in bed. And the truth? Breathwork, sunlight, and movement felt like too many separate steps when all I wanted to do was sleep. I'd pick up my phone, see the inbox already overflowing, and start the downward spiral.
But then I noticed something. On the days I had to get up for a workout class, I always felt better. Way better. The days I didn't, I started the downward spiral. I didn't breathe deeply. I reached for coffee too soon. My energy spiraled downward.
I tried walking meditations from other practitioners in the market and they didn't hit for me at all. I didn't need soft, calming reminders at 7:30am. I needed something to help me get up, get out, and believe in my potential, my possibility and my life force.
So I created my own solution. A walking morning ritual that was simple, movement-based, and layered with everything I needed: circadian syncing, breathwork, mindset, and momentum. That became the Morning Rally Walk, now inside The Rally.
Today, for example, I had my first coffee at 10:42am. A miracle for me. A true miracle.
Now mornings don't feel like my enemy. They feel like ignition. And on the days I wake up tired because my booked, busy and brilliant schedule hasn't calmed at all? I have the solution in my pocket. A 6-minute Rapid Rally when that is all I have. A longer Morning Rally when I can go deeper. From 6-minute Rapid Rallies to our 23-minute Morning, Midday and Restorative Rallies, The Rally was built to meet you exactly where you are, every single day.
The Takeaway
I thought I was a night owl. But what I really was, was out of rhythm and out of balance. My mornings felt impossible because I had been pushing my body too hard for too long. Once I started to restore my circadian foundations, everything shifted.
The best part? Through daily decisions, you can change this too. Whether it is somatic practices before bed to down-regulate your nervous system, a midday walk to clear stress residue and balance blood sugar, or a morning walk to finally give your body the ignition it has been missing, every choice takes you closer to feeling and functioning better.
As a career-driven woman who gives everything to her work, waking up primed for the day is the ultimate upgrade. You do not need to accept being bad at mornings. You just need to give your body the spark it has been missing.
👉 Start your 7-day free trial of The Rally here and experience what mornings can feel like when your biology is finally working with you.
Welcome to your upward spiral of success.
x Louise
