To truly explain why it’s so surprising that I now spring out of bed before 6 a.m. excited to greet the day, I need to take you back 19 years and a few months to the time when my co-workers placed bets on whether I’d be late to the birth of my own child. 

For the record, I made it to the induction on time — if nothing else, the small person who’d been bouncing on my bladder at all hours of the night made sure of that. 

But for nearly four decades what the sleep experts call my chronotype — the word that describes how your body naturally falls asleep and wakes up — seemed fairly set in stone. 

I was a night owl, and nothing early birds suggested made changing seem terribly appealing, even if I wasn’t going to have to fight genetics to suddenly flip my biological clock. 

Little did they realize they could have told me about all the dogs. 

If you, like past me, tend to hit the snooze button nine to 37 times each morning, you may not know about this glorious thing either, so allow me to enlighten you. 

In the wee hours of the morning, while you’re snuggled up with your pillow, people are out walking their dogs. 

Even better, if you also go out at this time, you have the chance to encounter all of these dogs, and most of them want nothing more than for you to kneel on the ground to provide them with pats, ear scratches and plenty of assurances that they are very, very good boys or girls. 

Oh, and there’s icing to add to this cake. Should you make this a habit, these dogs will remember you and become excited when they spot you, making you feel like you are a rockstar, supermodel and member of the royal family all rolled into one. 

So there it is. The secret is out. 

What you do with that snooze button next is up to you.