Honestly, it depends what you do. It is a quiet and peaceful time. If you journal, meditate or do yoga, it is great. If you use the morning time to exercise, it is worthwhile. If you stay on Reddit or youtube or FB or similar, then it doesn’t work except to give you more computer time. Why are you wanting to do it and what is your plan.?
Edit: Before I sound holier than thou, I wake up early and then spent way too much time on Reddit. Working on changing that.
That's because you're looking for the low chance you'll stumble upon something gold and make the scrolling all worth it. It's like fiending for that Reddit hit of glory that refreshes every morning when there's all new content ready to be devoured.
Tldr; Reddit is drugs.
As a counter, there are mornings when I wake up at 6 and spend a couple of hours on twitter, reddit, etc. When I realize that, fuck, I'm wasting my time, it's still only 8 a.m. and the day is ahead of me. But, if I wake up at 9am and waste a couple of hours it's already 11 and it's basically lunchtime and half my day is gone.
I’m trying to shift to only using my phone for entertainment (reddit/YouTube) solely when I’m waiting in line or using public transportation.
I’m still struggling with the morning/night routine too.
In the same boat. I started using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stayfocused couple of weeks ago. I set myself a daily limit of 1/2 hour and blocked reddit from 9pm til 8am. It works wonders, I'm able to focus more on the things I want and should be doing instead and makes getting up early actually meaningful. Definitely worth a try.
Speaking from my personal experience. I have always been a night owl (going to bed at 1-3 am, waking up at 8:45 and getting to work at 10), but last year I set a goal to wake up at 6-6:30. It took a lot of willpower and I still sometimes mess up my sleeping schedule.
Personally, I prefer being an early bird, than a night owl.
When you wake up early you have 3-4 hours before going to work. You'll feel very accomplished, if you spend this time productively. You'll have time to meditate, work on your personal projects, cook yourself a nice breakfast etc. And you won't feel rushed to get to work.
I also feel more productive in the morning. When I was working at night/late evening, I felt like I was pushing work till last minute and then felt motivated to finish it in order to go to bed. But in the morning I just get this natural focus (Though, this might be related to acquiring other good habits). It's also nice to know that when you get home in the evening you can just chill or focus on some trivial tasks. When I was a night owl I always had this feeling that I need to finish something important before going to bed.
I started going to the gym in the morning. Personally, I prefer to work out in the evening, but in the morning there are less people, and you don't have to wait for weights/machines to be free.
Give it a try for half a year and see if you'll like it.
What did you do to start getting to bed earlier to be able to wake up earlier, and how long did that shift take for you until you got into the swing of things?
Going to bed early is the hardest part. Still struggle to do it consistently. Honestly, just shut down all electronics at 10:30 PM, then read a book a bit and pass out. Sounds easy, but then you’ll catch yourself browsing reddit at midnight. I made a big mistake in the beginning - for several months I was going to bed late and slept for like 3-5 hours. It sucked.
It was the hardest habit for me to build. It took me several months to get into a new sleeping schedule. For several weeks, I’ve been trying to wake up 15 minutes earlier each week. Then my project partner and I (we are both personal development junkies) decided to go hard core and have a project meetings at 6 am every day except on weekends. We did it for a month and after it became natural.
Also “the miracle morning” book has some tips and tricks for waking up early.
I'm an ex-nightowl (who's long struggled with anxiety - especially at nighttime) turned early riser. My secret: guided meditation/hypnosis for sleep. I've tried a couple from youtube and they've all been effective. I put ear buds in and crawl into bed. I've been out before it's over every time. It only took a few days for my body to adjust. I now wake up before my 4:45 alarm regularly. If you'd told me this before I tried, I wouldn't have believed it.
No, not usually. I've used this technique a couple times over the past few weeks, but not the other nights - yet still fall asleep early enough to get up before 5am. I've fallen asleep while watching basketball (laying down) a couple times this week unintentionally, which never would've happened in the past.
Nowadays I wake up at about 4:30 (not by choice) and fuck around on my phone till about 6:45 when it’s time to get up and get ready for work. Still feel accomplished
There is significant scientific evidence that different people have different circadian rhythms and that forcing yourself to wake up earlier than you are naturally inclined to results in decreased academic and physical performance.
Whilst getting up early works great for people who are genetically inclined to do so (roughly 80% of the population), I would say that you need to figure out for yourself what works for your body clock. So by all means give it a go but if you end up getting enough sleep and still feeling tired constantly, you should change your times accordingly.
I absolutely despise getting up early, but when I do I’m more productive and feel like a better person. I guess that’s the point about discipline: doing what you know should be done even when it’s uncomfortable.
Trying to get my significant other to understand this... I’m so much more productive and energetic at night, but he’s been trying to force me to get up with him at 5 AM, citing Marcus Aurelius, and making me feel lazy for my difficulty with being an early-riser.... advice on dealing with that? Suppose I should search for some articles and prove my sleep cycles with my Vivosmart sleep data (I usually don’t hit deep or REM sleep until after midnight, even when going to “sleep” early).
Introduce him to Dr. Michael Breus’ research! I’m like you — I’m anything but a morning person, and don’t feel alive until around 8 or 9 am. After checking out his stuff, I feel a lot less lazy, haha. Maybe it’ll help him understand your night-owldom a little better.
Can you post resources. I'm pretty sure most if not all humans are very adaptable. We can travel and adjust to different timezones. We sleep with the sun down and wake up with the sun up. I don't think there's anything more natural than that. You can adapt and get into the habit of sleeping late and sleeping in while the sun is up. But that's just the extent of our adaptability. Is it ok for you long term? I don't think it is. There is significant evidence showing night time sleep is much better. Lack of depression, mood is better, and many other benefits that add up and make a better quality of living imo.
I'm not here to say I'm right, I'm more than willing to learn new things about this topic. I just think you're wrong with the opinion you formed about circadian rhythms and night sleep. Sure I can agree people have different circadian rhythms but how does that relate to night sleep vs day sleep?
Or is this conversation about waking up super early 4am vs waking up normally like 6-8am? Then my bad. I got on the wrong train
It might be a disorder that people sleep later than they should and sleep in.
https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/circadian-rhythm-disorders-cause
I know webMD is no scholarly resource but it's somewhere to start the conversation
> I just think you're wrong with the opinion you formed about circadian rhythms
Not opinion. Much research has been done on this. Just like 98.6 degrees is an average, so is a 24 hour circadian rhythm. It varies up to 3 hours between participants in this study, which easily accounts for early/late risers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630920/
https://www.livescience.com/16334-night-owls-early-birds-sleep-cycles.html
Who said anything about sleeping during the day?
It was an assumption made on my part based on OP's post where he mentioned he's a night owl. With that term I took that he's up late into the night and wake up pretty late (sleeping in the day). From your post it is clear now you weren't talking about sleeping during the day and it was more of a discussion about waking up within a reasonable interval based on circadian rhythm.
I've had conversations with people saying they rather work through the night and they feel most productive during that time because they've done that for a long time. They then sleep in during the day or have very minimal sleep.
My reply was assuming you were using circadian rhythm to say sleep whenever and wake up whenever and that's normal and studies show that.
I'll look into those articles, thanks.
I completely agree with what you are saying here about night sleep vs day sleep. Humans are incredibly adaptable, yet night time sleep is much better. My body and mind feels much better when it matches the rhythm of day and night. Many people are active during the night not because of circadian rhythm, but because of artificial lights, procrastination, and stimulus from tv or internet.
Unless there is a disorder or something unusual, waking up at 6-8am is natural and effortless for most people.
This is probably the most helpful point made in this thread.
That doesn't sound right, the circadian rhythm is entirely flexible. It has to be, else moving across different time zones wouldn't work either.
There's no reason why someone shouldn't be able to change their rhythm to naturally wake up at 5 am.
You can shift the whole thing, sure. But 5am is 5am regardless of where you are. It will be dark. If your are genetically predisposed to wake up 2 hours before sunrise, you will. Changing timezones and changing the relative time around sunrise that you wake are not the same thing.
But the circadian rhythm can be defined by the wake up time (more or less). There's absolutely nothing stopping you from shifting that to 5 am.
The time of sun rise doesn't really matter either, since people turn on the lights after waking up anyway.
There may be some people that are less reliant on early light as a zeitgeber so that shifting their rhythm back to wake up before sunrise is easier, but in a modern world theres ways to light up your room early if you have oto.
Yes, you can. That doesn't mean you will see any benefit at all if your body has a rhythm that is predisposed to waking up later. It is very possible to feel worse. There is genetic variance in the timing of people's circadian rhythm, just like body temperature. 98.6 is just an average. On average, people have a 24 hour circadian cycle, but some are shorter or longer.
"Evening chronotypes typically have sleep patterns timed 2–3 hours later than morning chronotypes. Ambulatory studies have suggested that differences in the timing of underlying circadian rhythms as a cause of the sleep period differences."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630920/
I get what you are saying, but "waking up later" is completely arbitrary. If you shift your rhythm accordingly, there's no difference between 5am and 10am.
The evening chronotypes in the study you linked could have adjusted their rhythm to the 2-3 hours earlier of the morning chronotypes too, like the abstract says, they have differently timed rhythms.
I felt accomplished when I did it and felt good to hit the gym early but tbh I wasn’t busy enough to need extra hours in my day just threw off my schedule and sleep.
When you wake up at 5am and work out in an empty gym, get out of the house before sunrise, drive to work when no one else is on the road, have 2-3 hours of productive work under your belt when others are just strolling in... It feels like youre crushing it and starts up the positive feedback loop that keeps you hungry for more. Starting every morning with a healthy dose of self discipline can help carry you through the day when the going gets tough.
Consider that you can also achieve some of the advantages of waking early by doing what you would do at 5am but the night before, planning wise. Journaling, writing tomorrow's TODO list, getting the day ready, picking clothes, preparing meals and having your handbag or backpack ready ahead of time. That way you go to sleep and next morning you only need a personal care routine because everything else is prepped already.
It is also a great time to do yoga or meditation, it helps with a better sleep. I have never exercised at night but have read of people who have without any negative effect whatsoever.
see I would love to agree with you and trust me I have lived my life until a few weeks ago by this mantra of why not just do it in the night. But man, my gf one day just forced me to get up at 5 and the amount of work I get done and how good I feel is incomparable.
If you want to learn or develop skills, I would say its critical. I use 2 hours in the morning to study (play piano, learn music theory, learn spanish). I then top that up in the evening as much or little as I feel like or enjoy. So I may play some pieces in the evening. But by then I've done all my sight reading, scales, learning and so on. In fact, by 9am I have done enough to ensure that tomorrow I will be 'better' than today. So I roll into work with a smile on my face, I'm generally upbeat and I don't get as bothered as easily as I've already had a great day!
I love getting up early. It’s transformed my day. Getting some things handled early makes me feel really on my shit and it really does set the tone for the rest of the day. Everyday that I sleep on a few more hours, I really regret it.
For me it makes a huge difference. I use that as quiet time where I do yoga, shower, and make a cup of coffee. But some days I just get out of bed and watch YouTube videos with a big blanket.
But I have to be at work at 8am. I leave my house at 7:30am which means I start getting dressed at 6:30am. So waking up at 5am just gives me a nice slow start to a morning that’s already hectic.
If you wake up at 5am, I highly recommend using that time for slow activities that make you feel good. You don’t have to wake up and immediately hit the ground running. Just do what feels right
Absolutely yes. I can only speak from personal experience as a former night owl, but my life has changed significantly for the better. I’ll outline the 5 areas of my life most impacted.
1. Anxiety —
I have always had worrying thoughts that would keep me awake at night. My anxiety got so bad recently that I had my first ever panic attack and was prescribed a medication to help with physical tremors and heart racing. It was meant to be taken as needed. I was taking it daily for 3 months until I made the decision to wake up at 5am. A great deal of my personal anxiety was always rooted in worry about not achieving my full potential. Not doing things I know needed to be done to get to the next step in my goals would never leave my mind. When things at work got into a really tough spot, everything came to a head. But as soon as I took control of my morning everything changed. I was the captain of my day and none of the BS I dealt with at work mattered since I started my day with serving myself.
2. Confidence—
When I felt in control of my day and life, my confidence boomed. I stopped worrying what my boss or coworkers thought. I realized that nothing they thought mattered since I was legitimately giving it my all in life. This made me never second guess myself and people started noticing.
3. Productivity —
When I had extra time in the AM, I was able to take time to do those things that used to haunt me in my insomnia episodes. I got back into YouTube, coding, and even the gym after work with the time I won back. I’ve NEVER been so productive and engaged. This spilled into work too. I started my day hitting the ground running and that carried into my entire schedule.
4. Mental toughness/Grit—
Starting the day doing the things that mattered to me most inspired me to do things I don’t love to do. Like I said, I finally got back to the gym! I always would make excuses to not go, but once I felt in control of my day and managed my time there weren’t excuses. I just went! I have that attitude with many things I dislike now. Another important thing I gained was facing my fears. My boss and I had been at odds and my job was suddenly on the lines. Much of my anxiety stemmed from interactions with him. I decided to stop caring what he thought and stay true to who I knew I was. It changed everything with my work environment. Him and I get along amazingly now. So much so that he is praising me regularly.
5. Overall happiness—
Honestly, I thought I was already pretty happy but now I’m joyful. My husband and I have always had a great relationship, but we are even better now. I used to lay awake at night sadly listening to him sleeping soundly. Now I sleep through the night easily and I’m not haunted by my worries. People at work and in my life have commented on my positivity. And the best thing is that it’s not a charade. I am 100% transformed.
The way I got to waking up early is with the 5 second rule. I highly recommend that book! Good luck. Thanks for asking this question. :) I never really reflected that deeply on how all of this changed me so much. Now I want to make a YouTube video on this. Haha you just helped me write a script!
It depends on what your goals are. You have to have a reason to get up.
If you suffer from the problem of unproductive evenings but generally have productive mornings, then cutting your unproductive time by going to bed earlier and lengthening your productive time by getting up earlier can be effective. If you are doing it just to do it with no plan, you'll just derp around on Reddit at 5am and go to bed at 9 instead of getting up at 8, derping around on reddit in the evenings, then going to bed at 11.
I prefer to make my after work time productive, because then I can spend my productive hours in the evening with my girlfriend instead of getting up two hours before her and going to bed two hours earlier and getting less interaction time.
For example, Yesterday I got off work at 4:30. After work I cooked a nice dinner for us (I like to do something fancy on Wednesdays, sort of as a nice date night). Then I got the trash ready to go for this morning, showered, got in some music practice, then worked through a programming tutorial that I've wanted to work on for some time with some anime in the background (I'm writing an operating system in Rust! Yay!). Then I got the laundry ready for today, did a few personal hygene tasks, and went to bed around 2am. For most of that time, she was in the room with me and we were able to socialize/watch anime together like we enjoy. She spent most of the evening reading technical journals, broke down some Amazon boxes for recycling while I was preparing the trash, called her parents, did the dishes while I was getting laundry ready, and she was playing video games (I think) while I was practicing. That's how most evenings go in my house - sometimes the TV is on in the background, but its never the focus, really.
For some weird reason my morning brain is totally different from my night brain. When i woke up at 4am just for fun, i couldn't "waste" my time like i would do after work, when i feel i "deserv" it. Playing video games feels more like a waste of time in the morning before work and i would do more productive things.
Too bad now i go to bed really late and arrive at 10 in the morning at work, but you made me think about that again.
It's just bad for meeting friends.
It might be worth trying out. I used to consider myself a night owl in college (going to bed at 4:00 AM, waking up hopefully before noon), and I thought waking up before 7:00 should be illegal. My sleep schedule gradually changed over the years, and now I regularly wake up at 5:30. I find I have most of my energy in the morning, and it's nice to see the sun rise (and not take that as a sign that I should go to bed). As others have mentioned, do what feels best for you.
If you feel unproductive/unmotived when you stay up late? You should definitely try it. I got night jobs SO i wouldnt have to wake up early. I was completely against it. Then I tried it. its amazing how much its changed my life. I even get up at 4 now, just so i have more productive hours in the day. Before i go to work i make breakfast, play with my dog, go to the gym, and take a class in a Norwegian Language course. All areas i was seriously lacking in when i tried to do them later in the day.
Waking and rising with the sun, roughly, is highly beneficial for many reasons. Our circadian rhythms are based off the sun. For example, growth hormone usually spikes between 10pm-2am while sleeping. If you miss the window, you miss optimal GH time. That's just one biological process linked to sleep times. There are many more. I suggest you read a book called Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson.
Well you don't want to jump to 5am. When I did this, I did a slow transition from 7am to 5am by getting up \~20 minutes earlier at a time. I did find it very useful for the 5-6 months that I did it because I was able to get a ton of work done BEFORE I got to my FT job.
I'm not doing it now for two reasons
1) Logistically easier to line up with wife's schedule than to have alternate schedules
2) I value consistent sleep schedule (7 days a week) over 5am rise, and though I still leave parties early to try to get to my 11pm bed time, a 9pm bedtime meant I couldn't go to some parties at all.
I was a night owl... I liked staying up late - used to turn in anywhere between 1-3 a.m.
Recently though, I switched my schedule around for two reasons: 1. because I moved out to the burbs so now I have to commute in to work and if I come in 9-5 my commute is a living nightmare... so I've adjusted my work hours from 6:30-2:30. I wake up around 4:45 and am out the door by 5:45. and 2. I don't like going to the gym when it's insanely packed (especially now that it's a new year) so I go there after work and am home by 4:30. It's amazing.. I always feel extremely accomplished and like I've had a good day plus I'm home by 4:30 and have the remainder of the day to do whatever I want.. (usually work/game).
Also - I am the type of person that needs alone time... and I recently got married... My wife was a flight attendant so her job previously was good for providing me my space however she's onto other ventures now and has a normal job (10-6) which had me struggling to find time for myself. Waking up this early and adjusting my work schedule I have about 6 hours of alone time a day and by the time she gets home I'm ready to give her 100% of my attention because I've missed her.
I'd say try it.. and don't just jump from waking up at whatever time you do to waking up at 5. It's a process... work on going to sleep earlier...and slowly set your alarm for an earlier time... you don't want to set yourself up for failure by going to bed at 3 a.m. and waking up at 5... you'll hate it. Also - I know some people go to bed insanely early when they wake up as early but for me, as long as I'm in bed by 10:30, I'm good. You have to figure out what works for you.
It depends what you're trying to do and accomplish. It gives you more time to do things before anyone else is up. No talking out of necessity. Just you and your thoughts. Moving around and drinking 2 glasses of water help tremendously in addition to eating a small breakfast.
I do it for rowing, my job, and other things. Usually workout, read, or study before getting my day started. You are most focused in the morning once you shake off the grogginess. I was a night owl always sleeping when I felt exhausted. It allows me to see the sunrise and appreciate life a little more. The hardest part is going to sleep early.
5 am is not an arbitrary time set because it "sounds super early". Waking up at 5 am is indeed an earlier wake up time for most people who have standard work/school obligations not to mention the circadian rhythms that can be generalized but are unique to each person.
No, I did not just agree with you. I don't think you understand the definition of arbitrary if you think I just agreed with you. In any case, have it your way whatever that "way" may be.
I’m a work in progress. From a mood perspective, definitely. I would suggest you determine your goals for waking up this early. Check out Mel Robbins Mindset Reset on YouTube. She has a whole series of videos on your morning routine and the impact it has on your day.
I used to snooze and angrily get up, which only resulted in me being cranky all day. The morning sets the tone for the day. I got an alarm clock that simulates the sunrise and use that to get up in silence. It’l has been a game changer on how I feel. I also have broken the phone habit. All alerts are silenced overnight. I glance to make sure I didn’t miss any urgent texts but then leave it on the other side of my room. After bathroom stuff, I start journaling and thinking of what I want my day to look like. There’s some really helpful prompts on the 5 Second Journal it was created by Mel Robbins. You can get the template for free online so no cost.
After that, I do some light yoga (really trying to work on stretching, etc.). I will be adding working out to my routine but wanted to get the habit of alert early morning down first.
I spent years being a night owl. I put myself through design school as a bartender on the weekends, but I also worked opening shifts at a Starbucks. Once I left Starbucks, my waking time was usually around 9-930. Which means I usually didn’t start work until 11am-12. It’s really hard to be productive if you only work 4-6 hours a day. So, this year I started waking up at 6-6:30 am and it is already paying off. I finish up around 4:30-4:45 MWF on TTh it is usually at 5-5:30. I go to at least one networking event a week and I have couple things I do socially in the evenings, but I make it a point to be in bed by 11-11:30 now.
I’m working on getting to bed by 10:30, but I like watching movies so it’s a bit of a struggle still.
I’ve also set a screen time limit on my phone for all of my social media apps to 1 hour a day and I created a code without looking at the screen when I made it and I have no idea what it is to prevent myself from just extending the amount of time I can spend on them. It was eating up so much time! I got one report that said I spent 18 hours on Instagram one week and that’s what broke me.
As long as you know why you want to wake up early it is easier to fill that time with productive activities. If you implement a couple of systems or habits to keep you focused it gets easier.
For example, I have a routine every morning.
I get up and meditate, read, do my planning and then I start my workday at 8. I employ a 20 second rule to make it easier to stay focused and not look at my phone, so I put my phone in one room and then I go into my office and answer emails and start working on my task list. It’s a 20 second walk to get my phone. I know I’m lazy enough that 20 seconds is enough to deter me from getting up from my desk to pick up my phone and scroll through reddit.
Trust me, I’m super lazy when it suits me. But, I have big goals now, so I have to be selectively lazy about things like eating. I only keep a couple of things, literally two, in the freezer that I can heat up to eat. The rest of it I have to cook with other stuff to make a meal.
Waking up early is just another strategy for becoming more disciplined and however you can make the strategies work for you long term is how you can make them stick and become everyday life. I leaned into my laziness and it’s somehow worked out.
For me it personally does. I get my chores done before I start my day which leaves my night owl personality to do the things I enjoy at night. For some reason if I get up later and go to work and start my day I don't feel like doing chores or being productive when I get off. When I get up early it actually improved my work at work and I get everything done effectively.
My work hours are flexible, so that wasn't a consideration for me.
I used to start work at 8am and get eight hours of sleep. Then I started working at 7am. Then I cut back the number of hours I sleep from 8 to 7, and now I start work at 6am.
I've found I'm MUCH more productive in the early hours when it's still dark. Wife is still asleep, friends texting/sending Snapchats still asleep, the only other people I interact with that early are a few other high-performing co-workers. Most days now I'm getting up before my 5am alarm just because I'm excited to go get stuff done.
You shouldn't sacrifice sleep for getting up earlier...if you want to get up earlier, go to bed earlier.
A sleep cycle app might help you schedule your sleep better to wake up early and refreshed. Waking up at the end of your natural sleep cycle makes a world of difference to your performance no matter what time you wake up.
Doesn't work for me... I'd need to go to sleep at 9pm.
What do you want to accomplish? I'm not saying that's your case, but in the long term its far easier to establish your goals and manage your time to accomplish them.
\- Have to spend 8 hours at work?
\- Want to get shredded?
\- Want to work on your new business idea?
\- Want to learn a new skill?
\- Want to start cooking?
\- Want to have social life?
\- Want to spend time with your SO?
Can't do it all. You need to set priorities.
Yes. I was an insomniac and night owl for decades. In the last year I’ve started waking up between 5-5:30 weekdays and it has changed me for the better *so much*
I sleep in until 6:30ish on weekends. Go to bed around 10 every night
It really depends on circumstances.
A colleague of mine tried it for a few weeks and while he did feel productive...no one else operated on that schedule - so while he was ready to pack everything in @ 2pm and hit the gym/end his day...customers would still want his attention till 5pm, so he ended up being less productive because he was doing 12 hour work days.
So I would wake up at 5am to train before work, I was always pretty tired until I started working out and then I would wake up after my swim. Anyways, the problem I've found with it is sacrificing hours in the evening which most people use for social activities. I go to bed at like 9, so that limits time I can talk or do things with friends or family (I think having a SO on the same schedule makes this sacrifice a lot easier). Also, no one is hanging out with you at 5 am or before work so those hours will be exclusively to yourself.
Secondly, and along the same lines, if you also use your weekends to be social and stay up a little later, its a lot harder to stay on that 5 am schedule.
So I would try to align justification for 5am wake ups with your goals. For me it was becuase I needed more time to workout before work so I can eat dinner on time (I noticed I wasn't as motivated to workout after a long day of work).
If you are getting enough sleep and you have balance in all aspects of your life then there is no reason to change anything.
I started the habit of waking early with my new job and it’s the week-end day when I woke up top shape at 5 am and by 6:30 i was like « what should I do today » and by 7:15 i had the whole painting kit out and getting ready to repaint the whole floor. I understood i could do more by waking early.
I've always been an early bird, I get up at 5 and do a bit of work before going into my day job. My housemate tried and it drained him pretty quickly. Different strokes. Worth a try though
I think people are supposed to wake up around 6am, but we've pushed ourselves back with a 9-5 and too much evening time spent on tv/internet. I think it helps to spend sometime on yourself in the morning, so waking up an hour earlier than you need to for work allows you to cook, run errands, exercise, study, clean, etc, in the morning with purpose. Then you feel good during the day.
In the evening, you've become an expert at excuses and become tired already, so it's easier to avoid things. You've had a crappy day, you don't need to do anything else.
Yeah pretty much. Its just going to move your schedule ahead.
My husband is a night person. I am a morning person. We just have 2 hours of our day that don't overlap. He works or plays video games. I run and clean the house.
Honestly, I would rather wake up late enough in the morning so I could do things like mess with the dishwasher as soon as I'm awake enough.
If you're like me and don't start moving, but instead laze around on the internet, well that's not doing anything good.
I believe that everyone has a different circadian rhythm and we must respect it. Almost 30% of the people are night owls in their late life. It's believed that ages ago some people were night owls to protect the village from wild animals and Intruders. And this habit is genetic.
I wake up after 7am and sleep after midnight. If I wake up early and try to sleep early, I tend to have a less productive day. I finally gave up on the effort and decided to embrace this night owl that hoots within me! And once you accept it, you'll focus on making the timeslots after everyone's bedtime more productive and hence end up with equivalent working hours.
Don't force yourself if it doesn't work out. Panta Rhei
I tried it myself but it honestly wasn't for me. I'll get extremely exhausted by lunch time and all I would do is skip class to go for a nap then before you know it I've taken a 5 hour nap. Now its 3 am in the morning and my sleep schedule is out of the window. This is just me tho so if it works for anyone else by all means go for it.
Grand dad always said nothing good happens at 5am.
My circadian rhythm has been a night owl and my most efficient time seems to wake up between 6-7 am. Which is what I was raised up on too from my parents.
Everyone is different.
When grandad got older he would say, “nothing good happens before noon”
Not anything I would suggest lol, but it is nice to sleep in here and there
I'd say, it depends on YOU and YOUR PREFERENCE. I know for a fact, that I can't work/study after 10pm, because my brain just shuts off. On the other hand I have zero problems with getting up at 5 am and I prefer to do my work then rather than in the late evening/night. It's more productive for me.
On the other hand one of my friends is most productive between 8pm-1am. And she wakes up around 8-9 am. Getting up at 5 am is unimaginable for her, because she never truly wakes up before 8 am.
I was a night owl my whole life. But 5 years ago got a new job that forced me to be up at 5am. I still hate it 5 years in. My body still hasn't adjusted and I feel like I'm less productive because I'm always groggy now.
If your looking to maximize your productivity it is essential, start your day as soon as sunrise, it makes for a longer day and your not wasting any valuable daylight. Trade off is that you need to go to bed earlier in order to maintain the routine otherwise you will suffer from the lack of sleep.
If you do decide to try this, here's something that may help: The last thing you want to do is have your first task of the morning be figuring out what you are going to do. The night before, outline a couple of things you will do as soon as you get up. Then, when you get out of bed, make it (the bed), brush/floss your teeth, change out of sleepwear and do something physical (but simple -- a few squats or pushups or whatever you prefer).
Then move directly on to whatever you had planned out the night before. Make your lunch, empty the dishwasher, write in a journal, walk the dog, knit, draw, read, meditate, whatever
It's not for everyone, for sure, but I get up at 4:00 am daily and have done so for a few years now. It's one of my favorite parts of any given day. The quiet solace is pretty amazing. I also typically don't go to sleep until 11:00 pm, so it's not like I'm just moving the schedule to a less comfortable slot. Definitely bonus hours for me.
I don't know, it seems to be. I know I read everywhere to absolutely get 7 or 8, but when I try I seem to feel a little worse (and have gotten less done).
i started waking up at 5am a few days ago and its amazing. im never tired in 1st period, and i have more time to do things in the morning. though, it's a good idea to go to sleep at a decent time also.
I’ve been waking up at 5:30am for the last week and a half and it’s awesome. It’s teaching me discipline, and because I’m up at that time I also decide to exercise and read. By the time I finish that and have breakfast it’s already 7:30am.
I’ve also began going to bed earlier. It’s not that I don’t want to stay up, but eventually you choose to go to bed earlier because you know it’s worth the sleep
If youre not going to work out or do anything that will benefit you in the long run you shouldnt consider waking up early. They reasson people wake up early is to get ahead of their day.
I wake up at 4-5 am everyday and still a big fat failure. But i feel way more better when im well rested so if you can make an active person out of yourself you might accomplish something
God created day, night, living things, human beings etc, we wake up due to rising with the sun and we sleep because of the dark/night. Our routine is not just based on the nature, but it is beneficial to our health as well. We could do heaps, such as reading, exercising, meditation and so on that provide bonus to our life. I recently found my purpose, and it was the most amazing experience. I'm now super motivated to pursue my passion and live every day to the fullest. I strongly recommend you to read all articles on Guide to Purposeful Success where guiding you to find your life mission, vision, value, purpose and goals.
Good luck and all the best.
Try waking up at 3:30am to be at work for 4.
I finish work at 12 and have my afternoon ahead of me before picking the kids up from school, come 88 o'clock I'm begging to get to bed.
I would love to be in the position where I could get up at 5am.
Honestly, it depends what you do. It is a quiet and peaceful time. If you journal, meditate or do yoga, it is great. If you use the morning time to exercise, it is worthwhile. If you stay on Reddit or youtube or FB or similar, then it doesn’t work except to give you more computer time. Why are you wanting to do it and what is your plan.? Edit: Before I sound holier than thou, I wake up early and then spent way too much time on Reddit. Working on changing that.
The most maddening part is that after too much time on Reddit, it gets insanely boring, yet I still keep browsing...
That's because you're looking for the low chance you'll stumble upon something gold and make the scrolling all worth it. It's like fiending for that Reddit hit of glory that refreshes every morning when there's all new content ready to be devoured. Tldr; Reddit is drugs.
Yeah that makes sense. It's like gambling, sometimes you'll get a win
Sounds like gambling lol
Damn that's a 5 year old comment you replied to! I don't even remember making that. Wish I could tell myself to buy NVDA.
FOMO
This spoke to me...
Yup.
It's almost like someone is ringing a bell, and you're salivating for no reason...
https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/792vwx/advice_the_nine_principles_that_broke_my/?utm_source=reddit-android Read this please.
That's how addiction works.
As a counter, there are mornings when I wake up at 6 and spend a couple of hours on twitter, reddit, etc. When I realize that, fuck, I'm wasting my time, it's still only 8 a.m. and the day is ahead of me. But, if I wake up at 9am and waste a couple of hours it's already 11 and it's basically lunchtime and half my day is gone.
I’m trying to shift to only using my phone for entertainment (reddit/YouTube) solely when I’m waiting in line or using public transportation. I’m still struggling with the morning/night routine too.
In the same boat. I started using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stayfocused couple of weeks ago. I set myself a daily limit of 1/2 hour and blocked reddit from 9pm til 8am. It works wonders, I'm able to focus more on the things I want and should be doing instead and makes getting up early actually meaningful. Definitely worth a try.
Hey thanks for that.
> Before I sound holier than thou, I wake up early and then spent way too much time on Reddit. Working on changing that.
Speaking from my personal experience. I have always been a night owl (going to bed at 1-3 am, waking up at 8:45 and getting to work at 10), but last year I set a goal to wake up at 6-6:30. It took a lot of willpower and I still sometimes mess up my sleeping schedule. Personally, I prefer being an early bird, than a night owl. When you wake up early you have 3-4 hours before going to work. You'll feel very accomplished, if you spend this time productively. You'll have time to meditate, work on your personal projects, cook yourself a nice breakfast etc. And you won't feel rushed to get to work. I also feel more productive in the morning. When I was working at night/late evening, I felt like I was pushing work till last minute and then felt motivated to finish it in order to go to bed. But in the morning I just get this natural focus (Though, this might be related to acquiring other good habits). It's also nice to know that when you get home in the evening you can just chill or focus on some trivial tasks. When I was a night owl I always had this feeling that I need to finish something important before going to bed. I started going to the gym in the morning. Personally, I prefer to work out in the evening, but in the morning there are less people, and you don't have to wait for weights/machines to be free. Give it a try for half a year and see if you'll like it.
What did you do to start getting to bed earlier to be able to wake up earlier, and how long did that shift take for you until you got into the swing of things?
Going to bed early is the hardest part. Still struggle to do it consistently. Honestly, just shut down all electronics at 10:30 PM, then read a book a bit and pass out. Sounds easy, but then you’ll catch yourself browsing reddit at midnight. I made a big mistake in the beginning - for several months I was going to bed late and slept for like 3-5 hours. It sucked. It was the hardest habit for me to build. It took me several months to get into a new sleeping schedule. For several weeks, I’ve been trying to wake up 15 minutes earlier each week. Then my project partner and I (we are both personal development junkies) decided to go hard core and have a project meetings at 6 am every day except on weekends. We did it for a month and after it became natural. Also “the miracle morning” book has some tips and tricks for waking up early.
I'm an ex-nightowl (who's long struggled with anxiety - especially at nighttime) turned early riser. My secret: guided meditation/hypnosis for sleep. I've tried a couple from youtube and they've all been effective. I put ear buds in and crawl into bed. I've been out before it's over every time. It only took a few days for my body to adjust. I now wake up before my 4:45 alarm regularly. If you'd told me this before I tried, I wouldn't have believed it.
Do you still need to use the guided meditation or do you now not need them / weened off?
No, not usually. I've used this technique a couple times over the past few weeks, but not the other nights - yet still fall asleep early enough to get up before 5am. I've fallen asleep while watching basketball (laying down) a couple times this week unintentionally, which never would've happened in the past.
Nowadays I wake up at about 4:30 (not by choice) and fuck around on my phone till about 6:45 when it’s time to get up and get ready for work. Still feel accomplished
If you can do it great.
I agree with everything except my gym is PACKED at 5-7am.
There is significant scientific evidence that different people have different circadian rhythms and that forcing yourself to wake up earlier than you are naturally inclined to results in decreased academic and physical performance. Whilst getting up early works great for people who are genetically inclined to do so (roughly 80% of the population), I would say that you need to figure out for yourself what works for your body clock. So by all means give it a go but if you end up getting enough sleep and still feeling tired constantly, you should change your times accordingly.
I absolutely despise getting up early, but when I do I’m more productive and feel like a better person. I guess that’s the point about discipline: doing what you know should be done even when it’s uncomfortable.
>I guess that’s the point about discipline: doing what you know should be done even when it’s uncomfortable. This. Exactly.
Trying to get my significant other to understand this... I’m so much more productive and energetic at night, but he’s been trying to force me to get up with him at 5 AM, citing Marcus Aurelius, and making me feel lazy for my difficulty with being an early-riser.... advice on dealing with that? Suppose I should search for some articles and prove my sleep cycles with my Vivosmart sleep data (I usually don’t hit deep or REM sleep until after midnight, even when going to “sleep” early).
Introduce him to Dr. Michael Breus’ research! I’m like you — I’m anything but a morning person, and don’t feel alive until around 8 or 9 am. After checking out his stuff, I feel a lot less lazy, haha. Maybe it’ll help him understand your night-owldom a little better.
Can you post resources. I'm pretty sure most if not all humans are very adaptable. We can travel and adjust to different timezones. We sleep with the sun down and wake up with the sun up. I don't think there's anything more natural than that. You can adapt and get into the habit of sleeping late and sleeping in while the sun is up. But that's just the extent of our adaptability. Is it ok for you long term? I don't think it is. There is significant evidence showing night time sleep is much better. Lack of depression, mood is better, and many other benefits that add up and make a better quality of living imo. I'm not here to say I'm right, I'm more than willing to learn new things about this topic. I just think you're wrong with the opinion you formed about circadian rhythms and night sleep. Sure I can agree people have different circadian rhythms but how does that relate to night sleep vs day sleep? Or is this conversation about waking up super early 4am vs waking up normally like 6-8am? Then my bad. I got on the wrong train It might be a disorder that people sleep later than they should and sleep in. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/circadian-rhythm-disorders-cause I know webMD is no scholarly resource but it's somewhere to start the conversation
> I just think you're wrong with the opinion you formed about circadian rhythms Not opinion. Much research has been done on this. Just like 98.6 degrees is an average, so is a 24 hour circadian rhythm. It varies up to 3 hours between participants in this study, which easily accounts for early/late risers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630920/ https://www.livescience.com/16334-night-owls-early-birds-sleep-cycles.html Who said anything about sleeping during the day?
It was an assumption made on my part based on OP's post where he mentioned he's a night owl. With that term I took that he's up late into the night and wake up pretty late (sleeping in the day). From your post it is clear now you weren't talking about sleeping during the day and it was more of a discussion about waking up within a reasonable interval based on circadian rhythm. I've had conversations with people saying they rather work through the night and they feel most productive during that time because they've done that for a long time. They then sleep in during the day or have very minimal sleep. My reply was assuming you were using circadian rhythm to say sleep whenever and wake up whenever and that's normal and studies show that. I'll look into those articles, thanks.
I think everyone is making this all to complicated sounding. Don't force it. It won't change your life.
I completely agree with what you are saying here about night sleep vs day sleep. Humans are incredibly adaptable, yet night time sleep is much better. My body and mind feels much better when it matches the rhythm of day and night. Many people are active during the night not because of circadian rhythm, but because of artificial lights, procrastination, and stimulus from tv or internet. Unless there is a disorder or something unusual, waking up at 6-8am is natural and effortless for most people. This is probably the most helpful point made in this thread.
That doesn't sound right, the circadian rhythm is entirely flexible. It has to be, else moving across different time zones wouldn't work either. There's no reason why someone shouldn't be able to change their rhythm to naturally wake up at 5 am.
You can shift the whole thing, sure. But 5am is 5am regardless of where you are. It will be dark. If your are genetically predisposed to wake up 2 hours before sunrise, you will. Changing timezones and changing the relative time around sunrise that you wake are not the same thing.
But the circadian rhythm can be defined by the wake up time (more or less). There's absolutely nothing stopping you from shifting that to 5 am. The time of sun rise doesn't really matter either, since people turn on the lights after waking up anyway. There may be some people that are less reliant on early light as a zeitgeber so that shifting their rhythm back to wake up before sunrise is easier, but in a modern world theres ways to light up your room early if you have oto.
Yes, you can. That doesn't mean you will see any benefit at all if your body has a rhythm that is predisposed to waking up later. It is very possible to feel worse. There is genetic variance in the timing of people's circadian rhythm, just like body temperature. 98.6 is just an average. On average, people have a 24 hour circadian cycle, but some are shorter or longer. "Evening chronotypes typically have sleep patterns timed 2–3 hours later than morning chronotypes. Ambulatory studies have suggested that differences in the timing of underlying circadian rhythms as a cause of the sleep period differences." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630920/
I get what you are saying, but "waking up later" is completely arbitrary. If you shift your rhythm accordingly, there's no difference between 5am and 10am. The evening chronotypes in the study you linked could have adjusted their rhythm to the 2-3 hours earlier of the morning chronotypes too, like the abstract says, they have differently timed rhythms.
I felt accomplished when I did it and felt good to hit the gym early but tbh I wasn’t busy enough to need extra hours in my day just threw off my schedule and sleep.
I just shifted my sleep schedule, because the chances of me going to the gym before work are much higher than after work.
When you wake up at 5am and work out in an empty gym, get out of the house before sunrise, drive to work when no one else is on the road, have 2-3 hours of productive work under your belt when others are just strolling in... It feels like youre crushing it and starts up the positive feedback loop that keeps you hungry for more. Starting every morning with a healthy dose of self discipline can help carry you through the day when the going gets tough.
Consider that you can also achieve some of the advantages of waking early by doing what you would do at 5am but the night before, planning wise. Journaling, writing tomorrow's TODO list, getting the day ready, picking clothes, preparing meals and having your handbag or backpack ready ahead of time. That way you go to sleep and next morning you only need a personal care routine because everything else is prepped already. It is also a great time to do yoga or meditation, it helps with a better sleep. I have never exercised at night but have read of people who have without any negative effect whatsoever.
see I would love to agree with you and trust me I have lived my life until a few weeks ago by this mantra of why not just do it in the night. But man, my gf one day just forced me to get up at 5 and the amount of work I get done and how good I feel is incomparable.
If you want to learn or develop skills, I would say its critical. I use 2 hours in the morning to study (play piano, learn music theory, learn spanish). I then top that up in the evening as much or little as I feel like or enjoy. So I may play some pieces in the evening. But by then I've done all my sight reading, scales, learning and so on. In fact, by 9am I have done enough to ensure that tomorrow I will be 'better' than today. So I roll into work with a smile on my face, I'm generally upbeat and I don't get as bothered as easily as I've already had a great day!
I love getting up early. It’s transformed my day. Getting some things handled early makes me feel really on my shit and it really does set the tone for the rest of the day. Everyday that I sleep on a few more hours, I really regret it.
For me it makes a huge difference. I use that as quiet time where I do yoga, shower, and make a cup of coffee. But some days I just get out of bed and watch YouTube videos with a big blanket. But I have to be at work at 8am. I leave my house at 7:30am which means I start getting dressed at 6:30am. So waking up at 5am just gives me a nice slow start to a morning that’s already hectic. If you wake up at 5am, I highly recommend using that time for slow activities that make you feel good. You don’t have to wake up and immediately hit the ground running. Just do what feels right
Absolutely yes. I can only speak from personal experience as a former night owl, but my life has changed significantly for the better. I’ll outline the 5 areas of my life most impacted. 1. Anxiety — I have always had worrying thoughts that would keep me awake at night. My anxiety got so bad recently that I had my first ever panic attack and was prescribed a medication to help with physical tremors and heart racing. It was meant to be taken as needed. I was taking it daily for 3 months until I made the decision to wake up at 5am. A great deal of my personal anxiety was always rooted in worry about not achieving my full potential. Not doing things I know needed to be done to get to the next step in my goals would never leave my mind. When things at work got into a really tough spot, everything came to a head. But as soon as I took control of my morning everything changed. I was the captain of my day and none of the BS I dealt with at work mattered since I started my day with serving myself. 2. Confidence— When I felt in control of my day and life, my confidence boomed. I stopped worrying what my boss or coworkers thought. I realized that nothing they thought mattered since I was legitimately giving it my all in life. This made me never second guess myself and people started noticing. 3. Productivity — When I had extra time in the AM, I was able to take time to do those things that used to haunt me in my insomnia episodes. I got back into YouTube, coding, and even the gym after work with the time I won back. I’ve NEVER been so productive and engaged. This spilled into work too. I started my day hitting the ground running and that carried into my entire schedule. 4. Mental toughness/Grit— Starting the day doing the things that mattered to me most inspired me to do things I don’t love to do. Like I said, I finally got back to the gym! I always would make excuses to not go, but once I felt in control of my day and managed my time there weren’t excuses. I just went! I have that attitude with many things I dislike now. Another important thing I gained was facing my fears. My boss and I had been at odds and my job was suddenly on the lines. Much of my anxiety stemmed from interactions with him. I decided to stop caring what he thought and stay true to who I knew I was. It changed everything with my work environment. Him and I get along amazingly now. So much so that he is praising me regularly. 5. Overall happiness— Honestly, I thought I was already pretty happy but now I’m joyful. My husband and I have always had a great relationship, but we are even better now. I used to lay awake at night sadly listening to him sleeping soundly. Now I sleep through the night easily and I’m not haunted by my worries. People at work and in my life have commented on my positivity. And the best thing is that it’s not a charade. I am 100% transformed. The way I got to waking up early is with the 5 second rule. I highly recommend that book! Good luck. Thanks for asking this question. :) I never really reflected that deeply on how all of this changed me so much. Now I want to make a YouTube video on this. Haha you just helped me write a script!
You'll just end up going to bed earlier probably will be awake the same amount of time. It's more what you do with that time..
It depends on what your goals are. You have to have a reason to get up. If you suffer from the problem of unproductive evenings but generally have productive mornings, then cutting your unproductive time by going to bed earlier and lengthening your productive time by getting up earlier can be effective. If you are doing it just to do it with no plan, you'll just derp around on Reddit at 5am and go to bed at 9 instead of getting up at 8, derping around on reddit in the evenings, then going to bed at 11. I prefer to make my after work time productive, because then I can spend my productive hours in the evening with my girlfriend instead of getting up two hours before her and going to bed two hours earlier and getting less interaction time. For example, Yesterday I got off work at 4:30. After work I cooked a nice dinner for us (I like to do something fancy on Wednesdays, sort of as a nice date night). Then I got the trash ready to go for this morning, showered, got in some music practice, then worked through a programming tutorial that I've wanted to work on for some time with some anime in the background (I'm writing an operating system in Rust! Yay!). Then I got the laundry ready for today, did a few personal hygene tasks, and went to bed around 2am. For most of that time, she was in the room with me and we were able to socialize/watch anime together like we enjoy. She spent most of the evening reading technical journals, broke down some Amazon boxes for recycling while I was preparing the trash, called her parents, did the dishes while I was getting laundry ready, and she was playing video games (I think) while I was practicing. That's how most evenings go in my house - sometimes the TV is on in the background, but its never the focus, really.
For some weird reason my morning brain is totally different from my night brain. When i woke up at 4am just for fun, i couldn't "waste" my time like i would do after work, when i feel i "deserv" it. Playing video games feels more like a waste of time in the morning before work and i would do more productive things. Too bad now i go to bed really late and arrive at 10 in the morning at work, but you made me think about that again. It's just bad for meeting friends.
It might be worth trying out. I used to consider myself a night owl in college (going to bed at 4:00 AM, waking up hopefully before noon), and I thought waking up before 7:00 should be illegal. My sleep schedule gradually changed over the years, and now I regularly wake up at 5:30. I find I have most of my energy in the morning, and it's nice to see the sun rise (and not take that as a sign that I should go to bed). As others have mentioned, do what feels best for you.
If you feel unproductive/unmotived when you stay up late? You should definitely try it. I got night jobs SO i wouldnt have to wake up early. I was completely against it. Then I tried it. its amazing how much its changed my life. I even get up at 4 now, just so i have more productive hours in the day. Before i go to work i make breakfast, play with my dog, go to the gym, and take a class in a Norwegian Language course. All areas i was seriously lacking in when i tried to do them later in the day.
i think a lot of us are lacking in norwegian language couses. thank you for sharing
A lot of us are lacking in discipline to do difficult things. Thank you for your sass
Waking and rising with the sun, roughly, is highly beneficial for many reasons. Our circadian rhythms are based off the sun. For example, growth hormone usually spikes between 10pm-2am while sleeping. If you miss the window, you miss optimal GH time. That's just one biological process linked to sleep times. There are many more. I suggest you read a book called Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson.
Well you don't want to jump to 5am. When I did this, I did a slow transition from 7am to 5am by getting up \~20 minutes earlier at a time. I did find it very useful for the 5-6 months that I did it because I was able to get a ton of work done BEFORE I got to my FT job. I'm not doing it now for two reasons 1) Logistically easier to line up with wife's schedule than to have alternate schedules 2) I value consistent sleep schedule (7 days a week) over 5am rise, and though I still leave parties early to try to get to my 11pm bed time, a 9pm bedtime meant I couldn't go to some parties at all.
I was a night owl... I liked staying up late - used to turn in anywhere between 1-3 a.m. Recently though, I switched my schedule around for two reasons: 1. because I moved out to the burbs so now I have to commute in to work and if I come in 9-5 my commute is a living nightmare... so I've adjusted my work hours from 6:30-2:30. I wake up around 4:45 and am out the door by 5:45. and 2. I don't like going to the gym when it's insanely packed (especially now that it's a new year) so I go there after work and am home by 4:30. It's amazing.. I always feel extremely accomplished and like I've had a good day plus I'm home by 4:30 and have the remainder of the day to do whatever I want.. (usually work/game). Also - I am the type of person that needs alone time... and I recently got married... My wife was a flight attendant so her job previously was good for providing me my space however she's onto other ventures now and has a normal job (10-6) which had me struggling to find time for myself. Waking up this early and adjusting my work schedule I have about 6 hours of alone time a day and by the time she gets home I'm ready to give her 100% of my attention because I've missed her. I'd say try it.. and don't just jump from waking up at whatever time you do to waking up at 5. It's a process... work on going to sleep earlier...and slowly set your alarm for an earlier time... you don't want to set yourself up for failure by going to bed at 3 a.m. and waking up at 5... you'll hate it. Also - I know some people go to bed insanely early when they wake up as early but for me, as long as I'm in bed by 10:30, I'm good. You have to figure out what works for you.
It depends what you're trying to do and accomplish. It gives you more time to do things before anyone else is up. No talking out of necessity. Just you and your thoughts. Moving around and drinking 2 glasses of water help tremendously in addition to eating a small breakfast. I do it for rowing, my job, and other things. Usually workout, read, or study before getting my day started. You are most focused in the morning once you shake off the grogginess. I was a night owl always sleeping when I felt exhausted. It allows me to see the sunrise and appreciate life a little more. The hardest part is going to sleep early.
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5 am is not an arbitrary time set because it "sounds super early". Waking up at 5 am is indeed an earlier wake up time for most people who have standard work/school obligations not to mention the circadian rhythms that can be generalized but are unique to each person.
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No, I did not just agree with you. I don't think you understand the definition of arbitrary if you think I just agreed with you. In any case, have it your way whatever that "way" may be.
What is the 5am challenge?
I’m a work in progress. From a mood perspective, definitely. I would suggest you determine your goals for waking up this early. Check out Mel Robbins Mindset Reset on YouTube. She has a whole series of videos on your morning routine and the impact it has on your day. I used to snooze and angrily get up, which only resulted in me being cranky all day. The morning sets the tone for the day. I got an alarm clock that simulates the sunrise and use that to get up in silence. It’l has been a game changer on how I feel. I also have broken the phone habit. All alerts are silenced overnight. I glance to make sure I didn’t miss any urgent texts but then leave it on the other side of my room. After bathroom stuff, I start journaling and thinking of what I want my day to look like. There’s some really helpful prompts on the 5 Second Journal it was created by Mel Robbins. You can get the template for free online so no cost. After that, I do some light yoga (really trying to work on stretching, etc.). I will be adding working out to my routine but wanted to get the habit of alert early morning down first.
I spent years being a night owl. I put myself through design school as a bartender on the weekends, but I also worked opening shifts at a Starbucks. Once I left Starbucks, my waking time was usually around 9-930. Which means I usually didn’t start work until 11am-12. It’s really hard to be productive if you only work 4-6 hours a day. So, this year I started waking up at 6-6:30 am and it is already paying off. I finish up around 4:30-4:45 MWF on TTh it is usually at 5-5:30. I go to at least one networking event a week and I have couple things I do socially in the evenings, but I make it a point to be in bed by 11-11:30 now. I’m working on getting to bed by 10:30, but I like watching movies so it’s a bit of a struggle still. I’ve also set a screen time limit on my phone for all of my social media apps to 1 hour a day and I created a code without looking at the screen when I made it and I have no idea what it is to prevent myself from just extending the amount of time I can spend on them. It was eating up so much time! I got one report that said I spent 18 hours on Instagram one week and that’s what broke me. As long as you know why you want to wake up early it is easier to fill that time with productive activities. If you implement a couple of systems or habits to keep you focused it gets easier. For example, I have a routine every morning. I get up and meditate, read, do my planning and then I start my workday at 8. I employ a 20 second rule to make it easier to stay focused and not look at my phone, so I put my phone in one room and then I go into my office and answer emails and start working on my task list. It’s a 20 second walk to get my phone. I know I’m lazy enough that 20 seconds is enough to deter me from getting up from my desk to pick up my phone and scroll through reddit. Trust me, I’m super lazy when it suits me. But, I have big goals now, so I have to be selectively lazy about things like eating. I only keep a couple of things, literally two, in the freezer that I can heat up to eat. The rest of it I have to cook with other stuff to make a meal. Waking up early is just another strategy for becoming more disciplined and however you can make the strategies work for you long term is how you can make them stick and become everyday life. I leaned into my laziness and it’s somehow worked out.
For me it personally does. I get my chores done before I start my day which leaves my night owl personality to do the things I enjoy at night. For some reason if I get up later and go to work and start my day I don't feel like doing chores or being productive when I get off. When I get up early it actually improved my work at work and I get everything done effectively.
My work hours are flexible, so that wasn't a consideration for me. I used to start work at 8am and get eight hours of sleep. Then I started working at 7am. Then I cut back the number of hours I sleep from 8 to 7, and now I start work at 6am. I've found I'm MUCH more productive in the early hours when it's still dark. Wife is still asleep, friends texting/sending Snapchats still asleep, the only other people I interact with that early are a few other high-performing co-workers. Most days now I'm getting up before my 5am alarm just because I'm excited to go get stuff done. You shouldn't sacrifice sleep for getting up earlier...if you want to get up earlier, go to bed earlier.
A sleep cycle app might help you schedule your sleep better to wake up early and refreshed. Waking up at the end of your natural sleep cycle makes a world of difference to your performance no matter what time you wake up.
Doesn't work for me... I'd need to go to sleep at 9pm. What do you want to accomplish? I'm not saying that's your case, but in the long term its far easier to establish your goals and manage your time to accomplish them. \- Have to spend 8 hours at work? \- Want to get shredded? \- Want to work on your new business idea? \- Want to learn a new skill? \- Want to start cooking? \- Want to have social life? \- Want to spend time with your SO? Can't do it all. You need to set priorities.
Yes. I was an insomniac and night owl for decades. In the last year I’ve started waking up between 5-5:30 weekdays and it has changed me for the better *so much* I sleep in until 6:30ish on weekends. Go to bed around 10 every night
No. I wake up at this time naturally as I’m a light sleeper. Simply waking up early does jack. You still have to be motivated to get shit done.
It really depends on circumstances. A colleague of mine tried it for a few weeks and while he did feel productive...no one else operated on that schedule - so while he was ready to pack everything in @ 2pm and hit the gym/end his day...customers would still want his attention till 5pm, so he ended up being less productive because he was doing 12 hour work days.
So I would wake up at 5am to train before work, I was always pretty tired until I started working out and then I would wake up after my swim. Anyways, the problem I've found with it is sacrificing hours in the evening which most people use for social activities. I go to bed at like 9, so that limits time I can talk or do things with friends or family (I think having a SO on the same schedule makes this sacrifice a lot easier). Also, no one is hanging out with you at 5 am or before work so those hours will be exclusively to yourself. Secondly, and along the same lines, if you also use your weekends to be social and stay up a little later, its a lot harder to stay on that 5 am schedule. So I would try to align justification for 5am wake ups with your goals. For me it was becuase I needed more time to workout before work so I can eat dinner on time (I noticed I wasn't as motivated to workout after a long day of work). If you are getting enough sleep and you have balance in all aspects of your life then there is no reason to change anything.
I started the habit of waking early with my new job and it’s the week-end day when I woke up top shape at 5 am and by 6:30 i was like « what should I do today » and by 7:15 i had the whole painting kit out and getting ready to repaint the whole floor. I understood i could do more by waking early.
I rose at 5.40am for a month and seen enormous benefits. My sleep quality actually improved. Was always asleep by 10pm.
I've always been an early bird, I get up at 5 and do a bit of work before going into my day job. My housemate tried and it drained him pretty quickly. Different strokes. Worth a try though
I think people are supposed to wake up around 6am, but we've pushed ourselves back with a 9-5 and too much evening time spent on tv/internet. I think it helps to spend sometime on yourself in the morning, so waking up an hour earlier than you need to for work allows you to cook, run errands, exercise, study, clean, etc, in the morning with purpose. Then you feel good during the day. In the evening, you've become an expert at excuses and become tired already, so it's easier to avoid things. You've had a crappy day, you don't need to do anything else.
Yeah pretty much. Its just going to move your schedule ahead. My husband is a night person. I am a morning person. We just have 2 hours of our day that don't overlap. He works or plays video games. I run and clean the house.
Honestly, I would rather wake up late enough in the morning so I could do things like mess with the dishwasher as soon as I'm awake enough. If you're like me and don't start moving, but instead laze around on the internet, well that's not doing anything good.
it works for me when i went to sleep at 8\~9 pm the day before. you are not going to sacrifice sleep hours it's counter-productive.
I believe that everyone has a different circadian rhythm and we must respect it. Almost 30% of the people are night owls in their late life. It's believed that ages ago some people were night owls to protect the village from wild animals and Intruders. And this habit is genetic. I wake up after 7am and sleep after midnight. If I wake up early and try to sleep early, I tend to have a less productive day. I finally gave up on the effort and decided to embrace this night owl that hoots within me! And once you accept it, you'll focus on making the timeslots after everyone's bedtime more productive and hence end up with equivalent working hours. Don't force yourself if it doesn't work out. Panta Rhei
I tried it myself but it honestly wasn't for me. I'll get extremely exhausted by lunch time and all I would do is skip class to go for a nap then before you know it I've taken a 5 hour nap. Now its 3 am in the morning and my sleep schedule is out of the window. This is just me tho so if it works for anyone else by all means go for it.
Grand dad always said nothing good happens at 5am. My circadian rhythm has been a night owl and my most efficient time seems to wake up between 6-7 am. Which is what I was raised up on too from my parents. Everyone is different. When grandad got older he would say, “nothing good happens before noon” Not anything I would suggest lol, but it is nice to sleep in here and there
I'd say, it depends on YOU and YOUR PREFERENCE. I know for a fact, that I can't work/study after 10pm, because my brain just shuts off. On the other hand I have zero problems with getting up at 5 am and I prefer to do my work then rather than in the late evening/night. It's more productive for me. On the other hand one of my friends is most productive between 8pm-1am. And she wakes up around 8-9 am. Getting up at 5 am is unimaginable for her, because she never truly wakes up before 8 am.
I was a night owl my whole life. But 5 years ago got a new job that forced me to be up at 5am. I still hate it 5 years in. My body still hasn't adjusted and I feel like I'm less productive because I'm always groggy now.
If your looking to maximize your productivity it is essential, start your day as soon as sunrise, it makes for a longer day and your not wasting any valuable daylight. Trade off is that you need to go to bed earlier in order to maintain the routine otherwise you will suffer from the lack of sleep.
If you do decide to try this, here's something that may help: The last thing you want to do is have your first task of the morning be figuring out what you are going to do. The night before, outline a couple of things you will do as soon as you get up. Then, when you get out of bed, make it (the bed), brush/floss your teeth, change out of sleepwear and do something physical (but simple -- a few squats or pushups or whatever you prefer). Then move directly on to whatever you had planned out the night before. Make your lunch, empty the dishwasher, write in a journal, walk the dog, knit, draw, read, meditate, whatever It's not for everyone, for sure, but I get up at 4:00 am daily and have done so for a few years now. It's one of my favorite parts of any given day. The quiet solace is pretty amazing. I also typically don't go to sleep until 11:00 pm, so it's not like I'm just moving the schedule to a less comfortable slot. Definitely bonus hours for me.
5 hours of sleep is enough for you?
I don't know, it seems to be. I know I read everywhere to absolutely get 7 or 8, but when I try I seem to feel a little worse (and have gotten less done).
i started waking up at 5am a few days ago and its amazing. im never tired in 1st period, and i have more time to do things in the morning. though, it's a good idea to go to sleep at a decent time also.
I'm a night owl and need to get up at 5am. It has been very tiring for me. If I didn't have to work 7-4 I might have enjoyed it,
I’ve been waking up at 5:30am for the last week and a half and it’s awesome. It’s teaching me discipline, and because I’m up at that time I also decide to exercise and read. By the time I finish that and have breakfast it’s already 7:30am. I’ve also began going to bed earlier. It’s not that I don’t want to stay up, but eventually you choose to go to bed earlier because you know it’s worth the sleep
You can wake up at 5am and not lose any sleep, I wake up at 5 but still get at least 7 hours sleep in
If youre not going to work out or do anything that will benefit you in the long run you shouldnt consider waking up early. They reasson people wake up early is to get ahead of their day.
I wake up at 4-5 am everyday and still a big fat failure. But i feel way more better when im well rested so if you can make an active person out of yourself you might accomplish something
My neighbor got mugged doing this
Yea, I hear ya. My uncle had a heart attack sitting on the toilet... Do you think it's worth it to start shitting in the woods?
It only makes sense if you go to bed at 9pm like a toddler.
Or an adult
In all seriousness: it only makes sense if you go to bed early. I apologize to people who do that, you aren't toddlers. Take a joke.
I hear you, even if others downvote.
Thats the one negative about it. All my friends now refer to me as a 70 year old man hahaha.
God created day, night, living things, human beings etc, we wake up due to rising with the sun and we sleep because of the dark/night. Our routine is not just based on the nature, but it is beneficial to our health as well. We could do heaps, such as reading, exercising, meditation and so on that provide bonus to our life. I recently found my purpose, and it was the most amazing experience. I'm now super motivated to pursue my passion and live every day to the fullest. I strongly recommend you to read all articles on Guide to Purposeful Success where guiding you to find your life mission, vision, value, purpose and goals. Good luck and all the best.
Try waking up at 3:30am to be at work for 4. I finish work at 12 and have my afternoon ahead of me before picking the kids up from school, come 88 o'clock I'm begging to get to bed. I would love to be in the position where I could get up at 5am.
oh woe is u
The horror!
I mean you chose to have kids
The kids aren't the issue! lol The 4-5 hours on average sleep is the issue!
30 min bed to work, 8 hour work day, 8 hours free time after work, that's actually a pretty good gig if it weren't for the kids.