Waking Up Early:

Birds are one symbol of early rising, as they tend to be most active early in the day.

Some people, including myself, find that the morning is one of their most productive times of the day. I find that I tend to focus more easily on difficult tasks in the morning than at any other time. Yet many people in American society seem to have trouble waking up early. Whether you are seeking greater productivity, or whether you are required by a job or other commitment to wake up early, there are a few tips that can help make early rising into a joy rather than a chore.

How beneficial is early rising?

There are numerous sources and historical figures who have spoken and written at length about the supposed benefits of early rising.

My personal opinion is that people have different preferences and strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working and living with different patterns of sleep, and people can generally know themselves better than anyone else can. If you want or need to wake up early, then do so, but if you find that another pattern of waking and sleeping works better within the framework of your life, it is best to go with the pattern that works best for you.

Societal Benefits to Early Rising:

In general, society is better off when people learn and work with whatever circadian rhythms work well for them. But there are some benefits to society when a majority of people wake up early, and there are also some individual benefits to adopting this structure:

• Maximum Utilization of Daylight - When people wake up before sunrise, they maximize their use of daylight hours. This minimizes the need for artificial lighting, which reduces energy usage.
• Safety - Most violent crime happens at night. If you are awake primarily during daylight hours, you will be less likely to be the victim of violent crime. People often focus on avoiding walking alone at night, which is good advice, but on a simpler level, if you're safely asleep at home at night, you're much less likely to be a victim of violent crime.
• Benefitting from services or businesses open during peak hours - Businesses and services tend to be more available during the busiest hours of the day. This is true of most businesses, and is also true of the frequency of public transportation. If you commute by public transit, your commute may be shorter if you commute during peak times, especially if you must transfer routes, because your wait times will be shorter. This factor provides a benefit for rising early, but not any earlier than the rest of the society; it does, however, provide a reason to not be awake very late at night when most businesses are closed and most public transit runs infrequently, if at all.

There are, however, a few advantages to having very different circadian rhythms from the norm. For example, if you wake and drive to work much earlier or much later than normal, you can avoid rush hour, which can save time and resources.

How to Wake Up Early:

If you want to get up easily in the morning, the most important piece of advice is to get enough sleep. There is no way around this point: sleep is a requirement for both optimum physical and mental health. In general, I have found all of the following tips helpful for waking up early:

• Get adequate sleep - Most people need around 8 hours of sleep, some a little less, some a little more, but no one is going to be operating at their best with the 6, 5, or fewer hours that some people regularly get. Make sure you are not just getting enough hours of sleep, but that you are sleeping well.
• Keep a regular schedule - It is easier to wake up if you have a regular pattern of going to sleep and waking up at the same time. I personally find waking up earlier than my normal time is usually difficult, but I can adjust to about any time. Waking up at the same time is more important than going to sleep at the same time, as discussed below. If you need to lose sleep one night, do so by staying up later rather than waking up earlier, if possible.
• Get regular exercise - Some amount of aerobic exercise every day can help you sleep. Rather than a few very vigorous workouts during the week, focus on getting some amount of aerobic activity every day. I have found that walking 2-3 miles a day is highly beneficial to sleep.
• Place your bed near morning sunlight - The ideal is an open, east-facing window. However, even if your window faces west, the ambient sunlight can still help you wake up.
• Reduce your stress and anxiety level - Stress, anxiety, and worry is one of the main causes of insomnia. This is a whole topic in and of itself, and I have numerous tips on natural remedies for anxiety.
• Have something to be excited about getting up for - Personally, I love tea, and I am pretty excited to drink my first cup of tea of the day. Some days I go birdwatching early, before I start working, and that's something I get very excited about. One of my friends is itching to check sports scores online. Some people look forward to breakfast, to a hot shower, or the feeling of stretching their arms and legs and moving their body about. Find whatever works for you

If you like both rising early and staying up late:

I often feel torn between different forces when it comes to my circadian rhythms. I value sleep very highly, and am most productive in the morning, and various work and school obligations have often demanded that I wake up early. However, most social activities happen late at night--much later than I would schedule them in an ideal world. The problem is not the number of hours in the day, the problem is when things happen. I want to be productive, but I also want to have a social life.

Some people find napping or taking a siesta during the middle of the day to be an effective way of managing these two conflicting priorities. I can see the appeal of this approach, as there is a certain time of the day in the afternoon in which I feel the most sluggish and least productive. Many people say this approach works for them, and it is even embedded in the culture of some countries, especially relatively warm and sunny countries such as Spain. However, I've found that I tend to not nap particularly well unless I'm sick or exhausted, so I have not yet found a good solution to this problem.

Losing sleep by staying up is better than waking earlier:

There is one interesting study that compared the effects of cutting two hours out of the normal sleep schedule by waking two hours earlier, with going to sleep two hours later. This study found that staying up two hours later was less stressful for the body, and resulted in less overall disruption and loss of performance, whereas waking up two hours earlier was more disruptive. [Source] My own personal experience has validated this.

Resources Related to Early Rising:

• Waking up early - Wikipedia - Yes, Wikipedia has an article specifically about this topic.

Comments are moderated. Follow Cazort.net's comment policy for your comment to be approved.