I woke up at 5 am every day for a year. Here’s why I’m switching my sleep schedule.
I bought into the hype. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that “the one trick that this person used to improve focus and get more done” and the ‘holy grail of productivity’ is to wake up at 5 am. It’s what Apple CEO Tim Cook is doing. It’s what the president of MIT is doing. So I jumped on the bandwagon and it’s what I was doing. For a year.
Before my choice to switch my sleep schedule to waking up at 5 am and going to bed at 9:30 pm, I was a pretty regular sleeper. I’d sleep around 11:30pm or 12am and I’d wake up around 7:30am. The one thing I definitely was not, was a morning person. I would allocate about 45 minutes to an hour every morning to simply waking up and getting ready for the day. So the shift to waking up before the sun was NOT fun.
Regardless of the initial shock, waking up at 5 am taught me a lot.
It taught me the importance of setting aside a few hours a day to work towards a future that I want. The extra hours in the morning were hours of silence that I would spend working towards something meaningful for me. That meant studying for university entrance exams and doing research into the trends of the fields of neuroscience and psychology, which I wanted to study later on. Sylvia Plath used to wake up before her children in order to write her poetry, and often had her best ideas in the early morning. I found that my most productive work was during the first three hours of my morning, and I would spend those hours working towards the future I wanted. The rest of the day was spent tackling my to-do list, but those three hours in the morning were three hours just for me.
It taught me the importance of making time for me, and the meditative qualities of a good routine. The routine I set in place when I woke up was time that was just for myself. I would wake up, boil some water, make a cup of coffee and a bowl of oats with berries. My breakfast was the only reason I could pull myself out of bed, and once I had some food in me I was ready for the day. I would then journal what my main aim for the morning was. The simple act of making breakfast for about 45 minutes and journalling got me excited to start checking items off items from my to-do list.
It taught me the importance of consistency. I woke up at the same time every day without fail. Every morning, I would do the same meditative routine, which was a trigger to ensure that I would just jump straight into studying. I didn’t think about it, which didn’t give me the opportunity to procrastinate or deliberate whether or not to do the work. Every morning I had hours that were put aside to work towards something important to getting me where I wanted to be.
The consistency of putting aside that hour every day for my own personal growth is something that I will never stop doing, because it ultimately got me where I wanted to be
We only have a limited amount of hours in our day. Carving out time for your dreams shapes who you will be, and is an important thing to integrate into any day’s routine.
Regardless, waking up before the sun also taught me that I am not a morning person. My morning routine started extending out and I started taking more and more time to jump into my work. I would start using the time to make elaborate dishes instead of studying for the future. And I realised — I don’t need to wake up at 5am in order to get where I need to be. I don’t need to wake up at 5am to prove that I am worth my dreams. So instead, I started waking up 1 hour, 2 hours and eventually 3 hours later.
I realised that whether I worked in the morning or the evening didn’t matter — the reason my best work was done in the very early hours or very late hours of the day is because I have essentially eliminated any potential distractions. Working when others are sleeping means that I have a quiet environment where I am alone with my books. Even if I tried to send texts to converse, most of my friends are sleeping and won’t answer back. There are no outside sounds and nothing better to do, so it is much easier for me to fall into a flow. I would recommend trying to wake up early for a week to see how your body responds to it, and adapting accordingly.
Putting aside a few hours to work towards my own dreams and goals is something I will never stop doing. Whether that time is in the morning, afternoon or evening does not matter, as long as I am working towards what is important to me. I don’t regret waking up at 5am for that year. The time I put into myself allowed me to get into the university I wanted and has essentially put me years ahead in terms of all the new learning opportunities it will provide. The lessons I have learnt and the discipline I have gained will hopefully enable me to never stop learning — which is my life’s dream. I’m also glad that I have learnt what times of day work best for me, and that is something truly personal that each one of us has to discover on our own.
