How to wake up early.

Becoming an early riser is one of the best things I ever did. It is a deeply ingrained habit now - I feel unsatisfied if I sleep in after 7am. Generally I wake at 5am during the week and 5.30 at weekends.

First of all I recommend that you read this classic Pavlina blog post:
https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/

(there is a part ii linked at the bottom too with more information)
There are different schools of thought as to what you should do first thing in the morning to maximise your chances. Exercise is great, of course. Personally I struggle to persuade myself to get up if I have to do something really hard that I don't particularly enjoy - during the winter I attempted to get up early and go running before breakfast, which I managed, but it took enormous self-discipline. By contrast, nowadays I wake up early and do yoga, which is very enjoyable for me so I wake up happy and eager to get started. I also have something healthy but extra tasty planned for breakfast after - today is apple cinnamon porridge - which also helps.

If you really struggle with getting up on hearing your alarm clock, there is another technique you can try. Pavlina again:
https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/

He's a bit of a kook, I know, but he really is the master of sleep

 

Why do you want to be up early? People differ in when they are most productive; could be early morning or late night. The optimal sleep schedule for your genetics can be anything between 9-5 and 2-10.

To answer the question, you get up early by getting to bed early.

 

Let's say you normally wake up at 8. Now set your alarm to wake up at 7:50 for a few weeks. Then set it for 7:30 for next few weeks. After two three months, you'll be used to waking up at 7:00 and you can continue it and it wouldn't even feel difficult or anything. Discipline to do it everyday is the only requirement.

 

At what time each day do you stop being 'productive'? I mean doing active things, rather than passive, whether they are for pleasure, hobby etc. Most people stop being 'productive' at dinner time or before, and the hours from say 8pm til 1am are wasted. 5 hours every day! This is why 'morning people' get more done!

I agree that a gradual approach is best. Depending how young you are, you may be able to adjust your body clock in a week or two, or it may take longer. No big deal either way, you'll get there. But you shouldn't be waking up at 5am every day if you go to bed after midnight - at least, not unless you nap during the day - it's not enough sleep.

 

lol, I usually go to bed around 10. This is quite true. (When alone, when people are with you, it's usual to go to bed around 1-2, it sucks.)

 

I ve been on a streak for almost 3 weeks and also doing gym. I can say that it turns you into an early bird..

 

Biological fact: There's a bunch of neurons in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus or the SCN which is the master clock of the body that is stimulated through light to your retina. It isn't stimulated by the sound of an alarm clock.

A simple light 'alarm' would be hooking up a lamp to an AC timer.

Of course ideally you just use sunlight. While it's true there are different chronotypes of people, you can't completely ignore the environment around you. Honestly I've only ever been COMPLETELY consistent with the light exposure as a deliberate practice (going outside and looking in the direction of the sun rising without glasses) maybe two weeks as a streak, but the rest of the time just kind of paying attention to that and getting out there around the morning time it seems my body has become sensitive enough to where even the light coming through the windows where there's tree and plants blocking the view is enough to wake me now. The other day I was up until 2am, still got up early.

Obviously the amount of sleep matters, but the other thing to deal with is being CONSISTENT. Aside from light there's also physical activity and diet, I pretty much do those at set times. In other words the timing of everything. But you want to do both. What I did was I got around 8 hours for a long time so there was no longer any 'sleep debt', that's why I can just get up early after going to bed at 2am one night - without an alarm. (at least a sound based one)

 

I don't think it's that hard, try to go to sleep early and once you manage that you'll wake up earlier. Maybe put an alarm clock to what you consider early and you'll be tired and stuff but that's how you'll sleep earlier and do it once it gets permanent.

 

Alarm clock seems like the best solution. We need about 8-10hours of sleep but if in recovery it's always better to get more than 8 in my opinion, people usually feel like they need more sleep than usual when in recovery. I go to sleep by 10-11PM and wake up at 8 daily, that's even more than 8 but I'm used to it.

 

Buy an alarm clock with a light.

 

You need 7-8 hours sleep every night. To get up early you need to either go to bed early or nap during the day. The former is MUCH easier, unless you are used to daytime napping (prior to having a kid i couldnt do it at all. Even now i have to be seriously exhausted).

Beyond staying healthy in other ways, theres not a great deal you can do about the amount of sleep your body naturally needs. 7-8 hours is normal, quite healthy and fine.

 

I read his blog on polyphasic sleep years ago, and on doing something every moment of the day (e.g. reading bits of books while brushing your teeth). At first glance, the guy seems like the Jesus of efficiency. When you actually try to do some of the stuff he suggests, you realise there is a reason most of us do not read Tolstoy while flossing, or sleep in 2-hour shifts followed by work to 'maximise productivity'. Polyphasic sleep, in the way he suggests, is a myth and is completely mental. Biphasic sleep starting at night or near sunset is probably more close to what our primordial ancestors did (just search biphasic sleep on Google). I suspect he was just selling what the sleep-starved overworked undernourished American wanted to hear in the early 2000s. His website was heavily, heavily monetised.

Having said that, I haven't read the early riser post so I won't dismiss it out-of-hand, though I have read the alarm one. I followed the advice closely for weeks, and I can't say it stuck. Now I only wake up with an alarm to set a new routine, and try my best to use body clock + sun after that. Alarm clocks are absolutely diabolical, and have possibly done more harm than any other human invention.

 

Go to sleep early and set an alarm for when you want to wake up

 

For anyone interested, A. Roger Ekirch's book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past is an interesting book as far as the history of biphasic sleep.

 

Pavlina is a bit of a kook, for sure, and yes reading while cleaning your teeth is a bit ridiculous (a sure fire way to neither clean your teeth or read in a way that is worth doing). 'Multitasking' is a bit of an overrated activity in general, if you ask me - a far better aspiration is the ability to concentrate solely on one activity for as long as necessary. But I digress!

I stopped reading Pavlina around the time of his divorce, and he seemed to go a bit nuts for a while. He deleted his website forums, some of the most interesting discussions on the internet in the field of self improvement/alternative health/etc. seemingly just because he was bored of them. And started writing really terrible relationship advice and stuff about Dom/sub relationships and polyamory, which I am not interested in at all. Although it wouldn't be Steve if he wasn't trying new things, I don't think podcasting and video stuff suits him at all - he isn't a very engaging speaker, and his best work was behind him at this point.

There are some 'classic' Pavlina articles that I always return to though - everything related to early rising and everything relating to 30 day trials. I haven't seen such concepts written about so clearly and so inspirationally as here. They inspired me to live (certain aspects of) my life in a more experimental way, to try new things and develop new habits. Every time I start a 30 day trial - and I very seldom make it to the end, btw - it forces me to reassess my life, what I am happy about, what I want to change or develop. And what I want to experiment with.