If you’ve never hit a snooze button, this article might not be for you. But if your morning starts like a competition with an alarm — who’s more stubborn — then welcome to the club.
Hello, and my first revelation: I’m an ex-sleep-o-holic. Despite being an early bird, I struggled with waking up for a couple of decades until one day, I had enough, looking at my phone’s scratched surface.
Why Not 5 AM?
The idea of waking up at 5 AM has been popularised as a productivity hack, but it’s not suitable for everyone. Although I did put my best effort into managing that routine during most of the lockdowns, I figured it might be not the most sustainable in the long run. Doing a bit of research, I’ve come across numerous pros and cons:
When You Shouldn’t Be Bothered About Waking Up at 5 AM:
- Personal Circadian Rhythms: Everyone’s biological clock is different. For some, 5 AM might align perfectly with their natural sleep cycles, while for others, it could be detrimental to their health and productivity.
- Quality of Sleep: Waking up at 5 AM is useless if you’ve only had four hours of sleep. The quality and quantity of your sleep matter more than the time you wake up.
- Mental and Physical Health: If waking up early/failing to wake up at a certain hour causes you stress or anxiety, it’s counterproductive. A consistent sleep routine that suits your individual needs is more beneficial.
When Waking Up Early Is a Bad Idea:
- Sleep Deprivation: If you’re not getting enough sleep, waking up early will only exacerbate your tiredness and affect your performance throughout the day.
- Stress and Anxiety: Setting an unrealistic wake-up time can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety, impacting your overall well-being. When we feel low or overwhelmed, we struggle to wake up, don’t make it worse.
- Health Reasons: Lack of sleep can lead to health issues such as a weakened immune system, mood disorders, and impaired cognitive function.
- Work Performance: If waking up at 5 AM means you’re not getting enough sleep, your work performance and efficiency might suffer.
How Switching Off the Alarm Helped Me Wake Up Early
- Natural Wakefulness: I learned to listen to my body’s natural wakefulness cues rather than relying on an alarm. This led to more restful sleep and better mornings.
- Natural Sleep Cycles: By tuning into my body’s natural sleep rhythms, I began waking up early without the jarring interruption of an alarm clock.
Strategies for Natural Waking
- Consistent Bedtime: Aim to go to bed at the same time every night to regulate your internal clock. At first, it’ll be tricky, but within a couple of months, if you persist, you’ll notice that your lifestyle reshapes around the new schedule. The only thing to keep in mind — is to prioritise your new regime.
- Morning Routine: Create a habit of standing up the moment you wake up. Avoid lingering in bed. To do that, just before you head to bed decide what you’ll do the first thing in the morning, make sure it’s something meaningful so you have a solid incentive. After that close your eyes and picture yourself next morning: how you wake up, what you do next, what you do afterwards. That all your mind is left with is to follow a pre-defined blueprint.
- Phone-Free Zone: Keep your phone out of the bedroom to avoid distractions and the temptation to check the time when you wake up.
- Beware of Sleep Cycles: Funnily enough, I’ve noticed, once my body had finally adjusted to natural wakefulness, I started waking up earlier than I planned to, and seeing the time on my phone’s screen I would let myself go back to bed to catch a bit more sleep till the time ‘is right’ and sure thing, I’d oversleep. Because the body wakes when we complete a sleep cycle, and once you go back to bed, it’s another cycle. Yet, not having the phone at my sight I’d rather be pleasantly surprised afterwards when I were a bit more awake.
Your State Before Bed Matters
The state and last thought you have before going to bed greatly influence how you will wake up. Going to bed with a positive mindset can lead to a more enthusiastic wake-up:
- Excitement vs. Dread: When you’re excited about the day ahead, you bounce out of bed. Conversely, feeling down makes it harder to get up.
Stressing About a Failed 5 AM Will Cause Anxiety
Worrying about failing to wake up at a specific time can create anxiety, making it even harder to establish a healthy routine.
Not a Willpower but a Wilful Decision
“It’s not about willpower. Change starts with a Decision
Personal Example
We tend to overestimate the value of willpower and underestimate the power of a decision. Let me share my personal example. I think I’m the worst exemplar of someone exhibiting strong willpower, if any at all. I either want to do something and then I do it, or not. Given my reluctance to jump up, full of stress before I’m even awake, at the sound of my alarm every morning, I made a deliberate decision to learn to wake up naturally. Initially, I decided to let my body get as much sleep as it needed. However, since the bank holiday wasn’t endless, I had to decide on a specific wake-up time.
I had my clear WHY’s and WHAT FOR’s sorted, so the motivation was already in place. The tricky part was no longer relying on an alarm. Instead, I had to focus on my goal of the early morning the day before, sometimes compromising on nightlife to ensure I could re-pattern my system without failures.
Don’t worry, once it becomes habitual, your body will naturally wake up. For me, the first priority was to ensure a restful eight hours of sleep. With this mindset in the background, I ended up sleeping exactly eight hours. Occasionally, I overslept, but that only made me more disciplined.
Eventually, my priorities shifted to a 7:30 AM start, which is my most productive writing time. Now, whether I go to bed at 9 PM or 2 AM, I wake up no later than 6:40 AM, just enough time to set up for the day. Being aware of this pattern, I aim to be in bed at a reasonable hour to avoid feeling exhausted or hyper the next day. And this tends to happen naturally most of the time, as long as I stay attuned to my body and march to the bed the moment I start dozing off.
Yet, whenever I decide on a specific wake-up time — and I’m still astonished about this each time it happens — I wake up literally a few minutes before the desired time.
It’s not about willpower; change starts with a decision. Here’s how to train your brain to wake up early:
Try this ‘Inner Alarm’ Exercise:
Be prepared, you might need to do it a few times. However, I discovered that whenever my intention is strong, it works right away.
- Before you go to bed, decide what time you want to wake up.
- Get clear in your mind: What do you need this for?
- Think about what waking up at this particular time will enable you to achieve.
- Close your eyes and imagine you have achieved that goal. See things through your eyes and notice what you feel. If you like that feeling, try and amplify it.
- While still in the state, imagine a big clock showing the time you’d like to wake up.
- Open your eyes and think about what you will be doing instead of sleeping tomorrow morning.
- Close your eyes again and envision the clock showing the set time, and then yourself waking up and going through your desired routine, step by step. Notice whether it makes you look happier — as in that morning you’ve already managed to achieve a small victory simply by following through with your plan.
After that, you can go to sleep, remembering that our unconscious is a remarkable and powerful mechanism, ensuring the best for us as well as the most optimised ways to achieve our sincere and beneficial goals.
Leverage Push/Pull Motivation
Motivation can be divided into two types: push and pull. Push motivation involves external factors pushing you towards your goal, like an alarm clock. Pull motivation involves internal desires pulling you towards your goal, like the excitement of starting a new project. Focus on developing strong pull motivations for waking up early.
- Push Motivation: Set clear goals and deadlines.
- Pull Motivation: Create a vision of the benefits of waking up early, like more free time or a peaceful morning.
Plan Two Steps Ahead
- Set Your Morning Rituals the Night Before: Prepare for the next day the night before. This reduces morning stress and helps you wake up with a clear purpose.
- Be Mindful of your New Routine: Once you decide to commit to becoming a Morning Rises stick to that. Life always gets in the way with work and entertainment but plan those accordingly to not sacrifice your new routine.
Train Your Brain Like a Dog
All dogs can be trained. It’s not a question, the question is what training suits them and consistency.
Shift your focus from “Can I do it?” to “How will I do it?” This subtle change in perspective can have a profound impact on your ability to wake up early.
Experiment with different approaches and discover the best one for you. Start small. Jumping randomly at 5 AM might be stressful for your organism and not sustainable.
At the start, if there’s a particular time you need to be awake and you’re not ready to rely on your inner clock yet, set your alarm only two minutes before you need to get up to minimise snoozing temptation.
And on the days when there’s no time pressure, let yourself wake up naturally. The only rule to remember is to stand up the moment you’re awake.
Addictions and Discipline
If you think of it, the habit of staying in bed after you’re awake is a pattern. And every pattern requires consistency that’s a cornerstone of discipline. So, it’s not that you lack discipline; it’s about what you choose to be disciplined at. Decision and discipline are all you need in any endeavour, and the good news is you have both. Even if you’re a masterful procrastinator, that only proves you have the discipline to follow that path.
How to Wake Up Without an Alarm
- Have a Reason: Find a compelling reason to wake up early, whether it’s a hobby, exercise, or a quiet moment for yourself.
- Make a Decision: We constantly make plans. Yet only when we make firm decisions to change what’s no longer serves us in life, and stick by these decisions is that we manage to follow through.
- Go to Bed at the Same Time: Consistency helps regulate your body’s internal clock.
- Create a Habit of Standing Up the Moment Your Body Wakes Up: Don’t linger in bed; get up as soon as you wake up.
- Don’t Go Back to Bed: Resist the temptation to get back under the covers.
- Think on Paper, Not in Bed: Write your thoughts before bed to clear your mind.
- Don’t Have Your Phone Near You: Avoid checking the time or getting carried away with distractions. Use your bedroom only for sleeping.
- Cut Thoughts at the Inception: Internal dialogue keeps us awake. Cut it at will. Unless these are inspiring ideas, then jot them down immediately. You won’t remember them later.
By making a firm decision and cultivating discipline, you can transform your mornings. Waking up early is not about sheer willpower; it’s about creating a routine that aligns with your natural rhythms and motivations. Understand your sleep patterns, leverage both, push and pull motivation, and train your brain to make waking up early a natural part of your routine. With these strategies, you can leave the alarm clock behind and wake up ready to take on the day feeling more restful and rejuvenated.
