Waking up early can be a challenge, especially if you aren’t used to it, but the benefits of waking up early far outweigh the negatives. Some benefits of waking up early include things like better focus and time to accomplish things in the morning.
These benefits can take your mornings from wasted, unproductive time to highly efficient and productive time very quickly!
Learning how to wake up early is the first step, but once you accomplish that you can start to take advantage of the many benefits that you will learn about in this post. If you give waking up early an honest try, you will see that these benefits are worth the hard work!
This post is all about the benefits of waking up early that you need today!
Benefits of Waking Up Early
This post explores many of the benefits of waking up early. Keep reading to learn more!
How to Wake Up Early
Learning how to wake up early is the first step towards gaining the benefits of an early morning. If you are not used to being an early riser, the transition can be a little bit tough, but there are a few ways to make it easier! Here are some tips on how to wake up early:
- Slowly transition to your new wake-up time: Do not feel like you need to make one quick jump from your current wake-up time to an earlier one. Making a big, dramatic shift could be tough on your mind and body since you just aren’t used to such a change. Instead, consider taking your time with the switch so you can get used to the new time gradually.
- Avoid eating right before bed: Late-night snacks always sound great, but they can often mess with your sleep schedule. Instead of resting, your body will still be digesting as you try to sleep. This could cause your sleep quality to be worse or could lead to waking up throughout the night. Either way, you will struggle to wake up early.
- Silence your phone: This is a big one! Modern smartphones are designed to get your attention so when you leave your sound on, it will most likely wake you up. Suddenly, your brain will start firing and thinking about what it could be and forcing you to check. At that point, your sleep cycle is significantly disrupted, and you will find it harder to wake up early.
These are just a few tips to help you wake up early. Check out the link below that has many more tips. These will make a huge difference as you try to become an early riser!
{ Related post: How to Wake Up Early: 11 Ways to Make it Feel Easy! }
Challenges of Waking Up Early
As I mentioned, waking up early can be a challenge. Our bodies like to be on a schedule, so transitioning to something new can be weird at first. Here are a couple of reasons why waking up early can be a challenge:
- You are not giving your body sufficient time to rest: Most of the time, if you are struggling to wake up early it just means that you are not getting enough sleep. To get better at waking up early, you need to learn how to get to sleep earlier as well. Waking up early does not mean sacrificing sleep, so you still need to get enough rest! Once you start getting enough sleep each night, I guarantee that you will have a much easier time getting up early.
- Too much screen time before bed: As I mentioned above, our phones are designed to capture our attention. Scrolling on your phone late at night causes your mind to race and crave more interaction. If you can limit your screen time, and replace it with things like reading or journaling, you will find that your nights become much easier.
Once you solve these issues, you will have a much easier time waking up early!
{ Related post: 6 Morning Routine Mistakes and Why You Need to Fix Them Today! }
5 Benefits of Waking Up Early
Now that we have covered some tips on how to wake up early and some common pitfalls that people run into, we can talk about some of the benefits of waking up early.
1. Better mental focus
People who wake up early versus those who wake up late do not just have a difference in bedtime and wake-up time. They also have very different performance throughout the day that is linked to their energy levels.
Somebody who wakes up at 5 AM will not peak at the same time as the person who wakes up at 8 AM. This seems fine, but what if work starts at 9 AM usually? The 5 AM person will have much more time for their body to wake up and adjust to the day when compared to the 8 AM person. 5 AM may be able to perform well from 9-5, while AM may be groggy until 11 or so. That means that the day cannot be used nearly as effectively.
This is due to something called sleep inertia. Sleep inertia basically refers to the idea that your body needs time to “get started” once you wake up. Your brain does not quite wake up when you do, so you are held back in what you can do and how well you can perform.
By waking up earlier, you have time to get past the point where sleep inertia is no longer a factor. This is a major benefit of waking up early!
2. Time to workout
If working out is not part of your mornings, you should consider changing that! Working out in the mornings is a great way to start off any day because you will be getting your body moving in a productive way.
If you do not wake up early, it can be tough to work out before work. If you don’t do it before, that means you have to do it after. A lot of times there is no problem with that, but it is not impossible to think that something could come up. Maybe you have to stay at work later, or maybe you need to cook when you get home. Either way, there are chances that your workout will get pushed out of the way.
If you just work out before work, then you have no worries! You will get your exercise in when there are little to no obstacles besides the time. As long as you get to bed early, you should be able to take advantage of this perk of waking up early!
3. Regulate your circadian rhythm
Waking up and getting to bed early generally correspond with the rising and setting of the sun. Your body’s internal clock, its circadian rhythm, also corresponds to the same rising and setting.
We should all strive to have a good circadian rhythm since that is what our body wants to use to run itself. To achieve that great rhythm, all you need to do is try to follow the pattern of the sun day by day. You do not need to be exactly on time every day, just generally close (within 60 minutes or so) should be enough to help you get the benefits of a great circadian rhythm.
Having a schedule that follows the rising and setting of the sun is also beneficial since it will allow you to start to wind down as the sun sets. It all starts with waking up early. Give it a try!
{ Related post: 5 Useful Time Management Skills You MUST Know! }
4. Time for breakfast
Another benefit of getting up early is that you will have time for breakfast! Some people don’t like breakfast or think that it is a waste of time. This is absolutely not true!
Breakfast helps set the tone for your day. If you start the day without breakfast, you may be setting yourself up to have low energy and low motivation. This might be worth it to some people since they want to sleep more and will not have time for breakfast if they do, but I don’t think it is a smart choice. Waking up a little early so you can get some food and energy going is a great way to start your day.
5. Less time in traffic
We all know how the morning and evening commutes can be. If you leave at primetime, you will be fighting through all sorts of people on their way to work, and usually, everybody is in a bad mood and in a rush.
This is no way to start out your day. Dealing with a bad commute will only make you dread work even more and will lead to anger and resentment.
By waking up early, you can eliminate this problem! With an early wake-up time, you can also leave for work earlier, and leave to go home earlier. This will mean less traffic and a better day overall!
Thank you for reading and I hope these tips made you more interested in waking up early! Try waking up early soon and see how the benefits work out for you. Stick with it even if it is tough, it will be worth it! If you have any questions, please comment below or reach out to ourteam@wellroundedyou.com.
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