“The early bird catches the worm,”
This phrase is like the Chuck Norris of phrases, i.e., can be used in almost all scenarios. I’ve heard this phrase from my dad; when he used to wake me up for school.
I hated both waking up in the morning and going to the school. I think that whatever it is that makes you wake up, you’ll end up hating it ( if you love to sleep as I do ).
For a person as lazy as me, waking up early was a struggle (a real one ). When I started working, I realized that majority of the productive people, either it is authors, visionaries, or business executives, all of them are morning people.
I wrote an article on my blog where I explained how I changed my habit and became an early riser. However, in this article, I’ll explain, what are the benefits of waking up early.
1. Increased Productivity
If you’re self-employed or have a business, I bet you sometimes crave that you had a few more hours in your day. A lot of people even go as far as to cut down their sleep hours to shell an hour or half in their work time.
If you an early riser, you have plenty of time to work on your projects.
Whatever your passion is, writing, photography, blogging, youtube, etc., you’ll have a few more extra hours to contribute to them. Usually, people work on these passion projects after coming back from work, when they are tired and exhausted from the day. If you start in the morning, you’ll be more pumped and have more time to work on your projects.
I’ve authored multiple books, managed a couple of blogs while having a 9 to 5 job at the same time. At that time, waking up early morning and working on the project proved to be better than being awake late night to work on them.
I formed the habit of writing 1 hour on my book in the morning and never gave up on that habit ever since.
2. Good Grades
There is some argument around this topic of whether or not waking up early results in good grades. Research done at Texas university found that students who woke up early scored and performed better than others and also reported to have a better quality sleep.
However, NY Times published an article claiming that a lot of early morning people were still in sleep inertia which leads to the first class going down the drain. They also reported that these students didn’t get quality sleep and suffered from insufficient sleep syndrome.
However, the major argument around this was that they were not getting enough sleep during the night. These students were waking up late night to complete their work. Students who did get proper sleep and woke up early were found scoring better grades.
3. You Can Have a Healthy Diet
A lot of people who wake up late skip their breakfast as they snooze their way to laziness. They value sleep over nutrition, which means breakfast is usually skipped. It is said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day since your body was on fast all night.
If you don’t have breakfast, your body is more likely to carve for unhealthy food or overeat when it does get some food later in the day. Your morning meal is your foundation for the day and a healthy body. If you get a heavy breakfast, you won’t be consuming junk food ( or craving for it ).
4. Better Execution
As I mentioned, most of the successful people wake up early in the morning. The logic is pretty straightforward. You wake up early; nothing is going around, you have a bunch of hours to get work done before the day even starts.
If you throw sentences like spending time thinking on long-term goals of life, planning the day, setting to-do ’s, an early riser will more likely be doing this, and there is a reason why that happens :-
In the morning, you have alone time; there are almost no distractions or very few. You can get more work done in less time. People who get good sleep in the night felt more charged and pumped all through the day. These people are better at planning, making decisions, and setting goals.
When you first start to wake up early, you’ll find it super annoying. But after a month or 21 days, you’ll start feeling happy after you wake up.
5. Better Mental Health
Another benefit that early risers enjoy is improved mental health.
Your start of the day is what sets the tone for the rest of your day. Waking up early in the morning is proven to reduce stress in life and add more freshness and positivity.
People who consider themselves to be night owls might be a little more creative, but in the long run, they’re going to lose points for psychological and mental problems. Early risers are positive and optimistic.
People who wake up late are always in a rush to reach their workplace or the school in time. If you wake up at 4, you already have the charge of your day; you can then handle it the way you want.
6. Quality of Sleep
Early risers have well-established sleep routines and schedules. If you go to bed at the same time every day, and wake up at pretty much the same time everyday, your body forms a habit of waking up early. This sets your body clock to get better REM Sleep.
A lot of sleep experts say that it is vital to establish a routine to improve your quality of sleep. This will set your internal clock, which means you’ll be able to wake up naturally and without being annoyed.
A lot of people also think that they can compensate for their sleep if they sleep more on the weekends, but that does more harm than good to your body in the long run.
7. You Get Ample Quiet Time
If you ask an early riser (even me), to explain the benefits of waking up early in the morning, “quiet time” is most likely to be on the list. When you wake up before anyone, you have plenty of time, just for yourself. This time can be used in setting long-term goals, plan what needs to be done in the day later on.
For me, the first couple of hours are dedicated to planning the list of things that need to be done and working on my books.
8. You Become Happy
We get happy when we achieve something. When you set targets in the day, and achieve them by the end of the day, you’d naturally feel happy and confident. You’ll feel things to be lighter. You’ll learn a lot, not only about the world but also about yourself.
To sum up, you’ll live a better life.
