My Own Waking Early Experiment

[renie408]

I read Steve's essay on waking early about two weeks ago. It really rang a bell with me, so I started working on waking earlier. I had gotten to where I was typically waking up between 7:30 and 8:00 am, which seems early, but isn't really optimal for all that I need to do in a day. Also, I have suffered from insomnia most of my life. I fall asleep fine, but I wake up in the middle of the night. Something about reading all the posts on sleep on this board made me think that maybe my problem was that I was getting more sleep than I needed, not less. That the problem was that I had gotten myself into a schedule that didn't suit my internal clock (falling asleep early, waking in the middle of the night and then falling back asleep).

So, I decided to start waking up at 5:00 am. But after about three days of cutting the alarm clock off and falling straight back to sleep, I realized that 'deciding' wasn't the only factor involved. I would need a plan. I started to set my alarm clock for 7:00 am. I did that for two days and woke up just fine. Then I set the alarm for 6:45 am for a couple of days. Again, things went fine. I set the alarm earlier by fifteen minutes every couple of days. The only glitch I had was falling asleep far to early one night while laying in bed listening to a book on my iPod after having had a physically demanding day. I did wake up in the middle of the night that night, but haven't had any trouble with insomnia since the first couple of days otherwise. Yesterday morning the alarm clock was set for 5:30 am. I woke up right away and felt great all day. I fell asleep last night a little after 10:00 pm, slept the night through and woke up feeling BRIGHT at 5:26 am this morning...four minutes before I had the alarm set to go off. I got right up, did a load of dishes, a load of laundry, straightened up the kitchen and meditated before my husband got up at 6:30 am. I am going to keep to the 5:30 wake up til next week because we are going out of town and I don't think I will need to be up at 5:00 am at my sister's house. I am going to stick to my early wake up, though, because I don't want to go through readjusting my clock again.

Thanks to Steve and to everyone else on this site that has discussed their various sleep plans. This has been such a big change for me and I feel great!

[John Wesley]

I also got inspired on waking up earlier after reading the post, but ultimately Steve's method didn't work for me. I started getting up at 6 or 6:30 instead of 7:30. The idea of sitting up in bed worked very well and I was able to get up and function well for the first few weeks.

The problem was I couldn't get to sleep early enough. I'd get up at 6, be really tired the whole day, but when 10 or 11 rolls around I always become very awake and alert. Maybe I am just a natural night person, but I had a very hard time falling asleep before 1 or 2 most nights. This lead to me getting only 4-5 hours of sleep and overtime I became very worn down.

Another contributing factor is that I'm 22 years old and live with 2 other guys around the same age. We are all still in the habit of going out, partying occasionally, and staying up late. Our apartment is pretty small so the noise from my roommates hurt my ability to go to sleep early as well.

After I month or so I realized that the sleep deprivation was adding up. I'd become extremely exhausted, so I decided to go back to my old pattern of waking up around 7 or 7:30. Next I plan on try biphasic sleeping so I can get up very early and stay up late, but have a nap in the middle to compensate. Hopefully this will work.

[Shaden]

One of the big things that helped me get over the sub-consious block we face when choosing to get up early, i.e. switching the alarm clock off and going back to sleep, was changing the location of my alarm clock in my room so I had to get up to turn it off. For three months I persisted with keeping the alarm clock next to my bed and would often sleep through 3 'snooze sessions' waking up at 7:00 as opposed to my target 6:30.

About a week ago I shifted my alarm away from my bed so in order to reach it I had to get up literally onto my feet. It was an instant success and I've managed in that week to shift my rousing time back to 5:30. It feels great to turn in at night and know I'm going to get up very early with minimal effort and with little chance of failure. It has relieved me of a lot of stress and means I now have more time to enjoy life! Yay!

[SamBeaven]

A good trick I've found is to schedule a lot of stuff to do early in the morning - I find that helps to drag me out of bed early, because I like to get my targeted work for the day done if I can.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by renie408

I read Steve's essay on waking early about two weeks ago. It really rang a bell with me, so I started working on waking earlier. I had gotten to where I was typically waking up between 7:30 and 8:00 am, which seems early, but isn't really optimal for all that I need to do in a day. Also, I have suffered from insomnia most of my life. I fall asleep fine, but I wake up in the middle of the night. Something about reading all the posts on sleep on this board made me think that maybe my problem was that I was getting more sleep than I needed, not less. That the problem was that I had gotten myself into a schedule that didn't suit my internal clock (falling asleep early, waking in the middle of the night and then falling back asleep).

So, I decided to start waking up at 5:00 am. But after about three days of cutting the alarm clock off and falling straight back to sleep, I realized that 'deciding' wasn't the only factor involved. I would need a plan. I started to set my alarm clock for 7:00 am. I did that for two days and woke up just fine. Then I set the alarm for 6:45 am for a couple of days. Again, things went fine. I set the alarm earlier by fifteen minutes every couple of days. The only glitch I had was falling asleep far to early one night while laying in bed listening to a book on my iPod after having had a physically demanding day. I did wake up in the middle of the night that night, but haven't had any trouble with insomnia since the first couple of days otherwise. Yesterday morning the alarm clock was set for 5:30 am. I woke up right away and felt great all day. I fell asleep last night a little after 10:00 pm, slept the night through and woke up feeling BRIGHT at 5:26 am this morning...four minutes before I had the alarm set to go off. I got right up, did a load of dishes, a load of laundry, straightened up the kitchen and meditated before my husband got up at 6:30 am. I am going to keep to the 5:30 wake up til next week because we are going out of town and I don't think I will need to be up at 5:00 am at my sister's house. I am going to stick to my early wake up, though, because I don't want to go through readjusting my clock again.

Thanks to Steve and to everyone else on this site that has discussed their various sleep plans. This has been such a big change for me and I feel great!

Hey Renie,

A couple of things. I like how you gradually got into the sleeping pattern instead of cold turkey. I like it just because you figured out what works best for you and implemented that.

About doing dishes/laundry in the morning. Consider that directly when you wake up is your prime time when you are feeling most alert and creative. You can utilize this by doing something really important, creative, artistic in order to harness this prime time. You might find that beneficial. I understand if it's your only chance to do the busy work, like I said, I like how you do what works best for you.

About your sisters house and waking up early. I'm sure you could find some interesting things to do early in the morning without waking anyone up or deviating from your sleeping schedule. I.e. reading, looking over and planning goals, future activities, checking www.stevepavlina.com/forums or surprise your sister by getting up and doing her dishes and laundry

[renie408]

Alex, I just hadn't really thought about doing anything else. I normally hate to do housework and I feel motivated in the morning when I wake up, so I did it. I will plan to do some of my writing projects tomorrow morning and see how it goes. Thanks for the suggestion.

As for my sister's laundry and dishes, she is anal and has a maid come to her house twice a week on top of that. She barely lets you finish eating before she is wisking the plate into the dishwasher. So, I guess I will be checking out Steve's site instead of doing housework. I can live with that.

[Shaden]

So, I guess I will be checking out Steve's site instead of doing housework. I can live with that.

I think we all can

Consider that directly when you wake up is your prime time when you are feeling most alert and creative. You can utilize this by doing something really important, creative, artistic in order to harness this prime time. You might find that beneficial. I understand if it's your only chance to do the busy work, like I said, I like how you do what works best for you.

What if your the type who takes a while to wake up? I normally take a little longer then average to become fully alert - maybe 15-30 minutes. Does that creative time pass are is there still a chance to harness such power?

[ReallyGoodIdeas]

Yeah I'm so NOT a morning a person and do my best work in the evenings. In the morning, I barely stumble around looking for coffee (sorry!). I alos can live with this.

Joy to you and sleep soundly!
Hazel

[renie408]

Maybe you just said it yourself...'I normally take a little longer then average to become fully alert '. Maybe your creative time is once you are fully alert.

[bylto]

Im definitely a morning person. I do my best work in the morning and don't have a problem getting up. I rise at 6 after about 6hrs sleep and my eyes look like this , just kidding, I'm not that alert but I go downstairs, usually get on the crosstrainer and when Im finished I'm full of energy, then its time to work.

Probably having a fixed routine in the mornings and knowing that I have work to do helps. I imagine that if I was just waking early just for the sake of it, I would slip back into rising late again.

I know I would be making life more difficult if I wasn't an early riser as I would have to try to cram loads more work into my evenings. It just suits my lifestyle. It's a habit I recommend if you're busy.

[renie408]

We have a horse farm with about 25 horses on it. I have to feed and turn the horses out in the morning, ride at least a couple of them, homeschool my daughter, teach a couple of riding lessons, clean twelve stalls and then feed and bring the horses in at night. Plus, my husband works very full time, so most of the house falls to me. I SERIOUSLY cannot afford to sleep late. With everything I need to do in a day, 7:30 is late.