Why You Should Wake Up Early

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I mentioned in my previous post the main reason I want to wake up early — to get things done! However I have some other great reasons for waking up at a consistently early time. Read through some of these reasons, perhaps one will convince you why you may need to set your alarm a little earlier.

#1 — Sleeping in on Saturday could add Inches to your waist. According to this study a consistent wake time, more than a consistent sleep time, was related to healthy body fat percentages. I’m not only trying to lose weight, but if waking at a consistent time can help me do so, why not give it a try?

#2 — Waking early can make you more productive. I want to wake up earlier in the morning to add more productive hours to my day, but apparently being an early riser can make the rest of my day more productive as well. For more info on this check out this podcast from Michael Hyatt (I would recommend subscribing to his blog as well).

#3 — Waking at a consistent time helps you sleep better. Circadian rhythm is probably a term you’ve heard a time or two. I’ve always written it off as mumbo-jumbo (usually because I’ve seen people use it as an excuse for laziness), but as I’ve researched it I can see that the idea has some scientific basis. The thing I’ve noticed in all the research is that our bodies love consistency, whether it is eating, sleeping, working, whatever, consistency helps us be better at it. Waking up and going to sleep at consistent times can help you to become better at sleep.

#4 — Working out in the morning boosts your mood all day. In Eat, Move, Sleep, Tom Rath takes a portion of one of his chapters to talk about the benefits of exercising in the morning as opposed to the evening. Namely, he points out that the 12-hour hormonal mood boost you get from exercising is wasted while you sleep if you don’t exercise early in the day. I don’t have a work-out schedule yet (emphasis on yet), but if you do this would be another good reason to wake up early and get it in.

What are some of the reasons you wake up when you do, whether early or late?