In defense of sleep and waking up early
Sleep deprivation used to be cool.
In college, my friends and I would try and one-up each other when comparing the previous night’s shut-eye (or lack thereof).
“Man, I only got five hours of sleep last night and almost fell asleep in class.”
“Yeah, I hear you. I got around four.”
Clearly person B wins.
This was cool because it implied increased productivity. Four hours of sleep meant you had so many projects, essays, film shoots and jobs to work. Or it meant you had a pretty baller social life. Pulling an all-nighter was the epitome of coolness.
Lately I’ve made a conscious decision to sleep more. The results have been remarkable.
The reasons for this are obvious. I feel better, exercise harder, and make better decisions. Studies have confirmed this. Many leaders and CEOS have linked their success to sleep.
The largest takeaway I’ve had from this new sleep initiative pertains not just to getting more hours of shut eye, but to waking up early.
I’m not talking about getting up in time for a quick trip to the gym before work.
I’m talking about getting up absurdly early.
4:30 AM early.
Why would anyone do this?
Because it’s challenging. Because it creates a feeling of accomplishment.
Which sounds better:
Waking up with 10 minutes to spare before you need to leave for work, maybe having time for a rushed two minute shower where you almost slip and crack your head open on the wet bathroom floor because you forgot that things like fired ceramic tiles are slippery while wet (I’ve never done this…).
Or…
Waking up early. Doing five minutes of meditation (which you’ve been telling yourself you’d do for years). Writing a little (which you never seem to have time to do after work). Cleaning your inbox. Swimming 1500m at the pool. Washing up. And finally having a breakfast meeting. All before 9 AM.
Clearly it’s the latter.
This was my morning just a few days ago. And it felt incredible.
If you want to give this a try (and you should), here are a few tips:
- Unless you can function on little sleep, go to bed early. If this is hard, do something to make yourself tired. Drink some tea. Read a book.
- Over the course of 1-2 weeks, set your alarm for 15-30 minutes earlier every day. Ease into it.
- Most importantly, don’t hit snooze. Don’t convince yourself that sleeping in for another 10, 30, or 60 minutes is a good idea. It’s not. That’s not enough time for another solid sleep cycle. You’ll wake up feeling groggy. Tell yourself that you will not feel better by getting those extra few minutes in. Because you won’t. You’ll just be disappointed in yourself.
I’ve been doing this for two weeks now and it’s life changing. The challenge is maintaining the habit.
Not every day has been easy. But I’m sticking with it.
Give it a try. You never know.
