Benefits of being an early bird

What I learned from waking up at 4:30 am during 4 months.

I was a sleepy head all my life. Moreover, for the big part of my life, I sincerely believed that all people are really divided into two groups of “early birds” and “night owls”. At one point in my life, the myth was busted.

In May 2016, I took a freelance job in addition to my full-time occupation. The job was to teach English on the phone (Yes, this thing really exists). All of my students were workers and businessmen who started their full-time job like me at 9 am. So the only time when I could teach was from 6–9 am.

Every day, I was waking up at 4:30 am, going to the only food shop that was working 24/7 in the neighborhood, buying 1 kimpab, and going to the park nearby to sit down on the bench and have a breakfast at dawn. At 6 am I was sitting in my office ready to work. I was working in this regime for 4 months.

After 4 months I changed my freelance job to another one but I was always missing “the magic of the early mornings”. I recently set my regime again but now I get up at 5:30 am.

Here are the things that I learned being an “early-bird”.

Early bird or a night owl? Neither.

I am a night owl. I can’t wake up early.

I used to say it myself and now I know that it is a big piece of BS. Humans are the most adaptable species in the world and something as simple as a sleeping pattern is merely a habit.

Saying that you have a natural aptitude towards sleeping late is a dodgy excuse for people who can’t admit they simply don’t have enough willpower to get up early.

Waking up early is a choice and usually, people who are ready to give up the comfort of a warm bed to be productive in the morning have a good reason to do so.

What is your “why” to wake up?

You wake up into a different energy

Remember, when you entered the room on the exam day and there were students sitting in tension and silence? You can almost physically feel how their minds are buzzing on the frequency of the brains filled to the brim with memorized information. When you wake up late you wake up into this cacophony of not sleeping minds.

What you experience in the early morning is the complete opposite. You enter the space of pure energy clean from background white noise created by thoughts of other people. The time when even the birds are sleeping gives you unprecedented serenity and calmness.

You see beauty

These are some of my mornings:

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Pictures can’t represent the true beauty hidden for the most people who still sleep at dawn. When you observe mesmerizing sunrises every single day they transcend your sense of beauty.

You become more organized and disciplined

When you don’t have a regime of waking up at a certain time you can always sleep a bit more if you are tired and need to recover.

When you know that you need to wake up at a designated time every day you can only sleep more by planning it ahead and going to bed early.

This made me very disciplined in everything that is related to sleep. It becomes some sort of “sleeping hygiene” because I know that if I don’t get my good 7.5 hours this will be the way I feel myself in the morning:

For many people waking up early can be a real challenge, and as all other challenges, your willpower gets an upgrade if you manage to reach your ambitious goals. Waking up early is hard, it is supposed to be hard, but it is absolutely worth it.

You start to have a precious time for yourself

Did you want to start running?
Cook yourself a tasty breakfast?
Clean the room?
Meditate?
Read?
Write?
Exercise?
Study?
Work?

Early morning is the time when everything is possible. All long-term goals can be accomplished through thorough implementation of an early morning routine.

Getting things done by the time most of the people start their day — this is the “magic of early mornings”.

Issues with social life

There is only one downside of waking up early that I could think of. My early bird regime is not very compatible with the lifestyle of the majority of people around me. By the time people have their dinner I have already been awake for 12+ hours.

Obviously, I am getting sleepy earlier than them yet some of them (my lady) refuse to take it into consideration.

Conclusion.

Waking up early is awesome!

Don’t listen to anyone (including me) and just make an experiment. Challenge yourself and wake up at 5:30 am every morning for 30 days and see the results yourself. For the most of the people, 30 days is enough to develop a habit. The next step when the habit becomes a second nature is just a matter of a long practice.

We will sleep in the afterlife.
Let’s not waste our precious time.