There’s no coffee at this rave, and it’s a problem. “It’s hard to get people to deliver in the sixes,” says the woman behind the bar, referring to the 6 a.m. hour. The coffee won’t arrive until 7:30 a.m., she says, which basically sounds like never to me. I’ve been up since 6 a.m., and haven’t had my usual cup of warm, milky, caffeinated joe. She suggests a green juice instead.

Daybreaker Founders Matt Brimer and Radha Agrawal

Caffeine isn’t the usual drug of choice at a techno dance party, but it’s the only sanctioned mind-altering substance at Daybreaker, a twice-a-month sober rave in the too-early-to-function (let alone dance!) hours of 6 to 9 a.m.

Daybreaker started as a social experiment. Longtime friends Matthew Brimer and Radha Agrawal were bored with New York’s nightlife scene. “Nightlife can be exclusionary. It can be judgmental. It can be dark,” says Brimer, also a cofounder of the tech vocational school General Assembly. “What if we turned it on its head and turned it into a different experience–create something that was really positive for people, almost tribal in its euphoric experience,” he wondered. The two invited 300 of their friends to a morning dance party at a Union Square club, sans drugs or alcohol. More than 150 people showed up and danced out of the wee hours of the morning. It was so successful, the two kept it going, throwing parties every two weeks in a different venue.

Now, a year and a half later, at $25 or $40 a ticket, Daybreaker attracts between 400-600 people for each event. The parties have spread across the country to San Francisco and L.A. with events coming to Sao Palo, Tel Aviv, Washington, D.C., Sydney, and Amsterdam soon. In March, they’re launching Daybreaker dusk, a happy hour dance party on Friday evenings from 6-9 p.m. They’re calling it Apres Week.

Clubbing is a strange, disorienting thing to do before work. After a woman with a flower crown and fairy wings welcomes me into the cavernous Meatpacking district spot, I trip over a step. Despite the time and day of the week, Daybreaker feels like 3 a.m. at a Bushwick warehouse on a Saturday night. The vibe is Burning Man meets SoulCycle. Lasers bathe hundreds of people, mostly twentysomethings, hopping up and down, as a glowing character wearing a jellyfish costume floats by on stilts. A DJ pumps up the crowd: “Living is a choice. We choose to be happy. We choose the life we want to live. Now dance!” Attendees oblige, thrashing up and down to an “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” remix.

Although it’s more music festival than Jazzercise, both Lululemon and American Apparel make strong showings. Others come dressed in slacks and business appropriate attire ready to head straight to the office, which is where most of the ravers will go after dancing the morning away.

Video: Rebecca Greenfield for Fast Company

If it feels weird to walk into a dance party at that hour, how does it feel to go from club to the cubicle? “I get so much done,” says Andrea, a 23-year-old marketing manager with a high ponytail. This is her second Daybreaker. “Everyone is like, ‘She’s extra happy today.'”