Learning to wake up early on a daily basis can be difficult, especially for those that are so used to staying up late. But just like with many of life’s challenges, there are reasons why we choose to do so. In the case of getting up early, there are benefits that can strongly outweigh any of the discomfort caused by the early rise.

In my case, I learned to wake up a 4 AM and I absolutely love it! It’s become life-changing for me. Below I share my experience of why I do it and what you can expect if you choose to do the same.

1. To have more time

Most of us sleep on average about eight hours a night, which means that we are asleep a third of our life. Can you imagine how much more we could accomplish if only we could increase the awake time by as little as one hour a day? Just think about it.

Now, I am a big advocate of living a healthy lifestyle, so please don’t get me wrong. If you are physically still growing or eight hours is how much your mind and body need in order to stay in good shape, then keep it as it is. However, for many of us, seven hours of sleep a night is sufficient.

Personally, I try to sleep around 7 – 7,5 hours a night. This is the amount from which I can function well. However, one thing that I really love about waking up every day at 4 AM is the fact that if I need to make my day a bit longer because I am working hard on something, I am easily able to do so and still fit in those 7 hours of sleep. I shift my bedtime forward and wake up at 6 instead of 4, which is perfectly fine if I need to be somewhere by 9. It’s like having that spare tire with you in case one goes flat.

In addition, waking up early always makes me feel as if the day is longer than it would be if I were to wake up at 7 or 8 AM. This is because there are fewer things going on around you when everyone else sleeps. The hectic day hasn’t yet begun. And even though the number of hours is the same, those calm morning hours feel much longer and give me a lot more space in the mind for creative thinking.

2. No traffic, especially at the gym

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may have seen me posting pictures of myself at the gym. Well, these pictures are usually taken at about 5 AM. I love going to the gym at 5 AM!

Some people say that they have a hard time working out in the morning because they feel like they are still asleep. I actually do too, which is why I don’t go working out right when I wake up. I give myself an hour to freshen up.

Right when I get out of bed, I have a light healthy breakfast. After I have eaten, I meditate for twenty minutes. This creates the necessary clarity and positivity in the mind which we all so need in order to better cope with life’s struggles. After I have finished meditating, I do some typical daily chores around the house and then take off to the gym. This happens roughly at about 5 AM, one hour after I have woken up.

The great thing is that the gym that I go to is empty at 5 AM. I absolutely love this! There is no one distracting me while I work out and there is no queueing to the machines. What can be better? Those that go to the gym during the day and have to wait a lot for the machines or weights to free up know exactly what I am talking about.

But it doesn’t end there. Everything early in the morning is easier. There are fewer people using public transport, going to grocery stores and there is less traffic on the roads. All of this means that your day moves faster than if you were to do everything during rush hour.

Like I said previously, the number of hours you are awake is no different from the person’s that wakes up later and goes to sleep later. But because for you more things consume less time, your day becomes significantly longer.

3. The sense of accomplishment

Another reason why I wake up at 4 AM and love it is because by 9 AM, I have already accomplished plenty of things.

I can meditate, have breakfast, read a book, go to the gym, go to the store and work on my business while others haven’t even opened their eyes yet. This creates an incredible sense of accomplishment. On the most productive mornings, it becomes euphoric.

If you are a very busy person, but you love to accomplish your goals on time, then getting up before sunrise is going to be life-changing for you.

4. Health

Just like everyone else, I have had periods in my life where not much of my day was scheduled, including the bedtime. I went to sleep simply when I felt like it, which also meant that I would wake up at random times of the day.

I wasn’t busy or stressed back then, but having no sleeping pattern made me very unstable mentally. I often got too much sleep or too little, both of which felt wrong. I either slept throughout classes in high school or felt “sluggish” because 10 hours of sleep did more damage than good.

Once I made the habit of going to sleep and waking up every day at the same time, I began to feel better physically and mentally. Creating that sleeping pattern was necessary for me, as it is for everyone. Sleep is, after all, one of the core human needs. If it’s not properly managed, your health can decline.

But it wasn’t until I began to go to bed early and rise at 4/5 AM that I started to feel really good. This can be explained by the Circadian rhythms that we all have as human beings. These are the biological rhythms that occur in us and control different processes within the body throughout the 24 hours.

5. More productive

Finally, I also love to wake up as early as 4 AM because I am a lot more productive in the morning.

I understand that there are morning people and there are night people. Some are more efficient during the first half of the day, while others are during the second half of the day. This is ok and there may be different reasons for this.

However, what’s really sad is if a morning person lives like a night person. There is just so much potential going to waste.

The only real way to find out if you are a morning person is to try living like one for some time. And no, one day is not enough.

I often hear how people say that they are a night person just because they have a hard time waking up in the morning. I smile when I hear this because these are the same people that go to bed at 1 AM every night.

Don’t get me wrong, just like everyone else, I love to sleep. At the start, it never was easy for me to wake up at 4 AM. To get there, I had to first create a sleeping schedule and learn to go to bed early. Once I got into the habit of ending my day early, waking up early stopped being a problem, too. All I did was I shifted my sleep time 3 or 4 hours back. It’s not like I sleep less than everyone else.

When rising early became a norm for me, I realized just how much more powerful my brain is in the morning. I am able to accomplish a ton more than I ever was able to do in the evening.

As long as I remember myself, after about 5 PM, physical and mental effort was always more challenging for me. But at a younger age, I had no idea that there was nothing wrong with waking up that much earlier in the morning. I just did what everyone else did. Had I been taught to wake up at 4/5 AM when I was a small kid, so many things would have been done differently in my life.

Time is the most precious asset we have in life. Once it’s gone, there is nothing we can do to buy that time back. This is the reason why I value it so much.

Waking up early in the morning and being able to do everything that I do while everyone else sleeps allows me to move through the day faster and to be more efficient. It leaves me more time to work on the things that I am truly passionate about. When I wake up at 4 AM, I know that I am not wasting any time. I love waking up at 4 AM. Hopefully, you can learn to love it, too.

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

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