Benefits of Waking Up Early

The benefits of waking up early are many. This simple practice can translate into more productivity, better sleep and an overall healthier lifestyle. Achieving the benefits of waking up early might make you a better student, employee and/or parent. A good deal of scientific and academic research has been conducted on the topic. These studies have concluded that there are potentially multiple benefits of waking up early.

Health Benefits of Waking Up Early

Probably the most important benefits of waking up early are seen in regards to health. People who wake up early often times lead a healthier lifestyle overall. Attribute that to a variety of early riser habits. More consistent sleep schedules have the biggest effect on health of all the benefits of waking up early. When people stay on a steady sleep schedule, they are able to achieve more quality of sleep. It keeps the body’s circadian internal clock on track. This helps improve both mental and physical health and can result in improvements in behavior as well. Regularly getting quality sleep can make going through the necessary stages of sleep possible. This is essential in providing bone growth, tissue repair, and reinforcing the immune system. In addition to the health benefits of sleep improvements, waking up early benefits by encouraging morning breakfast and exercise.

Career Benefits of Waking Up Early

Many successful people admit to the benefits of waking up early. An abundance of well-known executives have publicly assigned credit to an early morning routine. Depending on who you talk to, you’ll get a different reason why. Some say having the extra uninterrupted time to plan and organize makes a big difference. Others think taking the time to exercise in the early morning has given them an advantage. Even if you aren’t a powerful CEO, you can take advantage of the benefits of waking up early. Getting up early means you are more likely to leave the house early. Combine this with the less traffic you will have to deal with in the early morning, and you might get to work early. A research study from the Foster School of Business examined boss perception in a flex time situation. Three separate studies found that given identical performance, bosses perceived employees who came in early to be higher performing. The chances are though, that the act of getting up early will actually improve your performance too.

How Waking Up Early Benefits Your Family

Benefits of waking up early can be experienced even if you don’t work outside the home. Increased productivity means morning people can get a jump on household chores and errands. That steady sleep routine pays off in a better attitude and increased energy levels. At the end of the day, you have more time to spend doing things that you WANT to do. If you have kids, you probably already know they frequently model their parents’ behavior. So, when your children pick up your good habit(s), they will reap the benefits of waking up early too. Some ways that getting out of bed early helps students is with better performance and better grades. Parents have an added responsibility. Their decisions and actions can contribute to a healthier lifestyle and lifelong habits for the next generation.

How Early to Rise to Get the Benefits of Waking Up Early

Some famous CEOs awaken daily at 4:30am, others at 6am. There is no perfect time to wake so that is a call you must be willing to make. If you wake up at sunrise, you are pretty much guaranteed to be “waking up early.” The most important thing is that you are consistent.

Making the Transition to Waking Up Early

Suddenly changing your sleep schedule can offset some of the benefits of waking up early. So, it is best to take a gradual approach. Set an alarm just a little earlier each day until you reach your new and improved wake up time. Simultaneously, you should be going to sleep a little earlier each night. This will help you avoid several risks associated with disrupted sleep routines. Risks like increased chances of heart disease and diabetes add to the challenge of changing your morning wake up time. When you wake up, no matter what time that happens, turn on the lights or if the sun is up, open up the curtains. Natural light combats sleep inertia, a state of drowsiness that occurs upon first waking. If you use an alarm clock, strategically place it where you have to get up out of bed to turn it off. That might lessen your tendency to press snooze.

Benefits of Waking Up Early: The Scientific Facts

It’s easy to say that there are benefits to waking up early, but is it proven? Academic analysis and scientific research have backed up many claims. Here are just a few places you can find supported facts in relation to the benefits of waking up early.

• One benefit of waking up early, better sleep schedules, influences behavior in kids and parents alike. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2675894/

• Students who wake up early are more proactive and regularly do well academically as proven by a Biologist Christopher Randler in the Harvard Business Review.

• Emotion Journal published a study of 435 adults under the age of 38 and 297 adults between 59-79. The Renee K. Bliss and Lynn Hasher research concluded that positivity correlates with rising early.

• This is further confirmed by Cognitive Therapy and Research, which found in 2015 that repetitive negative thinking occurs more from people who stayed up later doing more activity late at night.

• Another benefit of waking up early is the increased frequency of eating breakfast. This habit was studied with results printed in the International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. People who eat breakfast make better food choices throughout the day than those who do not.

• Which leads us to an extra side benefit of waking up early, morning light can lower your body mass index by Northwestern University.

• Early risers are more focused, more decisive and less apt to procrastinate according to the Journal of General Psychology.