Since the kid came along, we’ve been relying on him to be our alarm clock. Lately he’s been waking up close to 8 AM. After months of waking up really early (5 AM) and playing with toy cars first thing in the morning, you’d think getting more shut-eye is awesome, but it also means having to rush to get to work, or worse, realizing there is a morning meeting I need to get to in less than an hour. Mornings are stressful and chaotic in our household. It’s a mad scramble to make breakfast, get ready for the day, and leave the house.
The Solution
It’s simple, no? Do not rely on the kid for the wake-up calls. Instead, establish a wake-up time (ergo, wake-up early consistently).
In 2010, biologist Christoph Randler of University of Education at Heidelberg conducted a study where 367 university students were surveyed on their wake-up times and discovered that the early risers displayed more assertiveness. Similarly, a 2008 Texas University study showed that the early rises had a higher grade point average (GPA) the the night owls; a full point higher, to be more concise.
In the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Mason Currey describes the daily routine of over a hundred prominent people (artists and scientists of past and present) and approximately 70% of the people in the book were early risers: Beethoven rose at dawn and Franz Liszt at four in the morning and Frank Lloyd Wright sketched between 4 and 7 in the mornings. As the age old adage goes, the early bird does get the worm.
The Challenge
Emily and I have cooked up a simple morning routine, starting with a wake-up time of 7 AM. From Monday, January 13, 2014 onward, we are determined to wake up consistently at 7 AM, baby bugle call or not.
The Scoring System
One point will be given to the person who physically gets out of bed at 7AM (or earlier) every morning. Two points for the person who wakes up at 7AM on the weekends. That makes a grand total of 23 points.
Tailor it to Meet your Needs
Not everyone needs to wake up at 7, but I don’t think I’d be too far out on a limb saying that most would benefit from an earlier wake-up time. What time do you currently wake-up? Now aim to wake-up fifteen minutes earlier each day; if you’re like us and have inconsistent wake-up times, pick a wake-up time that would give you sufficient time to leave for work and have a cup of coffee. Now, from January 13-31, 2014, if you wake up pre-determined time, score yourself a point. Again, weekend mornings are worth two points.
The Last Word
Whether you need a higher GPA or could benefit from being more proactive, creating the habit of rising early at a consistent time would ultimately make room for better things. By establishing a wake-up time which would give us enough time to get through our morning rituals, we’re eliminating the morning stresses in hopes of living more productively.
Leave us your morning wake up time below and tweet us at #UrbanSimplify with your progress and see if you can beat me!
Haha.. baby bugle call.
I have the baby kicking me at 6 a.m. so I’m up by 6:30 a.m. – 7 a.m.
What also helps is sleeping earlier and having the bedtime routine down pat.. (in bed by 9 p.m. for instance, read for 15 minutes, lights off, lie there and sleep.)
The baby bugle call sounded at 5:30 today. He’s a little sick so we’ll give him a pass. You’re right; the bed time routine plays a big part. We always try to get to bed by 10:30 but it always manages to creep a little. It’s getting better since we’re making a point to stick to our wake up time.
Alarm set for 4:50am but I am ususally awake at 4:30am-workout before I go to work at 7am
Wow! A 4:30AM workout?! I tip my hat to you. Does that also mean a 9PM bed time? What kind of workout do you do before you go to work?
Like Sue, I’m at work at 7am (and a 9.30pm bedtime). I used to get up at 5.45am but have slid it back slowly to about 5.20am to get in a half hour walk, and be in the shower by 6, to be in the car to leave at 6.40am. Weird, I’m faster now from shower to out the door than without exercise… less sleeping the shower perhaps?
I set my ‘pill’ alarm for 8am, and that acts as a weekend alarm.
Admittedly, my quality of sleep is poor with my BF’s snoring. When I sleep alone the times above are ‘enough’ but usually, I’m more tired. When I was studying, I was up at 7.30am and same bed time more or less.
OK, so how to join this and the points? I’ll have to ponder for a while. But I should start this scoring idea with my monthly challenges!
Thanks for joining us Sarah! It looks like we have a lot of early risers. There was a time where I had to wake up at 6AM to practice piano before going to school, but that was ages ago. It must be nice to live somewhere warm for a morning walk. Cold bleak winter fog in the morning just isn’t as inviting. Even though I’m more of a morning person, there are just some mornings where I want to pull up the covers and stay in bed.
For the points, just keep track and keep us posted. We’ll do an update in a bit. So far we both lost on Monday (We didn’t wake up until like 8. We had the flu.) Today, we were both up at 6:30 so we both got a point. So far, it’s a cravat.
I am NOT an early riser, and it’s just never going to happen. I’m lucky that I can sleep till 8am because I live quite close to work, if I really push it, but I try for 7.30 (with two alarms that go off a little earlier … I like to just lay in bed and do nothing rather than jump right up, which is a terrible habit…)
We generally get to work by 9, but we’re lucky we have somewhat flexible hours. The winter blues do have me wanting to stay in bed and do nothing!