"I got up at 4am for 40 days... it was amazing"

[Kyng]

Sometimes, getting up early can be very difficult. Even if we think we might be more productive in the mornings, many of us go to bed too late to be able to take advantage of that. However, YouTube user Lamont (from the 'Days and Words' channel) tried getting up early for 90 days (and for around 40 of those days, he got up at around 4am). It's primarily a language-learning channel, so there will be some stuff about that in this video - but hopefully, the main ideas will be useful to everyone .

Here's what he found:

• The problem: After leaving a job that had required him to get up at 4:30am, Lamont rebounded into sometimes not going to bed until 4am. It's not that he liked staying up late: he just found the act of going to bed was very easy to put off!
  
  
• The first month: For his first month, Lamont set himself only two rules: he had to be up and out of bed by 5am; and he had to watch a Spanish video on Lingopie before he did anything else (it was even allowed to be from the Kids' section, meaning it could be just 6 minutes long ). It actually worked quite well: on mornings when he didn't want to get up, his own rules made him feel really lazy (because he thought: "Really? You can't watch a 6-minute video? Is that bar too low for you?" ).
  
  
• The rules: Once he was fully into his challenge, Lamont established three rules. First: he kept his "Must be out of bed by 5am, and must watch something in Spanish first" rule. Second, he disallowed 'cheat days': no foreseeable excuse was ever good enough to stay in bed beyond 5am. Third was the 'siesta' rule: he allowed himself to go back to bed later in the day, but only once he'd been awake for a minimum of two hours.
  
  
• How do do it?: First of all, just going to bed earlier doesn't work: you just lie in bed awake until your 'old' bedtime . Even gradually going to bed earlier doesn't really work: it's too dependent on things going to plan for weeks at a time. Instead, it's more effective to high-voltage shock yourself out of the pattern you were in, by committing yourself to a really early activity (such as an online chat with someone overseas). You'll be really tired for the rest of the day - but that's the point . (And another thing that worked for him was to drink a glass of water before he goes to bed. This guaranteed that he'd have to use the bathroom at some point - but then, once he'd done that, he found it easier to just stay up!!!)
  
  
• The results: On about 50 of the mornings (including every day in January), Lamont learned some Spanish. This was helpful, because he found that actually learning languages was quite easy to put off, due to its lack of short-term impact (a bit like eating healthily). However, he didn't learn as much Spanish as he was hoping to: he only did it for about 20 days in February and March combined. So, it didn't magically give him the ability to study Spanish for 4 hours a day - although, it did fix his sleep issues, and he was hardly ever tired during those 3 months .

So, has anyone here got any experience of getting up really early - and if so, how did it go?

[toetapping]

I get up around 3.30 a.m. every morning always have but I am in bed early.  I love the peace and quiet and to me it is me time.

[Kyng]

I get up around 3.30 a.m. every morning always have but I am in bed early.  I love the peace and quiet and to me it is me time.

Yeah, that's definitely one benefit to being awake when nobody else is .

(Unfortunately for me, I find I get the same benefit at the opposite end - from staying up after everyone else has gone to bed. Makes it hard for me to shift away from that !)

[slooroo]

"It was amazing...ly awful"

I fixed it for you Kyng don't worry I understand. In actuality my parents do this and my dad rather likes it because he feels like he gets more done then has more free time. My mom isn't that fond of it. If you wake me up at 4 AM all you're getting is me being annoyed.

[Kyng]

"It was amazing...ly awful"

I fixed it for you Kyng don't worry I understand. In actuality my parents do this and my dad rather likes it because he feels like he gets more done then has more free time. My mom isn't that fond of it. If you wake me up at 4 AM all you're getting is me being annoyed.

Yeah, this certainly isn't for everyone .

To me - a night owl - it sounds pretty daunting, and while I can't know for sure without actually trying it, I think there's every chance that I'd just end up hating it!

[Cory]

When I did work at Walmart I didn't have to be there until 2 PM every day. I used to stay up till 3 - 4 AM and sleep until it was almost time for work. I work at the arts and crafts store, Michaels, and I have to get up at 6 AM to go in at 7 AM 4/7 days a week. I now go to bed around 10 - 11 PM. I started feeling as if I was more awake after a while and it resulted in me not feeling as fatigued or "blah" throughout the day due to oversleeping. I work one overnight shift weekly at my current job for our truck. It can mess with my sleeping patterns a bit, but I always fall back asleep at nighttime after sleeping for about 6 hours after I get off work.

Suffice it to say that getting up earlier throughout the week has improved my mood and ability to manage better sleeping habits.

[Kyng]

When I did work at Walmart I didn't have to be there until 2 PM every day. I used to stay up till 3 - 4 AM and sleep until it was almost time for work. I work at the arts and crafts store, Michaels, and I have to get up at 6 AM to go in at 7 AM 4/7 days a week. I now go to bed around 10 - 11 PM. I started feeling as if I was more awake after a while and it resulted in me not feeling as fatigued or "blah" throughout the day due to oversleeping. I work one overnight shift weekly at my current job for our truck. It can mess with my sleeping patterns a bit, but I always fall back asleep at nighttime after sleeping for about 6 hours after I get off work.

Suffice it to say that getting up earlier throughout the week has improved my mood and ability to manage better sleeping habits.

Glad it's worked out for you !

And yes, if getting up at 4am sounds daunting, getting up at 6am might be more achievable .