Mornings are a bliss for those who actually make out to experience it. Though difficult for majority of individuals it’s really not an impossible task and any person may develop this habit at any stage in life. Moreover, there is no fixed criteria about who should or who should not wake up early. That is, it is not restricted to the elderly people or to the students attending school or colleges but may be practiced by one and all.
I can truly understand that there are numerous people who may oppose this idea and might have an entirely different conviction in this regard. So here I come with the list of benefits that this habit may overwhelm you with along with the actual ways to do it.
Early Rising & It’s Associated Benefits:
- One can carve a good ‘ME’ time – Mornings i.e. the time close to sunrise are better designed and structured and not just this, it’s also a scenic and enriching view to witness. It’s that time of the day when you are actually in your own company with no one around to disturb or bother. Looking at the fast paced world with ‘n’ number of stuffs to complete, there comes a time when one actually starts craving for their ME time. It’s then this trait of morningness becomes dominant and makes you feel happy and energetic. Once experienced the trait of morningness over a period of few days one might become an addict and no wonder might also incorporate it as a lifelong practice.
- Help you Better Plan your Day – Planning the days in a better way is all that can make you more organized and disciplined. At some point in our lifetime we all become disorganized because of some situations or happenings that keep on hovering on us. But the person who falls in the trap for a longer duration may have poor consequences. On the other hand, those who learn fast from it and make efforts to bring in that organized system in their lifestyle may have plenty of time every day to finish all their unending tasks in a better and more productive ways.
- Makes you Proactive and Happier – People who develop a habit of getting up early may predict and plan their days well. This makes them more proactive as they make things happen rather than just being on the receiving end of it. They are the pioneers in their own sense and reactivity is something they avoid.This makes them the leaders of their own life which has a major role to play in becoming happier and contended at the individual level. It’s a long proven fact that the people who have control on their lives are better managed and happy than the ones who are being constantly regulated by others at every step.
- Morningness Overpower Procrastination – Procrastination is an art mastered by many and the worst hit population for this is teenagers and young adults. We have a habit of delaying things…no matter how important and unimportant the task is, we are programmed to somehow work closer to the deadlines. Constant pressure is all we need at times to finish off our assignments, which undoubtedly puts us into undue pressure. This further disrupts our body’s equilibrium and might make us a victim of some lifelong physical and mental ailments. In order to fight this evil of procrastination the trait of morningness is all that we need.
A 1997 study led by researcher Joseph Ferrari of DePaul found that procrastinators labelled themselves as “night” people. Based on six days of daily task records, Ferrari and company linked procrastination behaviours with a general tendency to partake in evening activities that gets over stretched till late night. There are many other similar studies which time and again prove that procrastination is a long formed habit of nocturnal creatures than the ones who like to start working right from early from the morning. - Rhythmic Circadian Biological Clock – Biological clock is an innate mechanism of the body that regulates the periodic cycles of sleep and waking among all organisms. People who are late sleepers also termed as night owls may invariably have disturbed biological clock with irregular circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioural changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an organism’s environment. Circadian rhythms can influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, body temperature and other important bodily functions. They have been linked to various sleep disorders, such as insomnia and the like. Abnormal circadian rhythms have also been associated with obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder. These are quite good enough reasons to maintain a good biological clock and circadian rhythm.
How to Get Up Early?
This is the question that must be hopping in the mind of all the readers who have been practicing this habit of getting up late since ages. Of course, this does require a lot of dedication in the beginning days but once you get into the shoes…walking is not that a challenge. It’s just about having that willingness and realization of the benefits associated with getting up early.
Here I come up with a few tips that may help you in this journey….
- Getting up early is not an individual process and is dependent largely on what time one sleeps. In general all human beings need around 6-9 hours of sound sleep in order to work efficiently the next day. The people who sleep late usually end up compromising their duration and quality of sleep very often. So one basic thing to keep in mind for becoming an early riser is to sleep on time so as to fulfil the recommended criteria.
- Set Up An Alarm –
Snooze
Alarms do help but for people having issues of bedtime procrastination alarms have multiple function to play. They may set an alarm at night to remind themselves about the time for sleep as they are bound to forget that very often. The second alarm of course is set for the time one wants to get up the next morning. Always keep the device of alarm at a distant location so as to just notice the sound and then to actually get up from the bed in order to turn it off.
- If one likes to read then use a physical book or newspaper or a magazine for that case and avoid reading on mobile, laptop and other such light emitting devices.
- Practice some relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or meditation to put yourself to sleep mode soon.
- Leave your bed if you are finding hard to sleep and engage in some other activity keeping in mind that the other activity must not be too cognitive to make you more alert. For this you may choose to listen to some soft music in your earphones, or may have a warm water shower.
- Avoid continuous gaze at the wall clock or the wrist watch, or keep them away so that you do not become more anxious and active because of their ticking sound.
- Give mental commands to your mind before you fall asleep to wake you up at your desired timing the next morning.
- Get up in one or two go and don’t put snooze in your alarm device over and over again.
- Develop a habit of getting fresh air once you get up early in the morning. This gesture will surely motivate you to follow it the other day. Gradually this will become a habit and will eventually shower you with numerous health benefits.
- Build your own circle of people who have similar habits and become each other’s motivation for every day. Share the experiences and promote this as a social awareness programme thereby adding more and more number of people to your own group.
