Friday, March 20, 2015
Why I Wake Up at 4:22am
Michael Affronti | LinkedIn: I was having lunch with some co-workers last week and the topic of morning routines came up. Everyone was sharing what time they woke up, how much they liked or hated it, and the things they did immediately after their feet hit the floor. The conversation turned to me with the question of “Someone told me you get up super early, is that true?”
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18 comments:
While I am sure that many of us reading this article are jealous of anyone that gets to sleep before 11pm most days, and then gets up in the mornings with a good amount of energy, It is nice to hear about someone successful routine. I find that my personal routine has changed significantly between this year and last, last year I found myself spending much less time sleeping and still being pretty fine most days. This semester and last I find that I need more sleep in order to be reasonably functional, but I am more relaxed in general. I tried for a little while to have a morning routine where I would get up sooner in the mornings and exercise before going to class, but I found that I couldn’t maintain it consistently enough, it was too easy to say, nah, ill just get up later.
Although I love sleeping for 12 hours a day, it is quite impossible to do so in this environment. I admit, I too wake up at 4AM and then go to school to get work done. I don’t do that every day though, because I cannot maintain getting up that early for more than three days in a row. I know that I can function with 0 to 3 hours of sleep a night, but it becomes uncomfortable and it’s not healthy. I can maintain sleeping 6 hours a night and functioning well all the time. Now the problem with the schedule of going to sleep after crew and getting up at 4AM is that often times it just isn’t practical. The issues of dorm life where people are up and being loud until 2AM makes that sleeping schedule impractical. Besides that one issue, I do agree with the author that getting up early in the morning is better than staying up late.
Joe Pino talked about this sort of thing in his meta skills lecture on sleep. Apparently Anne Mundell wakes up every morning around five and gets most of her work done for the day before her classes. I tried doing that, but the issue is I couldn’t sustain it because I still stayed up fairly late. I was pretty productive when I got to studio at 5 in the morning to work on drafting, but because I was still going to bed at 2, I ended up losing too much sleep. I’m pretty good in the morning when I’ve gone to sleep early enough, but that doesn’t usually happen for me. I’ve started trying a bit more, and I’m having more 1AM nights than 2AM nights, but I don’t think I’ll be able to have this kind of routine until I can fall asleep and wake up on different days. Over the summer though I had a really good routine where I would wake up and make breakfast and watch Orange is the New Black and walk to work, which was pretty nice and healthy. Unfortunately once I got back to school I lost it all. I’m going to try to get back in to a system like that this summer though, and hopefully it will carry into next semester.
I have always been a night person. I prefer to push through projects rather than stop and restart in the morning, which leads me to burn the midnight oil, and then wake up at the last possible second. Needless to say, I am almost always exhausted. I am intrigued by the idea of getting things done right away in the morning, but the transition period would be painful. Getting into a routine when classes don't always start at the same time requires superhuman self control, which after the 3rd consecutive night of under four hours of sleep is something I am significantly low on. I agree that this is the ideal, but given the nature of our program, I really don't see it being working in our situation. The very nature of our schedules (early class, late crew) makes it very difficult to get any sleep at all, much to get less sleep in an efficient routine.
Though I do not consider myself to be an "anytime" person, I always am more productive and produce better work early in the morning than any other time. Personally, my mind no longer works after 12:30 which means any homework not completed at that time gets done after a couple of hours of sleep. The pressure of having a deadline directly on top of me also helps.
I think the real reason that I am a morning person, though, is because my mum is so when I was growing up, she would wake me up early to get work done rather than staying up late because that is the way she operates. I think it is a prime example of nurture vs nature.
Class 54-102::A
I am not a morning person but I can see how waking up early can be very productive. I love to sleep and take every opportunity to sleep as late as possible. When I have to wake up early for something and then I am free for the rest of the day, it does feel great that I have so much time to work or do what I want. Though early morning crew calls are not the most exciting. When I get out and have the whole day to work on something else I automatically feel productive because I would normally still be sleeping sometimes. Getting things done early in the day is a great feeling because you do not have to worry about it anymore. There is so much time in the morning that is wasted by sleeping, but sometimes that sleeping time is very precious, especially in this program.
I’ve actually tried altering my sleep schedule this year and let me tell you it has not worked out as well for me as it has for him. This is the kind of morning routine I want for myself, but for some reason cannot find the motivation to get up at eight to go work out on the days where I have a ten-thirty class. I do however think I will try the set the alarm for an off time thought, I usually set my alarm for the half hour and I usually hit the snooze time and time again. I think it’s the training we’ve all been given of “you absolutely need at least eight hours to be a functioning human being” and t simply isn’t true for everyone. Also depending on the career you have it’s sometimes simply impossible. Then instead of accepting the not eight hours you’re getting, you beat yourself up about it and the sleep depriving disappointment sets in. I think that people should work on finding their own rhythm, rather than trying to fit a standard that doesn’t work for their lifestyles.
I absolutly love this mman's determination and drive in the mornings. I am usually a night owl and I wake up at 8:00 am everyday on the weekdays. Doing this I do feel like I have enough time in the morning to do the activitie that I need to do before I go to my 9:00 class. I think it is extremley important that a person does not sacrifice sleep jin order to get up earlier in the morning to get more things done in their day. For me, if I do not have sleep then I am not productive. At all. Any spare moment that I can get a quick nap in I take it. So, long story short, I feel like it is all based upon the specific person and how they want to schedule thier day. For me, getting a good 7 to 8 hour night of sleep is better for me than waking up in the wee hours of the morning just in order to do some chores that I can easly get done later on in the day. It is all based on personal preference.
I might be the world's most begrudging morning person ever. I know I work better in the morning. I am more efficient, clear-headed, and confident in my ability to address the work I need to do. From first grade through my senior year of high school, I would get up at 5:28, like clockwork. With an alarm, or without. Waking up at 8 am on a weekend was a luxury. After a fall that resulted in a concussion my senior year, I developed clinical hypersomnia, or - in layman's terms - a wicked clinical propensity for sleep. I combat it with regular prescription medications, and can feel exhausted after only a few hours of wakefulness. I can sleep through an alarm, and have done so on many occasions. Having been robbed of the circadian regulation that used to be so deeply engrained within my person, I have seen a marked difference. I am less efficient, less productive, and more prone to health problems. As the phrase goes, the grass is always greener...
I think the idea of a having a productive morning is great. If you are the type of person who can get up early and get work done or exercise, then you tend to start your day off on a better more focused note. My mother goes to bed at about 10:00PM every night and wakes up at 4:30AM to exercise and do chores, and that system has worked for her for the entirety of my life. However, I think it all depends on how you decide to plan your sleep schedule. We spoke about this during freshmen year PTM once, and the idea that not everybody’s body is tailored to get work done on the same schedule really stuck with me. In my mother’s case, she can’t stay up past 10 doing any sort of work any more without a concerted effort, but I find that I am more productive when I rest in the late afternoon and then stay up and work through the night.
I’ve always loved the idea of somehow switching and becoming a morning person, but honestly that’s just not me. While I feel energized and creative in the morning I think I get my best work done late at night when there are no distractions and I can just devote myself to my work and completely focus. While the idea of waking up so early is somewhat crazy to me, I’ve actually had an experience in which I’ve seen the benefits of that lifestyle and they truly are amazing. A few years ago I felt really motivated to try to embrace such a lifestyle, and got up at 5:30am for a morning jog sometime in the middle of spring. When you get up that early and run, the world is unlike anything you’d expect if you were always a night person. The morning dew, the cool air, the feeling of alertness and preparedness you have for the entire day after exercising, it’s all truly remarkable. I’m sad to say I’ve had that one experience and never kept it up consistently. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to devote myself and make an official switch to a morning-based life style, but in the meantime it’s late nights for me.
I strongly agree with this article. I have always found that waking up early had been more beneficial because I tend to be most productive in the morning. It is the time where you just woke up from doing nothing and there is a huge motivation to start doing something. If I have to work late at night it tends to take me twice as long because exhaustion makes me much less focused on my task at hand. While the amount of sleep is the true determining factor in the equation of productivity.
This king of tight schedule in the morning is something I would have to train myself for. I don’t think I could work right now with early mornings like that, even if I was given the enviable free evenings that he gains from this. Working in the morning is possible (I’ve cranked out a good few essays in this way) but I don’t think it would be a sustainable method for me. Perhaps this works for him because he doesn’t bring work home with him- if he goes to work every day and is only doing personal work in the morning, that would work. However, in a school setting, we have so many assignments that need so much time to complete that ten minutes in the morning devoted to each task would be nowhere near enough. This method is definitely something I will keep in mind for the future, though.
Love. I love this guys thought process because it handles one of the biggest underlying issues procrastinators (me) deal with: accomplishing smaller tasks in aim of achieving a larger goal. It would be very encouraging to be able to complete as much as he does in the morning. Though not incredibly large tasks, he sets up a patten of productivity early on in the day that carries into his work schedule. This is instead of waiting until work to get the engine running an really not becoming productive until the afternoon, when time begins to run out and pressure to get things done rises. Personally I run on little sleep as well but waste time. This is inspiring to take my natural tendencies and use them to squeeze the most out of my day. 54-102
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I am not a morning person and I felt that this article was very informative. Going to be roughly around 2 am does not help at all. Sleep is something I try not to sacrifice however, I find myself saying up late on weeknights only because everyone else is awake on my floor which I know is not very wise. I do feel however once I am in class I do feel that I have obtained enough sleep but the moment class is over its like a rush of fatigue comes over me. I wish I was a morning person 54102 <54-102> <54102>
Although I do love the idea of this, it only suits one side of me, as I am both a morning and an evening person. I somehow always seem to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, and then wake up as early as possible. I feel that I am missing the day if I wake up later than 9 AM on weekends, but I feel the same way towards the night, in the fact that I feel like if I go to sleep too early, I will miss out on whatever is happening in that moment. After coming to CMU, my sleep schedule has been extraordinarily off kilter. I probably consistently get the least amount of sleep here than I ever have before in my life. One thing I did gain from this article though, that I know will help me establish healthier sleeping habits in the future, is the idea of prioritizing and organizing. Often times, the reason I stay up later than I should is because somewhere within the day, I was either distracted by my phone or social media websites, and I know that if I will more conscious of monitoring that, then I would definitely be able to get more sleep.
Abby Jackman
The issue this author discusses in his piece is one I’ve been hearing a lot about lately. I constantly hear chatter about how waking up early to do work leads to greater productivity. When Phylicia Rashad came to speak to us, she mentioned that the early hours of the morning are often referred to as being magical for the enchanted silence they bring. No one is awake; there is only quiet. This environment, thus, fosters extreme efficiency and creativity. I have recently taken up the habit of, instead of staying up all hours of the night doing my work, going to sleep, and waking up early to finish it. This method has continuously proven to work extremely well. Having rest behind me, I am able to buckle down, undistracted, to my studies.
54101A, Andrew Smith Acting I, Kate Rosenberg
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