I don’t like waking up at 6 am but I currently do it 3 days a week to carpool with a friend. But really? I’d rather sleep til 8. Midnight to 8 seem to be my best sleeping hours. 6 am just cuts that short and leaves me feeling off for the day. Yet I don’t have much choice right now. I have to wake up at 6 am three days a week currently and soon I’ll have to wake up at 6 am every single day to get to work by 9. And after doing this for many weeks I’ve realized that there are some benefits to waking up at 6 am.
My own personal bright side of 6 am alarms? Getting an hour long workout done and out of the way before heading into work. I prefer working out later in the day but it is nice to be done early in the day. It’s great to feel so accomplished and off to a great start for the day.
Benefits of Waking Up Early
There are lots of other great benefits to waking up early! If you wake up at 6 am you can experience all the following benefits:
Better Quality Sleep – When you wake up daily at the same time your body adjusts to it. It will become easier and easier for you to wake up at that time. You’ll find it’s easier to wake up in the morning and you will also feel tired at night and fall asleep faster. This process will lead you to better quality sleep.
More Quality Time – The more time you spend awake gives you more time to get things done. You need around 8 hours of sleep to feel fully rested but waking up later often leads to oversleep and wasting time. You can use this extra time in the morning before work to get in quality time doing something necessary like exercise or work or quiet time.
Being On Time – Sleeping in leads to feeling rushed and being late in the morning. If you are awake in plenty of time for your daily activities then you won’t have to worry about starting your day in chaos.
Less Stress – That rushing that occurs because you sleep in? You can avoid that by waking up extra early to start your day. This will lead to less stress and an easier morning. When you are stressed you are more likely to make bad decisions like skipping breakfast.
Breakfast – Breakfast is a very important meal and something you should partake in each morning. If you wake up early you will have plenty of time to prepare a quality breakfast for yourself and your family rather than resorting to fast food or skipping it altogether. Take the time in the morning to make a nutritious, healthy breakfast to give you the energy throughout the day.
Exercise – Morning exercise can be exhilarating. It’s wonderful to workout in the morning before you get tired from the day and are struggling to make it through. Start your day with a run or go to the gym. Some exercise is better than none and starting your day with fitness is the best gift you can give yourself.
Time For Goals – Extra time in the morning is a great time to work on achieving your goals. The extra 30 minutes to an hour in the morning you get from waking up early can be used to work on your blog or write your novel or get your workout in.
Those are just a few of the benefits of waking up early. While waking up at 6 am might not sound super appealing, it is a great idea for many reasons. You get extra time to your day and can accomplish a lot before you even go in to work.
What time do you wake up?
Ugh. I’m so not a morning person. I would rather stay up super late and sleep in. I get up at 5:15 for work. On the weekends my son rousts me out of bed by 7:00. :|
I’m am a total morning person! For me on the week days 6am is sleeping in. I get up at 4am so I can go to the gym and work out. But then I start work at 8am instead of 9am. On the other hand I’m pooped and in bed fast asleep by 10pm!
When school is in session, I wake up at 5:15am. Now that it’s summer, I wake up around 7am. I was never a morning person, but because of my job, I’ve become one. I’m also a night owl. Which basically means I don’t get a lot of sleep.
4 am.
I used to get up at 5 to do outdoor work, then took a break at noon when it got too hot.
Then I added in time to workout, which kicked it back a bit earlier.
I used to be a night person.
No where near 6am. lol Around 8:30 in the summer. :)
I used to wake up at 6:30 am, but now I’ve moved my workouts to the morning so I’m waking up at 5:15.
Too. Early.
I usually wake up between 6:30-7:30 except for days like today when I woke up at FIVE AM. Oh my goodness. Now it’s nap time. But really it’s nice being able to make my own schedule since I work at home. As for workouts, I prefer mid morning right before lunch.
I’m not a morning person, but I basically have to be if I want to get in a workout. It’s too hot to run outside here after work, my running friends all meet in the morning, and it’s better for my marriage if I am free after work and can just be with hubby, so I unfortunately I have to get up early to fit in all my priorities. I get up at 4:45 3 days a week to run, at 5:00 3 days a week to cross-train/workout, then I have one flex day (Saturdays) — if I run that day, I usually have to be up by 6:15 to meet people or to beat the heat, or if I choose to take the day off from working out (which I try not to do too often b/c I’m trying to fit into a bridesmaid’s dress that it is tight in less than 2 wks!), then I get to sleep in, and I usually sleep until about 9 if I have my way.
7:52am, to be totally exact! I like to maximize my sleeping time, so I pack everything and even pre-pick my clothes (yes, I know it seems crazy). But this way, I just get up, go through my morning routine, pack lunch and go! It also minimizes the amount of thinking I need to do in the morning ;)
4:45am! My dh gets up then for work and i’m such a light sleeper, I just get up and walk the dog and exercise.
Eep! You all are going to hate me, but I am lucky if I am up and out of bed by noon! I’m a grad student so I don’t have anywhere to be and I’m on my own time. I do need to be on campus before noon tomorrow, so I will be up at 10.
When I was teaching I was up at 6 and out the door before 7. I tried morning workouts- I get too red faced and sweaty and look awful for about 2 hours after, and I had a hard time keeping my lunch cold when it was warm (I am VERY paranoid about food poisoning.) Also, all the classes I like were offered at night.
Boo for 6am! ;-) The hubby gets up at 6:10am so I am aware of it’s existence but I get up at 6:50am so I can spend 30 minutes with him before he goes off to work. I wish I could do morning workouts but my bod doth protest too much with lower back pain and feeling like I’m putting forth twice the effort for half the result. We exercise when he comes home so he can work off the day’s stress.
I’ve been waking up at about 6:30 every morning since March (sometimes even on the weekends), usually so I can go to the gym before I go to work. I work late, so evening workouts just seem like the last thing on my mind. It certainly makes for a long day, however. I usually don’t get home til around 9pm.
I have friends who can go to bed WEEEE hours in the morning, wake up early for class or whatever, and live to tell about it! That’s insane to me. Whatever time I go to bed (and it’s late sometimes) I will likely wake up 7-8 hours earlier. The 4 hours of sleep thing doesn’t cut it for me–I’m an old lady! I don’t hear alarm clocks if I didn’t get enough sleep!!!!. I think my laziness is SO embedded in me.
I get up around 11:45 am. I’m a college student and insomnia runs in the family. I generally function the best between 10pm and 3am. Then sleeping is wonderful until noon.
Soon I will be a teacher and I guess I’ll have to train myself to get up earlier! Yikes!
I’ve recently gone back to 7am as I was getting up at 6am but was falling asleep at 10pm, which is okay when I had nothing to do, but when I wanted to socialise I felt rude for having to head home at 9:30pm. It was like being back at school and having school night curfews.
I also now do my worksouts after work, not in the morning so thought I can the extra hour in bed guilt free :)
Good for you though! I love morning workouts, just can’t get in to them at the moment.
7:45-8:00 a.m. weekday. 9-10am weekends. Sometimes I think about getting up early to work out… but… no. hahaha.
P.S.
I really liked reading your “no one can love a fat girl” post. As someone who is healthy, but has pretty severe self-image issues.
-Shanni
fitango.com
I wake up at 6.20 am on Mondays to Fridays. Have to go to work as I work as a van driver cum gardener. Well, after fetching the kindergarten kids, I will do my gardening work which involves some quite physical work.
Hopefully your bod will adjust Mary & yes, early workouts are good cause nothing gets in the way layer! :-)
You don’t want to know my crazy schedule BUT let’s just say – EARLY for workouts & then I get a bit more sleep! I don’t like working out when people are around – they get in my way! ;-)
I am NOT a morning person AT ALL. My alarm goes off at 643 and then I have a second alarm that goes off at 7. I 99.9% of the time use the time in between to doze more awakedly and get out of bed at the second alarm. I pretty much never get out of bed at the first one. Some days, like today, I somehow shut off the second one in my sleep and wake up later (730) panicked because now I’m late. Unless I stay out really late the night before, if I don’t have work I will wake up usually around 11, give or take an hour. That’s a more natural time for me. And I ease into the day. I could never work out in the morning because I’m really clumsy. I can barely stand up when I wake up for work, literally my legs buckle and my vision blurs and I stumble around. The only time I like to be awake at that time is if I haven’t gone to bed yet (which yes, does happen sometimes lol). I go to bed on work nites btwn 12-130 and on non work nites btwn 12am-8am lol but usually around 3.
My day starts at 5 am, workout, shower feed baby, other two kids get up make breakfast and then the day is underway. I usually don`t go to bed till 11pm. And unfortunately the kids don`t nap at the same time. Pre kids I was not a morning person at all but now that I`ve been getting up at 5 am for the past 3 years I kinda like my quiet time in the morning before the chaos starts. At least your looking at the bright side of things with getting the workout done first thing in the morning.
Planning is very important but execution is also important. I plan everyday that I will get up early in the morning at 6 a.m. but I don’t know what happens to me, my hands automatically reaches the clock and they make sure that the alarm is off!!!So my planning never reaches execution but I will not give up! Yes!!!!
Beautiful post! I can totally relate with you. I am not a morning person too. I rather stay late at night working or doing something else done doing it in the morning.
However, this is not totally good for our body so slowly I’m starting to change my daily routine and start waking up very early. As the saying goes “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” :)
I regularly do workout for 30 min in morning. It makes me active physically and mentally. It also our keeps the body fit and fine always.
I get up at 6:00 am and do workouts for half n hour and feel fresh for the whole day.