I became a morning person for 30 days
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All my life I’ve been a night owl.
In college I found myself most capable of writing essays between 11 PM and 3 AM.
And right after college I became a freelance web designer.
Meaning I was my own boss.
I never had to go into an office. I never had anyone to report to. I had the dream job with all the freedom, which only made my sleep schedule worse.
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But, one experience made me realize, my self-proclaimed night owl title was actually a complete lie.
I travel from Europe to back home in Canada often… and each time I could adjust my sleep schedule with the time change - so maybe I wasn’t such a night owl after all
I started to suspect myself of being the problem.
But even if that was true … why change and start waking up earlier?
Well I met Richard Branson last year.
He fits in two tennis sessions or workouts a day.
How?
He wakes up early. He’s on the tennis court by 6 AM and, not wanting to pass up the chance to play him, so was I.
Which made me think… if I woke up at 6 AM daily… what could I fit in which I never had the time for before?
One of the things I’m not willing to sacrifice in this challenge is the amount of sleep I get.
The point of this isn’t to deprive myself of sleep, that’s unhealthy, the point is to have more useable daytime hours, because I can’t meet friends or do a fitness class at 11 PM.
So I want to keep my number of waking and sleeping hours the same, just move it all earlier.
Next I looked at the science to try to hack myself into morning person status.
Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep“ said that
“Blue-light emitting devices fool your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime, even though it’s night-time and you want to get to sleep.”
So I replaced the phone on my bedside table with a book. 10 minutes in, and no matter how riveting the read, like magic, I was tired, and would want to fall asleep, even at 10 PM.
Next, I needed perfect wake-up conditions to make this realistically possible.
Dr. Andrew Huberman recorded a two-and-a-half-hour podcast on using light to optimise health, including feeling more awake in the morning.
I’ll save you the two hours and give you the conclusion.
Get sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning, it’s indicates to our bodies that it’s daytime and therefore getting sunlight in our eyes makes us feel more awake.
The only problem is, it’s winter in London.
I’m also in an apartment and don’t have a green space right outside my door to sit in while getting sunlight in my eyes for 30 mins.
So I’m improvising. I got a Lumie* - a lamp that imitates sunlight so I can still get it straight away when I wake up in my London apartment!
Apparently “Sunlight makes us feel positive, alert and energised naturally. Many people don't get enough bright light, particularly in winter. Short, dark days can trigger lack of energy, wanting to sleep more and socialise less.”
So that sounds like a plan!
For the first week I was surprised how well my early mornings were going.
I woke up feeling fully rested because I had gotten the same number of hours of sleep, and loved the shock on my husbands face by being up and working away at 8 AM.
I started work earlier, finished work earlier and had more time for fitness classes, socialising and shopping.
Now I’ve tried being a morning person before, I attempted the whole Miracle Morning routine a while back.
It involves waking up and meditating, affirming, visualization, exercising, reading, and journaling.
It didn’t stick.
But so far… this is going much better.
Week 2 got a bit more difficult - I headed to the Netherlands with friends and ended up having a few late nights… which made me realize, I’m not down with sacrificing fun and joy for early mornings - life always comes first!
After getting back to London, I attempted to get back to it.
There was one thing which consistently predicted if I’d be successful or not the next morning. What time I went to bed! But as long as that was consistently early, I could get used to this morning thang!
My little cozy morning time is so wonderful, I genuinely wake up and get to do stuff I love, I think that’s been key to me waking up early.
If I had to wake up early and then also force myself into doing something I don’t enjoy, like walking outside at 6 AM in the rain in London on a busy road to get sunlight in my eyes, or feel rushed out the door to go to a fitness class, I don’t think this would have lasted more than 1 day.
It would just take too much motivation and dedication.
But since my morning routine is so lovely, coffee, light, a heater, reading something I find interesting, catching up on vlogs and videos from creators I enjoy, it’s been a lot easier than I expected.
Granted, a good few days of this challenge, friends visited and stayed past 10 PM, my husband and I love going to the movies and they often finish at 11 PM or midnight or when traveling, often I’m not getting home in time.
But apart from that it really seemed to be enjoyable.
This morning person experiment taught me a few things.
First: It’s all about motivation.
Waking up at 5:45 AM for no reason wouldn’t have worked. But I had a purpose, I wanted more useable hours in my day, so this was for my benefit instead of being a punishment, and psychologically I think that did a lot.
Second: To be successful with any challenging task and stick with it, you’ve got to align it with something you enjoy.
I did not manage to wake up at 5:45 AM every day, but most days I did that was honestly way more successful than I expected, and I 100% put that down to the fact that I allowed myself to create an environment and do activities I enjoyed in the morning. I didn’t rush out of bed, I still had a slow morning, my coffee and book.
Third: Enjoying life is the ultimate goal.
So when I was having a great time with friends, that to me was more important than a 5:45 AM wakeup.
Now waking up early wasn’t actually the only habit I was trying to change this year. I had also gotten into some pretty bad work habits last year, meaning I was never achieving the goals and timelines I had set in my business.
Watch this video next where I share exactly what I did to skyrocket my work day productivity. It was a lot more successful than the morning thing to be honest…
