The early bird challenge: 5 months later

It’s been 5 months since the Early Bird Challenge where I changed from being a night owl to being an early bird. GCM triggered me yesterday to think back on the past months and evaluate this transition.

Benefits of rising early

The first three months were pretty easy. I loved the mornings a lot and I enjoyed the benefits of the new rhythm. I changed the rhythm to be able to spend more time with my wife and son, but that wasn’t the only benefit I gained from adopting this new habit.

• Better rested
  I was surprised to notice that I was better rested in general by changing my rhythm. On average I slept an equal amount of hours, but it was more consistent. No longer did I alternate 3 or 4 hour nights with 7 or 8 hour nights, it changed to a very consistent 6 hours every night (give or take 30 minutes).
• Productivity improved
  The morning hours turned out to be more productive hours than the evening hours. One of the reasons for this is because the morning has the aura of starting, whereas the evening and night have the aura of slowing down. And besides that, there are far less distractions in the early morning hours, there’s absolutely nothing interesting on television at that time for instance.
• Decreased ‘bad evening habits’
  Working late at night was accompanied by some glasses of wine (or a beer or two) and midnight snacks too. Not every night of course, but this happened regularly nevertheless. This decreased dramatically when I changed my rhythm. Less time awake at night decreases the opportunity to consume empty calories (like alcohol) or bad calories at bad times. Even if you work late, your body and metabolism slow down towards the night.
• Increased ‘good morning habits’
  Besides eating and drinking healthier in the morning as opposed to the evening, I also added time to do workouts in the morning. And workouts are a great way to boost energy too! I noticed the benefits throughout the day.

Disrupted rhythm

The past two months have been harder for several reasons. I have been having trouble maintaining the rhythm of rising early. It started when I had the flu and needed a lot more sleep. I was still going to bed early, but the 6 hour nights turned into 9 hour nights for quite some time.

Then when I was getting better, our son went into a new phase and woke up crying a lot at night. This broke our nights to the extent that I did not start rising early anymore, simply to get 6 hours of sleep during a 9 hour night. And broken nights are exhausting!

Meanwhile the days were getting a lot shorter with regard to daylight too. And the reduction of daylight does have an effect on my energy levels. Now I wouldn’t say I suffer from winter depression or anything, but I do notice a change.

Reclaiming the rhythm

I had another round of flu and currently we’re in another phase of midnight crying of my son, due to his molars surfacing. The rhythm of rising early has been disrupted so much that I haven’t been able to get back into it yet.

But I’ve found that waking early is still relatively easy to do. When I set my alarm to 5 or 6 am it’s not that hard to get out of bed. Even when it’s cold and dark! That surprised me to some extent, but mostly it encourages me a lot.

I don’t regret listening to my body when it said to sleep more. I needed the sleep to recover from flu and to survive the broken nights. But I really want to get back into the rhythm, because I found that rhythm very beneficial for me on so many levels that I cherish it.

The main thing is that it gives me energy, mental and physical energy. I’ve found myself with low energy levels lately, and I can name all the reasons for those low energy levels to justify the fact that I feel that way. But it wouldn’t do me any good, now would it? So I won’t do it. Getting back into the rhythm will solve it.

I had already started to get back into the rhythm, but writing this update has given me another boost of motivation. Amazing what writing can do. Thanks for inspiring me to write this article GCM!