Health Benefits Of Waking Up Early
Sleeping is one of the greatest pleasures of this life. That is why waking up early seems to be a difficult task for most of us. You may have heard of the health benefits of sleep but have you heard that early risers are healthy, happy, wealthy and wise people?
Well, that is true as these individuals turn out to be more organized than those who spend all night and morning sleeping. I would like to explain to you the health benefits of waking up early so you would be convinced on why you should stop hitting on the snooze button of your alarm clock each time you are reminded to get off the bed.
The following are the health benefits of waking up early in the morning:
1. You can enjoy a more complete breakfast:
During the long hours of sleep at night, your body is forced to go on a fast and when you wake up in the morning, you would need to break the fast with some healthy food. Unfortunately, not everyone gets the opportunity to have a nice breakfast.
Those who wake up late in the morning often leave the house without eating breakfast just to avoid getting to work late. They postpone having breakfast to a later time at work but many never find time to have the breakfast due to a busy work schedule.
Other late risers who hurriedly take breakfast at home might face the risk of experiencing indigestion and constipation. This is detrimental to the health.
Being an early riser helps you to enjoy a complete and relaxed breakfast which in turn provides you with the required energy to carry out all your daily activities. A good breakfast also helps in regulating your blood glucose level and provides you with a sound memory.
Eating breakfast is also a foundation for building healthy eating habits and makes you less likely to eat junk the rest of the day. For those who skip breakfast to avoid being late to work, waking up early should be part of your new routine so you can also enjoy the health benefits of having a nice breakfast.
2. Creates more time for exercise:
A good number of successful entrepreneurs have the habit of waking up early to exercise. They wake up long before their family members, an hour or two before their workday starts and spend that time exercising. Exercising regularly strengthens the muscles, improves mood, self-esteem, and physical form.
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Although, there is nothing wrong with exercising after work but exercising in the morning is preferable. It helps to reduce the chances of missed workouts as sometimes a person might be unable to exercise after having a stressful day.
Are you aware of the health benefits of exercising? Do you wish to commit to a regular exercise routine? If yes, then you should imbibe the habit of waking up early just to exercise. Also, if you often struggle with sleepiness in the morning; an early morning exercise will help to fix that.
Exercising provides energy for work and at the end of the day helps you to achieve the deepest sleep cycles. If you are combating with lethargy, exercise and waking up early are the best solutions.
3. Creates Opportunity for Quietness:
The early hours of the morning are so peaceful; no screaming child, no cars, no noisy neighbors … This is my favorite moment of the day. A time of inner peace to think, read and meditate.
Waking up early to go to work helps you to avoid the noise and congestion on the road. But for those who go out late, they might encounter some stress due to the hurdles on the road. This would in turn affect their productivity at work. As for me, going to work early enables me to work without distraction for the first few hours.
4. Improves the Quality of Sleep:
One of the health benefits of waking up early is the establishment of a healthy sleep routine. According to sleep experts; getting up very early and going to bed early is appropriate for your body as it sets your body’s “internal clock” to establish a healthy routine which makes it easier for you to sleep and wake naturally.
Early risers don’t have to suffer insomnia because they have already programmed their sleep hours.
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An improved quality of sleep leaves the individual refreshed on every dawn and a refreshed individual would be able to work throughout the day without experiencing a breakdown.
5. Improves Mental Health:
One other major health benefits of waking up early is that it improves the mental health of the individual. Have you noticed that there are many mentally sick people around you? It could be your colleague who walks around the office with an invisible tag that reads: “I’m stressed and need help”.
It could be your friend who is depressed and hardly sleeps all night but dozes off by 5am when he ought to be on his way to work. Then in a bid to beat the time, he skips some routine and could even wear a dirty cloth to work. At the end of the day, he is unhappy about everything. Well, the problem with such people is that; they lack proper planning.
The way you spend the first hours of your day often sets the tone for the rest of your day and your life. Waking up early helps to reduce stress by eliminating the unnecessary rush in the morning. These rush and disorganizations are the major causes of stress, worry and depression during the day.
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If you wish to have a happy and fruitful day, wake up, spend some time to meditate before kicking off with the necessary activities. Such attitude will help you to complete your daily task without experiencing any stress. Researchers concluded that “morning people” are often more optimistic, positive, and more likely to experience fulfillment in their lives.
6. Activates Early Body Metabolism:
Studies show that the body undergoes metabolisms during the early hours of the day. An early morning workout facilitates this metabolism and helps you burn off some calories.
So if you are experiencing an overweight condition; you can try this out as it would assist you in losing weight. This routine keeps your body oxygenated all the day!
Apart from the health benefits, waking up early has other benefits which include;
• Increased Productivity:
Most successful people confirmed that they were able to achieve their dreams in life just by being an early riser. Meanwhile, those who failed would probably be wondering how the successful ones were able to achieve a whole lot within 24 hours per day. It’s simple, if you wake up early, you get more done.
Every success achieved in life is a product of an accumulated effort and sacrifices put in by the individual on a daily basis. Most times, we are often faced with much work to do but the time seems to run faster thereby leaving us with plenty undone task. So if you wish to be proactive; try sacrificing the early hours of your morning.
• Good Concentration:
The morning is usually very silent. This is ideal to perform those jobs that demand a greater concentration. You might say: “I can also benefit from that tranquility at night.” Yes! To study during the day or night you must overcome a greater number of distractions such as; television and nighttime cravings to sleep after having a stressful day.
• Better planning:
The early risers usually spend time in their mornings to organize their day, set goals and to plan weeks or even future months. The biologist Christoph Randler of Harvard University discovered in a study conducted in 2008 that early risers are able to foresee future problems, and anticipate their possible solutions. These people are usually more successful in the business world.
• Self-Mastery:
The act of waking up early takes a lot of discipline and when you’ve decided to make it a routine; it becomes a part of you. This helps you to have control over your life and the activities you engage in. When you’ve acquired discipline, time management, planning and organization skills, then achieving profound success becomes inevitable.
How do I become an early riser?
Having seen the health benefits of being an early riser, would you love to join the clique of early risers? If yes, I would love to guide you on how you can modify your sleeping routine so that as soon as the alarm rings early in the morning, you would jump up and start your day on time.
Start slowly:
Do not change your habits drastically: start slowly, waking up only 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this new sunrise time and then reduce by another 15 minutes until you arrive at your desired schedule.
Sleep Early:
It is advisable to get a minimum of five to seven hours of good sleep at night so if you wish to become an early riser you must sleep early. To achieve this you should give up on those habits that keep you awake till late in the night. Such as; surfing the internet and watching movies.
Keep your alarm clock far away from your bed:
If it is right next to your bed, you would be tempted to switch it off as soon as it rings but if it is far from your bed, you will have to get up to turn it off .
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Taking those few steps from your bed can help to awaken you properly. Do not be fooled by the urge to go back to bed.
Drink a glass of water:
This trick will not help us get up early, but it will make it easier once we are awake, since it is shown that drinking water in the morning increases our alertness.
Eat an apple when you wake up:
Its natural sugars are a fantastic alternative to caffeine that will allow you to start the day in a very healthy way.
Keep the phone far away from you:
If we get into bed with the phone or any other electronic device, the emitted rays from these devices cause an overstimulation of the brain thus preventing us from sleeping well and waking up early the next day.
Awakening with sunlight:
Have you observed that rays of sun rise shone on you while you are still in bed make you to jump up and start preparing for the day?
At night, we often close the curtains to prevent sunlight from “bothering us” at dawn. I think you should open those curtains because you’ll need the sunlight to awaken you to start a new day.
Use a sunrise simulator:
If you live in an area where getting up with sunlight is complicated or you just have to get up before the sun rises over the horizon, you can use a sunrise simulator, setting it to activate half an hour before the alarm clock sounds.
Just get up:
Instead of creating excuses that would prevent you from rising up from the bed, say to yourself: “Just get up”. Yes! Just get up because there are a lot of things to be done. Get up and get going because time waits for no one.
The accomplishment of goals leaves an individual happy and positive towards life. By waking up early, you’ll get to see things most people don’t. You’ll gain a new perspective and live a better and healthier life.
Meanwhile, those who are unable to achieve their goals due to excessive sleep, end up feeling stressed and depressed. You have two options to make a choice from. You either choose to have a moderate sleep and enjoy the health benefits of waking up early or you can sleep excessively and have little time to carry out your assigned task. So which do you prefer?
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