Getting Up at 5 A.M. – My Attempts

Rarely, but sometimes I had to get up at 5 a.m. or even earlier due to certain circumstances. Mostly it was getting up because there were some pleasant expectations in the future – a trip, a journey, a vacation, etc. I noticed that on these few days of getting up very early, I felt great, full of energy and strength. So I thought, why not try to get up at 5am every day. It seemed like a super cool idea and a motivating challenge, especially since I’ve always considered myself a “night owl” and my peak activity was in the evening and at night.

Fate signs and Ayurveda

I thought about getting up at 5 a.m. and… forgot, as it often happens. And then one day, while flipping through my Instagram feed, I came across an advertisement for books, where one of the many was Hal Elrod’s book “The Magic of the Morning. How the first hour determines our success”. I thought it would be interesting to read it. I thought about it and… forgot about it.

However, the book prompted me to look for information about the benefits of getting up at 5 a.m. and why it is worth getting up at this time. I found some inspiring articles, read them, became interested, and became even more convinced that getting up early was really cool. However, this reading was like a style joke: “I’m reading an article called ‘How to get up at 5 a.m.‘ at 2 a.m.

After a while, I came across a YouTube video of one of the applied masters of various self-development practices, who explained why it is absolutely crucial to get up before 6 am. He explained that according to Ayurvedic principles, the day is divided into three doshas – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

During the day, each of them has a dominant influence for a certain 4 hours. Accordingly, you need to wake up, eat, and plan your day. The most active dosha is Vatta, which dominates from 2:00 to 6:00. Starting from 6:00 to 10:00, Kapha dominates. Kapha is calm, slow, and inactive. Therefore, if you wake up when Kapha dosha is active, the morning will be sluggish, lazy, low-energy, unproductive, and you will want to sleep.

“There is one basis that will work for everyone – you need to wake up before sunrise.”

However, you need to understand that Ayurveda is based on the time in India, and to be practically applied it needs to be adjusted for your latitudes. The seasons also shift the time intervals of Ayurveda doshas, so this should also be taken into account. However, there is one basis that is suitable for everyone – you need to wake up before sunrise.

The time you should wake up according to Ayurveda is also influenced by your body constitution. The slower it is, the earlier you should get up in the morning. To find out your body constitution according to Ayurveda, there are many different tests on the Internet. I would only note that there are no “pure” doshas, but there is always a dominant one.

For example, I have almost balanced all three doshas, which is quite rare. However, Kapha has a slight advantage over Pitta. Therefore, my type is Kapha-Pitta and Kapha is the main one. So, I should get up the earliest – at 4:30 in the morning – and do active activities.

However, let’s get back to 5 a.m. and my path and efforts. Once I was talking to my friend, a work colleague from another city, and it turned out that she had been doing what I was just about to do for more than six months – waking up at 4:30 in the morning and going for a run.

She was telling me how great it was to wake up in the morning before the city woke up, how cool it was to breathe in the morning air after a run, how beautiful the birds sing early, and how productive a day awaited after all that. I mean, she was doing what I was dreaming about, thinking about, and planning to do, and she told me about it all by accident. By accident? There are no accidents.

In addition, we started talking about the book “The Magic of Morning. How the first hour determines our success”. She said that she had already read it and it was motivating, although it was not the book that became the key to her lifestyle choice.

Looking ahead, I later bought an electronic version of this book, but at the time of writing this article, I had not finished it. Six months ago, I left it 67% unread.

This conversation with my colleague motivated me even more to try to implement my experiment of getting up at 5 am. However, as always, a whole bunch of things came up that began to prevent a good idea from becoming a habit.

The beginning of my attempts to get up at 5 a.m. and the struggle with complexes

As I like to repeat often, in matters of self-development, everything should be considered comprehensively, in other words, holistically, as one connection. You can’t just start doing one thing and start doing it in such a way that it doesn’t affect everything else.

I thought I’d start getting up at 5 am. But you can’t just wake up and sit around waiting to get ready for work in an hour and a half, because your body will choose sleep again.

I had no problems with what to do in the morning after getting up early. I knew that I would have time to exercise, meditate, take a contrast shower, and sometimes write an article before going to my main job.

However, I faced my complexes in an interesting way. I decided that first thing I would go running in the morning, and then I would take a shower, meditate, and then follow my script. But… I was ashamed to go running.

Six months before, I bought lightweight sweatpants, a small backpack for running, and I had a suitable jacket and hat. But I was hesitant to start. And so the first time I went running was on a holiday, early in the morning, when it was still dark and there were almost no people.

It seemed to me that everyone was looking at me or that there were runners everywhere, evaluating my incompetence, although there was almost no one on the street.

“I realized that in a city of almost a million people, no one cares about you, but the complex remained, even though I fought it by going for jogging.”

Later I was running when it was daylight, and there were a lot of people and cars around me, rushing to work (at 5 in the morning! In my neighborhood! Where did they come from? 🙂 ), and I was without a jacket and without a hat. And it seems to me that I have a big belly, and all runners are supposed to be slim and “uplifted”. And all these people from cars and buses are looking at me.

Eventually, I gradually got used to the fact that I had to run among people and there was nothing I could do about it. Although at the very beginning, it was not even the early rise that was the most difficult decision (on the contrary, I was full of motivation and it made me get up early), but the fact that I would have to be present among people. (Apparently, some manifestations of fear of society).

I understood that in a city of almost a million people, no one cares about you, but the complex remained, although I fought it by going for jogging.

To get up early, you need to go to bed early

It’s not easy to wake up at 5 a.m. if you fell asleep at 1 a.m. Four hours of sleep is extremely short for the average person. And then the body doesn’t understand why it needs to wake up at 5 a.m. if it can sleep until 7 a.m.

That’s why you need motivation. Something to justify getting up so early for yourself. But this motivation must be genuine, that is, something that you sincerely want, so sincerely that it can even be selfish to some extent.

Don’t look for a motivator, be a motivator to yourself

If you want something, you will achieve it. Despite all the doubts, obstacles and fears. The main thing is to sincerely strive for it yourself. You can and should be inspired by the example of others, but the basis of the decision must be in you.

I don’t support when people say things like “if you want to start running, find a partner and she/he will motivate you to get up in the morning.” But what id she/he gets sick, wouldn’t want to run anymore, or any other reason, you’ll lose your motivation to run? This is complete crap. Either you get up and run alone (or with someone else, but everyone has a separate initiative, you just run together), or you don’t run at all. That’s my strong point.

A false goal will not work

I’m talking about running here because for some time it was my goal to get up early at 5 a.m., and sometimes even earlier. A fake goal that didn’t work out. Why?

Because I wanted to start running, but I didn’t decide to do it on my own, but because a friend was running (albeit in another city) and she got up in the morning too. We had a synchronized workday and had joint projects.

I mean, in fact, I had the desire to get up in the morning for a long time. The desire to run has also been there for a long time. I found reinforcement of this desire through another person and it became my pseudo-motivation.

Because in reality, I was waking up not for myself, but for someone else. To prove something to someone, not to consciously improve my state of life and health. So at that moment, nothing came of it. Getting up early did not become a habit, and then everything went on as before.

Your goal will give you motivation and joy to get up at 5 a.m.

We are counting down

A harmonious daily routine includes getting up early, but you can’t consider getting up early separately from other important things. However, this is exactly what we do if we have little experience in self-development and self-discipline.

We enthusiastically consider a new component of a healthy lifestyle, but separately from others. And this approach is always doomed to failure. Everything works only in a complex and in harmony.

Before we plan to get up at 5 a.m., we should determine how many hours of sleep we need to get enough. Let’s say it’s 8 hours. That is, we need to go to bed before 9 p.m. the previous day.

Okay, let’s say we get 7 hours of sleep and go to bed at 10 p.m. That’s more realistic. To fall asleep by 10 p.m., we need to be tired and not work at the computer right before bedtime.

We leave work at 4 p.m. There are only 6 hours between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. (the time we go to bed). During this time, you need to get home, sometimes go to the store, talk to friends or family, solve some problems, do some extra work, clean yourself, surf social media, and get tired to fall asleep quickly.

To get tired, you need to do some kind of physical activity – a gym, running, cycling, or swimming. Tiredness should be pleasant and you should be sleepy before you go to bed. You should avoid bright light half an hour before bedtime to ensure that enough melatonin is produced.

What happens in reality? We like to take time for ourselves so much that we even sacrifice sleep. Why? Because often work is a way for us to earn money to pay for basic living expenses and it doesn’t bring much pleasure.

The rest of the time is left for us, and during this time we learn something, do something, find out something – that is, we develop. That’s why we don’t want to sleep, we want to get the hormones of joy from whatever we do.

Your goal is inspiring

To establish a routine and start getting up at 5 a.m., you need to understand what for. For example, you might want to improve your health, and this can be a motivation. However, the main effective motivation is the joy that future events will bring.

For example, if you know that you have an interesting day ahead of you, you will get up easily and with joy.

For example, if you’re a content creator and you know that after getting up early, riding a bike and meeting the sun while listening to birds singing in the forest, followed by a contrasting shower and meditation, you’ll be full of energy to create new videos or write texts for which you’ll earn tangible money, it’s motivating.

For example, you own a website. With each new article, you see more and more visitors coming to the site. More and more money is earned from advertising, and new partners appear.

This is very motivating, because you are the one who creates it, so others need it and you need it. When the earnings figures go up rapidly and you realize that there is no upper limit, you get up in the morning, do all the procedures and sit down to write the next article. There is excitement present here.

Well, what about those who have a job they don’t like? How do they find the motivation to get up at 5 a.m.?

You need to perceive the job you don’t like as a temporary option that you can’t do without, but at the same time think about what you would like to do in the future, what you would like to do and what would bring in income.

Next, you should develop a specific plan for getting a new job or starting your own business and make this the main motive for getting out of bed early. It is also possible to do some actions in the morning aimed at achieving this goal – learn a foreign language, write articles, study information, etc.

Bottom line

According to the principles of yoga, the main thing is to avoid violence against yourself. This should not be confused with laziness. However, if you are busy with work and go to bed late, then getting up at 5 a.m. will not do you any good. Even if you seem to be doing everything right and sleeping 8 hours, and getting up in the morning is just a burden for you, you may not want to get up so early and there’s no need.

It’s the same with getting up at 5 a.m. without a purpose. It simply won’t make sense, and even if you get up early, you won’t get any pleasure from it, but rather irritation. It’s also unlikely to become a habit.

Getting up in the morning should be your own balanced decision, independent of anyone else. You must clearly understand why you need to get up so early. You need to monitor the changes in your body and organism that occur after getting up early. If these changes are positive, you should continue; if they are negative, you should stop getting up early and consult a doctor.

Getting up at 5 a.m. or any other morning time should be considered only in conjunction with other innovations and changes in the daily routine and lifestyle. Changing only this one parameter will disrupt your current regimen (perhaps not ideal, but familiar to you) and bring negative consequences.

In general, getting up early is great and you should strive for it. You need to understand why you need it and love it. After that, you need to plan for yourself the transition to early rising and start implementing it.

Without fanaticism, but in a disciplined manner. If necessary, make some permanent adjustments (adjust the original plan), and sometimes temporary ones (I got home at 2 am – today I don’t get up at 5 am).

Disclaimer: this article does not constitute either medical or any other type of advice. The article contains the author’s personal opinion and personal conclusions and observations. If you have problems with sleep or are interested in other issues related to it, it is better to consult your doctor.