Health
Getting Up at 5 AM Might Be Horrible Advice
Listen to scientists rather than productivity gurus
In 2018, author Robin Sharma scored a massive hit with the book The 5 AM Club. Before the book, there was an eponymous movement of people who, like their great ideals, get up at 5 AM — before the rest of the world to get a head start.
I’m obsessed with productivity, and I’ve also thought about getting up a lot earlier — until it occurred to me that that’s probably not a good idea.
Here are a few good reasons you shouldn’t get up so early and why you might not need it to be more productive.
It’s unnatural for us humans
Light plays a vital role in proper sleep. As long as it is bright, we find it difficult to sleep. When it’s shining in the morning, it can help us wake up — that’s what a 2019 study¹ shows.
Another study from 2017² shows that people exposed to sunlight in the morning sleep better at night.
If you want to get up at 5 a.m., you need to go to bed earlier — at least if you're going to get enough sleep.
To get up at 5 a.m., I would have to go to bed at 8:30 p.m. at the latest. Depending on the time of year, however, it may not be dark outside at this time. Light prevents our bodies from releasing melatonin, which hinders our sleep³.
At no time of year does the sunrise start earlier than 5 a.m. — yet sunlight in the morning is so valuable.
In New York, the sun rises at 5:30 in June. In December, it doesn’t rise until 7:00.
In Canberra, the sun rises at 5:45 a.m. in December, but not until 7 a.m. in June.
We notice clearly that the sun doesn’t rise until 5 o’clock in most places in the world.
People who advertise getting up at 5 a.m. seem to neglect this — but the sun is essential.
You may not be most productive in the morning — and cannot change it
You may have heard the term Night Owl — it refers to a sleeping type of person. Night Owls are at their best at night.
This doesn’t apply to all people — besides Night Owls, there are also Early Birds, who don’t stay awake very long and prefer to get stuff done in the morning. However, the sleep types are usually not a free decision.
In the meantime, there are certainly more than two types⁴ — and they are given by nature, so we can hardly influence which type we are.
No book in the world will make you someone who gets the most done at 5 o’clock if you are not naturally made for it.
For me, the creative phase usually starts late in the evening — that’s when I blossom. In the morning, on the other hand, I’m sluggish for a very long time.
To find out what type you are, I recommend you try it out.
Get up earlier, get up later. Work in the morning and sometimes in the evening. Make sure that your experiment is not biased. If you drink a strong coffee at 7 p.m. and have a mental high afterward, it does not mean that you are an evening/night person.
Maybe you can have silence at any time
One of the core ideas of the 5 AM Club is an assumption that I think is wrong: You’ll be less disturbed in the morning.
Sure, between 5 and 8 a.m., hardly anyone is awake except you. No one will write you an email or a text message at this time of the day, and no one will call you — so far, so good.
If I go to bed earlier to get up earlier, I miss a lot. WhatsApp messages & calls especially. As soon as I get up in the morning, I see what I missed the night before. Essentially, everything has just shifted.
Of course, you can ignore your smartphone or tablet in the morning — but you can do that at any other time of the day.
I have a hunch why people swear they’re so productive in the morning: It’s the routine and the start-up ritual. Here’s a possible example: get up at 5 a.m., go to the bathroom, drink some water, make an espresso, and then start working.
Every morning the same — it’s a routine, and the espresso may be your ritual. Being productive out of habit can be applied to every time of the day. Your coffee maker won’t resent an espresso at noon instead of in the morning.
Even if my family is noisy during the day, it doesn’t stop me from working. I use noise-canceling headphones or move to another room.
If you don’t neglect your health, you don’t get more out of it
From the people who proudly belong to the 5-AM Club, the following statement often comes: I do this to have more time.
An absolute fallacy. If you force yourself to get up early every morning and haven’t slept enough, sure, you’ll have more awake time in the day.
But is it worth it? No, absolutely not. Getting enough sleep is extremely important. Statements like Rich people don’t sleep 8 hours a day by Steve Harvey⁵ are ridiculous & unhealthy.
Thank you for reading!
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Sources
[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36791-5
[2]: https://www.sleephealthjournal.org/article/S2352-7218(17)30041-4/fulltext
[3]: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/light-and-sleep
