Waking Up at 5 AM Every Day: What’s the Secret?
When I tell people I wake up at 5 AM every day, I often hear two types of reactions. “That’s not for me!” or “Cool! I’m going to try it too.” The people who give the second response then start enthusiastically and set their alarm for 5 AM the very next day. However, they often forget something crucial, which means that after a week, they slowly fall back into their old rhythm. How can you expect to wake up rested at 5 AM if you only go to sleep at 11 PM every night? Naturally, that won’t work; after all, you need 8 hours of sleep.
If you want to successfully wake up at 5 AM every day, you’ll need to do more than just set your alarm. The secret isn’t in waking up on time, but in adjusting your evening routine. If you carefully plan your evening, you’ll go to bed relaxed, fall asleep quickly, and wake up rested. I know because I’ve been doing it for two years and still get out of bed at 5 AM.
Would you also like to wake up at 5 AM every day, but find it hard to keep it up? Then this blog full of experiences and tips is exactly what you need.
Time to unravel the secret further.
Changing your evening routine
To consistently wake up at 5 AM every day, it’s important to change your biological sleep rhythm. Not going to sleep at 11 PM and waking up at 7 AM, but sleeping at 9 PM and waking up at 5 AM. This way, you still get the hours of sleep you need to wake up rested.
Moreover, your evening should be arranged so that you can fall asleep completely relaxed at 9 PM. For me, this means starting my evening ritual at 8 PM. From this moment on, I also stop using technology. I deliberately place my phone in a different room and set an analog alarm clock. After that, my evening ritual starts:
- 8 PM: evening walk
- 8:20 PM: meditate
- 8:30 PM: write in my journal
- 8:40 PM: get ready for bed
- 8:45 PM: read
- 9 PM: sleep
When I eventually lie in bed after an hour without technology, full of peace and space in my mind, I fall asleep in no time. I dare say it will be the same for you, even if you normally have trouble falling asleep.
The good night’s sleep that follows is exactly what you need to stand beside your bed again at 5 AM the next day.
Organizing your morning
You’ve done it, you went to sleep at 9 PM and wake up at 5 AM to your alarm. It’s now important that you get out of bed immediately. No snoozing, but really getting up straight away. It helps me to place my alarm somewhere else, so I have to get out of bed to turn it off.
Once I’m out of bed, I immediately start my morning ritual. It goes as follows:
- 4:45 AM: the alarm goes off
- 4:50 AM: get ready for exercising
- 4:55 AM: to the gym
- 5 AM: exercise (sweating is a must!)
- 5:20 AM: meditate and write in my journal
- 5:40 AM: read a book for my personal development
- 6 AM: get ready for the day
I call the first hour of my day the victory hour. All the activities I perform in this hour ensure that I start my day productively, energetically, and relaxed.
It’s likely that your morning looks different, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s about focusing on yourself during this first hour of the day. I start my victory hour at 5 AM because I don’t have time for it later in the day. If you do have time later, you could take this hour at a different time.
Maintaining the new rhythm
I know all too well how difficult it can be to go to sleep at 9 PM and wake up at 5 AM every day. Even though I’ve been doing it for two years, it doesn’t get easier. Sometimes I just want to watch a movie in the evening with my girlfriend or do something with friends. It’s a matter of perseverance and showing willpower.
For now, I would like to give you some tips that might help you to keep up waking up at 5 AM. Let me know if you have any tips that I can add to the list.
Tips
Evening social activities are perfectly fine!
Do you find it very hard to say goodbye to certain social activities? Then agree with yourself that you can have such an activity once or twice a month. You can see this as a kind of reward. For example, I also went to bed later and stayed in bed longer for a few days last December. It feels like a reward to pick up your rhythm again afterward.
Taking time for yourself with children
It’s really important to put your phone away an hour before you go to sleep and not pick it up again until you’ve been awake for an hour. It helps to put the phone in a different room. However, don’t be too strict with yourself. It really doesn’t matter if it’s not to the minute, as long as your phone is away around 8 PM. Give yourself the space to do it your way. If it feels like an impossible task to fall asleep without your phone, then you have a different challenge and it might be time to visit an addiction clinic 😉.
Learning to stay away from your phone
It’s really important to put your phone away an hour before you go to sleep and not pick it up again until you’ve been awake for an hour. It helps to put the phone in a different room. However, don’t be too strict with yourself. It really doesn’t matter if it’s not to the minute, as long as your phone is away around 8 PM. Give yourself the space to do it your way. If it feels like an impossible task to fall asleep without your phone, then you have a different challenge and it might be time to visit an addiction clinic 😉.
The 5 AM Series
This is the first blog from my 5 AM blog series. You can expect more articles about implementing the new rhythm, the pros and cons of waking up at 5 AM, why you should wake up at 5 AM, and my experiences after two years of waking up at 5 AM. By the end of the series, hopefully, you too will be successfully standing beside your bed at 5 AM.