Creatively AWAKE? Absolutely. … But at 5AM?!
After many years of having to wake to the buzzing of an alarm clock every day, you can imagine the delight in finally being able to shove the clock in a drawer and wake up whenever you like …
A Video Post, by Sebastian Michaels
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Transcript continued:
When I finally positioned myself to not have to worry about being up early, I did ditch the clock, and I tried out what it would be like to just get up when I woke up naturally.
I tried it. The whole sleeping in thing.
But at the risk of everyone thinking I’m crazy … in the end I had to dig my clock back out of the drawer, and I’ve been setting the alarm at 5:00, 5:30, or (at the latest) 6:00 ever since.
What I’ve found is that, even if I happen to wake up early, if I know I CAN sleep longer, then the lure of the warm comfortable bed keeps me there. As a result, I end up getting up nearer 7:00 or 7:30, feeling behind schedule from the minute I get out of bed, the morning already lost.
I have a strong sense of how important the first hour of the day is if we want to live an extraordinary life. The routines we build into our morning set the pace of our days, and a strong start (a liter of good cold water, half an hour of exercise or even just good brisk walk, a few minutes with a great book, a few lines of gratitude and planning in a journal, 15 minutes of meditation) — a strong start like this sets us up to approach the rest of our days as our best selves. I really believe that.
But if you’re waking too late to feel you have the time to savor that first hour … if right out of bed you feel you need to hurry hurry hurry so you can get busy busy busy … well … that’s no way to live. Unless you want a life of bustle and stress.
“It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.” – Henry David Thoreau
Another consequence of letting myself sleep as long as I naturally would without an alarm to wake me is that I find that I end up sleeping more than I need to (my not-quite-awake brain has poor discipline and will not get me out of bed when it ought), consequently leaving me to feel not more rested but more sluggish.
Everyone is different, but I function great on about six, six and a half hours of sleep. Others need seven. Some need eight. But I suspect most of us need less than we think.
And consider. If you COULD shave even half an hour off of your sleep every day, that extra half hour every morning could transform your life. Half an hour a day works out to over a FULL MONTH of 40-hour work weeks each year. Imagine what you could accomplish with that much extra time in your life.
Imagine what that could do for your art.
So while there is an attraction in the notion of freeing myself of the tyranny of the alarm clock, for me to feel my optimal self I’ve found I really do need to be up by 5:30, ahead of the sunrise, ahead of the slumbering world.
Waking early gives me the morning for my routines and allows me to start the day feeling on top of the day.
After doing some research on the subject, I came across an article that seems to best reflect the strategy I think works best for me as well, which is to go to sleep, not at a set time, but rather when I am naturally feeling really sleepy. This I can usually sense when I’m unable to read any more, after spending the last hour or so of the evening quietly with a stack of books — no computer, no iPhone, no screens of any kind … and to then wake to an alarm at 5:30 AM. So a flexible bed time, a fixed wake time.
The trick is then to have a set on-ramp series of actions to take immediately upon waking. Knowing I cannot trust my 5:30 AM brain to give me a clear evaluation of Warm Bed vs Dark Room, I rely on a few simple routines to immediately get up and get moving … and within 15 minutes I am into my day and feeling alive — more alive and free and in charge of my destiny than at any other time of the day.
It’s not for everyone. Some people are just wired to be night owls.
For me at least, the alarm is here to stay. But so too are my priceless mornings and all the vitality they bring.
– Sebastian
PS: The image featured at the top of this post is of a small camp chair and notebook I like to take with me to a stony perch above my house in the mountains. But the only way I make it up there is by waking early enough to allow me the time. To greet the sunrise there is something quite amazing.