The Benefits of Waking Up Early
It has often been referred to as the secret to a successful and productive day. Many well-known and admired individuals have regarded the practice as elemental in leading a proactive and energized life. People from ex-first lady Michelle Obama to Apple CEO Tim Cook, from actor Mark Wahlberg to Vogue editor Anna Wintour believe it is the key to their ability to sustain discipline and focus.
Early-rising. Waking up early. Getting up at the crack of dawn. Call it what you will but it has been heralded as one of the most beneficial practices you can incorporate into your life as a daily habit.
Getting up early allows you to be able to accomplish more of the goals that you set for yourself, gives you more time for work or study and introduces you to those early dawn hours of peace and tranquility.
Not to sleep a wink is obviously not a good idea. Sleep has a plethora of benefits, many of which are not so clear to us in the short term. Sleep is a vital aspect of leading a healthy life. But if you are able to get into the habit of improving the quality of your sleep itself, then you would be able to get by on less sleep during the waking hours.
Improving sleep quality and reducing sleep time are no easy feats. The best thing you can start to do is to sustain a healthy diet. The food and drink we consume has a big impact on the quality of our sleep. For example, drinking fizzy drinks before bed time can play havoc with the mind’s propensity to settle itself down into a state of restfulness late at night.
Indeed, for the same reason, caffeine is a stimulant best avoided late into the evening, and consuming a large quantity of carbohydrates is likely to cause your intestinal glands to work hard, secreting digestive enzymes at a high rate in order to break down those starchy foods. This is something that is likely to cause you discomfort in the stomach area.
In order to make yourself feel less fatigued if you’ve decided to embark on a early-rising program, you should also remember to exercise regularly.
Exercising in the long term shall allow you to reduce your resting heart rate, which helps in allowing the body to calm itself down when required. Committing to a regular exercise program also allows the body to fall into a routine.
The body loves regularity and routine, and if you can maintain a disciplined approach in your waking hours, then you are more likely to be able to improve your commitment to getting the right amount of sleep, in order to feel energized when waking up early in the morning.
Vocabulary:
crack of dawn – the very earliest part of the morning when the sun first starts to rise, “The fishermen woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the boat before it left the harbor.”
heralded as – widely praised, acclaimed, or celebrated publicly as something excellent, “The new electric vehicle was heralded as a major breakthrough in green technology.”
peace and tranquility – a calm, quiet, and peaceful state that is completely free from disturbance, “She loves hiking in the deep forest because of the utter peace and tranquility it offers.”
sleep a wink – to get even a tiny amount of sleep (almost always used in the negative form ‘not sleep a wink’), “With the neighbor’s dog barking all night, I didn’t sleep a wink before my big exam.”
plethora of benefits – a massive variety or a very large number of advantages and positive effects, “Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables provides a plethora of benefits for your immune system.”
get by on – to manage to survive, cope, or handle daily life using only a very small or minimal amount of something, “During the final weeks of the semester, he had to get by on just five hours of sleep a night.”
no easy feats – difficult achievements or tasks that require a massive amount of hard work, skill, and effort, “Climbing Mount Everest and running a marathon back-to-back are no easy feats.”
play havoc with – to cause great confusion, damage, trouble, or disruption to a situation or routine, “The sudden snowstorm managed to play havoc with the airport’s flight schedule.”
propensity to – a natural tendency, habit, or inclination to behave in a particular way, “He has a propensity to procrastinate whenever he is given a large writing assignment.”
maintain a disciplined approach – to stay strictly organized, focused, and consistent with your rules, routine, or behavior, “If you want to save enough money to buy a house, you must maintain a disciplined approach to your spending.”