In our fast-paced, success-oriented lifestyles, rising early is often touted as the ultimate key to massive productivity and personal success. Public figures and New Age self-proclaimed gurus alike wax about the amazing benefits of those first quiet hours of the day, cherishing that time as a powerful gem for personal growth and meditation. This seemingly well-known, accepted truth wasn’t always that way. Clearly, the myth of early rising alone as some magnificent success mystique didn’t exist in the dim, ancient days long ago. But it eventually became a widely accepted bandage for a bandage it now seems to have become. Here’s the truth about many of the nuanced downsides to early rising. In our modern, complex world, the practice of waking up as the sun breaks the horizon might not work out as best for humanity. That’s not to say it can’t work, but like almost anything in life, it comes across as a more ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution than it really is. In this post, we’ll take a peek at some of the less-talked about downsides to early rising, and why it might not be the golden ticket to personal success and happiness that it’s sometimes made out to be.
Disruption of Natural Sleep Patterns
Genetically hardwired chronotypes – our natural times to sleep – may indicate that not everyone is biologically wired to benefit from a 5 AM stat. While at first glance it may seem like a small change in a wake-up time, changing to a schedule that opposes one’s natural chronotype can result in a disruption to one’s circadian rhythm. As circadian rhythm disruption increases over time, difficulty falling asleep, frequent night awakenings and poor sleep quality can result in a cascade of chronic sleep deficits. Over time, the inherent misalignment between a person’s biological clock and their imposed schedule can result in serious health consequences, such as hormonal and cognitive deficits and increases in stress levels. One of the most significant risks in adhering to the forced early stat is the inversion of natural sleep cascades. Not everyone’s body clock is wired for the crack of dawn. But forcing anyone into a daytime shift that is biologically out of sync with their internal circuitry puts them at risk for chronic sleep deprivation. Chronic sleep deprivation creates a multitude of health concerns including increased susceptibility to infections, weight gain, increases in stress and elevated risks for the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Impact on Mental Health
The social pressure to ‘rise early’, regardless of when someone naturally wakes up, could also contribute to psychological stress if it leads to a battle against one’s own predispositions. This could be exacerbated not only if their natural wake time were very early or late (meaning the battle was mostly against sleep pressure), but also if social factors including praise for and by early risers presented early rising as a virtue, in some way making people who naturally rose later feel inferior or lazy, thereby contributing to lower self-esteem and intrinsic motivation. Second, inadequate sleep from early rising could exacerbate symptoms of mental illness (for instance, anxiety and depression) making it even harder to deal effectively with the stresses of daily life; even things like stress from traffic or problems with other people can have greater consequences for mental health in those who are not well rested. The social pressure to ‘rise early’ – at least if we see this in most situations as early as one biologically prefers – can also have indirect consequences for mental health or risks. The stress of trying to rise earlier than their own natural wake-up time, failing to do so (regardless of what their alarm clock tells them), and perhaps dealing with anything from social consequences (being late) to intrapersonal consequences (embarrassment) could contribute to increased anxiety and irritability. In addition, inadequate sleep because of rising earlier could bring on increases or worsening of symptoms associated with depression and anxiety, creating a vicious cycle in which lack of adequate rest due to some social pressure contributes to visceral manifestations of mental illness with a further impact on sleep itself.
Social and Family Life
In some cultures, family and social interactions are reserved for the evening and, as a result, self-described early birds may find themselves out of step with those around them. If the early riser is also wont to retreat to bed early in the evening, then they may be giving up on evenings with friends and family to take that cat nap, sorely needed after rising so early. Long-term, putting oneself out-of-step with the rest of one’s social circle could lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness, especially if it meant also forgoing late-night social events in order to keep up with that early bedtime, so that the early workday tomorrow isn’t completely brutal. In addition, because social supports are known buffers against mental and emotional distress, a deep rift between one’s schedule and family and friends could mean losing this particular mental and emotional health boost. If you have a family or a full social calendar, life with an early awaken tendency can mean that you have less evening time with those you love. Maybe evening dinners with family or friends get missed; you arrive late to family events or cranky from not getting enough sleep; maybe you have to cut the evening’s interactions short or bail on trips to the playground or reading stories at bedtime. This mis alignment between early risers’ schedules and those of family and loved ones can be quite isolating and can give rise to feelings of missing out on what’s going on during those usual evening hours.
Reduced Evening Productivity
The quiet of the early morning might indeed make it a more conducive time to concentrate and get things done – or it might not. Those whose energies and pens bubble up more reliably at times of day that are coming to a close might reach peak output and find that setting the alarm for 4am curtails those times. They might miss out on peak creativity or problem-solving abilities in the course of the day, and the shift might not only hamper output but foster feelings of frustration and of fighting against the grain in which peak productive impulses run. Everyone surely does not peak in productive hours at the crack of dawn. Many people report that their best times stem from evening hours – they start to really rumble in the late afternoon, hit high tides of creativity and efficiency in the evenings, and are bolstered by the relative quiet and the sacrifice of those around them who have turned in for the night. Waking extremely early will lay the period of greatest productivity beyond reach for many. People might not only fail to get things done at all in the early hours because they are not quite roused and rested enough and in their element, but they might also have to report lower productivity in the course of the day or week: they might miss out most on the later times with which their spirits are most in sync, and it might end up being a losing proposition.
Quality of Morning Hours
The early morning – often preternaturally quiet and still – is often revered as the most ideal time for being productive. Or focused. But this ideal endorsement can rather quickly lose much of its allure when early rising is not really one’s natural ideal. That is, if one is forced to adapt to an early rise to serve work-related, parenting- or life-intervention purposes, and it is not wholly one’s preference to do so, there can often be significant challenges to deal with. All the talk about how early mornings are so quiet and distraction-free can seem rather empty to the early riser, and even completely detached to the later riser who views this forceful transition as decidedly less enviable – and as a source of real frustration. The quiet and rustle-free hours might be desirable and attractive – but what happens is one wake up and feels entirely fatigued and unfocused, unable to work acceptably? The early quiet hours might leave one stranded in their own fatigue and inability to function, sans dark thoughts, but still quite exhausted and demoralised. The tranquility of nova laetitiae is but one of many things that can come with an early morning. But the peacefulness of early morning certainly isn’t of much help if it’s spent, not fully awake, or at the very least, not feeling able to engage usefully with it in any way.
Sustainability and Lifestyle Compatibility
Secondly, for some people, for certain careers, or at certain stages of life, waking up early can be both unrealistic and unsustainable. For example, people with shift work, people with small children, or those living in large, vibrant cities with rich nightlife, may not find early rising practical. When people demand early rising, they can end up like a sailboat tacking against the wind: what initially feels positive and fulfilling can come to denote being constantly out of synch and at odds with one’s environment. Lack of sustainability can also stem from the fact that some people’s lifestyles, such as those who work late shifts, live in lively, nocturnal cities, or whose schedules fluctuate, just do not jive with an early rising routine for whatever reason.
Conclusion
But it is also good to see the advice on early rising taken with a pinch of salt, and with differences in individual body rhythms and personal routine being recognised and respected. Today, our complex lives require fluid, personalised and tailored routines. We might, at last, be getting the message. By respecting our natural rhythms and our personal circumstances then, not only does my body decide when I should go to bed but, I hope and believe, we too might come closer to a set of waking hours and routine that will be conducive to our health, our productivity and our happiness. For me, it means getting up with, and not against, my body. It might even hold the key to personal success and contentment. Waking up early was not a God-given gift but an acquired habit For better or worse, early rising is not for everyone. A change of this kind requires personal consideration based on personal health; lifestyle, culture, rapport and body rhythms. All being well, the decision to get up early holds the promise of increasing activity and shooing away mood. But not everyone is a candidate for mandatory morning rises. And I hope it’s now clear why, for some of us, it would pay to be guided more by our body than a popular, yet ill-fated, prescription. Waking up early was far from a God-given gift but an acquired habit. In our complex, fast moving world, flexible, individualised, and personalised human routines can do far more to create better health and happiness than the mandated remedies of what currently happens to be the most
