when i was younger i used to hate waking up early i mean i really didn't like waking up early fast
forward a few years later when i was studying for my degree at university and for those three years
i used to wake up at 4 45 a.m every single morning even on weekends completely by choice
i wanted to wake up early because i realized how much of a positive impact it had on my life and
throughout university that one thing just waking up at 4 45 a.m every morning was one of the most
impactful and overall healthiest things i could have done and so this is how i did it i think
most people go about it backwards they want to wake up at 4 a.m or 5 a.m or whatever time
so then they set their alarm clock for that time but then when the alarm clock goes off
in the morning they're still feeling really tired so they hit the snooze button or they just cancel
the alarm and continue sleeping so instead of doing it that way i reversed it and i set my alarm
clock at the time i wanted to go to bed i would wake up at 4 45 a.m so i'd want to be in bed by
9 00 p.m the night before so i'd be asleep by just before 10 p.m so that's a good seven hours sleep
and doing it that way when my alarm went off at 4 45 because i just had seven hours of sleep it was
actually really easy to wake up in fact usually i'd wake up naturally 15 or 20 minutes before my
alarm clock went off because my body was rested enough and he knew that it was time to wake up
and consistency is also a huge deal here my body got used to waking up at 4 45 a.m every morning
so i'd wake up energized and not tired or lethargic because i woke up at 4 45 every single
morning and i'd be asleep by 10 pm every single night even on weekends and i knew that even if i
missed one day i went to sleep late at like one or two am my sleeping pattern would be messed up for
the next few days or even weeks to come so i was really disciplined in making sure that i got my
seven to eight hours of sleep and i don't know about you but everyone is different but for me
if i don't get my seven to eight hours of sleep then i'd probably be feeling very
tired and lethargic the following day and another point if you're struggling with your sleeping
pattern and let's say you usually wake up most mornings at 11 am or 12 or even early afternoon
when you want to start waking up early it's best to do it gradually over a period of a week or so
so one night wake up at 11 am then the next day wake up at 10 then the next night an hour later if
you try to fix your sleeping pattern in one night and say you normally wake up at 11am but the next
morning you try to wake up at 5am it's going to be extremely difficult and it's why a lot of people
fail with doing it this way and if you're still struggling to wake up early and you keep hitting
the snooze button one thing that works well for me is if i set my alarm clock on loud and then put
it downstairs or in the kitchen or in another room or even just the other side of the room
that way when the alarm goes off in the morning i have to physically get out of bed to turn it off
so it forces me to get out of bed whether i want to or not and if i need to dramatically change
my sleeping pattern i will spread it out over a couple of weeks and this is often the case when
i travel i'm in a completely different time zone so for example if i want to start waking up at 5am
i would start waking up at 8am for a few nights then my body starts getting used to waking up
at 8am i'd then start waking up at 7 a.m for a few nights and i'd slowly work myself down to
5 a.m over a period of a couple of weeks you see it's really easy to wake up extremely early even
3 or 4 a.m if you wanted to providing that two things happen firstly you go to sleep and you
wake up at the same time every day that means no cheat days so seven days a week even on weekends
and that way your body will get used to it and so naturally you will wake up after having seven
or eight hours of sleep and the second thing is that you need to be disciplined with your sleep
schedule at least for the first couple of weeks so that means if you need to be in bed by 10 p.m at
night time you make sure you're in bed by 10 p.m i think we've all been in that situation where the
time we sleep starts creeping later and later then you start waking up later late and before you know
it it's afternoon before you naturally wake up so it will take two or three weeks of being really
disciplined and making sure that you go to sleep on time but after a few weeks your body will get
used to it and you'll form a habit and once that habit is formed it will be a lot easier it will
almost become automatic so you don't even need to think about it another thing that was incredibly
important was that i had a nighttime routine i've noticed that there are two things that if
i do them before i sleep i won't be able to sleep for hours and i'll be lying in bed awake until
three or four in the morning and the first one is exercise particularly cardiovascular exercise
such as running if i go for a run one hour before i sleep there's no way i'm going to fall asleep
maybe it's because of the chemicals and hormones like adrenaline that are released into the body
during the run i don't know but going for a run before i sleep is a bad idea and the second thing
is watching youtube i've noticed that if i watch youtube in bed before i sleep it stimulates my
brain to the point where there are so many ideas and thoughts rushing around my mind that i just
can't relax and go to sleep so i found a good substitution for watching youtube before bed
is either reading or even just watching netflix so watching a film or documentary is far more
relaxing than watching youtube videos at least for me for you you might close your eyes and listen to
a podcast some light meditation or filling in a nightly journal might be a better option for you
and it's worth mentioning waking up early is not for everyone some people are early birds and some
are night owls i have friends that no matter how much they try they're just not productive in the
morning an article by medical physician ian crowes from stanford university in 2016 stated
that whether you can concentrate better early in the morning or whether you can concentrate better
at night up until two or three in the morning is largely up to biological and genetic factors
and i'd say i'm definitely more of an early bird than a night owl so waking up at 4 45
is incredibly beneficial for me i realized i was more productive because most other people
were sleeping so i could get more done without being distracted i could drive to university
earlier than everyone else therefore beating the morning rush hour traffic which would add
an extra 20 minutes to my commute i felt happier and more motivated and healthier and actually
there was a study in 2008 at the university of north texas that found that students that
woke up earlier are students that class themselves as morning people had an average gpa that was a
full point higher than students that classed themselves as night owls so the early birds
received a 3.5 gpa on average whereas the night owls achieved a 2.5 gpa and i talked about the
benefits that i experienced waking up at 4 45 a.m but i talked about them all in the past tense and
that's because these days and for the last year or so since moving to vietnam i've been waking up
at 9 00 a.m rather than 4 45 so i've kind of been promoting this idea of waking up early but then i
go ahead and tell you that now i wake up at 9 00 a.m so why is that well the main reason is because
i'm currently living in vietnam however i'm from the uk and a lot of my work still involves people
and clients in the uk and there's a six hour time difference so often i'll be on a phone call or
zoom call at one or two in the morning in vietnam so some nights i sleep at 3 am which i have
to because at work then he messes up my sleeping pattern and then i struggle to wake up at 4 45 a.m
i did it when i first moved to vietnam but some nights i had no choice but to sleep at one or two
in the morning and then forcing myself to wake up after just three hours of sleep it just wouldn't
have worked long term but i go into far more detail about my sleeping pattern at university
because it really was almost a revolutionary discovery i mean the benefits of my life just
from waking up earlier really were significant i talked more in depth about sleeping patterns and
waking up early and my experiences and lessons i learned at university in the transform your grades
course that i recently launched the course really has just one goal i created it to help support
you to boost your grade level by at least two grade points so if you're currently studying
at a d grade then the course will help you push towards studying at a b grade by the end of the
30 days now it's not a magic fix you still need to put in a lot of work but i support you throughout
the transformation and i even offer one-on-one support and counseling you can click on the link
in the description below for more information and i look forward to working with you very shortly