The Several Health Benefits Of Waking Up Super Early

 On a cold Monday morning, waking up super early might be the very last thing on your to-do list for the day. Who wants to get out of their warm and comfy blanket when you can sleep in a little bit longer? 

Answer: most of the US population. 

According to Edisonresearch.com, only 8 percent of the general population wakes up by 5 a.m. At this time, there isn’t much traffic on the freeways, the line to get coffee will be at a minimum, and getting a jump start at work to impress the boss is possible. 

Whatever your reasons for setting your alarm clock before the sunrises, the health benefits of being an early bird far supersede staying up late and waking up sometime after lunch ends. Don’t get us wrong. It’s not the end of the world if you sleep in from time-to-time, but the advantages of waking up super early are noteworthy. 

“The lowest mortality and morbidity is with seven hours.”

Shawn Youngstedt, Arizona State University

Benefits of Waking Up Super Early

  • It gives you added time to exercise, which lowers stress levels. 
  • Increases brain activity and focus.
  • It improves your sleep cycles.
  • Effectively enhances your daily productivity.
  • It promotes over-all positive mental health and well-being. 

That all sounds pretty good, right?  

 

Waking Up Super Early

Negatives Of Not Waking Up Super Early

If you’re a night owl and choose to sleep in late, you may want to rethink hitting the snooze button. Staying up late tends to be associated with heightening negative emotionality: meaning, an increase of issues related to depression, anxiety, and mood shifts.  

A study conducted by Simor and Colleagues discovers, regardless of age or gender, evening types, those who prefer evening to morning, were at an increased risk for experiencing increased health problems.  

This doesn’t mean that having a disorder is exclusive to a person’s “chronotype” — a fancy word for someone’s sleep schedule.   

According to livescience.com, when researchers scanned the brains of people who were classified as night owls or morning larks, they found the night owls had lower “brain connectivity.” This doesn’t mean that having a disorder is exclusive to a person’s “chronotype” — a fancy word for someone’s sleep schedule. 

Those you who regularly embark on the late-night sleep schedule also tend to experience increased amounts of insomnia. This may be caused by your circadian rhythm or the part of your brain that assumes you can sleep longer; it fails to detect you need to wake up super early. 

Think of this as your natural snooze button.  

In closing, we challenge those who are looking for a lifestyle adjustment to wake up one hour earlier for the next two weeks and comment below on your noticeable changes. 

Do you want to see more about the benefits of waking up super early? Click on The Infographics Show animated video below. 

Author
Tim Kirkpatrick

Tim entered the Navy in 2007 as a Hospital Corpsman and deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion 5th Marines in the fall of 2010. Currently, Tim holds two film degrees, including filmmaking and screenwriting, and has written over 1k+ articles ranging in topics from medical, entertainment, fitness, history, and humor.

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