Become an Early Riser
With my new web design business going, and a full plate at Summit Hut, I certainly wish I could get up early every day and get lots done.
The truth is that if I have a chance to sleep in—I do! Especially on weekends or days off. Well, I don’t really have days off, but you know what I mean. So, when I read How to Become an Early Riser this morning, I was psyched! This is awesome!
The basic idea proposed by Steve Pavlina in his blog post is that if you get up at the exact same time every day of the week and vary your evening sleep time, you will get just the right amount of sleep. It makes sense, and he explains it very well. Don’t take my word for it, go read the post.
I think that getting up early has always been hard for me, but probably because I am a night owl and find it hard to go to bed early. So, with this new strategy in mind I might be able to actually become an early riser.
As a lifelong early riser, I basically agree with Pavlina’s theory. Due to skiing/cycling/sailing/the cruel joke that is public education, I’ve been waking up early almost all my life. All this past winter I woke up at 6:00am to go skiing, work or play, despite what time I went to bed. Often I’d be out with friends and not go to sleep till 2:00am. Just as often, the next night I’d be heading home to turn in at 9:00pm (or sometimes even 7:00pm!).
You can make seasonal adjustments to your early rise time too. 5:00am is a great time to wake up in the summer in Tucson (4:30am is even better for riding as you know), but it’s pitch black and freezing at that time in January. If you use an alarm clock, just make the adjustment slowly and in 15 minute intervals as sunrise gets earlier/later. It works.
But what about when you NEED to stay up way past your ‘bed time’? We’ve all been there/done that. Again, sailing and cycling have taught me a lot about sleep deprivation as well. There is a well know ‘performance sleep’ researcher on the East Coast that has an interesting theory on getting the minimum sleep necessary to maintain high performance (both physical and mental). He works for many around-the world sailboat racers, and NASA. I’ll get you more info on him if you’re interested.
Tim, thanks for the thoughts. I am glad this made sense to you, too. If you do find out more about the sleep researcher guy let me know.