Today is the 4th day of my waking up at 5 am experiment and also the first one where I was allowed to sleep more.
As I said, every thursday I’m allowed to sleep more because I usually go to bed late on wednesday morning. Last night I went to bed at around 11.40 but I managed to get up naturally at 7.30 am this morning anyway, 15 minutes before I had set the alarm clock, which was very nice.
The interesting thing is that because I could not wake up at 5 today, I wasn’t able to work on any of my personal projects. When I wake up at 5 am instead, I can get a lot done before 9 am.
If I had to decide today about continuing or not to wake up at 5 am or not, I’d certainly do, because it’s incredible the amount of work I can get done with an extra 4 hours per day, and I’m not even rushing my schedule yet.
When I wake up early I can also stop working early. It’s true that I go to bed between 9 pm and 10 pm, but at 6 pm I can usually shut down my computer. This gives me a good 3 hours to detoxicate from a full day of work in front of a laptop, which I never did before starting this experiment but I’m glad I’m doing it now.
I’m going to start recording what I do starting from tomorrow, so you can actually get an idea of what it means to have an extra 3 – 4 hours per day. Next update will be next week.
Posted on February 25 2010
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It’s cool that you’re doing this experiment Oscar. So are you setting your alarm clock at 5, or are you setting it at 8 o’clock and slowly going down like 10 or 15 minutes each time until you reach to 5?
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Hey Hulbert, no I always set the alarm clock at 5 am. Only on thursday I’m allowed to sleep more. All the other days including saturday and sunday I must wake up at 5.
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Hey Oscar,
I like how you give yourself a few hours before bed to detoxicate from the computer. Although difficult, I’ve enjoyed how much more restful my sleep is when I take some time to unwind and put the computer away before bed. Keep it up!
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Yes, it helps to sleep better IMO and it’s a nice side effect of this experiment.
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Waking up at 5 must take a lot…. I can barely get up at 6a.m. :x
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I know it may sounds odd, but so far it’s easier for me to wake up at 5 rather than at 6 or 7 :D
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Hey…
Great post :) I am trying to wake up earlier as well, this is encouraging!
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Hey Maren, you’re welcome!
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this post came just in time, i just decided yesterday to wake up earlier, wish me luck:)
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Hey Farouk, I’m sure you’ll enjoy doing it! Just stick with the habit until it becomes natural for you!
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Waking up 5am has been one of my favorite things to do. I actually have even begun to alter it further. I discovered my sleep REM patterns and now instead of waking up at 5am, when I get sleepy I set a timer ( not an alarm ) for 6 1/2 hours and wake up right at the end of my dream.
When you wake up at your REM state you feel great and it is easy to get up. Looking forward to seeing your results Oscar!
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That’s interesting Colby. I’m waiting for a sleeping device to be shipped to my home which should analyze my sleep and wake me up at an idea time. It has not yet been released but once I’ll receive it I’ll review it.
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