Ever stay up late and “have” to finish watching that thrilling Netflix series only to glance at your phone telling you it’s “1 am!” and then quickly curse, “Oh f*ck”. Yeah, not a good feeling at all.
That was me a week ago. I was staying up with my wife watching “The Good Nurse”, Documentary on Jeffrey Daemer, and “The Watcher”.
Yeah, I’m not big on crime shows, but my wife loves it and I wanted to enjoy watching something with her.
Funny enough I did enjoy watching the shows but I didn’t enjoy going to bed late and then waking up groggy, with low energy and brain fog.
It was bad. I literally would wake up feeling super tired, not wanting to get out of bed in the first place, but having to face life and complete the tasks I set out for myself.
I would walk around the house like a zombie, stubbing my toe on the side of the bed, stepping on my son’s toys since I had one eye open.
It was a mess.
The worst was finally getting to my chair and sitting down to work after drinking some coffee, of course.
I am hoping some sort of burst of energy or enthusiasm would appear from the caffeine, but nothing.
I found myself staring at my screen, wondering what the hell is going on?
Why is there nothing of value coming out of my brain? Why can I not move my fingers to start typing, writing and working?
I quickly say to myself, “f*ck, this sh*t sucks.”
I had no motivation to want to do anything, except sleep. So, thankfully, as an entrepreneur, I have the luxury to listen to my body and go back to sleep, which is what I did. I woke up feeling a “little” better, but still no where near my optimal level of functional ability.
Fast forward to now, I’ve gotten my body clock back into my peak routine.
What’s the routine?
Well, I go to bed between 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm. Wake up anywhere between 4 am to 5 am.
I am a morning person and do my best work in the wee hours of the morning.
Even as I type these words, I feel envigorated, inspired, and super charged up. My fingers are flying from typing on my keyboard. It feels almost as if the words are just flowing from my brain.
There is no tension, no resistance.
It’s actually like I have this tidal wave of water inside me waiting to flow out and onto this page.
Thankfully, as it is still early morning, there are no distractions from the outside world or from family, as my wife and son are still in dream land.
I feel awake, focused and wired.
Night and day difference from just a few days ago.
Interestingly, I’ve known about this for years now. But every now and again for some reason I fall into the allure of staying up late and peeking at what’s new on Netflix.
However, as a Father to a 3 year old and a man with a mission to positively impact the world, who works best in the morning I know I need my sacred morning time to do my best work.
In fact, this piqued my curiousity, as I did some research and why this works so well.
What I found was as humans we have a circadian rhythm, is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. It can refer to any process that originates within an organism and responds to the environment. They can be physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark and affect most living things, including animals, plants, and microbes.
Essentially, it is our internal body clock, which is the various times in which we wake and sleep.
This concept, although simple, is truly profound.
It can even be, might I say, a cure for many of our modern day ailments and can lead to us being more healthier and happier.
I know some of you may be calling “B.S.”, but hey please try it before you knock it.
For me, I can honestly say I feel way more consistent energy and happiness from going to bed and waking up at around the same time every morning. It’s been a game changer for me.
My productivity has soared, I am more consistent with my workouts, have knocked off many tasks that were collecting dust and truly do feel a more healthy, balanced, peaceful state of mind, which is huge because as a father, husband and entrepreneur mental health is crucial as it can easily be derailed.
I have even promised myself to go to bed and wake up at the same everyday, meaning even on weekends. This way I won’t have any energy delays or have to experience “social jet lag” on Monday, as I recover from my wacky weekend sleep schedule.
As I alluded to earlier, I am a morning person, which makes me most similar to a lion. Lions are early risers and have the most amount of energy in the morning and start getting tired toward the afternoon, when they head into their afternoon naps.
Whereas, my wife, is the complete opposite. She hates mornings, but comes alive at night! That woman can work wonders at night I tell ya’. She is most similar to a wolf as wolves come alive in the night time, not feeling the need to sleep until after midnight.
When do you function best?
And let’s have some fun…
What is your animal sleep chronotype? If you’d like, for reference, please check out this link to read up on the sleep chronotypes of bears, lions, wolves and dolphins:
https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wellbeing/advice/a1216/what-sleep-animal-type-quiz/
I encourage you to find your natural circadian rhythm and try to keep it consistent everyday.
My inkling is you will become healthier, happier and more amped to take on life.
Let’s go get ’em.
Sonam
