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Why you should wake up early in the morning and sleep early at night?

“Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
                                      -Benjamin Franklin

Probably, we all are familiar with this quote of Benjamin Franklin, but is it true? Does sleeping and waking up earlier really work? 

These types of questions might rise in your mind when you listen that going to bed and waking up early makes you healthy, wealthy and wise. So in this article, you are going to get all your answers about the sleep,and what role does it play in your life?

Good Quality Sleep 

As it’s important to eat and exercise so taking a good quality sleep is incredibly important for your all-over health too.

What is a good quality sleep? Getting a sound sleep of of 7-9 hours at night and waking up with full of energy is known as a good quality of sleep. The sleep cycle changes as we get older, your body needs less sleep in older age. It is fine to sleep 5-7 in old age.

Sleep is an essential part of our life. It recharges and relax our body and brain to do functions properly. Healthy sleep helps to remain healthy and stave off diseases. 

We all have an internal biological clock, that regulates our 24 hours sleep-wake cycle, scientifically known as circadian rhythms. At night when the atmosphere is dark then our brain triggers the release of melatonin (a hormone released by pineal gland that makes us sleepy)

Not sleeping enough may lead to many health problems.

Poor Sleep Cycle

According to Princess Cruises’s ninth Relaxation Report, more than half (about 51%) of adults worldwide reports they get less sleep than they need on an average night, and 80% of adults say that, they are using weekend days to make up for sleep lost during the week.

However, due to our fast and stressful life, most people are sleep deprived. This leads to tiredness, low productivity and even long term chronic illnesses. 

Millions of people suffer from a lack of sleep or sleep deprivation. If you are try to to go to bed early and cannot get your proper amount of rest to help you feel energetic next morning, there may be some reasons.

  1. Anxiety – Always thinking about your problems and taking stress. Thinking more about your problems, always cause more anxiety and you will never be able to sleep.  
  2. Electronic Devices – Using your electronic device before going to bed disturbs your sleep. Because it’s blue light is like the light of a day so our brain thinks that it is not night yet, and brain doesn’t triggers the melatonin to sleep.
  3. No sleep schedule – There is not a particular time to sleep. Most of the people spend a lot of time in useless activities. They keep them indulge and stays up at late night. Decide a particular time period of your sleep and follow it for at least a week. In beginning you will feel it a bit harder but in some days your body will get use to it.
  4. Temperature – If the temperature of the atmosphere is too hot or too cold, you will wake up in midnight that would disturb your sleep.
  5. Sleep Apnea – This is a sleep disorder, marked by disruptions in breathing while sleeping which will wake you up abruptly. Seeking treatment will give soothing effects. 

How does it effect?

Not getting enough sleep can lead to many health issues in the long term. Sleep deprivation can weaken you immunity, cause obesity, depression hypertension, and even road accidents while driving.

Sleep Early and Waking up Early 

Focus on the positive aspect of things because when you focus on the benefits you will receive, it becomes much easier to develop and stick to the habit. Sleeping early and waking up early improves concentration and memory power too. One thing is certain, early morning is the time of least distractions. Our minds are also the calmest, making it a time of absolute focus and productivity. The environment is undisturbed and pure, an ideal time of yoga, meditation and workout. The Power of getting something done by lunch which was hard to achieve otherwise end of the day is something you wouldn’t wanna miss.
Sleeping at right time and taking enough sleep helps you getting more productive and creative. One should get up one and half an hour before the sun rise so that you can synchronize with the rhythm of the sun.
The ideal time of a good sleep is between 10p.m. to 6a.m. According to Ayurveda, you should sleep before 10p.m. and wake up before the sun rise.

Tips to adapt Healthy Sleep Cycle

We need some concrete and practical steps that will actually make us wake up not once or twice but daily with ease and energy. 
  1. Sleep Early – Is is a fact that to sleep early is bigger challenge than to wake up early. But if somehow you manage to sleep early, half the job is done. Obviously it’s easier for a person to wake up at 6 a.m who goes to sleep at 10 p.m. than a person who sleeps at 12 a.m. Our body gives the signal after sunset to sleep when the melatonin is released. Studies have shown that it is much easier to sleep at 10 p.m. than 12 p.m. as the melatonin level begins to drop. To sleep early set an alarm before the bedtime. You can read a book or listen calm music to relax your mind before going to bed. The idea of relaxing the mind is not to stimulate the mind but to calm it down.
  2. Have a light dinner – Do not overeat and have your dinner atleast two hours before going to sleep. Have you noticed that when you overeat at night you feel groggy and difficult to wake up? It happens because a lot of energy has been used in the digestion process.
  3. Prepare your mind – Just think that, when you need to catch a flight early in the morning and you need to wake up at 4 a.m. and you sometimes wakes up before the five minute before the alarm. Why doest it happen? Because consciously or unconsciously you were preparing your mind to wake up at 4 a.m. To wake up early, tell your pillow what time you want to wake up, it will wake you up, by this practice you will feed your subconscious mind to wake you up at the time you want to wake up. If you think it is bit silly, than you are underestimating the power of subconscious mind. 
  4. Give a strong reason to yourself – Decide, why you want to wake up? Give yourself a good strong reason so that you have enough motivation to wake up in the morning.
  5. Somehow pass the first 10 minutes – The first 10 minutes upon waking up are the most difficult. Do not snooze the alarm. You can keep your alarm clock/mobile at a distance from your bed for which you have to get up from the bed to stop it. You can drink warm water and can go in the balcony to feel the atmosphere in the morning. Feel the undisturbed and pure environment in the morning. Somehow spend the first 10 minutes and the morning will be yours.

DOs and DON’Ts

  • Luke warm cow milk will help you sleep faster and better. You can add sleep promoting herbs like ashwagandha, saffron, nutmeg, turmeric and cinnamon, to make it more effective.
  • Avoid stimulating drinks like coffee and tea after 5 p.m.
  • Avoid working-out late at night. 
  • As we live in northern hemisphere so choose any direction other than north. Because if head is towards north, the blood will flow towards the brain due to magnetic pull leading to disturbed sleep. East is the best direction for us.
  • Sleep on the left side, it promotes good digestion 
These seemingly small things will help to improve your sleep quality. A thing you can notice about the people who wake up early, have a fixed schedule, they aren’t tempted for an extra episode, random browsing and scrolling Instagram. So try to sleep at a fixed time. I am sure that the ways suggested will help you to improve your sleep pattern and quality. The golden rule is that 
“The longer you do it, the easier it gets.”
Truly there is nothing more satisfying than waking up early in the morning. 
  • The tone of the day is set right,
  • Effectively you have much more time in your hands, 
  • You get more productive, 
  • Your mind remains calmer, 
  • Health will be yours and then 
  • Success is just next door. 

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