Sander8;103016 said:
After reading "
23 Successful People Who Wake Up Really Early", I am wondering whether there are people here who have experience with waking up as early as 5:30. What time do you wakeup and get to sleep again? What do you do on such a morning and how do you feel in the evening? Do you feel tired during the day? Do you need a powernap? Is your day truly more productive?
On work days I'm up before 5am and I go do work (widget cranking). On non-work days I usually wake up at a similar time, without the alarm because my body clock is set to that. I usually go to bed not long after 9pm, although I'll go later if I'm not tired. No point trying to sleep if you're not tired.
I find non-work mornings generally good for reviewing and planning as it's quiet (once the cat's fed) and without interruptions. I try and wind down in the evening by making a point of doing nothing productive and veg out in front of the TV/ read pointless forums on the net (not this one
). If I try to do something stimulating like work on a complicated project during the evening then I don't sleep so well during the night.
Occasionally I feel tired in the afternoon and sleep for 1/2 hour to an hour. Some people believe that humans naturally sleep "biphasically" like this, with a portion of sleep during the night and a portion during the day. I have come to the conclusion that everyone is different, and different in different circumstances when it comes to sleep. Don't get worked up about sleep because this is the one guaranteed way to stop you sleeping!
I've noticed that if I let my body clock drift during holidays i.e. get up later, go to sleep later then I tend to get depressed. This could be unproductive but I have also noticed that a more depressed state causes a re-evaluation of the higher levels, which maybe doesn't occur when I am more focussed on runway projects and activities. But, yes, keeping my body clock advanced seems to have an anti-depressive and motivating effect.