Let’s talk about this newfound trend of waking up at 5am. There are a ton of resources, books, articles, talking about this early wake up time, and why it’s beneficial for us. Working out, journalling, meditating, eating healthy — it’s the *perfect* start to the day but… getting out of bed at 5am is not easy.
Before we get into today’s video, let’s clarify a few things.
You don’t have to wake up at 5am to be productive. And waking up at 5am doesn’t mean that you’re automatically more productive. It’s what you do with your time, regardless of what time you wake up. That being said, there’s generally more of an opportunity to get things done without distractions at 5am because as it’s commonly quoted, you’re awake before the world wakes up.
Clearly that’s not always the case as a lot of people do shift work, work overnights, and have rotating schedules. So with that being said, we will context everything today with waking up at 5am but just know that these tips can be applied for any wake up time. If you’re someone who struggles with waking up early in general, let’s cover 7 things you can do to become an early riser, and if you’re feeling up for the challenge, here’s how you can start waking up at 5am everyday, and not feel tired.
How to wake up at 5am and not feel tired
1. What’s your “why”?
The first step to start waking up at 5am, is to have a very clear understanding of why you want to be waking up earlier. In some cases, it might be because you have to get to work or school, but in other cases, it might be because you want to start doing something for yourself.
Maybe you want that extra time in the morning so you can work on that side hustle you’ve always wanted to start. Maybe you want to wake up at 5am so you can have a more relaxed start to the day before work, and have a full morning routine where you workout, journal, and do all of that before the hectic day starts.
Figuring out your “why”, is going to be your biggest make or break when it comes to consistency. Your reason for waking up, needs to be so strong, that it will compel you to get out of bed everyday.
And we’re going to go deeper than a surface level why, using the “5 why’s” method.
The 5 Why’s Method
The 5 why’s is a problem solving technique that’s commonly used to help you get to the root or the core meaning of why you want to do something. So using that last example, if you want to start waking up at 5am to work on your side hustle, here’s how to figure out your real why:
- Why do you want to wake up at 5am?“So I can start a side hustle.”
- Why do you want to start a side hustle?“So I can eventually run my own business.”
- Why do you want to run your own business?“So I can be rich.”
- Why do you want to be wealthy?“So I can do what I want, when I want.”
- Why is that important to you?“Because I’ve always felt restricted in my life with time and money, and I want financial freedom.”
This last point, is your big core “why”. Once you’ve figured that out, write it out on a sticky note, make it your phone background, do whatever you need to do to create a visual reminder of your why.
2. Start in 15-minute intervals
If you’re not a morning person in general, you really need to ease into waking up at 5am. Ripping the bandaid off might work for some people, and it might work for 1 or 2 days, but it’s not very sustainable.
We want to think of this in the long-run. We want to view this journey of getting up at 5am as a marathon, not a sprint.
This means we want revamp our entire sleep schedule, but very slowly and gracefully.
Start by setting your alarm clock just 15 minutes earlier each week. If you currently wake up around 8am, start setting your alarm for 7:45am for the first week. Then move it up at 7:30am, for the next week.
Yes, that might seem like a slow gradual process, and as much as you want results now, if you’ve struggled with staying consistent in the past, this tactic really helps for longevity.
Let’s get there slowly, week over week, so we can sustain it.
3. Listen to your body
Once you start waking up earlier, you’ll notice your body react to it. There will be moments at night, where you feel fatigue much earlier than you normally would.
As soon as you get this feeling of being tired and it’s already the evening, go to sleep. Especially in early days.
Sometimes we get tired, and we go lie down in bed, but instead of actually trying to sleep we turn on Netflix or go on our phones, scroll through TikTok, and suddenly we’ve got all this stimulation and we’re wide awake again.
If you want to wake up at 5am, you probably want to be asleep somewhere between 9pm and 11pm depending on how much sleep you need.
Listen to your body’s cues in the early weeks when you start shifting your sleep schedule. You’ll notice yourself getting tired earlier on in the evening, and just let it happen naturally.
Resist the urge to stay up, because that will throw you off schedule the next morning.
4. Set your alarm out of arm’s reach
For some reason we’re all conditioned to put our alarm right beside our bed. Maybe that’s because that’s where we charge our phone at night, and our phone is our alarm, and we want our phone nearby.
But, even before the phone era, alarm clocks were commonly placed on night tables.
Which never really made sense to me, because it’s the easiest way to hit snooze and go right back to sleep.
And that’s why, you want to make sure you’re doing things differently than everyone else, by starting to put your alarm out of arm’s reach.
If you can hit snooze, while you’re in bed, then that’s too close.
Try to set it on the other side of the room, or anywhere that requires you to get out of bed and walk to your alarm to turn it off.
This is going to make waking up so much easier because you’re already out of bed.
Once you get up though, do not go back to bed and sleep. Fight that voice in your head that’s telling you to go back. Instead, go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, splash cold water on your face, and you’ll already feel more alert.
5. Use a morning alarm that will help you wake up at 5am
Instead of using a traditional alarm clock or the one that already comes on our phones, use alarms that require you to think or take some sort of action.
Alarms like Mathe Alarm or Alarmy make you complete a certain mission in order to actually turn your alarm off.
You can do math problems, you play memory games, some of them require you to do squats and push ups — there are a ton of options.
It’s pretty tough to go back to sleep after you’ve had to solve 10 math problems or do 20 jumping jacks in order to even turn off your alarm.
These apps are totally free on the app store and will completely change how you wake up in the morning.
So, I highly suggest checking them out.
6. Stay warm in the morning
This might not apply to everyone, but part of the reason why we usually want to go back to bed is because it’s cozy and warm. We want to wrap ourselves up in blankets and just fall into a deep slumber.
So to emulate a bit of that feeling, stay warm as soon as you get out of bed.
Keep a pair of sweatpants, a hoodie, right beside you, so as soon as you’re up, you put them on, and you are warm.
This will just help you fight the urge to crawl back into bed, especially when it’s cold and dark outside and all you want to do is hit snooze.
7. Stimulate your senses once you wake up
So if you do live somewhere where it’s dark at 5am, turn on the lights right away.
This is where we want to start getting our senses going once we wake up.
Get the lights on, listen to music that makes you want to dance, light a candle, turn on a diffuser. Stimulate those senses and you will feel so much more alert.
Staying in a cold, dark, and quiet room just reminds you of the nighttime and going to sleep, so you want to pull yourself out of that scenario, even if the sun isn’t quite up yet. Not only does this get your senses going, but these things put you in a positive and happy mood too – which is so key when you’re getting up in the morning.
Any burst of energy you can give yourself will go a long way at 5am.
Read more:
- 7 Habits for a Productive Night Routine
- How to Create a Morning Routine You’ll Actually Stick To
- 10 Daily Habits to Improve Your Life Right Now
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