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How to Wake up Early

I love to wake up early. I know, I know.

It’s no secret that I may be a little… different from most people. I am not a late night person. I really never was. In fact, I’ve always had a pretty early bedtime.

As an adult, the early morning wake up that I love has only gotten more extreme, so to speak.

For many years, I woke up at 3:30-4:00AM. Now, I wake up at 2:30AM every week day and no later than 5:00AM on the weekends. Let me explain.

Why I Wake Up Early

Aside from the fact that I suck a sleeping, I truly enjoying waking up early. There are so many benefits to adding more early morning hours to my day. I feel like, given the opportunity, most people would benefit from waking up early as well. It sounds absolutely awful, having an alarm go off at 2:30 in the morning, but with some adjustments in your day, it’s honestly one of the things that keeps me going and on track.

I am More Productive

Believe it or not, when I wake up early, I am so productive. I get so much done. On the weekends, the off chance that I sleep until 6:00 honestly makes me mad. For me, that’s almost four hours of time I have wasted.

Being able to do things when my family is asleep keeps me focused and on track. I will put my Airpods in and listen to a Podcast or an audio book and get to work.

If I need to do a big project, like dust the house or clear out a space, I can do it without interruption. It gets done very quickly and by the time Leslie and Ember wake up, the whole project is done and I can spend the rest of the day with them.

I have More Motivation

I am always more motivated to get things done when I wake up early. Usually, that’s because I am trying to get whatever I’m working on done before my family wakes up so I have time with them. On the week days, I’m more motivated when I wake up early because I want to get everything done before I go to work.

My favorite thing is coming home to a clean house. Knowing I have anything to do when I get home puts me in a bad mood because after a long day I just want to eat and go to bed. I don’t want to take care of more things.

Waking up early motivates me to complete my daily cleaning routine and start my day.

I Need Time to Myself

When I was waking up at 4:00AM, I still had plenty of time to get myself and Ember ready for the day and do a quick pick up of the house. But I didn’t have time to just sit down and breathe.

I didn’t realize, at the time, that a contributing factor to my stress and overwhelm was the fact that I wasn’t getting alone time. At all.

I love my family and I love being with them but my mind craves time to just be alone. I have such a need to take care of everything and everyone that when I am with people I am always doing and going.

When I wake up at 2:30AM, I have time to lay in bed and scroll on Facebook, if I want and I don’t feel rushed to jump right into everything I want to accomplish that day. I can drink my coffee in peace without responding to the 10K “Mom, can I..” questions. If I want to watch tv, I can, without guilt.

I don’t feel like all I do is Work

By the time I have to get to work, I’ve already had hours of “me time”. I can use that time to accomplish cleaning goals or I can use the time to unwind. From 2:30 until 5:00 I am unbothered by any one. Even the dogs go back to bed after they go outside to potty.

Instead of waking up and immediately getting ready for work, I can stay in my robe and slippers like a boujee rich lady and sip my coffee without a worry in the world. At 2:30AM I’m not a Respiratory Therapist, a spouse or a mom. I’m Candace. That time is for me. Not for work.

How I Wake up Early

Alright, so I’ve told you why I wake up early everyday, but I haven’t explained how. I bet when you think about waking up at 2:30AM you cringe because you don’t go to bed until 10:00 or later.

That’s the difference. By 7:30PM all of my housework is finished, dinner has been eaten and picked up, animals are tended to and baths have been finished.

Ember, willingly, goes to bed and then Leslie and I follow. Rarely do we go to bed any later than 8:00PM.

When I was working 12 hour shifts, I was lucky enough to have a partner who would get dinner ready by the time I got home, which was 7:30. We’d eat and be in bed by 8:30. Everyone in the house likes an early bedtime. On the weekends, if we are out past 7:00 we are all yawning and begging to go home.

I’m not lacking sleep

I get at least 6 and a half hours of sleep every night, which is enough to keep me comfortable and functioning every day.

When I told my psychiatrist that I wake up at 2:30AM every day, his eyes about fell out of his head. Then he counted the hours of sleep I get and said, “Well, honestly, that’s a fine amount of sleep.”

How you can wake up early, too

I’m not going to lie and say that getting my body used to waking up early was easy. It wasn’t. It took about a week to get used to being up that early because I was used to waking up around 4.

My brain wanted to be up earlier, but my body wasn’t having it.

After about of week of diligently going to bed at 7:30 my body started to adjust. Waking up so early wasn’t as terrible as it seemed.

Now, it’s just a normal thing for me. On the off day that I sleep in until six or so, I wake up with a killer headache. I have adjusted well.

The biggest thing that I had to do was remind myself of why I wanted to be up. Getting things done and being productive makes me feel good. It boosts my mood and takes a load of stress off of me. When something needs to be done it is all I can think about. Now, I get those things done. And usually before the sun comes up.

So decide on your “why” and use that thought as the motivation you need to wake up a bit earlier. Once you get a rhythm going, you won’t regret it, I promise.

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