2778: How to Become an Early Riser by Steve Pavlina on Effective Sleep Strategies

[00:00:00] Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep? That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily, is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations. And these affirmations aren't just comforting, they can help ease anxiety and nurture positive thoughts, setting you up for true good sleep.

[00:00:24] So, press play on Good Sleep tonight because a good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily.

[00:00:38] This is Optimal Health Daily, How to Become an Early Riser by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com and I'm Dr. Neal.

[00:00:47] Hey there, happy middle of the week Wednesday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I read some of the best health and fitness blogs to you and always with a little bit of my commentary at the end.

[00:00:57] Now, today is Wednesday and like I do every Wednesday, I like to share that little bit of inspiration with you.

[00:01:03] Just because Wednesday for many of us is the middle of the work week and we may need that little extra boost to get through the next couple of days.

[00:01:10] So, with that, here we go.

[00:01:13] Quote,

[00:01:14] The hard days are what make you stronger.

[00:01:18] Allie Raisman

[00:01:19] Alright, and now that we're in the right frame of mind, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:29] How to Become an Early Riser by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:01:35] Quote,

[00:01:43] Aristotle

[00:01:45] Are morning people born or made?

[00:01:47] In my case, it was definitely made.

[00:01:50] In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight and I'd almost always sleep in late.

[00:01:55] I usually didn't start hitting my stride each day until late afternoon.

[00:01:59] But after a while, I couldn't ignore the high correlation between success and rising early, even in my own life.

[00:02:07] On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher, not just in the morning, but all throughout the day.

[00:02:16] And I also noticed a significant feeling of well-being.

[00:02:20] So, being the proactive goal achiever I was, I set out to become a habitual early riser.

[00:02:26] I promptly set my alarm clock for 5am.

[00:02:29] And the next morning, I got up just before noon.

[00:02:33] Hmm.

[00:02:34] I tried again many more times, each time not getting very far with it.

[00:02:39] I figured I must have been born without the early riser gene.

[00:02:43] Whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that blasted noise and go back to sleep.

[00:02:49] I tabled this habit for a number of years, but eventually, I came across some sleep research that showed me that I was going about this problem the wrong way.

[00:02:58] Once I applied those ideas, I was able to become an early riser consistently.

[00:03:04] It's hard to become an early riser using the wrong strategy, but with the right strategy, it's relatively easy.

[00:03:11] The most common wrong strategy is this.

[00:03:14] You assume that if you're going to get up earlier, you'd better go to bed earlier.

[00:03:18] So, you figure out how much sleep you're getting now, and then just shift everything back a few hours.

[00:03:24] If you now sleep from midnight to 8am, you figure you'll go to bed at 10pm and get up at 6am instead.

[00:03:31] Sounds very reasonable, but it will usually fail.

[00:03:35] It seems there are two main schools of thought about sleep patterns.

[00:03:39] One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same times every day.

[00:03:42] It's like having an alarm clock on both ends.

[00:03:45] You try to sleep the same hours each night.

[00:03:48] This seems practical for living in modern society.

[00:03:50] We need predictability in our schedules, and we need to ensure adequate rest.

[00:03:55] The second school says you should listen to your body's needs and go to bed when you're tired and get up when you naturally wake up.

[00:04:02] This approach is rooted in biology.

[00:04:04] Our bodies should know how much rest we need, so we should listen to them.

[00:04:08] Through trial and error, I found out for myself that both of these schools are suboptimal sleep patterns.

[00:04:14] Both of them are wrong if you care about productivity.

[00:04:16] Here's why.

[00:04:18] If you sleep set hours, you'll sometimes go to bed when you aren't sleepy enough.

[00:04:22] If it's taking you more than 5 minutes to fall asleep each night, you aren't sleepy enough.

[00:04:27] You're wasting time lying in bed awake and not being asleep.

[00:04:31] Another problem is that you're assuming you need the same number of hours of sleep every night, which is a false assumption.

[00:04:38] Your sleep needs vary from day to day.

[00:04:40] If you sleep based on what your body tells you, you'll probably be sleeping more than you need.

[00:04:45] In many cases, a lot more, like 10 to 15 hours more per week, the equivalent of a full waking day.

[00:04:52] A lot of people who sleep this way get 8 or more hours of sleep per night, which may be too much.

[00:04:58] Also, your mornings may be less predictable if you're getting up at different times.

[00:05:02] And because our natural rhythms are sometimes out of tune with the 24-hour clock, you may find that your sleep times begin to drift.

[00:05:09] The optimal solution for me has been to combine both approaches.

[00:05:14] It's very simple, and many early risers do this without even thinking about it, but it was a mental breakthrough for me nonetheless.

[00:05:21] The solution was to go to bed when I'm sleepy, and only when I'm sleepy, and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time, 7 days per week.

[00:05:31] So, I always get up at the same time, in my case 5am, but I go to bed at different times every night.

[00:05:39] I go to bed when I'm too sleepy to stay up.

[00:05:42] My sleepiness test is that if I couldn't read a book for more than a page or two without drifting off, I'm ready for bed.

[00:05:49] Most of the time when I go to bed, I'm asleep within 3 minutes.

[00:05:53] I lie down, get comfortable, and immediately, I'm drifting off.

[00:05:58] Sometimes I go to bed at 9.30pm, other times I stay up until midnight.

[00:06:03] Most of the time, I go to bed between 10 and 11pm.

[00:06:07] If I'm not sleepy, I stay up until I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

[00:06:12] Reading is an excellent activity to do during this time, since it becomes obvious when I'm too sleepy to read.

[00:06:19] When my alarm goes off every morning, I turn it off, stretch for a couple of seconds, and sit up.

[00:06:25] I don't think about it.

[00:06:26] I've learned that the longer it takes me to get up, the more likely I am to try to sleep in.

[00:06:32] So, I don't allow myself to have conversations in my head about the benefits of sleeping in once the alarm goes off.

[00:06:38] Even if I want to sleep in, I always get up right away.

[00:06:42] After a few days of using this approach, I found that my sleep pattern settled into a natural rhythm.

[00:06:48] If I get too little sleep one night, I'd automatically be sleepier earlier and get more sleep the next night.

[00:06:54] If I had lots of energy and wasn't tired, I'd sleep less.

[00:06:58] My body learned when to knock me out because I knew I would always get up at the same time,

[00:07:04] and that my wake-up time wasn't negotiable.

[00:07:07] A side effect was that on average, I slept about 90 minutes less per night, but I actually felt more well rested.

[00:07:14] I was sleeping almost the entire time I was in bed.

[00:07:18] I read that most who experience insomnia are those who go to bed when they aren't sleepy.

[00:07:23] If you aren't sleepy and find yourself unable to fall asleep quickly, get up and stay awake for a while.

[00:07:30] Resist sleep until your body begins to release the hormones that rob you of consciousness.

[00:07:35] If you simply go to bed when you're sleepy and then get up at a fixed time, you'll likely cure your insomnia.

[00:07:41] The first night, you'll stay up late, but you'll fall asleep right away.

[00:07:45] You may be tired that first day from getting up too early and getting only a few hours of sleep the whole night,

[00:07:51] but you'll slog through the day and will still want to go to bed earlier that second night.

[00:07:56] After a few days, you'll settle into a pattern of going to bed at roughly the same time and falling asleep right away.

[00:08:02] So, if you want to become an early riser or just exert more control over your sleep patterns, then try this.

[00:08:10] Go to bed only when you're too sleepy to stay up and get up at a fixed time every morning.

[00:08:20] You just listened to the post titled, How to Become an Early Riser by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com,

[00:08:27] and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:33] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:09:36] Today's author Steve mentioned something that's so important.

[00:09:39] Find what works best for you.

[00:09:42] There are some sleep strategies that work pretty well for most people, like keeping your bedroom dark and cool.

[00:09:49] If you are laying in bed and can't fall asleep within a few minutes, it probably means you're not sleepy yet.

[00:09:54] You can get out of bed and find something to do that's not too stimulating for your mind and body.

[00:09:59] And as Steve said, reading a book, especially one that's not stressful, can be the perfect way to decompress and encourage sleep.

[00:10:07] But again, try Steve's suggestions to see if they work for you.

[00:10:11] And like him, you might just find your productivity increases too.

[00:10:16] All right, that'll do it for today.

[00:10:18] Thank you so much for being here.

[00:10:20] Thank you for listening all the way through to the end.

[00:10:22] I hope you have a great rest of your day.

[00:10:24] And of course, I'll see you back here on tomorrow's show where your optimal life awaits.

[00:10:29] We'll see you next week.

[00:10:29] Bye.