{"id":5280,"date":"2024-07-15T10:34:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T14:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=5280"},"modified":"2024-07-15T10:34:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T14:34:09","slug":"is-waking-up-at-5-a-m-the-secret-of-happiness-and-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/07\/is-waking-up-at-5-a-m-the-secret-of-happiness-and-health.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Waking Up at 5 A.M. the Secret of Happiness and Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been called the morning miracle, getting up before everyone else and winning the day, but does it actually make you more focused and productive? The extreme early start as a cultural phenomenon first exploded on social media, inspired by Robin Sharma\u2019s book\u00a0The 5 am Club<\/a>\u00a0and other hashtag-friendly titles such as\u00a0The Miracle Morning<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Power Hour<\/a>. Leadership guru Sharma\u2019s catchphrase \u201cOwn your morning, elevate your life\u201d has inspired legions of smug people \u2013 sorry, highly disciplined individuals \u2013 to share their impressive #5amClub routines (17.5m TikTok posts).<\/p>\n

To a skeptic, there is a degree of magical thinking to much of this. If you can just do this one thing \u2013 get out of bed while others sleep \u2013 you will have time to get fit, eat healthily and achieve all your goals. Still, after scrolling through a tsunami of turmeric lattes, gratitude journals and sun salutations, you\u2019re inspired to try it. Why is this so hard? Russell Foster, head of the\u00a0Sleep<\/a>\u00a0and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at Oxford University, said he wants to know why you would want to sign up for the 5 am club in the first place. To say he is scathing about the fetishization of the early start would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing intrinsically important about getting up at 5 am. It\u2019s just the ghastly smugness of the early start. Benjamin Franklin was the one who started it all when he said, \u2018Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,\u2019 and it\u2019s been going on ever since. It goes back to the Protestant work ethic \u2013 work is good, and if you can\u2019t or won\u2019t work, that is, by definition, bad. Not sleeping is seen as worthy and productive.\u201d There is plenty of research indicating that getting up early can make you\u00a0happier<\/a> and even\u00a0make you eat more healthily<\/a>. However, Foster points out a major pitfall. \u201cIn order to get enough sleep, many people would need to go to bed at 9 pm. Unfortunately, most of us aren\u2019t able to do that because we have all this stuff we need to do, whether that be helping kids with homework or putting a load of washing on. So, the danger is, we don\u2019t actually get to bed when we should, and another factor is that other people are likely to be still making noise around you, so how are you going to get to sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n