Early to bed…

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.You’ve probably heard this “early to bed” quotation before but did you know there’s a lot of science behind it? It turns out, getting up early really does make you healthy wealthy and  wise.

HEALTHY: An Australian study showed that students who were early risers were more active and thinner that their night owl counterparts. A British study found that early risers were happier too.  If  you choose to exercise early in the morning, you will reap at least 10 early exercise benefits according to Boxing Scene including:

5. If you exercise at about the same time every

morning, and ideally wake-up at about the same

time on a regular basis, your body’s endocrine

system and circadian rhythms adjust to that.

Physiologically, some wonderful things begin to

happen; A couple of hours *before* you awaken,

your body begins to prepare for waking and exercise

because it “knows” it’s about to happen. Why?

Because it “knows” you do the same thing just about

everyday. You benefit from that in several ways..

a) It’s MUCH easier to wake-up. When you wake-up

at different times everyday, it confuses your

body and thus it’s never really “prepared”

to awaken.

b) Your metabolism and all the hormones involved

in activity and exercise begin to elevate

while you’re sleeping. Thus, you feel more

alert, energized, and ready to exercise when

you do wake-up.

c) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by

regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood

flow to muscles, etc.

WEALTHY: According to The 1-Step Plan for Super Productivity, lots of early birds have gotten the wealth worm.

To take a (very) random sample of creative luminaries from the wonderful Daily Routines blog, Charles Darwin, Toni Morrison, Le Corbusier, Stefan Sagmeister, Benjamin Franklin, Emily Post, Gerhard Richter, and William Wegman all make (or made) a habit of getting up early.  

Interviews with millionaires frequently mention rising early as a common contributing factor to their wealth.

WISE: The best students are also early risers (sorry night owls). Certainly those who produce papers on time have learned a few sunrise writer tricks according to Study Hacks.

If you want to learn how to become an early riser (and summer time is the perfect time to start) check out 10 Benefits of Rising Early and How To Do It by Zen Habit’s Leo Babauta.