What if I told you I was writing the bulk of this article before I’ve even had breakfast, on a school day? Would you deem me a lunatic, tell me I should go to sleep and wake up at a humanly hour? I would understand if these were your initial reactions, as mornings are among the most universally deplorable concepts existing in modern day, and having to get up early in the morning is an even more detestable situation. Your morning probably looks something like this: you get up, you brush your teeth, you throw on some clothes, maybe acquire some time to eat a granola bar before booking it out the door. I know this is the most likely case, and I also know that it is the very reason why you object to the morning arising each day when your alarm goes off. When you don’t have time to do things that make you happy and set you up for an actually enjoyable day, you won’t actually enjoy your day.

Start by waking up just fifteen minutes earlier. Now, this deducted fifteen minutes of shut eye shouldn’t radically set you back energetically. Fifteen minutes, I find, lies right in the sweet spot of being able to get more done before your day starts while also not causing you to be too tired to function. However, if you’re going to bed at two in the morning, you can’t blame me for your lack of energy. Kindly go to bed at a reasonable hour that works with your schedule and set your alarm just fifteen minutes earlier than you typically would. 

Now, what to do with these extra fifteen minutes. A fair question, of which I have a myriad of answers. Is there something you’re putting off? Should you read your book for English for a few minutes? Feel like exercising or going for a walk around the block? You could always try for eating an actual breakfast (it’s the most important meal of the day, you know) or even watching a few minutes of your favorite TV show to set the day right, and get you in a good mood.

There are other perks to getting up early that you may not think of in your pessimistic haze, some of which have some very emotionally beneficial impacts. Firstly, and my personal favorite part of the morning, is that you might be able to catch the sunrise. Frequent are the mornings in which I look out my window, my mood instantly brightening. The emotional effects of a colorful sky should by no means be underestimated. A more concrete benefit of waking up early is that it decreases your stress level by allowing time for a calm, well paced morning routine, leaving behind the need to rush around like someone who doesn’t wake up early. Lastly, it’s shown to improve your sleep, as you are able to get through all sleep cycles at night, thus, leading to more enjoyable rest as well as a greater amount of energy to dip into throughout the day.

Now that you’re educated on the benefits of waking up early, I encourage you to try it for a week. Just a week of waking up fifteen minutes earlier than usual is what I urge you to do. If after a week you see not even a sliver of improvement in any realm of your life, give it up and sleep in longer. Hopefully this trial run of earlier rising will get you practicing a new habit that pushes you closer to a mark of improvement in some aspect of your life.