What Happens When You Wake Up at 5 AM for 30 Days?

This past summer was one of the hottest summers on record in Europe! My husband Lou and I happened to be in Greece for a lot of it, living and working in our van Ody.

As the temperatures rose well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit life was becoming unbearable in the van. By midday our home transformed into a sauna. Our laptops were not handling the new extreme environment well to say the least. Within moments the fans were turned on, and then within half an hour, the whole machine would be lagging, which made video editing very difficult. On top of that, I was falling further and further behind on our biggest project to date - our very first eBook.

So after weighing all our options, Lou and I made the drastic decision to do a 30 Day 5 Am Wake Up Challenge. We'd commit for the entire month to wake up at sunrise, get in a couple of work hours before the heat hit, and hopefully reap all the benefits that early risers claim.

But at some point I had to ask myself that exact question and luckily Google had a lot of answers:

What Are the Benefits of Waking Up Early?

• Better Mood

  • You are far less likely to be rushed, which can immediately bring stress into your life. The extra time leaves room for a quality morning routine that can include mood-boosting tasks like meditation, yoga, exercise, or a healthy breakfast.

• Increased Productivity

  • Rising with the sun allows you to build in quiet time into your day before the rest of the world wakes up. Fewer distractions equal better concentration. Lou and I both found our productivity improved dramatically when we consistently woke up at 5 am, especially on after nights when went to bed early,

• Improved Sleep Quality

  • A lot of the information I found online said that early risers enjoy improved sleep quality. A critical part of that assumption is that you are shifting your bedtime earlier to compensate for the early morning. They also expected that you would create a routine of going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day, which has been proven to improve sleep. However, Lou and I did not feel like our sleep improved at all during the 30 days. In fact, due to our unique situation of living in a van, our sleep quality got dramatically worse.

I thrive as an early riser. I love watching the sunrise. I love waking-up peacefully and enjoying a slow morning. However, in the end, the 30 days of consistent 5 am wake ups really took a toll on my physical and mental health. There were so many nights we got less than 6 hours of sleep and on top of that the quality of sleep in the van was very poor. Going to bed when the world is awake and the sun is still up made it almost impossible to get the critical deep sleep or REM cycles our bodies need. During the month, Lou and I both got sick, which I think was because of the lack of sleep affected our immune symptoms.

But even with the negative side effects, for me it was completely worth it because the majority of our eBook - Live Creatively was written during this month. Granted it was just the rough draft and it would still take us months of editing, recording, illustrating, formatting, and photographing to get the entire project done. Even so, those 30 days were critical and helped me improve my grit and my ability to focus tremendously.

So I guess my question for you is are you an early bird? Or a night owl?

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