Since You Can’t Be An Early Riser
Whenever a man wakes up is his morning
- African proverb
I have heard and read a lot about a certain “high correlation between success and rising early”. I would not discount this theory since like many in my constituency I’m really not in a position to. But I’ll just shift our attention a little to another reality all must be conscious of as new theories are bandied about.
Rising early I understand has to do with going to bed on time (this is relative) and getting up before sunrise.
It is said to present an advantage over the lazy bones in life’s marathon for survival. Others swear it is spiritually invaluable as you can pretty much commune better with the holies in the quiet of the early morn. There is of course the smug view that being able to jump out of bed early in the morning when it is most tempting to smash the alarm devise and roll on is certainly self mastery.
Now tell me, how does all this concern you if you live in a mosquito infested lucky to have electricity for fifteen minutes in a week city?
If you attempt a study on sleep you will not miss stuff like REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and NREM (Non Rapid Eye Movement) phases of sleep.
I often wonder about these because for many of us our night sleeping experience is more of RBM (Rapid Brain Movement) sleep. (Sorry if you never heard of it).
You are constantly on the look out if power will be restored so that you can update your blog or press your clothes or power the pumping machine for water or watch that DVD you’ve rented for a whole week without getting the chance to see it, among many other things. If you are not worrying about these (remember you are sleeping) you are strategising how you’ll grasp and crush that irritating mosquito that has been making noisy rounds over your head while wishing it would just perch and bite away and spare you the noise!
Talking about noise, the Asian manufacturers of power generators having made the machines quite affordable now sees the nights turn into a crazy bedlam as noise capable of raising a whole cemetery is what you have for a “peaceful night.”
Where then lie your chances of rising early so as to achieve success?
Yet for many you still need to get up early to go to work. If you have had 3 hours of sleep even if you turned in at 8pm you’ll be very lucky indeed.
Sleep debt is then your eternal burden.
Do you blame this person for staying in bed longer on weekends?
Because then at least you have the day time when mosquitoes are on leave. The noise (now from various other sources) you can deal with because, well, it’s a better situation than dealing with noise and mosquitoes at the same time.
I can offer some tips if your sleep reality prevents you from reaching the mark. But first let me say that the early rising of a thing is not consistent with any scientific conclusions so don’t kill yourself if you can’t measure up. Forcing yourself up at a particular time everyday when every night has its own set of challenges is not wisdom (believe me because I’ve been there). Rather, work towards achieving the recommended and generally agreed 6 – 7 hours in dreamland a day.
In the mean time however, note these:
1. Don’t let an opportunity to nap pass you by
In the bus, on the queue (if you can manage it), in the restaurant, while waiting in the bank, just nap away. You can’t believe the wonders of short 10 – 15 minutes nap.
2. Always remember that day or night, 6 hours is 6 hours
If you run shifts at work or are unemployed (like me) or are usually lucky to get electricity at night and peace in the day time, readjust your sleep pattern to suit your situation. Our circumstances are not the same so there can never be any hard and fast rules about anything.
3. Never never never do sleeping pills
You may wonder why I add this but I’ve seen folks who when they get the opportunity to pay their sleep debt go overboard and apply sleeping pills to maximise the opportunity. You already have enough challenges and you don’t want later to grapple with reduced brain cell activity, impaired physical ability and the ever present danger of addiction. Do a solid 7 hours and you will be fine.
The most important thing is what you do with your waking hours. Do you invest your time judiciously?
This I think is what you should be most concerned about, because, really, whenever a man wakes up is his morning.