The 4 AM Club

Posted on by Analise

Good morning everyone!

It’s Lise here, live from my house for the early, early morning show.

I have loved mornings for a long time, I’d say almost 7 years now. It all started when I was studying for STEP 2. I would wake up at a regular time in the morning and get started with studying – no distractions. But then by the time that afternoon hit, my energy would wane and it would always would be near impossible to get back to my studying groove. *Cue the chopped and screwed version of Lets Groove Tonight*

The thing that I chose to do to fix this was to wake up earlier in the morning. I wanted to maximize the time when I was most productive, and this was one way of doing it.

This sounds really crazy to some people (hello, night owls), but it is just what worked for me. Other people have their own methods- for instance, my husband is a die-hard nighttime person. He gets most of his work done at 10 pm and I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone actually work.

I held on to being a morning person because I think there is real value in waking up in the morning very early-

  • More time in the word
    • I feel like my best time with the Lord is the time when I am not feeling rushed and I am not looking at my watch constantly. Waking up at 4 and then just sitting there with the Lord and not feeling like there is anywhere to go or anything to do right this moment is comforting and freeing for me
  • It’s quiet
    • I don’t just mean quiet like silence, but literally, the world isn’t even up yet. Your preferred news app isn’t binging you, there is no one on Instagram, it’s just silent.
  • More time to get other things done
    • My mind works so well in the morning, and maybe that’s just because of the silence and the unfiltered time that I have at 4 am.
  • Consciously surrendering my day
    • I would argue that this is even harder than actually getting up. Waking up allows me to solicit God to help me to surrender the day to him. It is a reminder that though it is quiet right now, the deluge of emails, texts, work, frustrations is coming. I want to make sure I am intentional about my day before I have to make quick reactions when I am in the moment (they are usually not the God honoring reactions when that happens). This is the time that I give the day up and say that his will is the purpose of the day.
  • Studying
    • Since I am able to focus in the morning, I try and do some studying in the morning if I can. This also gives me a sense of accomplishment during my day because if I have done nothing else, at least I studied. 🙂
  • Working out
    • I prefer working out in the morning for the same reasons as above.
    • Also, if I work out in the morning, I am more likely to make better choices during the day. If I have worked out, I am less likely to ruin whatever workout I did by eating 1 ton of chocolate. I still do sometimes because I love chocolate.

This is how I started out those 6 (7?) years ago.

  • Set the alarm early
    • This is a given, but seriously… set the alarm for the time you want to get up.
    • I love several alarms- the one that apple provides is fine, but I usually have to get another extra alarm because I can disable alarms in my sleep and have no recollection of it in the morning. If you know me, you know I sleep like a rock.
  • Back up the time gradually
    • If waking up cold at 4 am is not ideal in your mind (and it won’t be). Set it first at 6 am, then at 5:30, then 5 over the course of a couple of days. See how well you do on each of those times and what barriers are keeping you from achieving morning greatness.
  • Good sleep hygiene-  Tips that work for me
    • What is sleep hygiene, first of all? Well it is making sure that you are doing everything to get QUALITY sleep.
    • This means turning off bright lights a couple of hours before bed (including the sun that lives in your phone). If you wake up before you plan to, not going to your phone or watching TV (or doing something that will tell your brain that you should be awake) and instead doing something like reading a book- the key here is avoiding bright lights.
    • If you wake up in the middle of the night,  give yourself 20 mins to fall back asleep, then get out of bed to do something like read a book before attempting to sleep again.
    • Thankfully, there are several resources online about good sleep hygiene!
  • Going to bed like a morning person does.
    • Remember that the recommended amount of sleep for most adults is 7-9 hours (some of you are saying in your mind that you function well on 5 hours of sleep, and that’s fine, but look up the cardiovascular outcomes of people who get this amount of sleep)
    • If you get enough sleep, you’re more likely to wake up on time and also not feel like the walking dead.
  • Grace for the setbacks
    • Since writing this post, things have changed significantly in my life and I currently have a small human that oscillates between being a night owl and a morning baby. I am giving myself grace when I don’t wake up quite when I want to and I am letting it flow because goodness this is my first time around! 🙂

Hope this helps!

Love,

Lise