This is the fourth part of a five part series covering my quest to become an early riser. Make sure you check out part 1, part 2 and part 3!

Well, what can I say, week three of my experiment has come and gone, and I think things have gone well. This third week was an interesting test of wills at times, as my 6-month old puppy has decided that she wants to wake up every two hours throughout the night. One of the keys to being an early riser (and potentially getting less sleep) is to ensure that the sleep you’re getting is high quality sleep, so you make the most of your sleeping time. When you’re up every 2 hours taking the dog outside, that becomes a little more difficult.

We’re working on breaking this habit, but as I wanted to continue my getting up early, I’ve had to ensure I still get enough sleep. This leads me to a lesson I’ve learned as well. Steve Pavlina had attested to this in his series on becoming an early riser, but the key here was to go to sleep when I was tired. Now, this may seem like common sense, but it’s important to remember that this means letting your body tell you when to sleep. Even if its earlier than you wanted, you have to ensure that you’re getting the sleep you need.  I’ve found that even heading to bed a half hour earlier can give me that extra hour or more in the mornings, so it’s a pretty fair tradeoff.

On another note, and I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but just wanted to touch on it again.  I’ve traditionally been one of those people for whom breakfast consisted of coffee and then eventually a mid-morning snack, or even lunch.  One of the things I’ve really been enjoying each morning is being able to get up and eat a warm breakfast.  Usually it’s just oatmeal, but as the mornings are getting colder and dipping below 0 (below 32 for my southern neighbours), having a nice warm breakfast is a great way to get rid of that morning chill.  It’s also been something that helps me get going, just the process of making the oatmeal (not difficult, but does require movement) and making my coffee (French press, not just a drip maker), gives me some routines that get me moving around the kitchen and get the body waking up.  Even if the mind is a little sleepy, this can help kickstart the day.

So I’m now into the final week of the experiment.  There’s going to be some interesting challenges this week, as I’m actually heading to two concerts, including one mid-week, which can affect when I’m getting to sleep.  Check back next Monday for the final “Wake Up!”-date.

Cheers,

Adam