The Early Bird Really Does Catch the Worm

The Early Bird Really Does Catch the Worm

During the week of November 7^th to the 13^th, I decided to change up my sleeping routine to see how it affected my work ethic and my mood throughout the week. My curiosity about this stemmed from an article I read that proclaimed that people who rise earlier in the morning are more prepared than people who do not get up early. According to Christoph Randler, “People whose performance peaks in the morning are better positioned for career success, because they’re more proactive than people who are at their best in the evening”. I went from getting up every day according to how early my first class was that day, to waking up at 6 a.m. each day. My normal bed time prior to this experiment was around 1 a.m. each night. However, during this experimental week I was determined to go to bed at 10 p.m. each night. My sleeping routine is very sporadic and it never stays the same for more than a few days. Changing my sleeping schedule seemed at first as if it were going to be incredibly difficult. Initially, I was skeptical if I was going to be able to get all of my homework done if I were to go to bed that early each night. Another doubt about this experiment that I had was that I was going to get so tired throughout the day that I would not perform as well in my school work. However, the outcome proved to be much more different than I had originally anticipated.

            The first day of my experiment was most definitely the biggest challenge that I faced in the entire week. I started my experiment on Monday, November 7^th, and I woke up to an incredibly loud alarm at 6 o’clock in the morning. I definitely had to drink a second cup of coffee this morning to make up for not getting those extra couple hours of sleep. Because my first class that Monday started at 10 a.m., I acquired quite an amount of time to work on homework that morning. Going into my first class of the day I felt energized and refreshed, and I also did when I arrived at my second class that Monday. However, going into my third class, I was not feeling the same energization. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have two three-hour classes in a row and I usually get pretty exhausted afterward. When I walked home from class on that first day of experimentation I honestly felt like I might not make it back because I was so worn out. Needless to say, I was very enthusiastic to get in bed at 10 o’clock that night.

            

Going into the next couple days of my inquiry, I increasingly felt more optimistic and excited to get through the day. Because of my change in schedule, I noticed that I was finishing all of my homework pretty early in the day. This resulted in me having much more free time in the evenings to relax and not stress about all of my assignments. I realized that waking up early and going to bed early was actually a much better option for me. All of the stress from school that I previously had suddenly went away as a result of being able to be more productive with the time that I procured in the mornings from waking up earlier.

            Although I was becoming less stressed out about school, in the last few days of the week I was increasingly getting more tired as the days came to a close. On Thursday, I recognized myself getting very exhausted as I arrived at my 4 o’clock class, which is my last class of the week. That class seemed as it if went on forever, even though it was only an hour long. Walking home that night I did not feel like I was not going to be able to make it back like I felt on Monday evening, but I still felt very tired. I made sure that I did not fall asleep right when I got back from class so that I could finish my homework first. I went to bed that night at the same time I had all week, 10 p.m. However, I heard my alarm that Friday morning and for some reason I just could not get up. I ended up sleeping in another half an hour. As I went to work that day at 8:30 I did not feel as refreshed as I did before. Work that day could not even fast enough. I ended up taking a nap when I got home Friday afternoon. As the weekend continued, however, I was finally feeling that refreshed and energized feeling again. I cleaned my whole room and finished all of my homework that Saturday and left myself the rest of the weekend the rest.

            All in all, I believe that my personal inquiry experiment was very rewarding and I learned a lot about myself from it. Having so much extra time in the mornings allows me to have valuable time that I can get work done without having any distractions. Because of this experiment I am going to try to implement this schedule more into my daily life. I have felt so much less stressed out about school and work because of this change in my sleeping schedule and I believe that if I continue to do this I will be much more successful in everything that I do.

Works Cited

Randler, Christoph. Defend Your Research: The Early Bird Really Does Get the Worm. Harvard Business Review. July 2010. https://hbr.org/2010/07/defend-your-research-the-early-bird-really-does-get-the-worm. Accessed 19 November 2016.