Celebrities are waking up earlier to improve their health each day. Photo / 123RF
OPINION
Richard Branson, Anna Wintour and Michelle Obama set their alarms for it. On TikTok, a viral trend is currently serving up videos in which serene women all rise at the same (early) hour for affirmations, workouts and herbal tea-fuelled planning sessions, under the hashtag “the five-to-nine before the nine-to-five”. The new place to be seen is not a place at all, it’s a time. Welcome to the 5am Club.
According to research published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, early risers are more proactive, a quality tied to professional success. They are also happier, suggests a study from the University of Toronto, and even eat less sugar and fat, according to a 2017 Japanese study.
For the truest disciples, however, personal transformation involves more than simply setting your alarm at an ungodly hour. The early bird’s holy grail is a book called The 5am Club, published in 2018 and written by leadership expert Robin Sharma, whose clients have included Nike, Coca-Cola, Nasa and Microsoft.
To achieve “productivity, prosperity, performance and impact” on the scale of “superstars, virtuosos and geniuses”, he suggests, you must follow a formula dubbed “20/20/20″. From 5am ‘til 5.20am, you exercise. From 5.20am to 5.40am you meditate. Finally, from 5.40am ‘til 6am, it’s self-improvement and learning time.
As someone who struggles to unpeel their eyelids at 7am, this all sounds terrible. Torturous even. My children have just gone back to school, which means that between the hours of 7am and 9am, I negotiate several high-level peace talks, serve as PA to two extremely busy bosses, and also – inevitably – track down someone’s lost left shoe.
Then the day job begins. Why would anyone (unless they are mad or masochistic) add to this to-do-list? One line in the book, however, reels me in: “Take excellent care of the front end of your day,” Sharma writes, “and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself.” I decide to give it a go. What do I have to lose except my sanity?
I consult one of the most productive women I know. Saira Hameed is a consultant in endocrinology and diabetes, a senior tutor at the Imperial College School of Medicine, the author of two books and a mother of four. She also wakes before 6am every morning.
“The extra early hour is my ‘magic hour’,” she confirms. “The day still holds a lot of promise, my motivation is high... I spend the day talking to patients and colleagues. Home is very busy and energetic too, so this is the one time of day that is all mine and solitary. I value the sense of peace, as well as the time for thought organisation. I can be totally focused. Plus, having things ‘up and running’ before the kids get up gives the day a much calmer start and we can – mainly – avoid leaving the house in a chaotic flurry.”
This is the holy grail. Yet day one finds me groggy and oddly seasick. I suspect I know why. Sharma is as strict on bedtime as he is on rising: “It’s not only the calibration of the first hour of your day that’s mission essential for leadership excellence and exponential productivity, but also the management of the last hour of your evening.”
Members of the 5am Club aim to turn their phones off by eight, unwind with an Epsom salt bath or a book ‘til 9pm, and then prepare for bed. All this will help to regulate production of melatonin (“the chemical that informs your body that it needs to sleep”, writes Sharma) and human-growth hormone or HGH (to “raise your moods, cognition, energy levels and lean muscle mass”).
It is uncannily similar to the routine I’ve installed for my own children. Ironic then, that getting them ready for the next day finds me struggling to complete my own “pre-sleep ritual” on time.
I have settled into a state akin to jet lag. Where’s the promised productivity and clarity? “While those extra morning hours can seem tempting for increased productivity, it’s essential to maintain a healthy sleep routine,” says Guy Meadows, a leading sleep expert and co-founder of Sleep School.
“Abruptly shifting your wake-up time without adjusting your bedtime can lead to sleep deprivation, which can have detrimental effects on your overall wellbeing. Sleep is crucial for cognitive function, mood regulation and physical health. If you consistently sacrifice sleep to gain more morning hours, the increased tiredness and lack of sleep will likely cancel out any productivity gains.”
Meadows suggests gradually adjusting your sleep and waking times by 15 to 30-minute increments.
“Exercising from 5am to 5.20am ... will significantly lower your cortisol and, therefore, dial you into your top performance,” writes Sharma. I have yet to see my fortunes rocket to Richard Branson levels (he, too, starts the day with tennis or cycling), but the third time I haul myself out of bed for some aerobics, I do have a minor epiphany. The online classes were gifted to me by a friend nearly a year ago, and have been gathering digital dust ever since. Who has the time? Suddenly, I do. Completing the short course, I feel elated. Whether this is due to shedding cortisol or guilt I cannot tell, but exercising first thing has other health benefits, says consultant cardiologist Dr Neil Srinivasan, who gets up at about 5.30am.
“One study found that people who exercised before breakfast burned double the amount of fat than the group who exercised after breakfast,” he says. “That’s mainly due to lower insulin levels after you’ve fasted overnight, which means you use more of the fat from your tissue and muscles as fuel. For that reason, exercising first thing will also improve how your body responds to insulin, and lower your risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
Waking at 5am also grants me the time to open the three different mindfulness apps I have on my phone, which have hitherto sat reproachful and unopened on my screen. Or rather, it gives me time free from the distractions that usually tempt me away. Carving out time for silent reflection feels like a miniature spa break for my mind. Could this be why a study published in Jama Psychiatry found that people who were genetically predisposed to getting up one hour earlier than those deemed “later risers” had a 23 per cent lower risk of depression?
That genetic disposition matters, says Hameed, especially if you are considering joining the 5am Club: “Our circadian rhythm is pretty pre-set, making people either a natural lark or a natural owl. The research on this is strong, with the scientists who led the field being awarded the Nobel Prize.”
The world, she points out, is largely set up for larks – school start times, work schedules and more all work in their favour, which could explain the many advantages that studies appear to grant them. Either way: “As a natural lark, being up early feels really good (and natural) to me,” says Hameed. “But I would only advise my patients to get up early for the buzz of that ‘magic hour’ if they are a natural lark too. Owls will be happy and productive later in the day and should work with their natural circadian rhythm.”
Is there a third category, I wonder? The perpetually knackered? I text Dr Srinivasan to ask. “It’s called being a parent,” he shoots back.
According to a 2021 study from Binghamton University, meditating for 10 to 15 minutes a day can boost the brain’s ability to switch into a state known as “dorsal attention network” – the one required for a demanding task like learning something new.
So following my guided meditations, I have begun using the final slot in my “20/20/20″ routine to tackle a subject that has confounded me since school. I listen to an economics podcast while walking the dog and return, refreshed and fractionally less confused, just as the rest of the house is stirring. Start the morning being productive instead of reactive, suggests Sharma, and the rest of your day is primed for improvement. I’m increasingly inclined to agree. And increasingly at risk of smugness, I note.
My alarm no longer sounds like a death knell. Currently, however, I’m propelled out of bed by the prospect of an immediate and very large coffee. This, explains Emily Leeming – a registered dietician and gut health expert at King’s College London – might not be ideal in the long term: “Don’t have your coffee before breakfast,” she advises. “Have it at the same time. A study found that having a cup of coffee first thing after poor sleep can negatively impact your blood sugar levels.” Oh dear.
“If you’re rising early and not getting enough sleep – or not good enough quality sleep – then that can also wreak havoc on your blood-sugar levels, making you tired, cranky and more likely to eat high-sugar, high-fat foods,” she explains. It’s true. Research published in the Obesity Journal in 2017 established a link between long-term early rising and a more balanced diet. In the short-term, however, my new routine definitely finds me at the snack drawer more frequently throughout the day. The fix? “Start with a savoury breakfast to help you feel fuller for longer,” suggests Leeming. “Eggs on wholegrain seeded toast, or pumpernickel with avocado and rocket.”
The habit-forming process, says Sharma, takes 66 days. Yet while I’m still struggling to fall asleep early enough to offset the early rise, I can feel my body and mind beginning to play ball. Starting the day with peace instead of pandemonium is truly a tonic.
For the first time in a long while, I find myself able to calm the anxieties about unfinished jobs or mammoth to-do lists that typically tear through my mind at night, like rally drivers round a circuit. I know that I have two extra hours in the morning to deal with it all. And yet... 5am still feels a little… extreme. It is an exclusive club, and perhaps I do not meet the entry criteria. I find myself thinking about rising at 6am instead, when I could still complete the 20/20/20 routine, before the rest of the house wakes at 7am. “Your excuses are seducers,” writes Sharma. But the snooze button still seems tempting...
Recipe: There’s so much flavour packed into these rustic scones.