Improving my mood by changing my wake up time: I experimented with different wake up times and 6:15 am won

Originally published on Medium

I experimented with waking up at different times to see how it affects my mood. And I noticed an improvement when I wake up before 7:00 am.

The experiment started this summer when I took advantage of my flexible schedule and began snoozing my usual 7:30 am alarm.

My brain interpreted the later wake up time to mean “Go to bed later!” And since I slept later again, I snoozed the alarm again the next morning.

And so the Sleep Late-Wake Late cycle began again.

This happens sometimes, thanks to a lifetime of sleep troubles. It’s a familiar cycle that I have to break out of. And I can’t break out of it by going to sleep earlier. That NEVER works.

What works is a hard reset by waking up very early.

Even if I sleep late the night before.

This summer, I accidentally broke the cycle by waking up early for an appointment. The alarm rang at 6:00 am and I opened my eyes, fully awake. I didn’t even think about tapping the “Snooze” button.

The scientist in me wondered “Is my 7:30 am wake up time making me want to snooze my alarm?”

So I decided to test it out. I woke up at different times each morning and noticed how I felt.

7:00 am — Feel more awake but still tempted to snooze my alarm.

8:00 am — Feel so pessimistic, want to keep sleeping. Ugh, why am I getting up.

9:00 — Feel a bit more awake but still groggy. And now the day feels off since I woke up later than usual.

6:30 — Feel more awake, getting up was less of a chore, less tempted to snooze the alarm

6:00 am — …Am I me? What are these effortlessly positive and happy feelings?? Not tempted to snooze the alarm. Hmm…

6:15 am — I think this is the right time. Still feel positive, happy, looking forward to the day, not tempted to snooze.

My conclusion based on my very scientific self-experiment? Waking up between 6:00–7:00 am greatly improves my mood.

This doesn’t surprise me though. I’ve always loved being up early. There’s something special about being awake when the world is still asleep. I used to wake up at 5 am for church activities and half the fun was being out and about early.

Oh and update: One month later and the 6:15 wake up time is still working.

I wake up at the same time everyday (yes, even weekends). Improving my mood just by changing my wake up time was a successful experiment.

My next challenge? Going from “No, I’d rather stay awake than go to sleep” to “I like going to sleep!”

….We’ll see how that goes.