Learn How to Wake-up Early: Personal Experiment

Do you know that 1/3 of our lives are spent on sleep? That's right, 1/3! The largest sleep study conducted shows that sleep QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY.

3 Reasons Why We Sleep

• Rapid eye movement sleep (REM) sleep helps your brain consolidate memories.
• Sleep helps your muscles and organs to rest and recover.
• Sleep cleanses your brain of "toxic" thoughts.

Recently I had to wake up 60 to 90 minutes earlier in order to read/learn, work, or have an early morning workout. In the beginning, I thought that I could just turn on my alarm 60-90 minutes earlier than before, and I will wake up with no problem or any drawbacks.

In the first two-three days, I felt good, energized. However, I started noticing fatigue – physically and mentally. I immediately understood that the problem comes from the abrupt change in my sleeping hours.

I have shortened them, and the body needs time to adapt to what I would like to become the new normal. Cutting sleep hours suddenly have consequences.

I figured out that I need a gradual way to decrease the time from 7:00 to 6:00. So I set up my goal for 30 days. I think that 30 days is enough time for a body to adapt to the extreme or stressful situation and conditions.

Since last summer, I have experimented with 2 different routines. I have also built my ultimate sleep support supplement stack to help me fall asleep faster and deeper. I am a light sleeper, and every little noise wakes me up.

But before I continue with the step-by-step experiment, let me first expose some data about me and some scientific references behind the supplements I used.

1) The Wake-up Early Experiment – Setting-up the Goal

1.1) The Goal

The goal of this experiment was to learn to wake up 60 minutes earlier in the morning than before, without feeling tired.

Instead of 7:00 am I had to wake up at 6:00 am.

1.2) Description

I had to achieve this goal without adding any additional stress to my body and lifestyle, eliminating the feeling of mental and physical fatigue and soreness.

1.3) Who has taken part in this experiment

It was only me.

1.4) General data about me

• Gender – Female.
• Age – 30.
• Health Condition – I am a healthy young woman, eating ‘clean,’ dieting smart.
• Activity – I am an active individual. I usually workout 4-6 times per week.
• Average sleeping hours per night – 6.30 - 8 hours.
• When I usually go to bed - 23:00 pm - 00:00 am.
• Lifestyle - Active, but I am a workaholic. I do indeed stay between 12 and 15 hours per day, 6-7 days per week on my desk, working, reading, or learning.

2) Let Me Just Outline How Busy a Week of Mine Is

• I have 5-6 times per week heavy or intensive workouts (weightlifting and CrossFit).
• From Friday till Monday, I usually stay at home, putting a 15-hour workday on my projects + finishing my everyday activities like cooking, doing the dishes, cleaning, shopping, and so on.
• From Tuesday till Thursday – I go to the office where I work on other projects in a different niche. I put 9-10 hours there. Then I go shopping, cooking, training, working some 2-3 hours moreover my projects, reading, or learning.
• Repeat baby…every week.

Because my mind is clear early in the morning and this is the time when I remember fast, read fast, learn fast, I had to do something in order to wake up at 5:30-6:00 am. Usually, after 18:00, I am not capable to fully learn and memorize. This is normal because I have already exhausted the brain during the day with my work.

3) The Wake-up Early Schedule

Finally, here are the 2 different types of schedules for approaching this experiment and achieving the goal to wake up early in the morning.

Routine 1: Wake up 60 min earlier:

Every day for a period of 30 days, set up the alarm with 2 minutes earlier than the day before.

• Example schedule: If you usually wake up at 7:00 am, the new routine will look like this: 6:58, 6:56, 6:54, 6:52, 6:50...6:00 am.

Routine 2: Wake up 60 min earlier:

Every 2nd day set the alarm with 4 minutes earlier than the 2 days before.

• Example schedule: If you wake up at 7:00 am, the new routine will look like this: 6:56, 6:56, 6:52, 6:52, 6:48, 6:48…6:00 am.

4) Hack Your Sleep with the Sleep Supplements Stack

This table shows the same sleep support supplements stack that I used to further support the achievement of this goal.

5) Scientific Reviews on the Supplements Used in the Wake-up Early Experiment

5.1) Melatonin

Melatonin (5-Methoxy-N-acetyltryptamine) is a hormone present in the organisms of all living beings (from algae to humans).

It has been found melatonin plays a crucial role in our bodies. It controls the sleep-vitality rhythm and the related c changes in the secretion of various hormones (cortisol, testosterone, growth hormone).

Melatonin is a fundamental regulator of the cyclical rhythms of the human body. Melatonin is used as a supplement that helps to wake up early easier.

5.2) GABA

GABA is a biogenic amino acid that is synthesized in the brain.

It represents a major inhibitory neurotransmitter with a large role in the central nervous system (CNS) and the metabolic processes involved in brain cells.

GABA is associated with states of relaxation and mental concentration. It helps us to fight chronic anxiety by not allowing neurons to overstimulate.

GABA causes muscle relaxation, but its sharp deficiency can lead to convulsions. GABA supplements will truly help you to wake up early in the morning when taken before bedtime.

5.3) 5-HTP (Griffonia)

Griffonia is a bush that grows in West Africa. The plant is known as the richest natural source of the 5-hydroxytryptophan amino acid. It constitutes 20% of the mass of the bush.

In traditional African medicine, Griffonia is used as an aphrodisiac and antibiotic. It also helps with diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. The leaves of the plant can use for faster wound healing.

Nowadays, Griffonia is used for the treatment of anxiety, nervousness, depression, insomnia, migraine, headache, and appetite regulation. These Griffonia positive effects are due to the 5-HTP amino acid, which helps the body to wake up early and easier in the morning.

5.4) L-OptiZinc

Zinc is a mineral that has earned the status of an extremely deficient mineral. This is due to its features and is not only related to the absorption in the gastrointestinal tract but also with its easy disposal from the body under specific conditions.

Generally, we can divide the problems of zinc deficiency into two main categories - problems with absorption and problems associated with rapid loss of zinc in the body.

Low levels of zinc may negatively affect the fatigue strength and endurance during physical activity. Zinc supplementation demonstrates a delay in fatigue and improves endurance.

5.5) Glycine

Glycine is a nonessential amino acid. This means that glycine can be synthesized in the human body, as sources for that are the amino acids serine and threonine.

Glycine is present in both animal and plant sources. Because its main concentrations are in the soft tissues, animal sources are far richer in concentration. The richest source of glycine is the gelatin protein and all sources of gelatin - cartilage, skin, and other soft tissues.

5.6) Magnesium

Magnesium is one of the most important cofactors in the human body, along with zinc and manganese. Magnesium is the mineral that is believed to be involved in most enzymatic reactions. That makes it one of the most important minerals for the maintaining of the health and normal condition of our body.

Magnesium is important for the chemical reactions associated with the nucleic acid (groundwork for DNA and RNA) and is involved as a cofactor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions.

How to wake up early with magnesium supplements? Just take it before bedtime, and it will significantly help the body to wake up early faster.

5.7) Vitamin C

Vitamin C, also known as Ascorbic acid, helps with many important functions in the human body. It is very important to know that this vitamin cannot be formed inside the human body. Therefore, it has to be taken as a supplement (either by food or tablets).

First, it improves the function of white blood cells, which has the function to detect, destroy, and devour viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells.

The white blood cells of people, who take vitamin C in the range of 2 to 3 g daily, show higher activity. Vitamin C is an essential antioxidant. It enhances the action of other antioxidants, such as vitamin A and vitamin E.

6) Additional 13 Sleep Tips and Hacks for You to Follow

• Go to bed as earlier as possible (I am trying little hard with this one).
• Don’t overtrain. Keep your workouts short and sweet.
• After a workout, take dosages of glycine and magnesium, as shown above in the table.
• You can take Vitamin B Complex (25-50 mg complex) before a workout.
• Eat more collagen-containing meals, soups from animal bones.
• Drink more tea with calming effects - St. John's wort, Peppermint, Lemon balm, Valerian, Kava.
• Try to turn off all wi-fi connections and phones during your sleep.
• Take a walk during the daytime.
• Earthing/Grounding (Barefoot training).
• No caffeine after 4 p.m. (only if you are caffeine intolerant).
• Avoid bright lights.
• Avoid using computer 2 hours before sleep (yeah, I am struggling with this one, too).
• Sleep in a pitch-black room.

7) Conclusion

Following the steps above helped me achieve the above-mentioned goal. Using the sleep support supplement stack helped me to convert this experiment into a daily routine.

Let me know what tricks do you use when you want to wake up early.