Setting your alarm for 5am is seen as impressive, aspirational and is a social-media phenomenon. Could it work for you or against you?
Odds are you know somebody who gets up at 5am and calls that habit a superpower or life-changing. If you’re one of those people, good on you if that works for you, honestly!
But, personally, I don’t get the 5am miracle morning thing. I’m focusing on trying to load up on seven or eight hours’ sleep. I had to get up at 5am recently to catch an international flight and my lizard brain was telling me this is just bad and wrong.
Let me be clear: this is about my personal preference, not in any way judging of others. People who genuinely enjoy and/or benefit from getting up at 5am and doing cold-water swimming or hitting the gym or meditation or journalling or yoga or more than one of these things, good on them. Often 5am-ers use the time to hit personal improvement goals and/or do things they otherwise wouldn’t have time for. I mean, that makes sense.
Gwyneth Paltrow is an extreme example. But she rises at 5am for an Ayurvedic oil pull (a what?), a 30-minute tongue scrape (again, what and also half an hour?). Then she does 20 minutes of transcendental meditation (I have questions) followed by a personalised dance workout. Gwyneth, you do you. (Does she annoy anyone else or is it just me?)
If you have a 10-step beautification process with 23 different products, good for you but also for me, nope. Two minutes or less doing a cleanse, tone and moisturise is as far as that goes.
Truth or Fiction?
Motivational speaker Robin Sharma introduced the name ‘the 5am Club’ concept over 20 years ago, based on what he calls “a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity”. Bulletproof? I don’t quite buy that. I’d always assumed his book The 5am Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life was a self-help book but it’s actually fiction, centred around an entrepreneur facing burnout, an artist seeking creative rejuvenation, and a billionaire who guides them. FICTION. Hold up: maybe people are pretending they’re getting up at 5am just to feel part of a club?
Then again, people have photographic proof that they belong to the 5am club (unless they’re pretending in rooms with really effective blackout curtains). There are 17.5 million posts on TikTok by people about their #5amClub routines. Ye gods. And that’s just the people who post.
One TikTok shows an attractive 27-year-old influencer (of what I’m not sure – maybe of influencing 5am-ing?) getting up, looking like a zombie, putting on exercise gear, exercising at the gym, pulling out some loofah scrubs, showering (you can’t see her body), and slurping something that looks like lemon honey from a jar? It’s probably a vitality shot or something. There’s a strange soulful voiceover from an older British man: “The illusion is that change takes time. The truth is, change happens the moment you decide. You don’t need more time. You need a shift in being. You see there are infinite versions of you. Each living a life shaped by a different choice. The question is which one will you tune into?” I guess it’s a lifetime of Loofah scrubs, elliptical machines and vitality shots. Her TikTok focuses on the different types of exercise equipment she uses, which yes, exercise is good, but influencers tying 5am starts to women improving their appearance bothers me a bit.
Also, it bothers me that getting up at 5am is positioned as aspirational, more disciplined (than, say, 7am-ers), and even has a subtext of superiority. There are many articles promoting it including ‘10 Simple Tips to Wake Up at 5AM (And Actually Love It!)’; ‘How to Wake Up at 5AM: 10 Science-Backed Strategies That Actually Work’; ‘Six Reasons Why Waking Up at 5am Is Good For You’; ‘The Complete 5 AM Club Guide: 7 Rules to Transform Your Morning Routine’ and many, many more.
That said, a friend mentioned that sometimes we can be judgemental of women who get up at dawn, but not of night owls. Which I’ll admit, is a pretty good argument. If you’re asleep by 9pm and getting up at 5am, and that’s your cycle, that makes sense.
An Accountability App?
Here is a pertinent post in r/productivity.
Question: “Does anyone actually wake up at 5am routinely by choice? I see people online talking about how they start their day at 5am and love the way it makes them feel. I’ve been trying to wake up at 5am everyday this past week but failed each time. My goal was to start my day with yoga, a run, or swimming laps at my local pool before having to go to work. The problem is that I’m not committed to it yet and definitely have not been going to bed early enough. I am still trying to condition myself to become a part of the 5am club but I am wondering, is it worth it? What have your experiences been with this? Any tips for transitioning to this routine?”
Someone commented: “when I was doing it, I used an app I built that would charge me money if I didn’t get up and scan my toothpaste barcode within 5 mins of my 5am alarm”. (I am simultaneously amused and dumbstruck by this.)
Someone else commented: “You built an app that charged you money? Where did the money go? I need something like this for accountability.”
Answer: “The money goes to charity (Khan Academy). If you wanna check it out, it’s called Nui Alarm Clock.”
Nui thanks. I’ll be donating to charity in the regular way.
Another commenter also had a tactic. “I joined a gym that you have to book into the classes. They charge a $20 fee if you’re a no show. Now I get up at 5am every day. The trick is to never ever hit snooze!”
And another person commented: “This 5am shit is incredibly dumb. Some people are late owls, and will perform a lot better waking up later. Don’t listen to these productivity morons and wake up when your body wakes you up. The whole ‘billionaires wake up at 5am’ is an utter load of nonsense. Most people forcing themselves up early are gone to force themselves to an early grave due to the vast health issues associated with undersleeping.”
What is a chronotype?
Earlier this year Radio NZ ran a syndicated story called ‘The 5am Myth: Waking Early Won’t Make You More Successful’ by Christoph Randler, Biology Professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He’s spent 20-plus years analysing the sleeping habits of thousands of people – and personally tested very early mornings and late nights.
Here’s what he writes. “At 5am, social media fills with proof that the early risers have already won the day. Cold plunges. Journals. Sunrise runs. Productivity gurus insist this is the routine that separates high performers from everyone else, reinforced by high-profile early risers such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, entrepreneur Richard Branson and Hollywood actor Jennifer Aniston. The message is simple: wake earlier, perform better.”
But the science tells a more complicated story. “For many people, a 5am routine clashes with their biology and can undermine both health and productivity. Much depends on your individual biological rhythm, or ‘chronotype’. Chronotypes reflect when people naturally feel alert or sleepy, and genetics play a major role in shaping them.”
Basically, don’t mess with your chronotype.
“A common belief is that adopting an early routine will deliver the same benefits seen in natural morning types. However, chronotypes are not easily changed. They are shaped by genetics and circadian biology. For many evening or intermediate types, waking earlier than their natural rhythm can lead to sleep debt, reduced concentration and poorer mood over time.”
“Aligning routines with biology beats forcing a one-size-fits-all 5am start.”
Cristoph, I feel so validated right now.
But also, in the interests of investigative journalism, I got up at 5am for four days, crawling to the kitchen like an unimpressed lizard to make a cup of tea. I meditated (well, I tried to and fell asleep til my neck jerked me back awake). I did a weird improvised exercise routine of uncoordinated kickboxing moves that no one should ever have to accidentally view through a floor-to-ceiling window. (Sorry, 5am-er neighbour on a run.) I did some journalling but ended up journalling about why 5am is not for me.
I hated it. It exhausted me. It felt unnatural. Some people said, well, you have to trial it for a week or two before you know.
Nope. I already know. Again I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with getting up at 5am, I’m just saying it’s absolutely not for me.
But of course, it’s whatever works for you!
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