Waking up at 5 AM has added many benefits to my life. In fact, waking up this early allows me to be more productive, and it also connects me with the natural rhythm of the earth. I honestly feel more in-sync with it, and it’s a feeling I wouldn’t trade for the world.

1. Is it Possible to Wake Up at 5 AM in 3 Days?

This post is about my experience trying to wake up at 5 am and how I managed to do that in three days.

For a better and more effective approach (that takes more than 3 days), you can read my post on how to become an early riser. In that article, I shared with my readers the strategy that has helped me become an early riser. And I’ve stated that it’s best to change our biological waking time slowly and incrementally. If we do it too fast, we risk shocking our system and we will simply ruin our sleeping pattern and feel exhausted throughout the day.

But there’s a place and time for everything.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you probably already know that I don’t promote quick fixes on my blog. Quick fixes don’t last and you will lose what you’ve gained rather quickly.

But I have to admit that there are a few tricks that have worked for me and allowed to achieve my goals in the shortest amount of time possible.

But first, let me share a little bit about why I made the switch to rising early.

2. From Extreme Night Owl to Waking Up at 5 AM

Before becoming an early riser, I was an extreme night owl.

I experimented with being a night owl for a few months. And at the time, I needed to be a night owl because I wanted to reduce distractions and maximize my productivity to the greatest extent possible.

When I was a night owl, my days started at 11:00 PM (yes that’s when I woke up). I would brush my teeth, have “breakfast” and head to the office to work on my research. See my story for more context. And I would work from about 11:00 PM till about 5:00 or 6:00 AM. That’s a solid 6 or 7 hours of work. And the best part about it was that I had absolutely no distraction whatsoever. It was great.

At around 6:00 AM, I would leave my office and head to my favorite local coffee shop. I would have a nice cup of coffee and read a little bit until my friends showed up at around 7.30 AM. I would spend some time with them. After that I go to the gym, and meet up with my friends later again for lunch.

My day usually ended around 2:00 PM. That’s when I would head home and unwind from the day. Bedtime for me was around 3:00 PM.

And that was my life.

I would go to bed every day at 3:00 PM and I would wake up at 11:00 PM. I made it work for me. And I experimented with this sleeping pattern for about 3 months. It helped me reach the writing goals that I had set for myself and I made incredible progress on the research I was working on. I was way ahead of everyone else.

On the other hand, my social life wasn’t where I would have liked them to be. At the time, I thought it was a necessary sacrifice — in order to make serious progress in the shortest period of time possible.

I have since switched to waking up at 5 am. I feel much better today working on my goals early in the morning as opposed to late at night. I prefer to work with nature and not against it. The truth is that it can feel depressing at times to work through the night all by yourself. And being a night owl is something most of us can’t turn into a lifestyle. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you were absolutely stuck on some project and you need to make progress quickly.

3. Waking Up at 5 AM

As I said, I am now an early riser. I wake up at around 5:00 AM every day and it’s lifestyle that complements my goals and vision. In fact, I conceived of the idea of starting a blog only when I became an early riser. I now write and edit my posts on this blog every single morning.

Now, let me share with you the tips I used to help me change my sleeping pattern as quickly as possible and helped me wake up at 5:00 AM in 3 days.

3.1 Waking Up at 5 Am: The Night Before

Make yourself coffee and put it in a mug next to your bed. Make sure your mug is sealed tightly so that you coffee is warm enough in the morning. (I personally don’t mind it cold).

Eat a starchy meal at around 8:00 PM to help your body release your sleeping hormones.

Go to bed at 9:00 p.m and don’t use your laptop, tablet, or phone. Make sure you don’t have access to these.

Next pick a novel or magazine that you like to read, but that you don’t love. The goal here is to slowly lose interest after an hour or two of reading so that you will doze off and sleep. If you wake up in the middle of the night, then grab that novel and keep reading until you sleep again.

3.2 Waking up at 5 Am: The Morning

Your alarm will go off at 5:00 AM and the first thing you need to do is grab your coffee mug (make sure it’s not too hot) and drink it while you’re in bed until you’ve finished it.It takes caffeine 20 minutes to get in your system, and if you don’t have a high tolerance for caffeine, you should be up with 20 minutes.

The first 3 days of doing this are going to…suck. You’re going to feel tired and groggy throughout the day. I suggest that you try this on a weekend starting Friday night, so that by Monday you’re little more adjusted. Stay hydrated, stay caffeinated, and don’t fall asleep during the day.

On your third day of doing this, you will feel okay with your new sleeping pattern. But for best results, do this every day for a week. And on day 8, you will be up at 5:00 AM without needing to set your alarm and without needing a coffee next to your bed.

Good luck and consult with your physician before you try this.