An Underrated Aspect of Waking Up Early : Backed by Experiment

Welcome ! 

This is a blog post that tackles an issue almost 80% people deal with : WAKING UP EARLY. 

Now given the kind of lifestyle our generation is exposed to, it's no wonder why sleeping on time & waking up early feels like an ordeal of infinite magnitude. Sadly, like many others, I have felt it all my life & rarely succeeded. 

Now there are hundreds of explanations about how to do that effectively. There is the role of diet, exercise, surrounding temperature, sound etc. But there is one parameter that's arguably most dominant :  LIGHT, specifically SUNLIGHT. 

Prof./Podcaster, Andrew Huberman is by far the biggest supporter of this notion on social media. He has repeatedly emphasized the role of SUNLIGHT when it comes to waking up early (& also sleeping early). 

According to science, when we are exposed to light of higher intensity there is reduction in melatonin (sleep hormone) & rise of cortisol (hormone during activity). So, better the intensity better the chance that we wake up. 

But you know, this is all theory. One might ask, why sunlight ? What's wrong with artificial bulb ? So, I decided to conduct an experiment to measure light.  

I downloaded an App (recommended by Prof. Huberman) called LIGHT METER. Then I used it to detect light intensity inside my room in various positions. After that, I slowly moved outside, where I can get real sunlight. Now, here is all the readings I got. 

You can see, there is nearly 30 times rise in intensity if I get too close to light. Now, I am changing position from my room towards open space near the balcony. 

As you can see as I am shifting position from my bed towards sun light, there is a rise in intensity level from 539 to 63625 (more than 118 times). 

Now more light means more photon. More photon means less melatonin. Less melatonin means higher chance of feeling wakeful & active. 

Now I think there is enough evidence to believe that people who say "wake up & get some sunlight" aren't wrong. Also, making it a habit in morning  could be a blessing in disguise, that gives a strong head start to an otherwise regular day.