The Early Bird Gets the Worm... and Early Risers Get Better Grades

The Early Bird Gets the Worm... and Early Risers Get Better Grades A New York Times article on September 9, 2011, To Earn an ‘A,’ Set the Alarm Clock Early, reported that early morning classes, at least at one college in New York, correlate to higher grades. The professors who conducted the study found a direct relationship between later morning classes and higher incidence of alcohol use. The article did not make it clear whether the morning classes were the cause of the tame nights, or whether students already inclined not to drink were the ones who chose early classes. What was clear is that students with later classes drank more and slept more poorly, albeit for more hours, than did their early bird counterparts.   Apparently their grades suffered. Could an early schedule actually be a cause of sobriety and overall responsibility?   If so, it seems that registering for early morning classes is a good idea for any college student.   Why tempt fate? And perhaps the same rule applies to people in the workforce.   Certainly people who get up at 5am for work every day are unlikely to spend their weeknights pounding shots until 2am. So what about business owners and job seekers?   Those early morning BNI and other networking events might be keeping us on the straight and narrow. I am not a drinker myself, but I do know that when I don’t have early morning appointments I tend to stay up later â€" working, not playing, but perhaps I would be more productive if I were to go to bed by 10pm and get up at 5am each day, rather than slide into a 1am to 8am sleeping pattern.   Am I hurting my “grades” by doing that?   I’m starting to wonder. If you are someone who does not have an external force keeping you to a schedule, perhaps it is a good idea to create an early morning appointment of some kind to train you to go to bed at a decent hour.   Some people I know have a mini coaching call with a friend each morning.   Some go to the gym religiously at 7am.   If you knew you would perform better overall by starting early, would you do it? One of my friends and informal coaches keeps telling me I should stop working at night.   I generally haven’t listened to his advice (note:   I wrote this blog at 10pm on a Saturday night).   But I’m going to try an experiment.   This week I am going to go to bed by 11pm every night, and get up at 6am. Will I see a difference in how much I get done, or in how well I do it?   I’ll keep you posted on the results.