Waking up at 5 a.m. every day could improve your life—here’s how to make it work for you

Seize the day, we’re told. For some, that means getting up at the crack of dawn—or, more precisely, at 5 a.m. to jump-start the day.

The early morning wakeup has even become a TikTok trend coined the “five-to-nine before the nine-to-five,” where video montages illustrate a slow morning aesthetic of self-affirmations, workouts, and maybe even a head start into planning for the work day. It can make the rest of the world feel lazy.

“The pressure to be a morning person is pretty intense,” says Samantha Snowden, a mindfulness teacher at Headspace, the popular meditation app.

So, will waking up at 5 a.m. make all the difference to your day? Some experts say, yes.

For starters, getting up earlier can improve confidence, Snowden says, because it can feel like an accomplishment. And there’s something to be said for not constantly feeling like you’re in a rush, which only elevates stress levels and negatively impacts mental health.

“It's like always feeling like you are behind in a race you can't possibly win, which isn't useful for motivation or positivity,” says ​​Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi, a psychiatrist based in New York and the medical director of behavioral health at Included Health, about the typical workday morning.

Slowing down helps our nervous system ease off the gas and helps regulates our thoughts, Snowden says. And if you can use those extra morning hours to make time for yourself in a way that calms you down, it can bolster productivity and make you feel less depleted by the end of the day.

If you’re contemplating rising before the sun, experts say you need to keep in mind the following:

Don’t sacrifice sleep

Choosing to move up that alarm should not come at the expense of sleep. Over time, a lack of sleep can lead to negative mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression and put people at risk for chronic illnesses, like heart disease.

“Everyone has a different kind of job with different kinds of demands, and a lack of sleep can present many challenges for us, as far as emotion regulation [and] our ability to focus,” Snowden says. “These are big capacities that we need to get through the day, to be productive and do our jobs well, and to be present for our loved ones.”