Timestamps
00:00 Podcast introduction00:31 Welcome to episode 2
00:49 Find a style that works best for you
01:37 What is chronotype
02:41 Take into consideration your chronotype
03:10 Increase the quality of your sleep by getting morning sun exposure - tip from Dr Andrew Huberman
03:43 Becoming an early bird - tip 1 from Dr Andrew Huberman
04:47 Becoming an early bird - tip 2 from Dr Andrew Huberman
05:01 Becoming an early bird - tip 3 from Dr Andrew Huberman
05:17 Be aware of exercising too early to bedtime
06:07 Consistent sleeping schedule helps to improve your sleep quality
07:04 Consider the amount of caffeine you intake
07:28 Set an alarm to go to sleep vs alarm to wake up - tip from Alex Hormozi
08:26 Style 1 - early bird
10:19 Is it necessary to be an early bird to be successful?
10:49 Style 2 - "normal"
12:48 Style 3 - night owl
13:15 Answer this question to find a style that works best for you
15:30 Focus on what you do after you wake up vs what time you wake up
15:58 Old study talking about the quality of each hour of sleep before midnight vs past midnight
16:34 My current understanding of the style mostly used by successful people
17:02 Episode 2 recap
Podcast Description
Welcome to the Work Hard Sleep Well Podcast with Kris Nowak, where we explore the million dollar question - how can we optimize our sleep for maximum performance, productivity, and success in our busy lives as entrepreneurs and working professionals? Join me as I document my journey of discovery in real time and share practical tips and tricks from successful entrepreneurs, working professionals and sleep doctors to help you achieve the best sleep possible.
As we explore different sleeping schedules, proven tricks, and changing relationships with sleep over time, this podcast is tailored for entrepreneurs and working professionals who want to improve their sleep quality, increase productivity, and perform at their best. We understand that you have a lot on your plate, and our aim is to help you manage stress and achieve a better work-life balance.
Through interviews with successful entrepreneurs and sleep experts, we provide unique insights and perspectives on sleep and rest, with a focus on productivity and performance. You can look forward to hearing from a diverse range of guests and answering intriguing questions that you won't find elsewhere. Join us on this journey to discover the secrets to unlocking your true potential through restful sleep.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Work Hard Sleep Well Podcast with Kris Nowak, where we explore the million dollar question - how can we optimize our sleep for maximum performance, productivity, and success in our busy lives as entrepreneurs and working professionals? Join me as I document my journey of discovery in real time and share practical tips and tricks from successful entrepreneurs, working professionals and sleep doctors to help you achieve the best sleep possible.
So welcome to the episode number two, what time does entrepreneur wake up? I'm your host Kris Nowak and I'm super excited to talk about this episode because I actually find it very interesting. Okay, so first of all, before I actually get into any of this, I think it's important to understand that it's far more important to find a style in general that works best for you
instead of getting caught up and I have to wake up at a certain time. Otherwise I can't be productive. I can't be successful. I can do whatever it is that like you actually come up with. I don't think it's actually very important what time you wake up as long as it works best for you and it allows you to be successful, be productive. It optimizes your lifestyle. I think that's far more important than getting caught up and I have to wake up at a certain time.
Okay, so now with that being said out of the way, what has to be considered here in terms of what time you're going to be waking up is your chronotype. And chronotype is your natural inclination to wake up naturally at a certain time. And the way I understand this, because not so long ago, like it may actually, it may seem like.
You know, now we live in the buildings and we have electricity and internet and smartphones, but not so long ago, it actually wasn't like this at all. And, you know, we as humans struggle to actually survive. And so, for example, if everybody would go to sleep around the fire or in the cave or wherever we were living at the time, at the same time, then we would be actually exposed to predators and to the danger.
So what nature did is it staggered the way people go to sleep. So rather than having 100% of people asleep at the same time, let's say 30% of the people will be sleeping and then the rest of the rest of the people are actually awake. So in case something happens, they can wake up other people and we can still survive as a species. So, you know, and then the first group would wake up and another group is going to go to sleep. So
naturally the way we are inclined to go to sleep is not the same for everybody, right? So understanding what your natural inclination is to wake up is a good starting point. It's a really good starting point. And so the next thing here is, okay, so according to Dr. Andrew Huberman, most people that believe that they're not early birds could actually become early birds given that
that's what they want. If they actually increase morning sun exposure. So this is something I learned from Dr. Andrew Huberman. It actually does so many great things for the quality of your sleep. If after waking up in the morning, you can get quality sun exposure, just natural sun exposure outside for 10 minutes or less, depending on how sunny it is and where you live. If it's super cloudy, it's still actually very beneficial for you.
But within an hour after waking up, if you can get outside, get some natural sun exposure, it's going to anchor the way your body is reacting to the environment. It's going to anchor your sleep for you really well. Just simple thing, just getting natural sun exposure. So most people, given that they would like to become early birds, and currently they believe they're not early birds.
they're not waking up early is because they're not getting enough sun exposure. And I could totally see why this is because so over the last few years and everything is moving towards us working remotely, working more in front of the computer screens, you know, just being like even separated from people, you know, we work like an entire day in front of the computer. It's not, we don't feel the way we used to feel. And we don't spend nearly enough time outside the way we used to spend time outside.
So if you can actually implement spending some time outside in the morning after you wake up, just getting that natural sun exposure, it's going to anchor your sleep. It's going to help you wake up early and anchor your sleep in general and increase the quality of your sleep in general. So another couple of things, and I also learned this from Dr. Andrew Huberman. So if you want to wake up early in the morning, first of all, getting morning sun exposure helps. And then second of all,
if you can actually eat your meals earlier in the day, digested earlier in the day, it's going to face advance your sleep. So you're gonna naturally be able to wake up earlier that way. And lastly, exercising earlier in the day. This makes sense, right? Because after exercising for about two to three hours, your body temperature is elevated. So this is actually exactly opposite to what needs to happen if you want to fall asleep.
when your body is falling asleep, your body temperature is decreasing and has to drop. So if you exercise too early to the bedtime, too early to when you want to go to sleep, it may actually make it harder for you to fall asleep because your body temperature is elevated and now in order to fall asleep it needs to drop. So that's obviously not going to work very well. So if you can exercise earlier in the day, earlier in the morning, let's say you wake up,
You get your morning sun exposure, you exercise, maybe not right away, but within, you know, in the morning, you exercise in the morning, by the time it's evening, your body already had lots of time to cool off. Your body temperature has stabilized already. So there's no issue there, right? But if you exercise later in the evening, it's going to, it may actually be harder for you to fall asleep earlier in the evening, if you exercise later in the evening. Okay.
Another thing in terms of improving your sleep quality overall and this doesn't Regardless of which sleeping style you're going to actually Choose for yourself having consistency is is massive here. It's key It actually anchors your body, you know, like every now and then you can actually stay up later Which is going to make it harder for you to wake up at the same time my experience. It's still possible It's going to make it harder
But every now and then if you stay up later, but you still try to wake up at the same time you usually wake up, it actually anchors your body to wake up at a certain time and you naturally going to feel that around that time your body will naturally start to wake up. Otherwise, no, if today you wake up at 9 a.m. and tomorrow you wake up at 11 a.m. and then the next day after that, you wake up at 6 a.m. you're all over the place and your body doesn't really have that anchor to help you sleep better, right?
So that's another big tip for improving your suite quality.
And this, so then lastly.
I've considered like consider your caffeine intake. If you drink coffee too late in the evening or too late in the day, it may actually make it way harder for you to fall asleep. So depending on the way you digest caffeine and depending on, you know, like which sleeping style you want to actually like choose for yourself, you may wanna consider what time you take in caffeine. So.
It can actually work for you instead of working against you. Uh, another nice trick, a nice trick, uh, from Alex Hormazi. He had a video about sleep on YouTube really like lots of value there. But one thing I learned from Alex Hormazi is rather than setting an alarm to wake up in the morning, he would set up an alarm to go to sleep in the evening and he would wake up naturally because he obviously exercises a lot. He works out a lot.
So his body may need more sleep. And in general, like your body may need more sleep on a certain day than on other day, right? So rather than forcing yourself to wake up at a certain time, you set up an alarm, you go to sleep at a certain time, it's anchored, it's fixed. And then if you need to sleep in in the morning a little bit more, then you sleep in. If not, you're just gonna wake up naturally at the same time. So he just kind of reversed it, I think that's a.
Pretty cool idea the way he did it. Okay, so as far as I'm concerned, there are three styles of waking up. So the early bird, you know, wake up early, go to sleep early sort of thing. And a lot of this like hustle mentality, the grind mentality, the way CEOs are, it's kind of promoted, this is the only way to be, right? But this actually may not work for you. Like you need to decide yourself whether this is going to work for you.
From my experience, I actually, I've done this and it actually worked really well for me. I didn't really feel like I was inclined to do this in the morning, but what I find is if you typically stick to waking up at a certain time for 90 days, for 90 days, it's going to form that habit and then it's gonna be literally like automatic to wake up at that time. So you have to kind of like push through it for 90 days and after 90 days you're.
you're good, like you can actually adjust to any, you can wake up at any time you want, if that's what you want, like realistically. So waking up as an early bird, definitely it feels more productive doing this. Because so in the morning when you wake up, let's say 4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m. sort of thing, most people are actually asleep at this time. So you can have an hour to yourself, two hours to yourself, depending on what you want to do. You could meditate, you could read, you could journal.
You could exercise whatever it is that you want. But you know, if you wake up later, then like everybody else is already waking up. You may have responsibilities that you have to take care of your kids, whatever it is that like you actually need to do, right? But if you wake up early, you might actually have some extra time for yourself.
You probably, if you do this like early bird sort of thing, you probably wanna enjoy like a power nap sometime before noon to help you get through the day. Cause if you wake up early, you know, by the time it's noon, like already so many hours went by, you may feel a bit like exhausted. So power nap really does help you get through through the day in that case. So is it absolutely necessary to be an early build to be successful? I don't think so. I think...
I think a lot of people portray it that way that like you must wake up at, you know, like before it's even bright and whatnot. And meanwhile, it may work for some people and their advantages to doing this for sure. It may not necessarily be the best way for you to go forward. So you kind of have to decide for yourself. Okay, so then another one early bird is done. Another one is sort of like I like to call it like normal, right? The normal style.
So you would wake up at around 7 a.m. and you would go to sleep at around midnight. And I think this is the way most people are, okay? So I think if you exercise in the evening sort of thing, let's say 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m. sort of thing, and going back to what I mentioned earlier, you know, for about two to three hours after you exercise intensely.
your body has elevated body temperature. So it's going to be very hard for you to go to sleep when your body temperature is elevated because when you fall asleep, you actually need to drop your body temperature. So extrapolating, let's say, you know, you hit the gym for two hours, you go hard at 6 p.m., so it's 8 p.m. You know, by the time you get home, by the time you eat like a proper meal, it's probably 9 p.m. or so, right? And you still wanna give yourself a few hours to rest, wind down.
to let your body temperature drop before you go to sleep. So if it's like 9 p.m., it's probably around 11 p.m., maybe like closer to midnight by the time you're done with all this. So, you know, is this ideal? Like you kind of have to decide for yourself. Certain people actually prefer to work out in the evening versus exercising in the morning. I've tried exercising both in the morning and the evening. And personally, I actually prefer to exercise in the evening, right?
So, and then also I train MMA right now and exercises, the practices are in the evening. So naturally, you know, after like doing like a hard practice of MMA, like an intense practice of MMA, my body temperature is very elevated. I will naturally feel inclined more to, you know, go around, go to sleep around 11 PM or so, right? So currently that's kind of where I fall in right now. So the normal sort of style of waking up.
I used to be an early bird and I used to be a night owl and right now I'm normal and I believe if you actually want to switch things around, you can. So you just kinda need to decide what works best for you. And then lastly, the night owl, right? You wake up later in the morning or afternoon and you go to sleep way later at night. And I think a lot of creative people, a lot of creative people use this sort of style.
Um, you know, they would stay up later, do most of their quality work later in the evening and they would go to sleep way past midnight.
They would probably exercise and eat their meals later in the evening. And you know, at the end of the day, I think whichever style you really choose for yourself, the early bird, the normal style or the night owl or the chronotypes as you call them, uh, you know, I think at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. This doesn't really matter. Like what time you wake up, what I would definitely focus on is which style allows you to do.
the most quality work, to be the most productive, to be the most successful and to optimize your lifestyle in a way that like you get the most of everything, right? Because so depending on the stage you're at currently, maybe generating traction in business and focusing on generating results, maybe that's way more important to you currently for where you are, right? But maybe after a few years of doing that, you realize, okay, so now I generated a bunch of traction in business.
Now I want to switch things around. Maybe you want to start playing tennis five days a week, whatever it is that you want to start doing more often. You may adjust things so you have more of a balance. So you sleep well, right? You work well, you do quality work, but you also have lifestyle. You exercise, you have sports, you have hobbies. So I think it's about finding the formula that works for you instead of getting caught up in, I have to wake up as an early bird to be successful and to live my life.
happily and in a fulfilled way. Otherwise, it's not really going to work for me. I think that's a wrong mindset to look at it. And I definitely found myself thinking that way in the past. I would definitely feel guilty if I don't wake up at 5 a.m. and I don't grind an entire day. I would feel guilty and unproductive and whatnot. But it's definitely not true. Because at the end of the day, so in my previous podcast episode number one,
I talked about how many hours does entrepreneurs sleep. So on average, according to National Sleep Foundation, people will sleep somewhere between seven to nine hours. So whether you get these seven to nine hours, get seven to nine hours of sleep earlier in the evening, or you get them later at night, it doesn't really matter because you're still gonna sleep seven to nine hours. What matters is what do you do with your hours after that?
Like what's happening with your hours after that? For instance, you know, you wake up, because you could actually wake up like very early in the morning as an early bird, and then just waste your entire day. Meanwhile, you could wake up as a normal or night owl, and after you wake up, you know, you're dialed in, you exercise, whatever it is that you wanna do, and you're gonna be super productive. So I don't think what time you wake up is actually that crucial here. The emphasis should be on what do you do after you wake up and what are your habits and systems.
the way things are structured. And so then lastly, so I think in the last 10 years, there's been more study and research done and our understanding about sleep has increased so much compared to the last 100 years combined, which is crazy. And we still actually don't know a lot about like what's happening when we sleep. But there was an old study done that said,
that each hour of sleep before midnight is equivalent to two hours of sleep after midnight. And you know, so this may or may not be true. I think if you literally believe that it actually works that way, it's going to help you get more quality sleep or whatnot. But if you don't really get that sleep prior to midnight, it's okay as well. It's okay as well. You have to select something that works best for you.
So I just wanted to mention that because I've heard about it and I think it's very interesting and you know, based on my understanding and what I see a lot of successful people do, but not only maybe I just haven't really met the ones that do these different styles. A lot of them actually do this early bird sort of thing. They would go to sleep early. So, you know, like 9 PM between 9 and 10 PM, they probably already go to sleep and they get their sleep early and they wake up early as well.
right? But is this going to work for you? I don't know, you have to decide for yourself. Okay, so with all that being said, I hope that I actually was able to help you understand what time does entrepreneur wake up. It's somewhat personal, you have to decide this for yourself. Okay, I will see you in the next episode. Peace.
