The 5 AM Club: Sleep deprived student edition

Edited by: Tanisha Sehgal

Yes, I read the book. 

Yes, I was very inspired. 

For all of four minutes. 

Reality took a few minutes to hit, but it hit hard. Waking up at 5 AM with a full seven hours of sleep was simply not possible for me, a university student who was up until well past midnight every night either doing assignments or procrastinating on the assignments I should have been doing.

Robin Sharma offers some noteworthy pieces of advice in his sensational book, The 5 AM Club. From starting the day well to setting it up for success, while making sure that all spheres of your life are balanced, the book is an excellent read and quite motivating.

That was how I felt for those four minutes, by the way. Like I mentioned – reality then hit, and I remembered that I was a university going, barely functioning adult with the time management skills of a koala. 

So of course I decided to go ahead and implement this in my life anyways. 

I failed on step 1: going to bed on time to be able to wake up at 5 AM. 

With theatre practice until 11 PM, and then the additional few hours spent doing last minute assignments and scrolling through social media, it was much more likely that I would go to bed at 5 AM rather than wake up. But I still set my alarm, woke up to hit snooze until 7 AM, before finally rolling out of bed and, well, setting up my day for success.

Sensational start notwithstanding, I did quite well following the rest of the advice the book had for me. I worked out, meditated and did a bit of studying, all before breakfast. 

I was still a sleep deprived student, though.

Even though I was incorporating good habits into my schedule, I wasn’t really doing it in a healthy way. I was running on fewer hours of sleep, two of which were filled with constant alarms and pressing the snooze button. It began affecting my performance in class – I was more snappy, less enthusiastic to take part in things I enjoyed, and overall, more of a grinch.

The drop in my mood and energy levels made me rethink my strategy. I began setting up my alarm for 7 AM. I still tried to work out every day, but I didn’t beat myself up for missing a day. I slept in on some days, and barely made it to class in time. I still tried to meditate whenever I could. And – well, I’m a student. Learning is a part of the job. So I did that too.

I made sure to focus on my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. 

I wasn’t perfect – there were days where I would be too busy cramming for a test to make sure I met all my emotional and physical requirements. But I tried to follow the main advice from the book: to start my morning positively and energetically. I put up a poster and everything. And some days, I was still a grinch. But hey, at least I got enough sleep.

It’s okay if your morning doesn’t start well. It’s okay if you don’t tick off all your boxes for the day.

It’s okay if your 5 AM starts at 8.

• book
• Book Review
• college
• health
• mental health
• morning routine