Devlin Brown at the water cooler: An earlier bedtime can make you more active

Work is more stressful than ever and I seem to be more tired every day. I feel as though I can barely lift my legs to walk into the gym, nevermind do actual challenging exercise. What can you suggest?

I don’t think you’d be surprised to learn that this is more common than the alternative: chomping at the bit, barely able to hold in the excitement of getting to the gym and pushing yourself to the brink of momentary muscular failure and physical exhaustion. Sounds charming, doesn’t it?

Last week, my child’s former rugby coach, a CrossFit fanatic, who wakes up at 4am every day to sit in an ice bath in his living room, sent me a short video of former Russian UFC undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. It succeeded in making me feel like a lazy slouch.

Read the quote in your best Russian accent: “Every man addicted to something. Some smoke, some drink, some chase girls, some waste time. But real man, be addicted to discipline, to early wakes, to prayer, to training, to silence. Discipline no need motivation. Discipline move without feeling. Discipline say ‘I go anyway even when tired, even when lonely.’ Discipline is best addiction. You want strong life? Discipline will build it. You want peace? Discipline protect it. You want respect? Discipline earn it. No short cut, only work. Be man of control. Not man with excuse; no cry, no blame. You want better life, start with better habits. Discipline everyday until discipline become you.”

There we go. That’s your answer. It is about as unwoke as humanly possible but also entirely impractical for 99.9% of the population. Or, in the words of Nurmagomedov, am I just making excuses like a weak man? Maybe that is what’s wrong with us: Incapable of segmenting work and life, work and family, the country’s news and our relaxation time?

Fear not, The Water Cooler has come through yet again and has an alternative path to energy and vitality in the gym that doesn’t involve turning yourself into a robot (admittedly, an unbeatable one) who sounds like a Bond villain.

What’s the magic pill? Go to bed earlier. Before you stop reading, no-one is asking you to sleep longer — we all know there are only 24 hours in a day. Though, I kid you not, I think many consultants have found ways to unearth extra hours if you look at how they bill for projects.

Scientists recently published the results of a study that methodically looked at the sleep patterns and exercise performance of thousands of people. The research links earlier bedtimes to higher levels of activity — including moderate and vigorous exercise — independent of how long they actually slept.

Maybe the rugby coach and my grandmother were right: Early to bed, early to rise makes a person healthy, happy and wise. The study, which was referenced across publications, including the Harvard Gazette, demonstrates that both timing and duration of sleep matter. We should all know this. The study’s lead author, Josh Leota, a psychology research fellow at Monash University, was quoted in online resource Real Simple as saying: “I think it is likely that the increase in next-day physical activity has a lot to do with when you go to bed, as early bedtimes allow people to get up early for morning workouts without sacrificing sleep duration.”

The same article quotes a physician called Fayed Hassan Fakher: “One possible explanation is that earlier bedtimes support better sleep quality and more regular sleep patterns, which can result in healthier alignment with the body’s natural rhythms.... The body’s master clock co-ordinates hormone release, like cortisol, which regulates stress, and growth hormone, which supports recovery and muscle growth and many other hormones,” he says. “Early, regular sleep keeps this system in sync.”

In theory, if you go to sleep earlier, which would probably enable a morning workout, you’re more likely to get more benefit out of the session because you won’t feel like a wet rag. The times I have got this right have resulted in the most productive work  hours and intense morning workouts.

Unfortunately, in everyday practice, The Water Cooler attests that it does require some degree of Nurmagomedov-esque discipline to climb out of bed at, or before, 5am during a cold, dark SA winter’s morning. In the UFC legend’s words: “You want better life, start with better habits.”