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Getting up early is the dumbest ideology of our time. Of course, that does not mean that everyone is crazy who gets up early. Job, kids, pee, there are good reasons. The problem is that there are too many people who attach moral value to getting up early, even though they do not have one. Getting up early is as good or bad as getting up late, but it's not treated that way. Early risers are equated with performance, energy, discipline. Late riser is equated with laziness, depression, lack of drive control.
One might think that this assessment is a special problem for conservatives, capitalists or Protestants, but the fetishization of early rising can be found in all kinds of political and social milieus and age groups. What Generation 50's "morning has gold in the mouth" and "early bird catches the worm", is U50's "morning routine".
For a while half of the internet has felt full of young people telling each other about their morning routine. If you have not heard of it, google it. Morning Routine is currently the thing on Instagram, YouTube, in magazines and blogs: The perfect start to the day, yoga exercises for your power morning, tips for morning routine with dog.
That would be okay somehow, but: Almost all influencers who report on their morning routine tell of getting up between five and seven in the morning, even though they work freelance and have no children, and that's probably how it should be, otherwise there's no time for all the things to do in this routine: sports, reading, meditating, thankfulness diary (better not googling), reading the newspaper, dancing to a custom-made productivity playlist of the day on the yoga mat (no joke, real example) , healthy breakfast. Some people also say that they have not found the perfect time to get up, they range between 6:15 and 6:30.
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"Morning Routine" really only describes the phenomenon that people feel good because, depending on their perspective, they have grown up or become stuffy. They do the same thing very early in the morning and therefore feel energetic - and superior to others: really meditating before you all got up, you losers. Nobody among the morning routine disciples says they get up at 11:00, although statistically, there should be those for whom this is the best time.
A mega hit among the morning routine tips is the advice to make the bed immediately after getting up every morning: because then you have "already done something". One simply suggests that making the bed is the first step to success. This may be true for people with certain medical conditions, for healthy people it is lived self-seeking.
Getting up early is a pseudo-virtue
Getting up early is a totally overrated, potentially unhealthy fake virtue whose supposed value is far too rarely questioned. Those who get up late make themselves suspicious. I'm doing a lifelong study. One of the reasons I chose to work as a freelance writer is that you can go to sleep and get up when you want. When I tell people not to call me before noon because I'm still asleep, and preferably from 2pm: priceless look. A mixture of disbelief, contempt and envy. But if I say then that I work until 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning: big breath of relief. Aaah, because of work, well then it works!
I often hear that this will be done with my late-day rhythm as soon as I have a baby. May be. But that's why it's important to tackle getting up early as a political problem. Traditionally, people in the literature on this topic are divided into so-called larks (early rhythm) and owls (later rhythm), with scientists assuming that only 40 percent of adults clearly belong to one of the two types, mainly due to genetic and environmental influences as well as the age and sex is due. The rest moves more in the middle range and is more adaptable.
But that also means that it is by no means the case that most people are genuinely larks about genetics and that is why so much of their everyday life is based on their preferences - so to speak for democratic reasons. There are no good reasons to glorify early getting up and lack of sleep, unless one finds duty and profit go beyond happiness and health.
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There have been long time and again demands to let the school lessons later, because young people are more so-called owl types. But even adults suffer from the rule of the early-ringing alarm clock. Of course it is not only the fetish of getting up early that is responsible for the permanent fatigue of many people, which has become normal. Also, the fact that there is electric light and Netflix today can not adequately explain the condition. No, it is also because sleep is not seen as a valuable activity in capitalism.
If you've stumbled upon the word "activity", then you too have internalized that thought, I'm afraid. Jonathan Crary describes in his (highly recommended) book "24/7. Late Capitalism and the End of Sleep", among other things, the funny fact that we know a "sleep mode" for devices - a state in which they are not turned off, but have limited functionality. As if sleep was not much more than missing some features. "Sleep is," writes Crary, "the uncompromising interruption of time stolen from capitalism."
But instead of a rebellion for more sleep-friendly structures, companies are offering products to help them fall asleep or wake up, and those who are staying overnight like to grab them. And instead of the many accidents and mistakes that happen to people when they are not sleeping well - who has not slept properly for a long time, is as sane as a drunk person - to appreciate sleep more, one hears that "mindfulness" that new thing is, the solution to everything.
My thesis: The whole mindfulness circus is only an attempt to stay focused despite chronic sleep deprivation. Self-optimization with maximum ignorance of physical needs. Instead of reading mindfulness books or using apps, people could sleep longer - if the system would allow them: flexible working hours, daycare, late school, all system questions.
In the video: Many ways, one goal - restful sleep
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If all this is not convincing, then there is only one piece of information on the way, which should increase our appreciation for sleeping in the immeasurable. Sleeping in has almost ushered in the end of Hitler's dictatorship (expressed only in a few simplistic terms). When the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944, it was still very early in the morning. Hitler was still asleep (which should be the final counter-proof if you thought I wanted to use this text to say that late-risers are the better people). The responsible Colonel-General decided not to send any panzer divisions yet and to wait until Hitler had risen - various sources say, sometime between 9 and 10 o'clock - and only then was the situation discussed. So much for "Germany, wake up".
How much suffering would be spared us if more people slept longer? Again and again you hear remarkable stories about how little sleep especially productive managers, politicians, spiritual leaders allegedly get along, as if that were a trait that would ennoble them and not just potential self-destruction. Just as Fridays for Future struggles to protect Earth's resources, a movement should come together that protects people's resources by fighting for more flexible and longer total sleep time.
"Getting up" did not work so well as a movement. "Lying down" would have great potential.
