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"Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise"
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This saying is attributed to Ben "Ride the Lightning" Franklin in his Poor Richard's Almanack, but it turns out ol' Ben wasn't exactly breaking new ground here in any way, other than his spectacularly assholish spelling of the word "almanac." He was simply rewording a bit of advice from Aristotle, the original East Coast party king, who said, "It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom."
Rochester Bestiary
"I wake at dawn to fight the manticore, as should you."
And it makes perfect sense when you think about it; someone who stays up until 3 a.m. binge-watching seasons of Friends and then passes out with both hands stuck in different Pringles cans until noon the next day isn't going to reap as much knowledge and success from life as someone who goes to bed too early to maintain meaningful relationships with their peers and wakes up at an hour that would make most people cry tears of blood. Success in any pursuit takes discipline, and there's no clearer demonstration of discipline than setting your alarm for 5 a.m. and resisting the urge to punch the snooze button into dust when it screams you awake in the morning.
But Science Says:
There's no direct connection between getting up inhumanly early and personal achievement. In fact, if there is any correlation between sleep schedules and a wealthier, healthier, and wiser lifestyle, it's quite likely the other way around.
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Hope you like studies defending your lifestyle. This article's full of 'em.
Multiple studies going back as far as the late '90s call thunderous bullshit on the benefits of being an early riser. One 2013 study on teenagers revealed that night owls tend to be better at inductive reasoning and get higher scores on intelligence and memory tests. Translated from scientific babblespeak, this means that teenagers who stay up crazy late are more likely to end up with "prestigious jobs and higher incomes." They do, however, tend to get slightly lower grades in school, presumably because paying attention is hard when you're struggling to keep your eyes open for half the day because you were up all night writing a novel.
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