You may proudly romp around the campus claiming to be the most efficient night owl; you may be sleeping in the wee hours of the morning and waking up ALMOST on time for college and remaining awake to tell the tale; but be wary for you are running the risk of bidding your health good bye.

Okay, I accept that the after effects of waking up late may not be as drastic but it is a proven fact that there are more benefits of rising early than one can imagine. To tell you the truth even I was a late riser, and if it had not been for my father, who kept insisting that I wake up early, probably I would have been in no position to preach. Just to please him, I began to wake up early and to use the much abused cliché 'my life has never been the same again'. Waking up early does not mean that you get up at four in the morning; instead it means that even if you are up around seven you have done justice to yourself. There are scores of advantages of being an early bird.

Waking up early gives one time to greet the day. You do not have to jump out of the bed, rush to get yourself ready and come to college late. You won't have to walk in looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Wake up early and you have already gotten a head start. The morning hours are the ones which are most quiet with everyone still mid-way through their sleep. No cars honking away to glory, no kids running about screaming; life can be really peaceful one realizes in the morning. You can read, think or do just wonder about life with a cup of chai to give you company. And usually, if your day has a great start, the rest of day follows in a similarly happy pattern. Or at least you're in a good mood and better able to deal well with setbacks or frustrations.

Those who wake up late miss one of the greatest feats of nature; repeated in full stereovision each and every day the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors.

1. You may be extremely resolute on waking up early but keep that enthusiasm in check. Start by waking up 15-20 minutes early and then cut back another 15. Do these till you get to the time you want to wake up?

2. Try to put your alarm clock away from your bed. If it's close you will end up hitting the snooze button or Worse, switching it off .

3. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you'll never do it. Don't make getting back in bed an option.

4. You should have something important to do every day so you cannot talk yourself into getting back to sleep.

5. Reward yourself for waking up early every day. It could be a cup of coffee, a bar of chocolate or a tasty treat for the breakfast.

6. Don't wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day!

Many people mistakenly believe that they're night owls and that waking early has no real benefit for them. This is a rather widely-held misconception. Anyone can wake up early, once they've gotten used to it. It's true that the first few days of suddenly waking up early are likely to be difficult, but once the routine is set, it's not that difficult. And being a night owl is not really that productive, it just mistakenly seems that way– a fact that becomes evident once you're used to the habit of starting your day early.

If you're already an early riser, congratulations! Waking up early is a difficult habit to establish, and as difficult to re-establish once you lapse.

Pulkit Singh

BA (Journo, Psy & Eng)