How I Started the Second Season of My Life After Learning the Early Rising Method

I will now try to guess the after-work routine of many people!

When you get home, you dive straight into bed! Then, you watch YouTube on your smartphone! And then you fall asleep right there around midnight!

I imagine it's something like this! (Well, this was my routine a few months ago...)
However, I think we all share the common habit of spending time idly.

But, Dopamine Recovery Early Rising Method [Dialogue Edition] reading this book completely changed my life!

It seems to be a trend to write the conclusion first these days, so I'll try writing the conclusion right away.

Diving into bed as soon as you get home → ❌

Idly watching YouTube on your smartphone → ❌

Falling asleep right there in the middle of the night → ❌

It turns out my entire routine was made up of things I shouldn't be doing (lol).

So, what was wrong with it?

First, diving into bed violates the rule that you should not use your bed except for sleeping. According to the book's section on 'How to make sleep smoother,' using your bed for other things weakens the association between bed and sleep. As a result, it causes the phenomenon where you can't fall asleep easily even when you get into bed.

Conversely, by using the bed only for sleep, you can associate bed with sleep and customize your body so that you naturally feel sleepy when you get into bed!

Therefore, using the bed for anything other than sleeping is prohibited!!

Next, about idly watching YouTube on your smartphone, according to this book, this is classified as a 'consumption behavior.' I also compose music as a hobby, but I spent too much time watching YouTube and had days where I couldn't work on it much. By the way, composing music is classified as a 'productive behavior.'
These 'consumption behaviors' and 'productive behaviors' are strongly linked to a brain chemical called dopamine.

You might be wondering, 'What is dopamine?' but to put it simply, it's like a human battery. You consume dopamine by doing things. And by night, the remaining level is close to zero. However, by getting sleep at night, you are fully charged to 100% in the morning.

However, dopamine has a property called the 'pleasure principle,' where it tends to prioritize 'easy' and 'high-stimulation' actions, and this works more strongly when the remaining dopamine level is low.

Those of you who are quick on the uptake probably already understand.
Since dopamine levels are low at night, it's easy to shift to easy and high-stimulation 'consumption behaviors.' 'Consumption behaviors' are basically actions that don't lead to your own growth, so they are just a waste of time.

Of course, watching YouTube idly at night feels good, but if you consume too much dopamine at night, your remaining dopamine level will go into the negative!
Then, even if you wake up in the morning, your dopamine won't be fully charged, so you'll be in a state like a 60% battery in the morning.
Such a morning is definitely depressing, isn't it?

Therefore, 'productive behaviors' that lead to your own growth, such as studying, working out, or creative activities, should be done...

in the morning, when your human battery called dopamine is fully charged!

Finally, there is falling asleep in the middle of the night, but this is slightly complicated, as it refers to the situation where you haven't finished what you needed to do before bed.

There are four things you should do before going to sleep.

1. Set your wake-up time

2. Perform a ritual

3. Push while sitting cross-legged

4. Stretch while lying on your back

You might think 2 through 4 sound suspicious or nonsensical, but they are perfectly healthy, so don't worry!

First, regarding '1. Set your wake-up time,' the human body is actually programmed to wake up at a specific time just by being conscious of that time!

You're probably thinking, 'Huh? What is this guy talking about?'
But I'm sure you've all experienced this before.
I'm sure there have been times when you woke up on your own just before your alarm went off on a day you absolutely couldn't be late for or on a day of an event you were really looking forward to.

This phenomenon is exactly the effect of setting your wake-up time.

That said, there is obviously a difference in effectiveness between saying, 'Alright! I'll wake up at 5 AM tomorrow!' on a normal day, and thinking, 'Tomorrow is the long-awaited day of my trip! I'll wake up at 5 AM to get ready!' on the day before a trip.

This is where '2. Perform a ritual' becomes necessary!

Now, now... here it is... the seemingly suspicious 'ritual'

This is also simple; before you go to sleep, just

tap your pillow five times because you are waking up at 5 AM tomorrow

or

chant 'I will wake up at 5 AM tomorrow' ten times

is all you need to do!

Perform this same ritual every day to ensure you wake up early properly.

Then, because your body is automatically customized by the "ritual = waking up early," performing the ritual makes it easier to wake up at the time you want.

To summarize ③ and ④ roughly:

Stretch before you go to sleep! is what it means.

To explain specifically, ③ "Pushing while sitting cross-legged" is a method where you sit with the soles of your feet together in a cross-legged position and push down on your knees to stretch your hip joints.
Pushing for one minute is ideal, but for those who are lazy, about ten times is said to be enough.

④ "Stretching while lying on your back" is, as the name suggests, simply lying on your bedding, raising your arms above your head, stretching with all your might for 10 seconds, and then relaxing all at once.

These stretches seem to loosen the tension in your mind and body and help you fall asleep better!

Therefore, before going to sleep,

just by chanting the time you want to wake up tomorrow, doing the cross-legged push, and then doing the stretch while lying on your bedding, you will be led to waking up early!

Now, having seen this far, I'm sure you all can't wait to wake up early (lol).

However, there is one thing to be careful about here!!
You there, who are enthusiastic about waking up early!

Please make waking up early your only goal!!

What this means is,

"I'll wake up early and do muscle training♪"

goals like this are a no-go at first!

The reason for this is that the difficulty level is vastly different between "making waking up early your only goal" and "making waking up early and muscle training" your goals.

If you add difficult muscle training to the already difficult task of waking up early, when you wake up, you might think, "Ah, I don't feel like doing muscle training today, so I don't have to get up."

Exactly. The conditions for achievement are very hard, aren't they?

Of course, if waking up early has become a habit and you've started to want to do something productive in the morning, then it's okay! (The benchmark for habituation is said to be continuing every day for 3 weeks...)

Summary

・Do not use your bed for anything other than sleeping!

・Do what you want to do in the morning by waking up early!

・Before going to bed, sit cross-legged and stretch while chanting the time you will wake up tomorrow, and when you're done, lie on your back in your bedding and stretch out!

・At first, make waking up early your only goal!

No, seriously, this will change your life. The way you feel motivated to be productive is completely different!

Also, having extra time in the morning is great for your mental health too!!

I have written a concise summary of some of the content from the book Dopamine Revival Early Rising Method [Dialogue Edition] in this post, so if you want to know more about the early rising method, please read the book! It's easy to read, like listening to a conversation, so I recommend it even for beginners to reading.

↓Here is the Amazon link

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ドーパミン復活早起き法【対話版】-「最高の目覚めと深い睡眠」「最高の気分と活力」を手に入れる最短ルート案内-Jeg-ebook/dp/B0C8SNYMMP/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_ja_JP=カタカナ&crid=219GUY3PZLC8S&keywords=ドーパミン復活早起き法【対話版】&qid=1695714234&sprefix=ドーパミン復活早起き法+対話版+%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1

With that said, this was Roruru, sending this to you while my dopamine is skyrocketing thanks to waking up early!