Eager as I was to tag along on the early morning hike up a nearby trail, I wasn’t used to being active this early and the thought of moving was pretty daunting. As soon as I laid eyes on our hike’s leaders, though, I immediately felt my energy perk up a few notches. Jasmine Hemsley, the glowy wellness expert and cookbook author behind Hemsley + Hemsley, and Stephen and David Flynn, the twins who brought healthy eating to Ireland with their line of cafés and plant-based snacks, The Happy Pear, introduced themselves with enough gusto to bring a smile to even the most caffeine-deprived among us (probably me). Hemsley explained that our tech obsession has steered us away from this age-old practice of going to bed with the moon and waking up with the sun, but if you go camping without your phone, your body will naturally want to get into this rhythm. I listened to how her new sleep routine has increased her energy and vitality as we made our way up the cacti-splashed terrain, the sun steadily rising with us. Soon, the surrounding mountains were engulfed in a glorious sunny fire, and the world around us took on a shine that only the dawn can deliver. Tiffany Lester, M.D., functional medicine expert and medical director of Parsley Health San Francisco, was there for the magic, and it left her inspired to take a page from Hemsley’s book and make a practice of getting moving before the sun. Your circadian rhythm, or internal clock, is controlled by an area of the brain that responds to light, meaning that we want to wake up to the daylight on a biological level. Somebody with a strong circadian rhythm feels naturally alert in the morning and drowsy come bedtime. Messing with your body’s clock by constantly taking on different sleep-wake times or working through the night can therefore lead to sleep disorders and has even been associated with obesity, diabetes, and depression1. Inspired by the idea that laying off the snooze button could bring me more energy, reset my biological clock, and bring me one step closer to becoming as radiant as Hemsley or Dr. Lester, I’ve started to set my morning alarm for 5:30. To make early rising a habit, I reached out to our other hike leaders, Stephen and David Flynn, for some help. They were literally doing handstands by the time the group made its way up the mountain, so I figured they must have some tips. It turns out, the duo has also made a routine out of rising and moving with the sun, and they wake up at the crack of dawn every day to swim in the cold Irish sea, oftentimes with hordes of friends. Their advice was simple: Go to bed early and keep yourself accountable. “We have found that making arrangements with friends always helps. Often there would be no way we would get up at 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. on a cold Irish winter morning to train before swimming in the sea, but if we arranged to meet someone to train with, it makes it a lot easier,” Stephen tells me. “And as the famous quote goes, ‘Early to bed, early to rise, makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise.’ Wealth can mean many things, but we find the real wealth of getting up early is the sense of peace and tranquillity of the quiet hours of the morning. They can help start the day off in a beautiful way!” Though I don’t have a paved trail or open sea next to my downtown Manhattan apartment, I’m excited to put their tips into practice by making a routine of walking outside for some sun first thing in the morning and recruiting others to join me whenever possible. It’s no Arizona desert, but the West Side Highway can be pretty invigorating in itself. For more insider peeks into revitalize, check out this look into our gifting suite and read up on the most surprising moment of the weekend. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
