Members of the 5am Club, Letters

It is 5.15am and I am walking down my street, feeling smug. The buildings are bathed in peachy dawn light. "Win the morning and you win the day," suggests the productivity guru Tim Ferris. The prize is within my sights: an oat-milk latte, my reward for getting up ridiculously early...

Red Dawn
John Miller Nicholson ( 1840-1913)
Photo Credit: Manx National Heritage [CC BY-NC] 

Why am I doing this? Because, in an attempt to become one of the elite superbeings who are members of the 5am club, I am trying a week of very early starts. Being an early bird is increasingly popular among the rich and famous, with everyone from Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and the Kardashians to tech bros such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey subscribing to the club. So do Anna Wintour and Michelle Obama. Gwyneth Paltrow is a longtime member, sharing on Instagram how she rises at 5am for a 30-minute tongue scrape and Ayurvedic oil pull (me neither) before settling down for 20 minutes of transcendental meditation, followed by a dance workout devised by her friend, the fitness guru Tracy Anderson.

The extreme early start as a cultural phenomenon exploded on social media ... Leadership guru [Robin] Sharma's catchphrase, "Own your morning, elevate your life", has inspired legions of smug people - sorry, highly disciplined individuals - to share their impressive #5amClub routines (17.5m TikTok posts).

To a sceptic, there is a degree of magical thinking to much of this. If you can do just this one thing - get out of bed while others snooze- you will have time to get fit, eat healthily and achieve all your goals. Still, after scrolling through a tsunami of turmeric lattes, gratitude journals and sun salutations, I am sufficiently inspired to try it...

Why is this so hard? I put the question to Russell Foster, the head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at Oxford University. But he wants to know why I would want to sign up for the 5am club in the first place. To say he is scathing about the fetishisation of the early start would be an understatement. "There's nothing intrinsically important about getting up at 5am. It's just the ghastly smugness of the early start... It goes back to the Protestant work ethic - work is good and if you can't or won't work, that is by definition bad. Not sleeping is seen as worthy and productive."...

He also points out that the most enthusiastic exponents of these regimes are the very people who can afford to outsource life admin. "These productivity gurus and entrepreneurs have money to pay people to do everything. Imposing this schedule on other people is punitive and it's also boastful: 'Oh aren't I a great person? Why don't you become more like me?' Truth is, most of us can't afford to."...

(Anita Chaudhuri, The Guardian, 2024)

The prize is within my sights: an oat-milk latte, my reward for getting up ridiculously early...

An oat milk latte? You are easily pleased. Why not reward yourself with a "full English" - bacon, egg, sausage, tomatoes, beans, black pudding, mushrooms, toast and coffee?

Being an early bird is increasingly popular among the rich and famous. 

All the more reason not to rise at 5am.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a longtime member, sharing on Instagram how she rises at 5am for a 30-minute tongue scrape.

Thirty minutes scraping your tongue? Pigs might fly. When cows come home. In your dreams. Cuando las ranas crien pelo. Quando gli asini voleranno. 

Ayurvedic oil pull? 

Doesn't everyone use that?

"Own your morning, elevate your life", has inspired legions of smug people - sorry, highly disciplined individuals - to share their impressive #5amClub routines (17.5m TikTok posts).

Sheep-like behaviour.

Still, after scrolling through a tsunami of turmeric lattes, gratitude journals and sun salutations, I am sufficiently inspired to try it.

What are you talking about? And thank God for Russell Foster.

Letters

After decades of 4.30am starts as a postie, I can assure Anita Chaudhuri that there is nothing magical or soul-cleaning about being an early riser. It is lovely that the roads are empty for my ride to work but the main perk is the 1pm finish. I am looking forward to retirement and getting up at a normal time.

(Martine Frampton, Manchester, The Guardian, 2024)

There's strong scientific evidence that our chronotype - whether we are a morning lark or a night owl - has a genetic component, so Anita Chaudhuri may be fighting a losing battle. I rise at 5am, but I prefer to spend the first hour drinking tea and reading the Guardian.

(David Harper, Cambridge, The Guardian, 2024)