Does waking up at 5 am unlock the brain’s full potential? Top neuroscientist explains

Night owl or morning lark? Which group do you belong to? Are you someone who can stay focused during the late hours of the night, but cannot even imagine waking up early in the morning? Well, then, you must have heard that the early bird catches the worm, and that it's when the brain is fully efficient. Is it true, though? Neuroscientist and author Rachel Barr explains the science behind this claim. Is waking up early good for your brainWe have all been told that waking up early is good for studying. As students, many struggled to keep up with it. But is there any scientific evidence for this? Is it true that waking up at 5 am every morning will help you get the best out of your brain? “We're often told that the key to productivity and success is early rising, but it's not just your alarm that decides when you and your brain properly wake up; it's also your body. We have an internal timekeeping system that decides, you know, when we get hungry, when we get sleepy, and critically, when we're the most alert and the most productive. The trouble is, a big portion of that is decided for you by your genetics. If you have the genetic profile of a night owl, it means that you sleep and wake a little bit later. 5 am is probably not going to cut it,” the neuroscientist explains. Good news for night owlsThe neuroscientist adds that night owls are more productive! “Not only does that mean that night owls tend to be more productive later in the day, it also means that if you're getting up at 5 am, you run the risk of losing most of your REM sleep. We sleep in cycles of non-REM sleep and REM sleep, non-REM sleep and REM sleep. The thing is, most of your REM actually happens later in the night or in the wee hours of the morning. That's significant because we think that it's during REM that we do most of our emotional processing in the brain,” she said.“I typically wake up pretty early, but I struggle with sleep, so I got my genetic testing done recently. It was not looking good overall, but imagine my surprise when I found out I'm a night owl all these years! So as you can imagine. I'm testing out a new schedule right now, and it's going pretty well!” she added.