The toxic 4am club – are early mornings the secret to a productive day, or a toxic career trend? 

From Michelle Obama to Kris Jenner, several of the world’s highest earners believe that an early start plays an instrumental role in their success.  However, striving to adopt the 4am club lifestyle can have the reverse effect on your levels of productivity. 

Here, Martin Seeley at MattressNextDay reveals exactly what happens to the body when we are too tired to work and how becoming a part of the 4am club impacts the body.

Recollections may vary

There are 4 stages of sleep under the umbrella of NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). NREM sleep makes up 75 to 80 percent of our sleep, whilst REM makes up the final 20 to 25 percent. Research shows that there is a link between NREM and a person’s ability to remember the likes of facts and data whilst REM aids in a person recalling sequences and events. Deprived sleep disrupts both NREM and REM which in turn, disturbs a person’s ability to remember data, facts, and even whole events. In fact, if sleep is frequently disrupted research has found that a person may start creating false memories. 

‘In situations where ‘recollections may vary’, a lack of sleep could be to blame. You may feel that poor sleep hygiene doesn’t affect your productivity in the workplace however it may lead you to misremember conversations and tasks, and even making up events’. 

Snap out of it

Inadequate sleep effects mood, often encouraging the feeling of frustration, anger, and even sorrow. 

The limbic system is a part of the brain that plays an instrumental role in our behaviour, including our emotional reactions, particularly our fight or flight response. The prefrontal cortex aids in the regulation of our emotional responses and helps us decide how severe and rapid our responses should be. 

The connection between the limbic system and prefrontal cortex is disrupted when we experience a lack of sleep, causing a stronger reaction to the limbic system. As a result, our reaction to everyday events isn’t just stronger, but harder to change in general.

‘Sleep deficiency may see you overreact to negative workplace scenarios, affecting workplace relationships and how colleagues perceive you. It may also see you make rash decisions that in the long run, are unnecessary.’  

Snack at my desk

Sleep plays an important role in the function of the neuroendocrine system, (nerves and gland cells that create hormones to release them into the blood stream), and the metabolism. Several studies have shown that insufficient sleep can lead to weight gain as the body experiences a decrease in its tolerance to Glucose. An increase in cortisol and increased levels of ghrelin (a hormone that signals to the body it’s time to eat) is also apparent along with a reduction in Leptin (a hormone that works to maintain the body’s weight for a prolonged period).

‘When we are tired, we crave sugar and tend to snack at our desks. Sugar causes a rapid spike in the body’s insulin levels and then a harsh drop. The drop leaves us feeling lethargic and unmotivated, hindering our levels of productivity.’

‘First and foremost, the ‘4am club’ boasts a robust structure. The act of waking so early leads a person to immediately focus on the events of the day and what they wish to achieve. It’s not the physical act of waking up at 4am that leads to prolonged bouts of productivity, but the structure of the day.

To ensure that you reach optimum productivity on a day to day basis follow these 3 simple steps:

• Have a consistent sleep and wake time – Aim to sleep and wake at the same time every day, even at weekends 
• Have as much exposure to natural light as possible, this will aid in the function of the body’s Circadian Rhythm
• Time stamp your day – Get out ahead of your day and draft a time table of the tasks that you aim to complete and the times that you will complete them. This will keep the tasks you are completing tangible and increase productivity’