Early Bird Gets the Worm
O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
William Shakespeare - 2 Henry IV (3.1.7-16)
I would like to thank Steve Pavlina for his article How to Become an Early Riser ( http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/ ).
He analyzes two patterns of sleeping. The first one is to rise and to wake at fixed times and has sociological background as we have to have predictability in our lives and schedules. The second one is more biological and tells that our bodies will tell us when to sleep and when to wake. His main idea is to go to bed when he is no more able to be awake, and to rise at a fixed times, that is 5 am.
This schedule has a correlation with ancient Vedic wisdom. The time before sunrise was considered the most auspicious, and was called arunodaya. It consisted of two so-called muhurtas. One muhurta is 48 minutes long, and the first one is named brahma-muhurta. It is very favorable for meditation, and the mind is very calm and serene. Different gunas, or qualities, such as sattva (goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance) rule in course of the day and night, and the time before sunrise is under pure sattva.
In ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temples the monks rise before 4 am to bathe, put in fresh clothes and prepare for morning prayers. From 5 am till 7 am they are meditating with Hare Krishna maha-mantra. This brahma-muhurta time is the best time for spiritual activities.