Three Reasons Ancient People Cherished Mornings

"Everything fun in the world happens when I'm asleep." Although we know that it's good to go to bed early and get up early, this is the reason why we can't. The bedtimes of modern people are getting later and later. There are few students, from elementary school to college, who go to bed before midnight. The average bedtime for office workers is between midnight and 1 a.m., and the average wake-up time is 6:30 a.m. On weekends, they go to bed later and get up later. Since the waking hours are similar anyway, it doesn't matter, right? No, there are three reasons why it does.

First, going to bed early and waking up early is good for health. Son Sabok, a famous physician from the Tang Dynasty in China, believed that sleep time, sleeping posture, and mental state when falling asleep determine health. He said, "Waking up early is a prescription better than any golden remedy, and it's a secret to longevity." The habit of going to bed early and waking up early is more effective than any prescription or remedy for longevity.

Despite the shift in modern people's lifestyles to make more use of the nighttime, the human body's rhythm is still set to sleep when the sun sets and wake when the sun rises. It's hard to adapt to night shifts, no matter how long you've been doing them, and reversing day and night hurts the body. That's why going to bed early and waking up early is the secret to health.

Second is the efficiency of morning time. Nowadays, people are busy getting up in the morning, washing up, hurriedly eating breakfast, and going to work. In the past, farmers would wake up and go straight to work after eating, but others had a different routine. When looking at their daily schedules, there was plenty of time from waking up at dawn until breakfast. They woke up around 5 a.m. and had breakfast at 8 a.m., so there was a three-hour gap. Usually, they read or studied during this time. Even kings woke up early and called in officials for lectures or business reports before breakfast. Because the clearest mind is in the morning. They knew that doing intellectual activities at this time was efficient.

Third is the moral aspect. Mencius argued that everyone is born with a virtuous mind. But the world is full of bad people. Mencius explains why: here is Mt. Mindong. Originally, the trees were lush, but it was due to the woodcutters that they ended up that way. If no one comes at night, sprouts grow little by little from the remaining stumps. But when morning comes, the shepherd comes and lets the cows and sheep graze. They eat up the sprouts that have barely grown, leaving no room for trees to grow back on the mountain.

Mencius claimed that the human heart is like Mt. Mindong. Humans are born with virtuous minds, but living life causes them to wither due to worldly influences. On a quiet night, the virtuous mind recovers a little, but when morning comes and they have to worry about worldly matters again, the virtuous mind withers again. According to Mencius, humans are morally virtuous in the early morning. There is no scientific evidence, but it makes sense. There's no one who gets up in the morning and rushes to do evil deeds.

There's another reason why morning time is important. It's a phrase from a book called "Chan Yow," compiled by Emperor Yuan of the Liang Dynasty in China. 'The plan for the day depends on the dawn, and the plan for the year depends on spring.' The start of the day, the dawn, is the best time to plan for the day, and the start of the year, spring, is the best time to plan for the year.

Everyone is given the same 24 hours a day, but the day of a person who wakes up early in the morning and plans their schedule is definitely different from the day of a person who barely gets up in the morning and rushes to school or work. There might be people who find it hard to utilize the morning due to health conditions or circumstances, but it's not good to live like a night owl, swapping day and night, just to indulge in laziness. They will only feel guilt when they go to bed or when they wake up. Starting the day early is the way to take control of one's life.