Early to bed, early to rise

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It is often said someone is either a morning person or a night owl. Everyone finds themselves as one or the other. Right?

“No!” proclaimed Randal Wright, a former director of the University of Texas Institute of Religion. “As if we were born to be either a night or morning person.”

In his Education Week address Tuesday, Wright discussed the importance of managing our sleeping schedule. He declared no one is predetermined as a night owl or morning person. When we go to sleep and when we wake up is a choice with a huge impact on our daily lives.

Wright said one must simply look to the General Authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for examples of the positive effects of retiring to bed and rising early.

“You don’t see many men of their age with their health, let alone running an international church,” Wright said. “Everything we remember about President Hinckley happened after the age of 85.”

Wright shared a story of an encounter with Elder Lance B. Wickman of the Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Wickman shared his daily ritual of a 4:45 a.m. wake up.

When asked of the schedules of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Wickman said, “They all keep very similar schedules.”

At BYU, a research study was conducted to discover the correlation between bedtime and grades. The later the student slept in every morning, the lower their grades were.

A full ballroom of Education Week attendees were not only told to retire to bed early and to arise early, but Wright also shared supplementary rituals to better care for our lives.

“God has given us only one body. We have to be smart and take care of it,” he said. “We must also exercise, eat well and prepare for each and every day.”

  • Go to bed early; get up early.
  • Exercise frequently and eat well.
  • “God would have us take care of our bodies, but the world bombards us with unhealthy eating.”
  • Prepare for the day. You never know when Satan will “call a game.”
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