People Who Wake Up Early Make More Money and Have Higher Job Satisfaction, Survey Says You might stop hitting the snooze button after you read this.
By Rose Leadem
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Here's another reason to ditch the snooze button. While getting up in the morning can be difficult, it turns out there might be a relationship between success, money and your alarm clock.
Related: Sleep In and Make Millions: Why You Don't Need to Wake Up at 5 A.M.
And while we're all aware of the importance of a good night's sleep, how many of us actually get one? The more successful among us do. From how many times they hit snooze to their first thoughts when waking up, a recent survey by Sleep Junkie asked 1,000 Americans about their habits in order to uncover the relationship between sleep, money and success.
The majority of both men (56 percent) and women (48 percent) respondents said that the first thing they think about when they open their eyes in the morning is money and work. Behind that, their next thoughts are about the errands they need to run. In fact, other important things such as food, friends and family are the last things they think about.
Related: 10 Habits That Will Dramatically Improve Your Life
Whether you're a writer, a teacher or a salesperson, the type of job you have will also impact your sleep habits. Out of 11 different industries, overall, people in marketing were found to get the most hours of sleep a night, averaging around 7.1. Unsurprisingly, lawyers and other legal professionals had the lowest average hours of sleep per night at 6.67 and were least likely to hit the snooze button. Those in government were most likely to hit snooze. When it came to waking up early, finance and insurance professionals had the earliest average wake up time of 6:40 a.m., and medical professionals were close behind at 6:43 a.m.
As the saying goes, "The early bird catches the worm," and that stands true. According to the survey, both job satisfaction and salaries were higher for people who woke up earlier. People who said they woke up at 5 a.m. were bringing in an average of $46,000 a year, which was the top salary of survey participants. Even those waking up at 7 a.m. were making significantly less than the early risers, reporting an average $35,000 annually.
Related: Lifestyles of the Rich and Frugal: 7 Thrifty Millionaires and Billionaires
Of course, sleep also has a direct impact on a person's mental health. What a person does before bed can largely affect their health and rest. When asked to identify how healthy they thought they were, participants identified on a scale from "completely unhealthy" to "completely healthy." The later people woke up, the more they labeled themselves as unhealthy (the same was true for the opposite). In fact, the people who woke up earliest and called themselves healthy were more likely than any other groups to read a book before bed. Unhealthy late risers admitted to spending time on their computer, smartphone or tablet before getting some zzz's.
