How many times have we been told to go to sleep early and awake early in the morning? Centuries ago, the American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”1 And he was just echoing the even-older advice of Aristotle: “It is well to be up before day-break, for such a habit contributes to health, wealth and wisdom.”2
Personal experience confirms it: when our minds and bodies are rested, when we rise early enough to prepare for the day, we put ourselves in a position to be at our best. So why is it so difficult to get the rest we need? Sometimes we feel we have too much to do, so we stay up late doing work that could probably be done better and faster early in the morning. Other times we might simply lack the discipline to turn off the television or shut down the computer and get the rest we need. And then we wonder why we lack energy and vitality. The answer really is simpler than we think.
In a recent survey of college students, researchers found that for every hour earlier a student wakes up in the morning, his or her grade point average increases significantly. Sleep habits, in fact, had a greater impact on grades than exercise or nutrition. It seems like common sense but, quite simply, students who get the rest they need perform better at school.3 Surely those same findings could apply to all of us in the work we perform every day.
In addition to all of the practical reasons for getting ample rest, the morning hours can be some of the most beautiful of the day. The soft light that sets the world in motion is almost magical; it seems to cast a gentle spell on all living things. The natural world is so calm and quiet at the dawn of day; greeted by the birds’ morning song, before the noise of the busy world arrives, we hear our thoughts a little more clearly and even sense the soft voice of the divine. Don’t deprive yourself the blessings of early to bed and early to rise.
-Lloyd D. Newell
1. Selections from the Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. U. Waldo Cutler (1905), 16.
2. In Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, ed. N. B. Sen (1967), 100.
3. Cited in Randal A. Wright, “Filled with Life and Energy,” Ensign, July 2015, 24–25.
Aug. 30, 2015
Broadcast Number 4,485
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Bells on Temple Square
Conductor
Ryan Murphy
Organist
Bonnie Goodliffe
Host
Lloyd Newell
Fill the World with Love, from Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Leslie Bricusse; arr. Mack Wilberg
Psalm of Praise (Toccata on “Old Hundredth”)
Charles Callahan
Brother James’s Air
James Leith Macbeth Bain; arr. Mack Wilberg
Little Fugue (Fugue in G Minor)
Johann Sebastian Bach; arr. Michael Kastner
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, from Oklahoma!
Richard Rodgers; arr. Arthur Harris
My God, My Portion, and My Love
American folk hymn; arr Mack Wilberg