In Jerusalem, years and years ago. Big families of grand father, grandmother, children and grandchildren lived together in one house. My great grand mother lived with her big family in a big house with her children and grandchildren. She was a creative lady who encouraged 9 kids to get to sleep early each night. One of those grand-kids was my mother who has told me the most interesting stories that happened living at that time also with a big family.
It was not an easy job for great Grammy to do. But when there is a will, there is a way. She was encouraging her grand-kids to get around her by telling them interesting stories and preparing yummiest things for dinner such as 'Manakish Zaatar" an Arabic food, a kind of "Muajjanat" pastry. She was preparing them in-front of the kids with lots of love and asking them to help her.
The lovable lady promised more nice stories and more delicious food for the next evening if they sleep now, it was between 19:30 - 20:00 and for the reinforcement they do make an effort to sleep on time and with the time it becomes a habit. My mother told me stories that her grandmother shared with her and her cousins as a kids.
It was not as difficult for my mother to convince 3 kids to sleep early. I was born in Kuwait, where we lived alone, a small family with two boys and one girl. My mother's job to convince us to sleep early was not as challenging as my great grandmother. I can till now hear my mother's voice singing in Arabic " Nam Bakker wa Feia Bakeer, Aabel Ma yfeou El -- Asafeel" that sounds so nice in Arabic because of the tongue and the meaning " Sleep early and Wake up earlier than the birds" and I really wanted to achieve this goal, so I was sleeping before 20:00 then wake up before the first bird start to sing. I always wanted to wake up before the first bird.
Growing older, I found that mindfulness, meditation and other activities are best done in the early morning. As emphasized in so many articles. Morning habits determine your success and creativity for the whole day then it affects positively many aspects of your life in the future.
Living a healthy lifestyle is a main key for everybody's happiness and improvement. Successful people do live their lives to the fullest by applying healthy habits that include eating clean, exercising, meditating and sleeping well. You cannot set goals for your life if you feel tired all the time because of the lack of sleep.
Waking up earlier than birds, you have more time to have a healthy breakfast, meditate, exercise and feel energized and happy for the whole new day.