People Who Get Up Earlier Are More Successful [Video]

I knew it! After 30 years of waking up early, I've always felt that audience members who were up in the earlier hours of the show were sharper, smarter and seemed more together than those who called later in the show.

Now I have proof.

As Daylight Saving Time approaches -- at 2 a.m. EST March 9, people will be thinking about how they spend the hours of their days.

With the opportunity to gain an extra hour of daylight, many will be tempted to sleep later. But Sati Achath, author of the new book 12 Qualities of Highly Successful People, says people who accomplish the most get up at 5 a.m. or even earlier, every day.

Achath, who spent 18 years studying the lives of 130 extraordinary people and has an impressive list of accomplishments to his credit, gets up at 4:15 a.m.

He has discovered that people who purposely wake up early look forward to the time they can spend reading, writing, exercising, painting, biking, brainstorming and doing other pursuits they enjoy. Such individuals, he says, are disciplined about bedtimes, too.

Among the early risers highlighted in his book are Pope Francis, who gets up at 4:30 a.m. to meditate; novelist John Grisham, who began his habit of rising at 5 a.m. to fit in time to write his first novel; and Apple CEO Tim Cook, who thoughtfully plans his schedule beginning at 4:30 a.m.

Daylight Saving Time affords the perfect time to begin this new habit, Achath says. To get started, he suggests going to bed an hour earlier than usual in order to wake up an hour earlier. Using the added time to do enjoyable things provides the motivation to continue the habit, he says.