We all know the saying, "the early bird catches the worm." This is true, but this isn't the only reason that setting your sleep schedule back an hour or two will end up benefiting your life.

Disclaimer: The first time you wake up early will feel awful. You might not even make it out of bed! If you do decide to get up without pressing snooze, you will be exhausted during the day and then go to bed earlier than you had the night before. So essentially, the first day (or days) of being an early riser sucks.

However, your body will soon adjust. If we didn't have all of this technology and scheduling embedded into our lifestyles, we would realize that our bodies want to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, with the sun. I'm not saying go to bed at 8 pm, but staying up until midnight or later every night isn't natural for your body or brain.

When you start waking up early, you will come across some perks that you didn't realize would be there. You will end up with an hour of alone time, which is exactly what some of us need. You can take this time to do your morning devotional, workout, do some nice and relaxing yoga or even just drink a cup of coffee or tea in silence.

You also will have more time to "wake up" before starting your day full-swing. Let's face it, when you wake up at 7 am, you don't really wake up until around 9 or 10 am. You will feel more relaxed and focused because of this extra hour or so of being awake, and therefore be more productive in your mornings. Plus, if you wake up early enough, you will get to see the beautiful sunrise first thing every morning!

Another way to use this extra time is to start your work/school day early. If you get homework done in the morning, you won't have as much to do in the afternoon when everyone else is awake and wanting to be social. Getting your work out of the way leaves you some more free time in the afternoons or evenings to spend with friends and family. Plus, you will feel so good when you get home after work or school to realize that you barely have any assignments to do!

Many people try to balance school, sports, religious activities, extra-curricular activities, and have a social life at the same time. This is so hard to do if you want to succeed in all of these areas.

When you start your day early, you can easily knock out some school work and leave yourself more time after school to focus on sports and other extra-curricular activities. You will feel much less stressed when you aren't trying to squeeze in all of these things into the seven hours between school and going to bed at night!

Whether it's to give yourself some me-time, or to get your work done and out of the way, I suggest that you try becoming an early riser and see if it works for your life!