The ‘5 am Club’: How early-morning routines work for business leaders

[SINGAPORE] At 5 am, the Central Business District is still empty – but a small group of company heads are already up and about. This is when they exercise, reflect, plan or gain a head start at work, before the constant flow of e-mails, meetings and demands begins.

Many world leaders and top chief executives famously need as little as four hours of sleep at night, with genetics known to play a role in sleep requirements.

But early-rising CEOs do not necessarily sleep less. Rather, this “5 am Club” – a phrase popularised by Canadian writer Robin Sharma in his 2018 book The 5AM Club – may simply go to bed earlier.