Dolly Parton Wakes Up At This Surprising Time Every Day. Here's Why

It's a sad fact of life that some people just sleep better than others. Naturally, there are all kinds of factors involved, but Healthline reports that 7-9 hours of sleep each night is the ideal amount for the average adult. Everything from creativity to our very memories can be compromised by not getting enough. Despite this, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35.2% of adults in the United States reportedly sleep fewer than seven hours each night.

One possible method to help with this is to establish healthy routines, for nights and mornings alike. Everyone has their own unique take on a morning routine, from a chaotic whirlwind of toast, children to round up, and stray socks to find to a cozy, orderly, hurry-free start to the day.

Beloved country legend Dolly Parton shared some fascinating thoughts on both counts with RuPaul for Marie Claire in 2020. She runs on surprisingly little sleep, she stated, explaining, "Five hours I like to get. But usually, I'm between three and five." Whether this is a healthy practice or not, it's apparently worked for Parton for a long time now, sometimes helped along by "a little power nap" when she could use a top-up. That, and a morning routine she begins at 3 a.m. each day, for reasons that many early risers can probably empathize with.

Parton explained that she often wakes and gets in and out of bed as the time goes on, but, per Marie Claire, 3 a.m. is essentially her cut-off for getting back into bed. Being perennially busy as she is, there's always something to do, even at a time when many people wouldn't entertain the thought of starting the day for several more hours. She writes, responds to letters, and generally gets on with what she calls "some of [her] best spiritual work ... between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m."

Parton claims that this is the most productive time to work for her, a quiet and peaceful time to catch up with the mountain of correspondence that surely follows her wherever she goes. "They say the early bird gets the worm," she told RuPaul. "Well, they also get a lot of good ideas too."

While a 3 a.m. start may be a frightening concept, Parton may be onto something with her earlier mornings. As Sleep Scholar reports, the University of Barcelona studied data from two sets of psychology students. Their findings suggested that early risers experienced fewer distractions, anxiety, and tiredness in their work and everyday lives generally, while the opposite was true of those who started their days later. Still, there's no right answer: sleep is still quite the mystery for scientists.