My uncensored opinion is that the original article is garbage. Waking up early isn't about what you do in the morning, its about what you do the night before (or fail to do.)
Forcing yourself to wake up early for the sake of waking up early is destructive as it means your body has not gotten enough sleep yet. Your going to either have impeded judgement capability, diminished work energy or both. A lot of people pretend this doesn't happen to them; they under perform for years or sometimes their whole life.
Being a business owner associating with a lot of people with the worst sleeping schedules imaginable I have a pretty good idea what causes serious sleep problems.
That said, most average people can fix their sleep problems just through being active.
Here are a few things that are a really big deal:
1. Wind down work hours before your ready.
2. Shut off most of your lights. Especially the horrid blue lights that so many electronics emit.
3. Don't do drugs. Yeah, if your snorting cocaine on the weekends expect to have some problems sleeping for the rest of the week.
4. Be on a regularly eating schedule. My sleep disruptions go hand in hand with meal disruptions.
I travel to trade shows and have 24 hour days. When I go back home, my sleep schedule goes back on track within 48 hours. This is coming from someone who, over half a decade ago, spent years attempting to stop a 26 hour day cycle (meaning your sleep plus awake time always ads up to over 24 hours a day resulting in no predictable sleep pattern.)