Mishnah Berurah — משנה ברורה

The Dawn - The Shl"a wrote a secret: to connect the day and night with Torah and prayer, whether its morning or whether its evening. Immediately upon waking up from sleep if one doesn't plan to sleep [more], he should wash his hands, even if he does so while still lying down. And certainly, one shouldn't walk four cubits without having washed his hands. And one must be very careful in this regard. And the holy Zohar emphasizes the great punishment for this, for leaving the spirit of impurity on oneself. In any case, one should not, God forbid, violate any other prohibition due to not having washed his hands; for example, to stop himself from urinating because of this, or to take water which his friend had prepared for himself, unless it is obvious to him that he will immediately be able to give him other [water] in exchange. And there are those who fail in this. And if it happens that the water is far and he doesn't have someone to bring it close to him, it is the custom of some of the observant ones (ba'alei ha'nefesh) to walk little by little [in increments] shorter than four cubits. The Sha'arei Teshuvah write about this - that it's not [a] good [practice], for it's better to walk quickly, [in order] to not leave the spirit of evil on one's hands. There are those who say that regarding this, the entire house is like one's four cubits, but we shouldn't rely on this unless in an extenuating circumstance. If, when one arises at night, he sees that he does not have enough water to wash his hands three times properly to rid the spirit of impurity - nevertheless, he should not God forbid forgo his Torah study because of this until daylight, but rather he should wash his hands a little or clean his hands on whatever he has to wash, make a blessing, and learn, as per the law of the Talmud and the Poskim [commonly referring to Rabbinic discussions post-Talmud, particularly contemporary halachic discussions].