How to Get up Earlier

Опубликовал Admin
25-01-2021, 17:00
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We all have things in our lives that require us to wake up earlier than usual on occasion. Perhaps you need to catch a flight at dawn, or it could be something a little more permanent, such as adjusting to a new work schedule or routine. Maybe you want to get in the habit of waking early so that you can get in a few extra hours of productivity each day. Whatever your motivation might be, waking up early is a struggle for almost everyone – but it doesn’t have to be!

Establishing a Sleep Schedule

  1. Get to know your body’s internal clock. Set a specific bedtime for yourself that is eight hours before your alarm normally goes off. Continue this bedtime ritual for several weeks (including weekends). Over time you will start getting a good understanding of your body’s natural sleep requirements.
    • Keep a notebook next to the bed where you can log each day when you fell asleep, how easily you fell asleep, whether you woke up before your alarm went off or not - notate any and all information about your sleep/wake cycle.
    • After establishing your natural sleep patterns, you can start training your body to wake up earlier, since you'll know how much sleep your body naturally wants.
  2. Try melatonin supplements. Our bodies make and secrete into our bloodstream a hormone called melatonin, which stimulates sleep and controls sleep/wake cycles. Melatonin supplements are available to buy over the counter at almost all pharmacies and grocery stores (look in the vitamins and supplements section). To help reset your body’s clock, try taking a low dose of melatonin (0.5 to 1.0 milligrams) approximately five hours before bedtime for several days in a row.
    • After a few days of this, your body will reset its internal clock, allowing you to get to sleep earlier and also wake up earlier the next day.
    • Melatonin supplements are generally considered safe for everyone, but always consult your physician before adding a new supplement to your daily intake, especially if you have any serious health conditions or take other medications.
  3. Wake up one minute earlier every day. Instead of making a drastic change overnight, this method will ease you into being a morning person. Determine what your new wake up time will be and set that as your goal. Keep your current wake up time, and start waking up earlier by one minute each day. Your body’s internal clock will begin to naturally reset itself.
    • For some, this method might seem too slow. However, keep in mind that the least jarring and most successful sleep schedule changes happen slowly and gradually.
  4. Stick to your new sleep/wake schedule on the weekends. If you want waking up earlier to become habitual for you, maintaining the same schedule on the weekend that you do during the week is a must! The continued repetition of a consistent sleep schedule will ensure that the habit of waking up earlier is established within your body’s internal clock.
    • Studies show that having a specific sleep schedule during the week and sleeping later on the weekend to recover can actually cause a person to feel tired and jet-lagged once the new week begins. This throws off all of the progress you made during the week!

Having a Nighttime Routine

  1. Avoid stimulants 4 to 6 hours before bed. This may seem like a no-brainer, but some of us use stimulants like coffee so often that we don’t even think twice about having that afternoon cup of joe. If you consume caffeine within 4 to 6 hours before going to bed, it will still be in your system when you’re trying to fall asleep that night. It can keep you awake much later than you intended, and therefore make waking up on time very difficult.
    • Alcohol should also be avoided prior to bedtime. It is classified as a depressant, but it actually depends on the amount of alcohol consumed and how quickly it was consumed. If you drink beyond what your body can handle and become drunk, the alcohol acts as a depressant on your system. However, if you only have a drink or two, alcohol acts as a stimulant on your system – this is the “buzzed” feeling people talk about.
    • Eating certain foods too close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep as well. Try to avoid eating big meals prior to when you go to sleep.
  2. Go to sleep earlier. Set a specific bed time – and stick to it! If you’re a night owl and have trouble falling asleep early, try exercising during the day – this can help you fall asleep more easily at night, especially when you are trying to get to sleep earlier than your usual bedtime. However, don’t exercise an hour or less before bed, or you’ll be pumped up!
    • If you’re still having trouble getting to sleep, try winding down before bed by taking a warm bath or shower before hitting the sack.
    • If you know you are trying to get to bed early that night, definitely avoid taking naps during the day.
    • Stop using televisions, laptops and cell phones one hour before bed. Not only can these devices distract you and keep you up, they can also affect the quality of your sleep if used immediately before bed. Shut them off and power them down to avoid temptation.
  3. Set your alarm clock. Make sure you set your alarm clock for the correct wake up time and double check it right before you get in bed. Instead of putting it right next to you on the night stand, place it on your dresser across the room or somewhere else out of your immediate reach. This forces you to wake up and get out of bed to turn it off.
    • If you are a heavy sleeper and have trouble waking up with a single alarm, get multiple alarms! Place them in different parts of your room, and stagger the alarm times to go off a few minutes apart from one another.
    • Make good alarm sound choices. If you are hard to wake, make sure your alarm sound is loud and repetitive. If shrill alarm sounds tend to make you pound your fist into the snooze button and fall immediately back to sleep, try getting an alarm that starts off quietly and gradually gets louder.
  4. Manipulate your environment. Try buying a coffee machine with a timer so that you can set it to have your coffee ready when you wake up. Keeping a warm fuzzy bathrobe right next to the bed can be helpful on a chilly morning - you can slip it on as soon as you get up, increasing your chances of actually staying up rather than crawling back under those warm blankets.
  5. Create an urgency. Schedule a very important task for the next morning that forces you to wake up on time. This can be an appointment or any other kind of scheduled task that requires you to be on time. This will motivate you to get up early the next morning, whether you feel like it or not!
    • A simpler approach to creating an urgency is to drink a full glass of water right before you go to sleep. When your alarm goes off the next morning, your bladder will compel you to jump right out of bed!

Waking Up

  1. Avoid hitting the snooze button. Disable the button if your clock has the capability. Habitually hitting snooze will create a habit that can be very difficult to break. Set your alarm somewhere across the room, out of your immediate reach, so that you have to physically get out of bed to turn it off.
  2. Jump out of bed – literally! Even if you don’t feel like it, give it a try. Leap out of bed enthusiastically and spread your arms wide as if to say, “I am so ready for today! Bring it on!” It sounds silly, but it really does work (even if it just makes you giggle).
  3. Take strong deep breaths immediately upon waking. When we wake up in the morning, we experience a feeling of brain sluggishness before our brains return to full functionality. During sleep we breathe very slowly, resulting in a lower amount of oxygen hitting our system than what our fully awake bodies are used to running on. Getting our brains back up to full speed depends on the time it takes for the body to inhale enough oxygen to get all of our processes going. Taking some big, deep breaths will get oxygen flowing faster, allowing your brain to fully wake up and reboot before you fall back asleep!
  4. Expose yourself to bright light immediately. Whether you throw open your curtains to let the sunlight in or turn on artificial indoor lighting, bright lights will instantly make you feel more awake. Doing this consistently can also help you to reset your internal clock to accept your new earlier wake up time.
  5. Drink a large glass of water. When you wake up, you are dehydrated from not drinking any water all night long. Dehydration can make you feel very tired. As soon as you wake up, drink a tall glass of water. You’ll rehydrate your body and feel instantly more awake.
  6. Reward yourself. When we are trying to establish a new habit, rewarding successes along the way can really help make that habit stick. Every time you successfully wake up early, reward yourself! It doesn’t have to be a big deal, but do choose something that is genuinely rewarding to you, whether that’s coffee, your favorite breakfast, or putting on your favorite music.
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