If you work a regular 9-5 job, or work early hours, sleeping late for you isn’t an option. If you’re not a morning person, you probably set your alarm the night before with high hopes to wake up at 7:15 am. But by the time the alarm screams at you to wake up, you scramble for the snooze button as you bargain for more sleep time. The breakfast you had planned to enjoy, or the visit to the gym you had committed to last night just don’t seem as important this early in the morning. Nine short minutes later, your alarm springs to life once again. Now you’re negotiating with yourself, if you hit snooze once again, what could you do without in your morning routine
The problem is that by the time you move out of bed (probably rather ungracefully), you still feel tired. Although you feel like you are doomed to always be the opposite of a morning person, the good news is that there are ways to transition into becoming an early riser (and actually enjoy it).
Get Enough Sleep
This seems obvious, and I’ll mention this first being that it is probably the most annoying one to hear. For most, 7-8 hours each night is the right amount. Make sleep your priority. Not only will you feel more energized, but your health will probably improve, along with several other benefits.
Expose Yourself to Natural Sunlight When Waking Up
Light lets your body know that the day has begun. Your body produces a hormone called melatonin, which aids the body in regular sleep. When light is introduced in the morning, it tells your body to stop producing melatonin. Although natural or artificial sunlight will bring similar results, there are many other benefits to getting natural light.
Don’t Skip Breakfast
Your blood sugar is the lowest in the morning, which makes you feel low on energy in the morning. Skipping your morning meal could result in many spikes in your insulin levels throughout the day. A healthy breakfast (fruit and protein) will help manage your weight and give you more energy, as well as several other advantages.
Drink More Water
Within 20 minutes of waking, you should drink at least 8 oz of water. It’ll speed up your metabolism, hydrate you, flush out your body’s toxins, fire up your brain, and make you eat less. While you sleep, your body slowly becomes dehydrated since you aren’t drinking any liquids. With all the healthy benefits that drinking water has for your body, finding that you have more energy from it is only a bonus.
Just Move
There are so many ways to get moving in the morning, even if you don’t have time to go to the gym. You can go for a walk, put on your favorite music and dance, do pushups, or lift weights. Another great way to wake up is to stretch. Try out some yoga poses, like the sun salutation, to loosen your muscles and joints and start your day feeling refreshed.
Stay Consistent
Waking up, exercising and eating at the same time every day helps your body settle into a routine. This means trying to wake up early on the weekends, too. Sleeping in tells your body that your early weekday schedule isn’t a routine, which will make it harder to wake up early Monday through Friday.
The Results
After a couple weeks of forcing yourself to wake up early, with the help of these ideas you will be waking up and ready to jump out of bed (without the snooze)! It won’t be long until your body has gotten used to the new routine. Are you a morning person? Share your tips on how to wake up energized by commenting below! If you hate the mornings, comment below to tell us how these tips have worked for you.
Until next time!
Sebastian Squarehead
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