Can you wake up easier in the morning? Yes! (Sort of)
I have to admit I am the world’s worst person at getting up. No matter what time I go to sleep, how much sleep I’ve had, or what time I set the alarm, the minute I hear that dreaded “beep beep beep” rousing me from my slumber I start to struggle. I’ve tried all sorts of things to get me up and about in the morning from moving my alarm clock to the other side of the room to buying a Teas-made so I have a readily available cuppa, nothing seems to work – or if it does it’s only a temporary measure.
I have to admit I am the world’s worst person at getting up. No matter what time I go to sleep, how much sleep I’ve had, or what time I set the alarm, the minute I hear that dreaded “beep beep beep” rousing me from my slumber I start to struggle.
I’ve tried all sorts of things to get me up and about in the morning from moving my alarm clock to the other side of the room to buying a Teas-made so I have a readily available cuppa, nothing seems to work – or if it does it’s only a temporary measure.
Recently I’ve been looking into the idea of biorhythms (or circadian rhythms as they are also called) and have accepted the fact that I have always been, and will probably always be, a night owl. During my reading I came across the fact that our biorhythms extend to our sleeping state as well as our waking one, in that our sleep cycle is made up of periods of light sleep, active sleep and deep sleep. It’s waking up during one of the deep sleep cycles that apparently causes this sluggishness and difficulty waking up in the morning.
There are several ways that you can wake up in a more natural way such a buying a natural light alarm clock (affiliate link) which can be quite expensive, plus with the amount of natural light my room gets anyway I can’t see that it’d be very effective
Motivate Yourself
Motivation is an important factor, know why you want to get up. Are you meeting a friend for breakfast? Have an early meeting? Want to get the recycling out? Knowing why you are getting up is an important factor in ensuring you have “get up and go” in the morning. If you haven’t got anything major planned, find some pet project that you can look forward to but have been putting off instead. Use the extra morning time to get something on that done.
Get organised the night before
Figuring out what you’re going to wear and laying it out the night before can help take the pressure off in the morning. Also, writing down what needs to be completed in the morning means you can go to bed with a clear conscience and not have a mad panic at 4am because you think you’ve forgotten something.
Try to keep a consistent schedule
It can be difficult to go to bed and get up at the same time – even on the weekends, but it’s important according to a variety of sources.
You may feel like catching up on your missed sleep at the weekends but apparently this can do your sleep patterns more harm than good, and damage your routine for the following week.
Don’t get interrupted while you sleep
If you don’t want to use one of the above Alarms, or your phone doesn’t have a “quiet time” setting so you can stop notifications waking you up you can use Sweet Dreams to manage your notification settings.
Upgrade your alarm – There’s an App for that!
Waking up (or attempting to wake up) during a deep sleep cycle will have you reaching for the snooze button quicker than you can say “Zzzzzz”. There are a few Apps available in the Play Store (and on the App store) that monitor your sleep cycle and then wake you up in a half-hour window of your alarm time.
These alarms work by using your phone’s accelerometer to monitor movement during the night, and work out patterns of light and deep sleep.
I’ve tried few alarms from the Android Play Store and can recommend the following:
Both analyse your sleep patterns, and Sleep As Android can also record your snoring patterns as well.
In terms of waking me up, both did so within reasonable times of when my alarm was set to go off and on the majority of occasions I didn’t even reach for the snooze function – which is a first for me!
What to do once you’re up and about
And, once you’re up try to keep active and motivated. There’s some good advice over at Lifehack.org to keep the motivation going.
Over To You
Are you like me? Do you struggle to get up and go in the morning? Let us know in the comments what tricks you use to rise and shine.
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