Hearing the same annoying beep come out of your alarm every morning is often a nightmare, getting up is the hardest thing ever. So, most people either call it a day and keep sleeping or wake up worn out and tired.
Let’s fix this annoying, everyday situation with our top 7 foolproof ways to wake up as a heavy sleeper!
Leave Your Alarm Clock Out of Reach
An alarm beep seldom fails to wake you up even from the deepest sleep. But hitting the snooze button can let you go back to REM sleep. And although it’s a crucial and super restorative sleep phase, waking up in the middle of it is difficult.
In the morning, you should be nearing the end of REM, which makes it easier for you to wake up to your alarm’s sound, but if you hit the snooze button and go back to sleep, you’re likely to re-enter this phase again, and that’s the reason why you wake up feeling extremely exhausted and foggy.
Let Some Light In
Have you ever wondered why you find it difficult to get up on gloomy, rainy days? It’s simply because you need natural light to reset your biological clock.
So, if you don’t receive any light in the morning, you’re more likely to keep cozying up in your bed and forget about starting your day.
Once you wake up, the best thing to do is to open your curtains or even step outside to get some morning light. If the day is a bit gloomy, just turn on the light. Light-up alarm clocks are also helpful and can be more effective than noisy alarms. If you suffer from depression or struggle with morning brain fog, a sunlamp can boost up your mood and make you feel awake and relaxed.
Drink Some Caffeine
If you’re a regular drinker of the strong stuff, you won’t find it difficult to follow this step. Starting your morning with coffee is a good idea as caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and pumps up dopamine and serotonin, which can help in boosting your mood and make your brain more alert.
Not into coffee? Have some black or green tea, they also contain caffeine and some additional health benefits, too!
Pro tip: drink a glass of water prior to your coffee or tea to prevent dehydration during your day.
Never Skip Breakfast
The no-appetite in the morning folks, we hear you. You don’t have to shove a whole bunch of eggs, bacon, and pancakes down your throat as soon as you get out of bed. Even the simplest meals can do the trick — whole-grain toast with an egg, berries and yogurt, a small bowl of oatmeal and nuts, or just a protein shake.
The best breakfast has the lowest glycemic index and the highest amount of protein. Avoid sugary foods that can mess with blood sugar and sap energy like donuts and muffins.
Having your breakfast every morning helps you focus and keeps your natural clock on track with the time of day. It helps your body realize that it’s morning time and that it’s time to be active rather than sleepy, as if it were late at night.
Be Active!
Not everyone can get up in the morning and do jumping jacks, but if you can start your day off with physical activity, this may well make you feel more awake and alert all day long. You don’t even have to start with an intense exercising session, a short walk can be just enough!
Moreover, being active in the morning will pay off at night, as this can help you fall asleep more easily and improve your overall sleep quality.
Develop Routines and Stick to Them
Unless you want to blow your chances of having a good night’s sleep and an active morning, your bedtime and morning routines shouldn’t be all over the map.
Developing routines and sticking with them can dramatically help improve the natural sleep cycle of your body, meaning that you should go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at nearly the same time every morning.
Too many changes in your bedtime routine can mess up your natural circadian rhythms. Doing sleeping rituals each night can help you be consistent in your routine, like showering each night, making your bed, putting on a certain kind of perfume or cologne, or anything that your mind associates with going to sleep.
Choose Effective Alarm
If you want to take it one step further, go for an alarm that forces you to do some sort of mental task for it to shut off. The iPhone, for example, features an alarm that asks you to solve a mathematical problem for it to shut off.
Here’s another solution if math gives you a headache: there are some apps that require you to take a picture of a particular object in your home before the alarm shuts off.
Also, the sound you wake up in the morning can affect your readiness to wake up. Think about it, would you be encouraged to leave your bed when hearing a gentle sound of crashing waves or rainfall? Not likely!
That doesn’t mean that you choose a shrill alarm that you’d rather just throw out your window, it should be moderately annoying and make you want to wake up and turn it off as fast as possible.
Bottom Line
If you were wondering how the healthy and successful people you hear about can wake up so fresh and energetic, that was your answer! Waking up in the morning can sometimes be a daily living hell, and leaving your comfy bed is easier said than done.
But our bodies are naturally adaptive. And when your body gets used to waking up and sleeping at specific times each day, as well as doing consistent activities before and after sleep, waking up energetic will be second nature to your body.
