How to wake up more easily: 7 tips
Some people are night owls and others flourish in the morning, but all people deal with waking up. Some people are just better at it than others. But even night owls can find ways to wake up more easily in the morning. So I'll be giving you 7 simple tips to help you wake up more easily. You can take every single one of these tips as a small activity or improvement, they don't have to be done together to wake up more easily, but it does help.
Get a different type of alarm
An alarm that scares you awake in the morning seems like a great idea because you'll be awake instantly. However, you'll be irritated. Waking up more easily and naturally is all about feeling good when you wake up. There are a few ways to accomplish this, for example, a way to slowly wake you up over a period of time. A Philips Hue light wakes you up over a period of 30 or so minutes through a steadily increase in light intensity and a sound that progressively gets louder. This makes it feel like the sun is rising and it's time to get up and be active. Another way to do this is to use an app called Sleep Cycle, which I mentioned in my previous post about "How to improve your working day". Sleep cycle uses your phone's sensors to measure when you're fast asleep or when you're almost awake. It will wake you up when you're almost awake and this will cause you to feel less tired than when you're rudely awakened by a loud noise.
When your alarm goes off, get up
When you snooze and go back to sleep, your sleep cycles will start again and won't have enough time to finish the cycle. This means that you'll be woken up by your alarm in the beginning stages of being deep asleep and you'll end up feeling tired and irritated. So when your alarm goes off, get out of bed. Literally, throw your blankets off you to avoid falling back to sleep. Get out of bed and start to slowly get active.
Expose yourself to "natural" sunlight
There are two different kinds of "clocks", an external clock (24 hours per day) and an internal clock (your own day/night cycle). When you expose yourself to natural sunlight, you can effectively influence your internal clock. This means that you'll make your body feel it's time to get up, it'll help you energize yourself. The external clock is the 24 hour day cycle and some people have a shorter or longer internal cycle, compared to the 24 hours per day cycle, according to Chloe Fung Choi Yi. By triggering your body to wake up through light, you can try to synchronize your internal clock with the external clock. When your internal and external clocks are synchronized, it'll feel more natural to wake up at a certain time and this will make it easier to get out of bed.
Drink a cup of water right after you wake up
If you've read my previous two posts you'll know I like to recommend drinking water often. Drinking water is also a good way to help yourself wake up in the morning. It will kickstart your digestive system and will make you feel more hungry and more motivated to get up and have breakfast. According to some people (google it), drinking water helps you remember dreams more easily, so there you go, a fun little extra benefit if it's true.
Get a regular sleeping schedule
Humans have a natural tendency to see patterns. This used to be a survival instinct, for example, running away from lions without having to think about it. This means that our bodies and minds feel happier when we don't break patterns. Sleeping on a very irregular schedule is breaking a pattern. Your brain will have difficulty coping with this habit over a longer period of time. Sleeping on a regular schedule relaxes your mind and will, in turn, help you to wake up more easily and feel more rested.
Design your bedroom for sleeping
Sleep in a dark and quiet area without too many distractions, like screens. Artificial light, like lamps and screens, disrupts your sleep cycle. This means that you'll require more or less light than you normally would. This, in turn, means that waking up will be more difficult. So prepare yourself to go to sleep by turning off the lights and screens, except a candle perhaps. Candles don't have the same light intensity as other artificial light, so they will affect you less. I've been trying an alternative method, by using an app called Twilight. It dims your screen and makes it red after sunset. This red-ish light will help your eyes to prepare to go to sleep. This may be something you could try yourself too.
Stop taking naps
This goes along the same lines as getting a regular sleeping pattern. Taking naps is breaking your natural sleeping pattern. It may give you a short energy boost, but it will make it more difficult to sleep at night. This is why I recommend not taking any naps during the day. If you're really tired, just go to bed a little bit earlier, but not too early compared to normal.
If you found these tips useful, consider sharing this post with your friends to help them wake up more easily as well. I know they'll appreciate feeling more rested just as much as you. If you have any tips that I may have missed, please let me know! You can contact me on Twitter (@RJElsinga) and Instagram (@roelof1001).
Posted on: October 18th, 2017I help you achieve great SEO, higher conversions, and help you grow your business
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