I'm notorious in my family for sleeping in until noon, but recently I've been trying to change that!
I would have to save my worst habit is hitting the snooze button 7 times before actually rolling out of bed half alive. Then the rest of my day is spent yawning, moping, and being grumpy until about 3 in the afternoon. But for two days in the past week, I have overcome myself by the Grace of God and a very obnoxious alarm. I thought I'd document my process of successfully getting up in the morning along with some tips and tricks I've found through research!
Firstly, I needed to solve the problem of not sleeping well. I was a restless sleeper, consistently waking up through the night. I've started a routine. My essential oil diffuser is right beside my bed and my head. 30 minutes before bed I take melatonin, rub lavender oil on my wrists, and fill my diffuser with water, lavender oil, and a tranquility oil I found at Earthbound. (S/O to Earthbound for letting me pretend like I'm a cool hipster). I've found that these steps lead me to feel relaxed and calm, allowing me to fall asleep quickly and sleep through most of the night.
Second, came the problem of hitting snooze. Now I've tried the placing the alarm across the room thing, and the setting 15 alarms in the span of 10 minutes, but my half-asleep self is too smart for that. So I decided to test just how smart I was in the morning. I stumbled across this app called Alarmy (Psst it's free). Let me just tell you, it's the most annoying app I've ever had on my phone (besides 2048 that is), but in a good way. Alarmy is an app that allows you to set an obnoxious sounding alarm for a time. Okay? That's what all alarm clock apps do....but wait there's more. Alarmy allows you to choose methods to turn off the alarm. "Wait what?" That's right, to turn off the alarm you have to complete a task. The available tasks include solving a predetermined set of math problems with several different levels of difficulties that you can choose from, taking a picture of something that you have chosen the night before (i.e. I used a picture of the dial on my washing machine, so to turn off the alarm, I have to get out of bed, walk all the way to the laundry room and snap a picture to turn off the alarm), a QR/Barcode Scanner where you scan a barcode of something in your pantry the night before and have to scan it in the morning to turn the alarm off, or a Shake feature where you need to shake the phone a set number of times to turn the alarm off (the least effective one for me). Anyone who knows me, knows that I can solve calculus problems in my sleep, but basic math has seemingly moved to the back of my mind to make space for limits, derivative, and integrals. No joke, I question myself when adding single digit numbers...so solving (45+65+89) or (45 x 2 +314) at 5:00 am proves to be a significant challenge that leaves me frustrated but very much awake. And hey I'm improving my math skills! I've recommended this alarm app to several people, and now to you!
Thirdly, as soon as I wake up I change into workout clothes to tell my body we are going to workout like it or not. This gets me in the mood for a workout and I feel freaking fabulous in my workout gear. (cue Beyonce's Flawless lyrics)
The fourth thing I do to wake up in the morning is to make a beeline to the kitchen to grab my whole wheat bread and toss it in the toaster. Complex carbs are a perfect way to start your day since they are literally fuel for your body and provide a jolt of energy for your morning. While you're in the kitchen, drink an ice cold glass of water. The cold will awaken your senses, and the water is just good for you.
The above ramblings are my experiences with waking up early. When I do get up earlier, I feel more energized throughout the day and am overall happier. I just need to remember this on days when I wanna sleep in! If you're not like me, which is not unusual cause I'm weird, below are some tips and tricks I've found that may help you out!
Of course, coffee and tea are great ways to wake up in the morning with their dose of caffeine. If you're not a coffee or tea drinker, there are green tea supplements in the form of pills in the vitamin section of your grocery store that you might find helpful.
If Alarmy doesn't sound like your cup of tea (or tea supplement for those out there), there are sleep cycle apps that track your sleep patterns and wake you up when your body is in the light sleep aspect of sleep. This usually helps you wake up more gently and can leave you feeling more refreshed.
As soon as you get up, try making your bed. When you put time and effort into perfecting that bedroom aesthetic, and those 15,000 decorative pillows you have if you're like me, you'll be less likely to jump back into bed. I forgot to mention above, that as soon as I'm done solving the problems to turn off my alarm, I roll over and turn off my stand-up fan since I can't sleep without the noise or the wind of the fan, ever.
Again if you're like me, when you wake up in the mornings I get excited about the breakfast I could have if I wake up early vs. the breakfast I'll have to settle for if I don't. Nothing excites me more than food (except Jesus of course) and I always find myself rolling out of bed just to seek out a complete nutritious breakfast rather than a stupid granola bar on the run. (No offense to those granola loving breakfasters) When your eyes open and undoubtedly re-close in the mornings, picture in vivid detail eggs, toast, sausage, pancakes, or whatever is your muse. Your mouth will be watering too much to go back to bed!
Last, but definitely not least, is making sure you get enough sleep in the first place. Now don't believe the "golden rule" of 8 hours a night is perfect for everyone. 8 hours is the AVERAGE amount of sleep needed DEPENDING on the person. Some people need less sleep to feel tip-top and some need much more than that to function properly. Aim for somewhere in between 6-9 hours of sleep per night. I've found that my ideal is about 7 hours a night. I know getting this much sleep can be hard for some people (college kids and insomniacs i'm talking to you), but getting less than at least 5 hours (pushing the envelope just a bit for exams) can decrease productivity and performance levels. You can stay up all night cramming last minute for that exam, or worrying about that issue that needs to be solved, but if you wake up and you can't even write your name on the paper, or gather your thoughts to deal with the issue that kept you up, is it really worth sacrificing sleep? Maybe it's time to look into better study habits, or ways to cope with stress and anxiety, but that's a whole different topic.
I wish you good rest and productive mornings. Remember early birds get the worm (or the omelette), and who doesn't want to see the beauty of the sunrise and be reminded of God's beautiful creation?