In addition, the early morning is often the time of day you have most
control over. Unlike later in the day, very little happens between 5
a.m. and 8 a.m. that can throw a wrench in your plans. But how does one
go from night owl to early bird? And can you?
The truth is, no matter what your natural rhythm, many people have been able to train themselves to become early risers and/or need less sleep. We’ll show you how.
1. Go to bed when you’re tired, and wake up at the same time every day.
You might be thinking, “duh.” And you’d be right. But as obvious as
it sounds, it can be harder than you think. Just last night, I was
ready for bed (which, for me means dozing off on the couch) around 10
p.m. But being the sucker for bad television that I am, I got sucked
into watching a new show. By the time it was over, I was no longer
sleepy. I ended up staying up until well after midnight. And for what?
Mindless television I’ll have forgotten about by the end of the week?
Great. I would have much rather had two or three more hours of sleep.
And what if you’re not tired until 1 a.m.? That’s okay too. Just make
sure you still set your alarm for the new, earlier time. The next day
you’ll likely be tired earlier than usual, and a new, steadier sleep
pattern will begin to take shape. What you don’t want to do is try to
force yourself to sleep when you’re not tired. You’ll just end up
feeling frustrated. You’ll waste valuable time in bed not
sleeping. And you might develop an anxiety around not being able to
sleep, which can lead to insomnia. So wait till you’re tired, wake up
at the same time every day, and eventually, your new cycle will fall
into place.
2. Know the ninety-minute rule.
We’ve all heard that eight hours sleep is the ideal, but this
theory goes against sleep research that says human sleep cycles occur
in ninety-minute intervals. This hour-and-a-half is said to include two
doses of REM sleep, separated by one of non-REM. Therefore, the best
way to get the most of your sleep time is to make it a multiple of 90
minutes. And it makes sense. I’ve noticed that when I sleep a full
eight hours, I wake up feeling groggier than I do when I sleep for six,
even though I’m missing out on two whole hours of shut-eye.
3. Cut your sleep time incrementally.
You might be used to sleeping eight hours a night. But the truth
is, you may be able to get by on less if you train your body to do so.
And it’s not about getting used to surviving the day on less fuel. It’s
about training your body to squeeze more quality sleep (REM) into the
time allotted.
In order to make this process as painless as possible, cut down thirty
minutes at a time. Plan to sleep for seven and a half hours one week,
then seven the next week, and so on and so forth until you’re down to
your ideal sleep schedule.
4. Give yourself a good reason to get up.
If you’ve got no good reason to get out of bed at a certain time,
you’ll never do it. It can be a 6 a.m. gym class, a project you need to
get a head start on or a delicious cup of coffee and the New York Times. It doesn’t really matter what it is, just that its benefits outweigh
those of your evil but oh-so-tempting snooze button. If it’s something
you look forward to doing, even better. Tip:
If you’re a coffee drinker, invest in a percolator with an automatic
timer. Set it to brew at the time you’d like to get up. The smell of
freshly brewed coffee, first thing in the morning? It really is the
best part of waking up.
5. Let the sun shine in.
Unless you have a stalker or a peeping tom, leave your curtains or
blinds open so as to let in light in the morning. When it’s dark, your
body responds by producing sleep hormone melatonin. On the other hand,
light discontinues this process and provides a natural cue to your
brain that it’s time to wake up. Does your window face a brick wall in
a dark alley? Worried about that peeping tom? Or maybe (hopefully) you
just prefer to have more control over the time in which light floods
your room? No problem! The people at Phillips have made an alarm clock
with a large lamp that gradually increases the amount of light in your
room to simulate the sunrise. Genius!
6. Move your alarm clock.
Often, the hardest part of getting up early is actually getting out
of your warm, comfortable bed. So if you have to get up to shut off
your alarm clock, you’re already halfway there! Move it to the other
side of the room, and set it to a truly intolerable sound at a high
volume. For you, that might be the sound of a buzzer. For me, it’s the
sound of deep house music. Whatever it is, it needs to drive you crazy enough to make you need
to get up and shut it off. And once you’re up, you’ll likely stay up
(thanks to all those great things you need to get up for—see number
four).
7. Don’t let yourself snooze.
You know the drill. You keep telling yourself “just ten more
minutes.” The next thing you know, it’s been an hour-and-a-half and not
only did you miss out on your precious morning time, but you’re now
late for work. And the worst part? That hour-and-a-half was absolute
torture, thanks to the blaring sound of your alarm clock, which has
been disrupting an otherwise pleasant dream at ten-minute intervals.
Just say no to snoozing! It’s no longer an option. Think about it: if you’re going to snooze that long, you might as well have set your alarm an hour-and-a-half later and gotten some quality shut-eye.
8. Drink a glass of water.
If the excruciating urge to urinate doesn’t get you out of bed,
you’ve got much bigger problems than sleeping in. Drink a glass of
water before going to bed and you’ll naturally get up early. After you drink that evening glass, refill it and leave it on the night
stand for the next morning. A glass of water first thing in the morning
will kick start your metabolism and get you up and running, even before
you’ve had your first cup of coffee.
9. Be your own alarm clock.
It may sound crazy, but if you tell yourself you’re going to get up
by a certain time, often your body will wake you up naturally. If you haven’t experienced this, try it some time. Tell yourself you
need to get up at 5:30 a.m. and set your alarm clock for 5:45 a.m.
(Just in case!) You may be surprised to find that you wake up right on
time, give or take a few minutes. This will be especially more doable
once you’ve gotten into the habit of going to sleep and waking up early
for a few days or weeks. When you do manage to wake up without an alarm clock, you’ll find the transition back to full consciousness much more pleasant.
Originally published on DivineCaroline.com
