Being able to wake up early becomes an easy feat when you equip yourself with the knowledge to train your body and mind. It’s a step by step process that once undertaken, you can become a morning person in no time.
In fact, you’ll forget about the time you couldn’t wake up before 2 in the afternoon, and notice how much more productive your life has become as a result of waking up with the sun.
Keep reading for five tips that'll change your sleeping habits and benefit your life in more ways than one.
Properly Use Alarm Clocks
The way technology has rapidly evolved over the past few decades has directly shaped the effectiveness and practicality we expect from our everyday household appliances. For those who have trouble waking up in the morning, the practical tool to best cater to your need is hands down an alarm clock.
Thanks to the constant stream of technological innovations, it's not shocking to hear that the alarm clocks people used 50 years ago no longer function the same way they do nowadays, which is both good and bad news for you.
An alarm clock can be a useful tool that possesses the power to help you to become a morning person, but it's pivotal for you to develop the willpower to follow through with using the device.
If you tend to just hit the snooze button whenever the alarm starts to beep in the morning, you have to take a couple of steps back and analyze how you can practically incorporate using an alarm clock.
A small step that’s highly recommended to increase your alarm clock’s effectiveness simply requires you to move your alarm clock to a place in your room that you can’t easily turn off.
Most people decide to leave their alarm clock on top of their dresser, so when it goes off in the morning, they’ll be forced to get up and walk across the room to shut it off. Since you have to get out of bed, you already won have the battle of trying to wake up early.
Increase Exposure To Natural Light
If you’re the type of person who prefers to live in complete darkness, you most likely have cultivated an environment for yourself that accentuates the nighttime. Unfortunately, your brain relies on natural light to help regulate the secretion of particular hormones responsible for causing you to fall asleep.
Other than ensuring you sleep, exposing yourself to natural light during the daytime increases the amount of signals your brain sends out to the rest of your body, which causes you to feel more awake. For those who want to develop a constant sleep cycle, you should try to incorporate exposing yourself to natural light as much as possible.
In regards to creating an environment filled with natural light, you'll want to avoid putting up blackout curtains or heavy blinds that effectively block natural light from entering your bedroom window. The moment you wake up, you should focus on opening up those curtains, or you'll just go right back to sleep.
For those who don't have the luxury of using natural light as a wake-up call, you can manipulate your environment to provide similar light conditions, which will have the same effects on your brain.
This also comes in handy during those winter months in which all you want to do is stay in bed.
Due to enhancements made in alarm clock design, you have the option to use an alarm clock that's uniquely designed to mimic daylight. All you have to do is set the timer, and the alarm clock will use that as a reference point to regulates the amount of brightness it emits.
Simply put, natural light alarm clocks will slowly increase its brightness levels till it completely covers your room in light. This simple design permits you to have the power to create a simulation of the sunrise in the comfort of your bedroom.
Limit Cell Phone Exposure Before Heading To Bed
Even though natural light exposure is essential to waking up early, the same principle does not apply to artificial light exposure. In fact, researchers specializing in how light affects the brain have recently found out troubling news that will affect your daily routine.
If you own a smartphone, there’s a high likelihood that you use it every couple of minutes, which means you’re exposing your brain to a constant stream of artificial light.
Researchers have noted that bombarding your brain with artificial light, such as a smartphone with a LED display, will have adverse effects on your overall productivity and your ability to sleep naturally.
Laying in bed and using your smartphone is a recipe for disaster since the light will trick your brain into producing a significantly less amount of melatonin, which is the chemical primarily responsible for helping you fall asleep. Less melatonin translates to you tossing and turning in bed, so you never get to wake up early.
Strive For Quality Sleep
Anyone can become a morning person, but the secret to achieving such a feat begins the moment you fall asleep. More specifically, having a night of quality sleep is an ideal starting point that'll have you feeling energized and refreshed to take on the day.
Before you go to sleep, you want to remove some items in your surrounding environment that promote low quality sleep, so you feel zen the moment you close your eyes. It's essential to minimize any exposure to noise and light pollution to allow your brain to recharge fully.
In regards to temperature, people commonly make the mistake of sleeping in a bedroom that’s too hot. You can avoid making this rookie mistake by using your living room temperature as a guideline and set your bedroom temperature to be a couple of degrees less.
Avoid Consuming Stimulants
When you plan out your day, you need to set a cut off time for stimulants such as caffeine since it will stay active in your body for about six hours. This translates to bad news if you drink a cup of coffee two hours before you fall asleep because coffee present in your bloodstream won’t allow you to fall asleep.
If you can’t fall asleep, you make it difficult to achieve quality sleep, which directly affects your ability to wake up early in the morning.
Health Benefits Gained for Waking Up Early
- Increased Productivity
- Positive Outlook on Life
- Promotes A Healthy Diet
- Improved Mental Health
Conclusion
Those who are serious about tackling their day early in the morning will significantly benefit from sticking to the tips above, so you now know to stop making excuses and start taking control of your sleeping habits.
Resources:
- WikiHow
- LifeHack
