We all know sleep is important but this morning I realized I have developed an interesting wake-up routine for myself. A long time ago I said no more snooze button. I would hit it over and over and over again and end up out of bed later than I wanted, grumpy, and mad at myself. Today, I have to say I am not hitting that snooze beyond what my plan is and it is working for me.
Essentially, I have a hard time going straight from deep sleep to fully awake. I have always been that way. Now, if I need to become fully alert due to a child etc., no problem. My body does what it needs to do and on days I am scheduled to wake up really early due to extenuating circumstances, my wake-up routine doesn't necessarily apply because I may opt to not put it into action because step 1 may be way too early.
Here is what I have been doing and I am sure there may be plenty of people out there saying it is wrong. In a nutshell, my first alarm goes off about 40 minutes before I need to be up. I am often very confused by its sound and stumble to find the source and silence it knowing I have time to chill and slowly wake up.
15 minutes later my second alarm goes off. This time I am quicker to understand what is happening and silence it and either drift right back to sleep if I am extra tired or enter into some silent prayer and reflection.
Another 15 minutes go by and my third alarm goes off. I either get out of the bed if I am in a hurry and/or am already ready to tackle my day or more frequently, put it to snooze for 9 minutes of silent reflection and prayer. This is the one and only time I am allowed to touch snooze.
My alarm sound is a very quiet cricket chirping so nothing too loud or startling.
I don't know how I stumbled across this or what took me so long to find it, but it works. Once I do climb out of bed my mind and body is ready to tackle the day and I feel...dare I say...refreshed! Of course, to be totally refreshed your wake-up routine needs to be paired with a good bedtime but that is another post for another day.
How do you wake up? Do you follow any routine?
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful my chirping wake-up routine affects no one else in the house.
Daily Bible Verse: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ~ 1 John 4:1
