Waking up in the morning can be a real struggle for many people to get out of bed. The insanely strong temptation to smash that snooze button on your phone or alarm clock just so you can have another 8 minutes of dozing off can be overwhelmingly tempting.
If you’re having difficulty waking up in the morning, it can cause a lot of problems if it’s affecting your work or your education, especially if you’re starting to regularly arrive to work late or starting to feel embarrassed walking into the room full of people in the middle of the discussion. The ultimate struggle of waking up fast and getting out of bed fast in the morning can have a negative overall impact on your whole day and make you feel groggy and tired the rest of the day.
There are changes you can improve on that will help resolve the problems, and if not, at least lessen them so you can wake up faster in the morning.
Here’s a list of things that can help you wake up faster in the morning.
A Consistent Regular Sleeping Pattern
You’ll find that it’s easier to adjust to the habit of waking up at the same time every day if you establish a consistent regular sleeping pattern. You can set an alarm and try to go to bed at around the same time each night, even at weekends. Fixing your circadian rhythm lets your body get easily used to this sleeping pattern.
It’s easier to wake up faster in the morning when you can do it automatically and mindlessly rather than having to put conscious effort into it. Even if you’re very dedicated to waking up early at a certain time the night before, it often won’t seem as appealing the next morning when you are warm, comfortable, and all cozied up in bed. The secret in doing that is consistency. Push yourself to get up immediately after waking up in the morning and it will eventually become a habitual routine with no conscious thought or effort required.
Move the Alarm Clock Farther from You
If you have your alarm clock within easy reach, hitting that snooze button is so tempting, and sometimes you end up just hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep. By placing it on the other side of the room or on a table across your bed where you will have to get out of bed to turn it off, it helps you stay awake when you’re awake already. Once you are out of bed, it’s easy to stay up and get going with your day. Try to resist going back to bed for an extra few minutes of snoozing!
Change Your Alarm Ringtone to a Melodic Ringtone
Melodic music can be defined as a tune that’s easy to sing or hum along to. Melodic alarm ringtones, regardless of the type or genre, can lead to significantly reduced feelings of sleep inertia. Melodic songs seem to have an energizing effect. Increasing arousal, cognition, and attention, which helps you feel less groggy as you wake up! Melody may warm our brains up more effectively rather than being shocked into action.
The people who used melodic ringtones as alarms reported that they felt more alert in the mornings and that they had faster and more accurate responses, compared to those who woke up to alarms that had harsher sounds, like that of intermittent beeping or loud and annoying sirens because a startling alarm seems to confuse our brain activity when waking up.
If your phone or alarm doesn’t have a pre-installed option for melodic ringtones, it might be a good time to try and download some for your phone’s alarm clock ringtones. There are a lot of sites online like All-ringtones.com, Mobile9, iTuneMachine, or Zedge, where you can download melodic ringtones for either Android and iOS phones.
Let the Sun Wake You Up
If your room is very dark, consider adjusting the curtains or blinds so that natural sunlight can come into the room in the morning and help you wake up faster in the morning more naturally. The sunlight will naturally tell your body to stop releasing melatonin and you will naturally be more ready to wake up when it’s time to get up.
Take A Shower
Having a refreshing warm or cold shower can be a great way of washing off sleepiness. Keep switching the temperature between hot and cold throughout your shower to stimulate the lymphatic system and use shampoos and soaps with mint or citrus fruit scents.
Start Moving Your Body
Get moving as soon as you get up. This stimulates your brain and body, and shrug off the sleep. Going for a run, or a yoga session will do wonders for you. Exercise can also be a good motivating factor for getting up straight away if you have to fit it in before work. If this all sounds too strenuous, even a few stretches will help your body loosen up and start moving.
Conclusion
Quality sleep will help you feel refreshed and re-energized and you’ll be more ready to get up faster. Avoid caffeine and other stimulants in the nighttime because they can stay active in your body and might not let you sleep on time. Limit alcohol and avoid eating heavy meals late in the day, as the body will try to stay up longer because it’ll be busy trying to process the nutrients in them rather than getting ready to rest and go to sleep.
Try to avoid using gadgets late at night especially an hour before going to sleep. Screens of gadgets like phones, laptops, PCs, and TVs emit blue light that is similar to daylight which reduces or prevents melatonin from being released, which inhibits you from feeling sleepy, which keeps you awake for longer but will still make you feel tired, and can disrupt your circadian rhythm’s sleeping pattern. This will reduce the number of hours of sleep you require and result in difficulty waking up the next morning. Getting used to having good quality sleep and enough rest will help you to wake up immediately in the morning.
