3 min read
“Morning” Images – Unsplash.com
Introduction
For a long time, I struggled waking up early. I hated school too. So it only made it worse that not only would I have to wake up early; but I would also have to head to school right afterwards.
But, recently, I discovered the secret to getting up early that guarantees it, no matter what. Sure, the main tip that you’ll hear online is to ‘go to sleep earlier’. And, they’re not wrong. But, the thing is, I already know that every person reading this has known this before clicking on this post. So, why even bother mentioning it? Why bother wasting space when you already know that everyone knows it?
In this post, I’ll give you the unknown (but genius) tips that I implemented to wake up earlier, no matter what.
Prerequisites
You probably already know all these, but I’ll mention them anyways in case you aren’t aware of them:
- Get More Sleep. Go to sleep earlier if you plan of waking up earlier. However, if this is a special occasion where you must wake up early despite going to bed late, then no such rule applies (of course).
- No screen time an hour before bed. Technology can keep you up at night, and the blue light emitted from devices can mess with your melatonin levels.
- No eating an hour before bed. Turns out, if your body is in the process of digesting, it’ll spend a majority of its energy on digesting, which’ll keep you awake. Don’t wanna do this, because I’ve done it many times too, and the only way to go to sleep during this is by simply waiting until the body’s done digesting.
- No coffee before bed. This is pretty obvious. But just incase, coffee spikes your energy levels, which similar to eating right before bed, can keep your body awake and resistant towards falling asleep.
- Silence your Phone. Last thing you need is a clash of clans notification ringing at the middle of the night, while you were having the best dream of the week.
- Prep your room temperature. If it’s absurdly hot, or absurdly cold, your body is going to struggle falling asleep. It’ll spend more time trying to readjust your internal temperature rather than going to sleep. Besides, it’s extremely uncomfortable and the last thing you need is your mind to be set to survival mode right as you’re about to go to sleep. Opt for a colder -but not too cold- temperature, than is colder than warm, but warmer than freezing cold.
My Personal Tips
- Get Involved in Physical Activity. Throughout the day, you should aim for at least 30 minutes to an hour of full-on physical activity. Do some exercise, go for a run, go mountain climbing, go bicycle riding, do something. Waste time, and you will pay the price once you try going to sleep. You will find out pretty soon that if you sit around all day, and don’t exhaust your body, it will refuse fall asleep and replenish its energy because it didn’t lose any during the day.
- Mentally Challenge Yourself. Rather than binging your favorite Netflix series for 7 hours a day, use them to get some work done, to mentally challenge yourself, and to occupy your mind with mental labor of some form. If you really want the best sleep of your life, you need to exhaust your mind and body to the fullest extent possible so that the one thing that it’s begging for is the regeneration of its energy.
- Go Outside More Often. According to sleepfoundation.org, getting some sunlight in the morning, or whenever you first wake up can help shift your sleep schedule, making your sleep and wake times more optimal to your liking.
“Outdoors” Images – Unsplash.com
My Personal Tips (cont.)
- Set a Custom Timer. Specifically, set a motivational timer. Before I set my timer to a motivational speech (I’m not joking by the way), I usually snoozed my timer and got an extra few minutes of sleep, or set my mind to contemplate anything it could for 20 minutes straight as an excuse not to get out of bed. I hated the timer I had before, and so, I turned it off every time. That won’t happen with this custom timer. Set it to some David Goggins short motivation speech (less than 30 seconds) and set it as your morning alarm. It’s a minor change that may seem to do nothing at first, but it’ll change everything eventually.
- In my experience, doing this gave me control of when I really wanted to get up, rather than my always listening to my mind, and obeying every word it had to utter in the morning. Now, I wake up when I want, not when it wants. Try it.
- Place Your Phone At a Distance. Place your phone a few feet away from you, so that you’re forced to get up to turn off your alarm, but don’t have to walk miles just to turn it off. If you followed step 4, this’ll really force you out of bed and get you wakin’ up earlier.
What Not To Waste Your Time Doing
Online, you’ll probably find a bunch of tutorials on how to go to sleep “earlier”. But, in my experience, none of them worked. The truth is, if you aren’t tired, these methods aren’t going to do anything. They’ll just remind you that you were better off using up some of your energy than following some BS method that won’t do anything if you haven’t used up any energy.
And if you already are tired, then you’ll go to sleep relatively quickly anyways. No need to try a technique to make yourself fall asleep in 30 seconds, if you’ll fall asleep within the next 5 minutes naturally anyways.
Conclusion
Waking up early in the morning doesn’t have to be a challenge. Hopefully you were able to intake something useful from this post and implement it into your morning routine. You may or may not find yourself finding these changes successful within the next week or so; but they will come eventually. Everyone responds differently. All it takes is some patience.
