Trouble Waking Up? Do These 5 Things to Energize Your Mornings
Mornings can be difficult, even on the best of days. On the bad ones just getting the body out of bed can feel like an epic feat. What can be done to get yourself moving a little faster when all you want to do is hit the snooze button and roll over? Let's look at some ideas to cut the drag and energize the slowest mornings.
Why Is It So Hard to Wake Up?
That grogginess we feel when we first wake up is usually due to sleep inertia which is a lowered state of wakefulness occurring immediately upon waking. Severity can range from nonexistent to extreme depending on which part of the sleep cycle you were in and how abruptly you awoke. When it’s bad, it's just plain intense how much you might feel inclined to stay put, no matter how badly you need to get up.
Use Light to Wake Up
Light directly affects the chemicals in the brain that regulate sleep. Just like the blue light emitted by devices like tablets and televisions can mess with our ability to sleep at night, exposure to light in the morning can help wake us up. Consider getting a wake-up light, which simulates daybreak and tells your body it’s time to get up. This can help shake off that sleep inertia and make it much easier to get out of bed.
Do Morning Stretches
Try stretching to get the body moving and ready to slide out of bed. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service recommends starting each morning with a 5-minute stretching routine. Try these first several moves to get yourself up:
- Hold your arms overhead while pointing your toes, and give yourself a long, full-body stretch.
- Lie on your back (this is easy if you're still in bed!) with your knees bent, and bring one knee to your chest. Switch legs after a few breaths.
- Straighten one leg while pulling it toward you and hold for a few breaths. Switch legs.
- Bend both knees and hug them against your chest.
- Put your feet back on the bed, and allow bent knees to fall slowly from side to side, giving your lower back a good stretch.
- Sit up, moving your legs to the side of the bed, and twist the trunk of your body one direction, then the other.
- Stretch your shoulders backward, extending the chest outward as you take a deep breath.
Stretching can make the first steps out of bed much more pleasant as the body is limber and ready to move and the brain can't help but follow.
Add Music to Those Mornings
Studies have shown that people can feel awake faster if waking happens to the sound of something they deem melodic. So instead of setting a morning alarm to something jarring like buzzing or beeping, try setting it to a favorite song. Better yet, do those morning stretches to music to really get moving.
Get a Caffeine Boost
It might seem like a no-brainer, but caffeine could be one of our best tools against the effects of sleep inertia. It’s no myth that a cup or two of coffee in the morning can help us feel more alert and awake. Just make sure to keep it at that, or you could wind up feeling more jittery than anything, and a crash could ruin the afternoon.
Have an Energizing Breakfast
A healthy, nutrient-rich breakfast could be just what's needed to clear your head and get ready for the day. In one study, participants were given either a breakfast biscuit packed with vitamins, protein, caffeine and omega-3 fatty acids or a placebo breakfast biscuit. The people who had the nutritious breakfast tested as more alert and had better reaction times. They also had less fatigue and reported better moods than the people in the control group.
Many of us have trouble waking up, but that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to misery every morning. As long as we're getting plenty of sleep, and taking steps to ensure our sleep is healthy and regular, we should be able to wake up and feel great in the mornings with a few tips to get things moving.
