How to wake Up more easily & be a morning person
So, you want to be a morning person? If you want to wake up more easily, there are a few things you can try. I have always been a morning person; I also used to work in breakfast radio, which means that I would have to be at work at ungodly hours, often as early as 3:30 AM. Learning to be a morning person is not something that you can’t achieve – it just might take a few new ideas to get you going.
Wake up more easily – the natural way
You know how it is – you have great intentions for starting the day well rested, productive and full of energy. But then your friends tempt you out for ‘just one drink’ or that new episode on Netflix turns into a series binge, and suddenly you’ve had a late night and there is a groggy, de-energised morning ahead. The default is to reach for something caffeine laden and sugary for a quick energy boost, even though it isn’t the best idea for our health, mood or wallets.
With a little planning though, you can power up your morning in a better way. By doing some prep the night before, or setting the alarm just 15 minutes earlier, you can have a much healthier, more energetic morning – without overdosing on coffee.
Try a sunrise yoga session
Fitting in a gym class before heading to work may feel achievable, but how about a speed sunrise yoga session? To be a morning person you need to shake things up. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your bedroom, just program a playlist of 15 minute yoga sessions on YouTube and get doing those sun salutations in front of your tablet. The wellbeing both physically and mentally that it gives you will set you up right for the rest of the day.
Prep a healthy breakfast
One of my most popular posts is “Can’t” Eat Breakfast in the Morning? Here’s Why. It’s not just hear say that those who breakfast well are healthier and more mentally productive- studies have shown those who skip the most important meal of the day are four times more likely to be overweight.
Stabilising your blood sugar first thing gives you a positive mood, sustained energy and mental focus. If you stumble around in a bleary haze in the morning, go for things you can prep in advance – make overnight oats, prep and chill a protein smoothie with a scoop of organic superfood powder or bake a batch of egg and spinach breakfast muffins on a Sunday for the week ahead. Your body and mind will thank you.
Keep your blinds or curtains partly open
This might sound like an unusual tip, but it works! If you feel like a night owl and your body clock seems to be set up all wrong, it can be a daily battle to wake up and feel mentally alert. You need to reset the natural circadian rhythm of the body so it knows when to release the right hormones to trigger sleep and wakefulness. If you want to be a morning person, then leaving your blinds or curtains open a crack or fully open if you can plays a big part in this. The sunlight spilling in actives the brain to release adrenaline and make you feel awake and alert. If you can fit in a walk outside on the way to work, this will also help, as well as squeezing in some exercise.
Plan your top three daily goals
Feel like your to-do list never really gets tackled? You may be using it wrong. If the list is spilling off the page, it’s overwhelming and unrealistic. Restrict yourself to the five most urgent items to complete in your day as a basic time management technique.
Try to plan three the night before, to offload your brain and help you to sleep better, and leave two free for the reactive tasks which come in during the day. Actually being able to tick things off creates impetus and gives a feeling of achievement – and if you get ahead of the game, you can use the time to tackle some longer-term, less urgent work. You can be a morning person, if you try!
Ready to be a morning person?
There are studies that indicate that morning people may in fact live longer! Researchers at a recent study looked at 433,268 individuals (aged 38 – 73), “who defined themselves as either “definite morning” types, “moderate morning” types, “moderate evening” types or “definite evening” types, according to the New York Times.
“Each increase from “morningness” to “eveningness” was associated with an increased risk for disease. Night owls were nearly twice as likely as early risers to have a psychological disorder and 30 percent more likely to have diabetes.” Read more about the findings of the morning person study here.
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