How To Wake Up Early In The Morning And Not Feel Tired
YET ANOTHER “HOW TO WAKE UP EARLY” POST TO TEACH YOU HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE
I know more than a few things on how to wake up early in the morning. Here’s why:
I used to wake up at 4 a.m. I switched to 5 a.m. Then I started waking up at 2:30 a.m. I turned to 7 a.m. Now, I’m back to waking up at 5 a.m.
Without getting into the reasons why I had to start waking up so early (mainly demanding jobs), let me specify that my best-time-to-wake-up ever is 5 a.m., and I’m going to stick to this hour for as long as possible.
But how do I wake up early? And why would you want to give it a try?
Assuming the fact you clicked to read this post, I suspect that you either have a demanding job that requires you to change your sleep schedule or have decided to improve yourself and your life. The later automatically drags the habit of waking up early with itself.
So, here you are, searching for tips on how to get up earlier than you do now, get tons of things done and not fall asleep in the middle of doing them. Not hating yourself or murdering someone around you is a nice bonus.
THE REASONS TO WAKE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING
Why should you wake up early in the morning?
10 WAYS TO RELIEVE STRESS IN THE EVENING
If you decide to google all that, you might have the impression that waking up early guarantees you success in life, becoming the CEO of a huge company and earning millions in the first year.
However, as we are mostly normal people, we tend to believe that waking up before the sunrise isn’t as necessary as it would be if we were to manage a company.
And here’s where your good morning habit dies before it’s even born.
But you are the CEO of a company – Your life is your company, and you’re the boss of it. You decide what should happen and when. You make plans for the future, create the goals to achieve, and draw the lines to success. It’s all You.
So, let’s create daily habits that will actually do you good.
BENEFITS OF WAKING UP EARLY IN THE MORNING
Here’s a very short list of the benefits of waking up early.
IT’S QUIET
Because everyone else just reads posts on “how to wake up early in the morning” until 2 a.m. and sleeps through the early hours of the day, if you actually decide to do it, you’ll be surprised.
It’s so quiet that you could actually hear your thoughts. You could have a cup of coffee in peace. You could hear the silence of your home and the world around you. You could meditate or have breakfast. You could read or just write in your journal… and you hear your thoughts.
You have time for yourself.
IMPROVES CONCENTRATION
Waking up early helps you stay focused for longer during the day. Your brain is at its best at this time, and everything you do will get you into the flow of doing it way faster than usual.
BETTER SLEEP QUALITY
I know it’s almost painful to wake up early, and you think that your sleep is interrupted and not long enough. However, waking up early improves the quality of your sleep.
How?
We are made to wake up early. People have done it for hundreds of years. If our brain operates the best early in the morning, this means it’s made to be awake at this time.
Only after we invented the TV, the smartphones, and the snooze button adults actually decide that getting up early isn’t achievable.
YOU COULD SQUEEZE IN THINGS
That laundry you forgot to set up last night?
The book you started two months ago and never finished?
The online business you keep thinking about but never got around to explore its opportunities? The fitness subscription you keep paying for but never use?
Now you will have time actually to do all that stuff and even more.
YOU FEEL MORE ORGANIZED
Recently my fiance and I moved to a new country. We are now able to both stay at home and work on our business from home. That gave us so much freedom…
Including the freedom to wake up as early or as late as we want.
Therefore, for two solid months, I kept waking up whenever I wanted. After a year of waking up at 2:30 a.m. I knew I had to use the opportunity to get up when I want, and not when I should.
The results?
I felt horrible. I didn’t have enough time to do some important daily tasks. I felt drowsy and lazy most of the days. I couldn’t organize myself nor the house we live in. I couldn’t fully focus on the business.
I had to change.
I went back to waking up at 5 a.m., and things improved immediately.
So, yeah, waking up early helps you organize your thoughts, yourself, and your life. It helps you feel like you’re ahead of the day. Especially in the wintertime, when the days are shorter.
PERFECT TIME TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF
I already mentioned that by waking up early, you might accidentally change your life.
And that’s true.
Now you have the time to explore opportunities, to get qualifications for a higher-paid job, to deal with the mess in your home, and so on.
But mainly, you have the time to motivate and inspire yourself to do all that.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BODY AND SLEEP STAGES
Before we get to the meaty part of how to wake up early and not feel tired, drowsy, lazy, and so on, let’s talk about You and your body.
You sleep in cycles. We all do.
There are 4 stages your body goes through during your one sleep cycle: Stage 1, 2, 3, and REM (Rapid Eye Movement).
Each of these stages plays an important part in your good night’s rest. One cycle lasts 90 to 120 minutes, and during this time, you go from relacing your body and transitioning to deep sleep to dreaming and transitioning into another cycle.
Every night you go through a few cycles, and it all depends on how many hours of sleep you get.
The recommended amount of 6-7 hours of sleep gives you 5-6 sleep cycles per night. The older we get, the fewer the sleep cycles we go through.
BUT WHY AM I EXPLAINING ALL THAT, AND HOW COULD IT HELP YOU?
You know that foggy feeling you can’t get rid of? It lasts for hours or even the whole day, right?
Well, as scientists say, you woke up in the middle of your sleep cycle and your body wasn’t prepared for it.
However, if you wake up the end of that sleeping cycle, your body will be ready to transition from sleep to awake easier.
Simply said, if you want to wake up and not feel tired, you need to wake up when your body is ready to wake up, and that happens every 90 to 120 minutes.
At the same time, you want to have the recommended amount of sleep that will allow your body and brain to relax and prepare for the new day.
This is a chart to help you figure out what the best time to wake up is according to the time you go to sleep and vice versa.
All you need to do is to adjust one of them: If you already go to sleep early enough, you need to adjust your wake up time. If you’d like to improve your wake up time, then your focus should move to when you go to sleep.
As simple as that.
FORGET ABOUT THE SNOOZE BUTTON
You love your snooze button.
Everyone uses it, and if it weren’t for it, everyone would’ve been… happier.
Here’s the truth about the snooze button you love to press 4-5 times every morning.
The snooze button disrupts the body’s sleep inertia.
Sleep inertia is when your body transitions from one stage to another, such as sleep to being awake.
When you snooze your alarm, you automatically relax your body and tell yourself “Oh, I have some more time”. Your brain gets the info and sends signals to your mussels to relax even further, and “there’s no rush to wake up.”
Yeah, but your body doesn’t give a f*** about your 5 minutes of bliss. It’s already entered the first stage of the sleep cycle, and it’s preparing for the next one.
And then your alarm goes off again; your sleep cycle is interrupted, hence – you hate your life.
That’s how your body works.
That’s how everyone’s body works.
SOMETHING VITAL YOU NEED TO KNOW
There’s one teeny-tiny reason your snooze button is a bad idea, but nobody wants to talk about it.
By snoozing the alarm in the morning, you take the first action of the day and that action is procrastination.
The most important part of your day is your morning, and the way you start it.
And procrastinating first thing in the morning creates a chain of other actions, similar to the one you performed at first.
THE SOLUTION? YOU WON’T LIKE IT
Of course, I’m going to advise you to forget about the snoozing the alarm in the mornings.
And that’s all I’m going to say about this point.
Now, let’s get to 17 more tips on how to wake up early in the morning and not feel tired.
17 TIPS ON HOW TO WAKE UP EARLY AND NOT FEEL TIRED
HAVE A GOOD REASON TO WAKE UP EARLY
I don’t think people pay enough attention to this point.
Everyone talks about the importance of waking up early. We’ve all heard of the hundreds of people who do it, and they’ve changed their lives.
But the secret no one mentions is that they all had their reasons to do it.
And you want to have yours.
Just because it’s life-changing!” is not good enough.
How would it change your life?
What would you do with that extra time?
These things you’re going to do with that extra time: where are they going to lead you?
What’s the end-result you chase?
How would all that improve your life?
In what period of time?
Answer these questions, and you have your Why.
2. HAVE A BUSY MORNING ROUTINE
Keep your morning routine busy with important things to do.
Just waking up and sitting in the kitchen wondering what to do isn’t going to do the trick for more than a day.
Plan your mornings like your life depends on them (’cause it does).
3. ACCOMPLISH STUFF
Each of the things you do in your extra time in the morning should have a purpose, and you want to feel like you’ve accomplished a lot.
For example, I try to write my blog content early in the morning, and that takes off 50% of the most important tasks for the day. What is yours?
4. WAKE UP AT THE END OF A SLEEP CYCLE
Yes, that’s the reason I wasted your time above and asked you to read more than you initially wanted to.
Understanding your sleep cycles helps you know how important it is to wake up at the end of it. And that’s one of the secrets of how to wake up early and not feel tired.
5. GO TO BED WHEN YOU SHOULD
Respect your body and mind, and their need for rest.
They will respect you back and help you achieve more, be healthier, and feel happier.
Use the chart to find out when the best time to go to sleep is…
6. … AND DO IT RIGHT
Just going into the bed and trying to fall asleep doesn’t work?
There are a few rules to falling asleep easier, and here are some of them:
- The more often you go to sleep at a certain hour, the easier it is for your body to fall asleep at that hour. So, go to sleep around the same time as often as possible.
- Reduce the temperature in the room as it helps your body to enter Stage 1 of your sleep cycle.
- Drink warm milk or herbal tea to help you relax.
- Read a book or listen to an audiobook – both of them do wonders. Plus, with Audible, you could set a timer for how long you’d want to listen, and then the app shuts itself. It’s almost like storytime when we were kids, right?
- De-stress yourself before you get to the bed. Do a brain-dump, reflect on the day in your journal, or write a few things you’re grateful for. All of these things take the stress off your mind and place it outside of you.
7. STOP SNOOZING THE ALARM IN THE MORNING
… and actually show some motivation to live.
I don’t recommend jumping out of the bed as soldiers do, but moving out of it as soon as possible shows your day you’re ready for it and are willing to do your best today.
8. HAVE A GLASS OF WATER NEXT TO YOU
First of all: it’s hydration time. You’ve deprived your body of water for a long time during the night and it’s time to give it what it needs.
Next: By pouring the cold liquid in your boy, you automatically refresh it, wake it up from inside.
Bonus: The first thing you do in the morning is self-care and taking action. And we already talked about the importance of the first action in the morning.
9. TAKE A FEW DEEP BREATHS
Just as with the water, taking a few deep breaths wakes up your body from the inside. By breathing in a higher amount of oxygen, you wake up your organs and give them their morning coffee.
10. WASH YOUR FACE WITH COLD WATER
If you’re brave enough, take a cold shower. I tried it twice, and I learned quickly that I’m a warm-shower lover.
But washing your face with cold water is your priority in the morning, especially if you suffer from a puffy face, like me.
11. RUN-ON SPOT FOR A FEW MINUTES
I started doing that recently. But I do it every hour because I need to move my body more often.
It works great for increasing your heartbeat and breathing in even more oxygen. Even Tony Robbins recommends it.
12. BE INSPIRED FOR YOUR DAY (AND LIFE)
I think this point comes with the one to get motivated for your life.
Finding inspiration in life is your higher priority if that’s what you’re missing.
Be inspired for the things you’re going to achieve today.
Be inspired by the places you’ll go and the things you’ll see.
Be inspired by the people you’ll meet and the lessons they’ll teach you.
Be inspired to live Your life and this day, because it’s a gift you can’t return, but it’s up to you if you’ll use it.
13. REWARD YOURSELF FOR THE GOOD DECISIONS
If you’re anything like me, you might operate on rewards.
So, reward yourself for waking up early. Pick something small and let it be your reward.
Here are a few examples of rewards to motivate you, even more, to wake up early:
- Reading a favorite book;
- Going out with friends;
- Having a piece of cake;
- A weekend away if you’ve managed to wake up early every morning for a month;
- A day off of any house chores;
- Watching a favorite show without feeling guilty about it (because it’s your reward);
- …and more.
14. NO ELECTRONICS
No electronics for an hour before you go to sleep will guarantee you a faster drifting way once your head hits the pillow.
Also, in the morning, you want to stay away from the social media and any other distractions, because… you didn’t wake up for that, did you?
15. EARLY TO ME IS NOT EARLY FOR YOU
To me, 5 a.m. is the best time to wake up in the morning.
To Wayne Dyer, it was 3 a.m.
To Elon Musk – it’s 7 a.m.
Oprah wakes up at 6 a.m.
Do you get what I mean?
My wake-up time might be different than yours.
That’s why it’s Yours.
16. REMEMBER WHO’S THE BOSS
Do you remember how I mentioned that you’re the CEO of your life?
Yes, you are the boss.But we often forget that just because we don’t have control over other people and things that enter or leave our lives, it doesn’t mean we don’t have control over ourselves.
Actually, that’s the only thing we can control entirely.
So, be the boss and manage yourself in a way that changes your life and creates the presence you want to live in.
17. GIVE IT A CHANCE
But we often forget that just because we don’t have control over other people and things that enter or leave our lives, it doesn’t mean we don’t have control over ourselves.
Actually, that’s the only thing we can control entirely.
So, be the boss and manage yourself in a way that changes your life and creates the presence you want to live in.
Listen…
Just give it a chance. It takes 60+ days to develop a new habit and it will be hard.
But nothing good comes easy and that’s a lesson we all learn the hard way.
Just give it some time. In the beginning, you will think it’s a crazy idea, it’s not worth it, and it’s not for you.
Yes, it is a crazy idea.
But it’s worth it.
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