“It took me four years of research, experimentation and failure to develop the habit of waking up early. Now I can finally control my rise time - and it's been worth it. Probably, if you are reading this material, you also tried to learn to get up early, and you failed,” writes the author of the note.
Hacks on how to get up at five in the morning have become especially popular in recent years. In fact, waking up early does not mean waking up exactly at five. I'm not saying you can't do it, but you certainly don't have to.
To learn to get up earlier, the author says, you first need to change your lifestyle. “One of the reasons it took me four years to develop the habit is because I didn’t initially take into account my student (and then entrepreneur) lifestyle. The time you should get up is determined by what you do, your job, family, social circle, hobbies, how often you travel, and so on.”
“Getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning is an impossible task if you are a doctor who often has to work night shifts, or a student who works and plays at night. And if you travel a lot and are plagued by jet lag, getting up at the same time is physically difficult,” he explains.
After the hour of rising is determined, based on professional and personal activities, the entrepreneur writes, it is necessary to restore order in several areas of life at once:
- goals and attitude;
- evening classes;
- sleep quality;
- waking up and morning routine.
Put on the right music
Choose the right melody for your alarm clock.
She shouldn't be annoying. In the morning we are especially susceptible to everything, including sounds. You'll want to turn off the nasty alarm clock and go back to sleep. But you shouldn’t stage a very calm composition either. It will only make you sleep better. As soon as you get out of bed, turn on the radio or your favorite playlist of energetic music.
The body will automatically begin to move to the beat, the mood will rise, which means you definitely won’t want to go back to bed.
Why you need to wake up early
Morning is a fertile period of the day when you can get a charge of positive energy for the body and soul. You can feel all the beauty of nature and birdsong only in the early morning, while everyone is sleeping. Walking, prayer, meditation, exercise in the fresh air alone - available in the morning.
Self-esteem increases
As you start the day, that’s how it will be. An active and cheerful start to the day prevents a person from making mistakes when moving towards a healthy lifestyle. There is a subconscious acceptance of the attitude: “I did it!”, after which during the day you want to repeatedly overcome the difficulties that have arisen, finding a source of joy. Getting up early builds character and makes it easier to withstand difficulties.
The body protects itself from aging
It is important to remember about biorhythms: by falling asleep on time, a person provides time for deep sleep, which means the production of melatonin, somatotropin growth hormone, which strengthens the body, normalizes blood pressure, slows down the aging process of the body, and reduces body fat.
Important! Waking up early stimulates the production of cortisol, a hormone that protects the body from stress.
The highest levels of the hormone coincide with the morning hours. Long-term exposure to the hormone negatively affects the immune system; morning activity accelerates the removal of cortisol residues from the body.
Do some exercise
Short morning workouts not only help you wake up due to the flow of oxygen to the brain, but also improve your figure and make you happier. So lay out your mat and do some exercises.
Dmitry Fedin
VIP trainer, candidate of psychological sciences
I start every morning with exercise. It is better to give preference not to strength training, but to stretching. You need to gradually stretch all your muscles and, of course, pull in your abdominal muscles. You can start this exercise right in bed: pull your knee towards your stomach. First the right, then the left, then both at the same time. This will wake up your body.
You can also focus on push-ups. Perform three sets with 30-second breaks. The main thing is to do as many push-ups as you can every time. This simple workout will tone you up and energize you.
If the weather permits, put on sports clothes and shoes and go for a run. The benefits are double: morning cardio and fresh air.
Sleep quality
“Most people do not know what and how affects their sleep and what can be done to improve its quality,” writes the author of the note. He cites several factors that improve or worsen sleep quality.
- Stimulants. At least six hours before bedtime, you should stop drinking coffee and alcohol and keep only green tea and water in your diet.
- Heavy food. Before going to bed, you should not eat heavy food - it burdens the digestive system and impairs the quality of sleep. The author recommends eating a small snack, nuts, or drinking a glass of milk before bed to avoid waking up hungry.
- Water. Before going to bed, you should drink at least one glass of water. If a person already drinks one glass of water before bed, you can increase the amount to two.
- Sports activities. Before going to bed, you should avoid physical activity for at least three hours. “Exercise is invigorating, and it will be more difficult to fall asleep afterwards.”
- Sleeping conditions. You need to purchase a quality mattress and pillow, and also make sure that the room is dark (if it is impossible to make it dark, a sleep mask will do). It is also worth paying attention to the temperature in the room.
- Time. You should go to bed at the same time every day. At first, the entrepreneur writes, it will be difficult, but soon the body will get used to it and the person will begin to feel tired just at the right time.
- Sleep optimization. The entrepreneur advises finding the ideal time to go to bed - one so that after waking up you really feel rested. “When you sleep, you go through certain cycles. Light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. The full cycle lasts about 90 minutes and is repeated several times a night. To feel rested, you need to wake up when the cycle is completed - after an hour and a half, three, four and a half, six, and so on. Of course, you won’t guess down to the minute, but over time you will understand what is more comfortable for your body.”
And yes, get enough sleep
Most experts consider 7–9 hours of nightly rest to be the norm for Understanding Sleep. And employees of the University of Arizona came to the conclusion The secret to happiness is getting EXACTLY seven hours and six minutes of sleep a night, that to be happy a person needs to sleep exactly 7 hours and 6 minutes.
If you can’t go to bed on time, experts recommend calculating your sleep time so that it is a multiple of an hour and a half. This way, even after a short rest, you will have a chance to wake up refreshed.
FAQ
Question: “What about the weekend?” Answer: “It all depends on personal preference. But if you're just starting a habit, I'd recommend sticking to your new schedule on the weekends as well. Later, you can allow yourself one or two extra hours of sleep.”
Question: “How many times in a row can you wake up at the wrong time and not lose the habit?” Answer: “When a habit is just being developed, after 2-3 days it will not be easy to return to the achieved level. Once a habit has been developed, 2-3 days won’t ruin anything.”
Question: “What happens when I travel and change my environment?” Answer: “It’s a difficult question. First, have pity on yourself. Try to stick to your habits, but if it doesn’t work out, don’t force it.”
Question: “What if I unexpectedly have to go to a party?” Answer: “That’s very good. Just have fun. There is no need to force yourself to wake up at the same time as usual - sleep as much as you need.”
How to behave after waking up
It is important how the first minutes after waking up pass. They definitely need to be put to good use:
- Admire the sunrise.
- Listen to pleasant music.
- Read some motivational quotes.
- Chat with your four-legged friend.
- Drink a cup of water with lemon or mint.
From these pleasant actions you can create rituals to perform daily in the morning:
- First minute. Open your eyes and think about something very good, about people who make you feel happy, about places you really want to visit. One can imagine the purchase living in one's dreams. This start of the morning will contribute to further planned actions.
- 2 minutes. To awaken the body, you should stretch to saturate it with oxygen - take 2-3 deep breaths.
- 3 minutes. To wake up refreshed, it is recommended to induce a rush of blood to the head by massaging the earlobes, back of the head, temples, and eyebrows.
- 4 minutes. To improve blood circulation, you need to rub each other with your palms, then rub your entire body.
- 5 minutes. Slowly get up, sit on the bed, drink a cup of water.
Sports will help
Starting your day with a run can help you feel an increase in vitality at any age. If you have just started training, 15-minute runs at a slow pace are enough. Jogging or brisk walking is allowed. You can select an individual pace by applying the following criterion: if while running it is possible to say a short phrase out loud without shortness of breath, the running speed has been chosen correctly.
Instead of running, you can take a bike ride, if you don’t want to run or ride a bike, do morning exercises accompanied by invigorating music on the street or at home
Good morning habits will help you wake up refreshed.
As I already said, it takes time to learn to sleep soundly, wake up alert and rested and in a good mood. Even if you follow all the recommendations now, you will see the result in about a week. You will need a little patience, but believe me, it's worth it. Perhaps you will be able to maintain the habit of waking up correctly for the rest of your life, and this will make it much easier.
If you don’t work on yourself, then the morning “slides” into approximately one scenario:
What a morning shouldn't be like
- nothing is ready in the evening, all things are postponed until tomorrow;
— waking up in the morning is difficult, you have to get up as late as possible, desperately trying to get enough sleep and tormenting the body with changes in sleep-wake modes;
- everything is done in a hurry, there is no time for breakfast, you have to eat whatever you can on the run;
- you have to spend time choosing clothes and preparing and ironing them;
- you have to get to work in a hurry, there is no talk of a good mood;
If one or more of these points are regularly repeated for you, then don’t worry - you have the power to change everything. Let's look at what the morning and evening should be like the day before so that you can wake up alert and rested:
What a morning should be like
— prepare as much as possible in the evening: think through your clothes, check their condition, iron them if necessary;
- think over a healthy breakfast in the evening, make sure you have everything you need to prepare; get ready to wake up at a strictly defined time so that you can get everything done in the morning;
— get up at the first ring of the alarm clock with a comfortable time reserve, keep only pleasant thoughts in your head;
— do light morning exercises accompanied by pleasant music;
- prepare a healthy and nutritious breakfast, don’t forget anything, leave with plenty of time;
It’s not as difficult as it seems, but if you want it, such a morning becomes familiar and you have much more strength, the desire to sleep disappears, there are fewer late days for work and less stress.
As for the preparations in the evening, we’ve sorted it out and are moving on.
Second night
The second evening was completely the same as the first. The sleep seemed to have become even stronger, but the alarm clock tore me out of my dreams just as disgustingly. This time, before leaving the bed, I lay there for 10 minutes with the light on. This time, according to my assumptions, should have been enough for the body to get used to the inevitable. It worked partly.
My joints no longer crunched like pieces of rusty iron, and the increased warm-up time gave me more energy. Although fatigue accumulated like a snowball as the day went on, I didn’t want to sleep, but I still adjusted the schedule.
Prepare an invigorating juice
And, of course, drink it too. The main rule is that the juice must be freshly squeezed. And it’s up to you to decide what to squeeze it out of. However, it is important to take into account that many fruit juices contain a large amount of fructose - so it is better to dilute them at least a little with water. But fresh vegetable juices are less dangerous, but also effective in combating morning lethargy.
- How to replace coffee in the morning: 5 great instant options
How to quickly cheer yourself up in the morning if for some reason you don’t drink coffee?
Choose the right alarm clock
One option is to buy an alarm clock. Half an hour before the set time, the lamp on the device turns on, the intensity of which constantly increases. This has a gentle effect on the sleep hormone, melatonin, which helps you wake up easier.
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You can buy a sleep tracker for your wrist or download an app for your phone that monitors your sleep phase and cycle and wakes you up when you're ready to wake up. Alternatively, turn on the volume fade-in feature on your phone so that the alarm goes off gradually.
Pour yourself some aromatic tea
A fairly well-known way to cheer up. Especially if the bonus of delicious tea is the smell of lemon, ginger, bergamot, ginseng, rosehip or mint. A drink with the addition of these plants has a tonic effect. Before you start drinking your tea, enjoy the depth of its aroma. This will be the first step towards awakening.
- 20 herbal teas to improve health: compositions, recipes, tips for use
Herbal teas are tasty and healthy. By learning to mix natural ingredients, you will forget about buying tea in the store and improve your health.
Fourth night
I have changed the terms once again.
The sleep period was shifted by an hour: bedtime was supposed to be at 12, and wake-up at 8, I wanted to see how much easier it would be to wake up. At the same time, I left the well-proven two alarm clocks. And here the whole system seemed to come to life. Sleep smoothly took me from evening to morning, I got up exactly at eight, after lying in bed for half an hour with the light on, and even the orange I ate at breakfast spread through my body in a warm wave that kept me strong all day.
However, what happened on the final morning was even more amazing.
