Getting up early is difficult for many reasons – perhaps our sleep is unregulated, or we have small children, or we are stressed out and permanently tired. It’s very hard to greet the day with a smile at the 6 am alarm when we feel like this. Often, our sleep and wake up problems result from chaos, the sources of which are not always obvious or easy to order. However, there are ways that will make getting up in the morning easier and, over time, more enjoyable.
The goal is the most important
Without a precise goal definition, we won’t proceed with any plan – not just ones that relate to sleep. Being determined and motivated to stick to a plan is an essential element to direct the functioning of your brain. You actually have to tell your brain what you intend to do. We rarely tell ourselves what our goal or plan is, and certainly not with a smile and positive thinking. So, it’s important to think about why we need to have this goal and carry it through. Perhaps you feel like you are sleeping through your life? Is your long sleep making you lazy for the rest of the day? Or maybe you never have time for morning coffee alone or training? Any reason is good so long as it is strong enough to keep you motivated and committed to your new goal of early rising.
Absolute discipline
Sticking to your morning routine is another challenge, especially on weekends or during free days. Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest steps to achieve the goal of getting up early, but after a while, it will not be a problem. So step 1: You have to stick to the set wake-up time regardless of the day of the week or the schedule. If you want to get up at 7:30, you must always get up at this time, including on weekends (the only exception may be a longer holiday, but the sleeping time should remain the same). Forget about naps and hitting the snooze button every few minutes, these do not help your sleep pattern.
Rome was not built in a day
Nevertheless, you are not a robot, and your body is not regulated by remote control, which is why you need to measure your intentions and spread your work overtime. If you normally wake up at 10 am and you want to start getting up at 6 am, don’t expect this to happen immediately. The situation is similar for unregulated sleep, i.e. waking up at dawn and again before noon. Don’t act drastically! Prepare your body for change gradually, but do not shift your long term goal. Write down a real action plan, for example, getting up increasingly earlier and stick to this plan until you finally reach the goal. Remember “Rome was not built in a day”, but it was built by consistent and regular work.
Individual sleep time
Although it is common knowledge that 8 hours sleep is the optimal dose, in fact, each body has its individual preference that ensures rest and relaxation, as well as optimal hormonal balance and health. According to researchers, we should not sleep less than 5.5 hours, nor more than 9 hours. If our sleep pattern does fall within this time frame, all that remains is to adjust the ideal length of sleep. In turn, if we have a problem with waking up or permanent sleeplessness, replace your ordinary duvet with a weighted blanket, it really does help. Such a blanket further reduces the level of the stress hormone cortisol, while stimulating the production of serotonin – the hormone of happiness, which makes it easier for us to get up.
Be determined to persevere!
