Tips to Waking Up Early

This is a topic I have always struggled with.  I am such a night owl that getting up early is nearly impossible for me.  I have come up with some tips on those rare occasions when I need to wake up early that I have found helpful, and I hope they can help you too!

If you need to start waking up on a regular basis (like I will need to in a couple months when I graduate!), then you should try starting off gradually.  Last semester I didn’t take classes before 11:40am and it was the PERFECT schedule for me.  However, since I knew that in the near future I would need to get up much earlier than that, I decided it would be a good idea to take earlier classes.  I signed up for an 8am that I quickly dropped after the second week because it was too big of a time adjustment.  If you give yourself time to adjust little by little to waking up earlier, then your body will find it easier over time.  Now I am able to wake up at 9:30am without much of a struggle.

There are many activities that you can do in the evening that will help you to have a smoother morning.  The first thing you can do is to go to bed early enough so that you get a full eight hours of sleep.  This will allow you to wake up early still feeling refreshed.  Also, try to not eat a large meal right before bed.  Eating late at night may cause you to have trouble falling asleep.  The best activity you can do the night before is to prepare for the morning.  This could include laying out your outfit, packing your bag, preparing food, etc.  Prepare as much as you can the night before to allow for more free time in the morning in which you can sleep a little longer or even have some relaxing free time.

A good trick to getting yourself out of bed in the morning is to place your alarm clock away from your bed.  This will force you to actually get out of bed instead of hitting the snooze button and risking falling back asleep.  Once you are out of bed, you should turn on the lights and drink a cold glass of water to help wake your body up faster.   It is also beneficial to wake up a little bit earlier than you need to and go to the gym and shower.  Making time for the gym will wake you up and energize you for the day.  Even if you don’t have time to hit the gym, just showering can help jump start your day.  As a last ditch effort to gain some energy, coffee is a great alternative.  I love a cup of coffee on the days when I am extremely tired, but I find that by the evening I tend to crash.

Mornings can be difficult, but if you get your days started earlier, you can take advantage of the extra time you now have.  I have noticed how much more time I have to do my daily activities when I don’t waste half of the day sleeping!