Waking up early in the morning is a challenge for many, but
it can become a habit that will change your life. Quite often, those people who
rise with the lark have a more energetic and fruitful day ahead, find time for
personal development, and are less stressful. It does, however, take some
strategic changes in the routine—consistency—in order to acclimatize your body
clock to become an early riser.
Benefits of Waking Up Early
Waking up early has many advantages to mental and physical
health alike. Nearly all of these early wakers stipulated that it gave them
enough time to be productive. Generally, in the morning, things are very calm,
thus providing enough space for one to do some work without noise and hustle,
or maybe some personal stuff before the day becomes busy. It also gives room
for a healthy breakfast, some exercising, and space for mental preparation of
the coming day.
Moreover, with rising early, comes an increase in self-confidence and ebbing away of stress. With more morning hours, you are away from the worries of running out of time and surely will begin your day with peace and poise. These factors surely lead you to a good and more productive day.
Here are 8 tricks that will help you wake up early and make the most of your day
1- Stick to a Regular Schedule
Probably the most important thing in being able to get someone up early would be a proper sleep pattern. Going to bed and rising at exactly the same time every day, including weekends, is good for developing the routine so that the body at least knows what to expect. Further, consistency makes sure it would be easier to rise early and really feel well-rested upon wake-up. Your body loves routine, and going to bed and rising at the same time as much as possible will help with your sleep quality. In due time, your body attunes to the rhythm of this, and that helps one rise more easily without grogginess or tiredness.
2- Develop a Bedtime Ritual
It can also be used in a bedtime routine, letting your body know that it's time to sleep. A bedtime routine does involve a little bit of adjustment and might be as basic as reading a book, taking a warm bath, or attending to relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises or meditation. Softer activities an hour before sleeping, in particular watching TVs or using the computer since the light from the screens will keep you from falling asleep. On the other hand, do things to relax your mind and body. A regular set on-set time routine helps sleep better and generally wakes up easily early.
3- Avoid stimulants like caffeine and heavy meals before sleeping.
Your supper can make a huge difference in the quality of your falling asleep and waking up in the morning. Caffeine is a stimulant, so its effects will be felt throughout the body for hours, making it much harder to sleep if ingested too late in the day. Limit caffeine intake to the morning or early afternoon at the latest to avoid sleep disturbance. Heavy meals close to bedtime can also interfere with sleep. Too much food ingested too close to bedtime may bring unease and possibly indigestion, which will strongly act against a person's falling asleep. If you are hungry before bed, choose a light snack that is easily digestible, such as a fruit or a small serving of yogurt.
4- Creating Your Sleep Environment
The quality of your sleep is, to a large extent, centred on your sleep environment. To this end, if you're going to have the perfect sleep environment, you'll want a bedroom that's cool, quiet, and dark. Use blackout curtains or an eye mask if there's any light that could bother you sleeping. Also integral to the formula is a supportive mattress and pillows. If your bedding is old and lumpy, it might be time for an upgrade to help you get better sleep. Supposedly, then with the improved sleep, you can sleep in and wake up refreshed with earplugs or a white noise machine.
View More: 7 Health Benefits Of Morning Walk
5- Gradually Change Your Wake-up Time
If one is used to sleeping in, waking up early all of a
sudden might be quite hard. You can, in this case, change your getting-up time
gradually. For example, set your alarm 15 minutes earlier every day until you
have reached the time at which you would like to wake up. The gradual nature of
this change will make sure that your body adapts to the new schedule with
minimal disruption.
The key to this adjustment period is consistency. If you
hang in there, no matter however tough it seems in the beginning, then after
some time, your body will get used to waking up at this new wake-up time.
Waking up early will become a habit in due time.
6- Limiting Screen Time Before Sleep
As will be elaborated further down the line, since screen time before bed has a lot to do with hampering one's ability to get good sleep, this rule is up there in the very top tier of the list of highly recommended rules. Lights from devices such as phones, tablets, and laptops contain what is called blue light, which interferes with melatonin production—the hormone responsible for making us sleep. See if you can stay off the screens an hour before bed if you'd like to raise the chances of falling asleep fast and waking up early. Reach for a good book, diary, or some soothing music rather than scrolling on the phone. This can make you fall asleep more easily and wake up more refreshed.
7- Make use of Natural Light to Your Advantage
Now, to an overwhelmingly large extent, it is the natural
light that does most of the work to set your body in synchrony. In fact,
morning sunlight can help regulate a misaligned circadian rhythm, thus making
it easier to wake up in the morning. Do make every effort to spend some time
outdoors after getting up.
You can replace this natural light with that from a light
therapy lamp providing the stimulus of natural light during mornings. This
really helps during wintertime when daylight is so much less. For this and
other reasons, getting some natural light—and better yet morning—can help bring
life to your body and put you in a better mood.
8- Staying Motivated to Wake Up Early
Very little will want to make you leave your bed when it's
dark and cold outside in the morning. Build some motivation by reminding
yourself of what waking up early allows you to do and be crystal clear about
what your intentions are in the morning. Having a purpose or focus for the
morning—using that extra time for exercise, meditation, or working on personal
goals—can make it easier to get out of bed.
Give motivation to yourself by having a really positive
morning routine which you feel will enable you to wake up. It could be all
about cups of your favorite cup of tea or coffee, a good healthy breakfast, or
it could simply be some quiet times with yourself. Continuing in the morning
becomes easy when you associate it with positive times.
Conclusion
It can be a game changer in productivity and is also beneficial
for the improvement of mental and general health. It goes without saying that
it's going to help you in preparing to get up early if you have developed
regular sleep timing, a winding down routine, and a sleeping environment that
improves sleep. To make this a bit easier on yourself, slowly adjust your
wake-up time, turn off and put away digital devices in the evenings, and wake
up with sunlight.
Please book an appointment with the best Nutritionist in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, and all major cities of Pakistan through InstaCare, or call our helpline at 03171777509 to find the verified doctor for your disease.