How to wake up early

In most of my previous articles, I have been talking about psychological tricks to fall asleep fast, why it is bad to suffer from sleep deprivation, how to get the amount of sleep you need, etc etc. However, rather than the processes of getting into your bed at night and falling asleep, how about we talk about getting out of your bed and waking up to start your day?

As you may already know, recently, being an early riser has become so popular that it almost turned into a cliché. And to top it off, the way the world itself functions happens to be in the favor of early birds: school starts early, work starts early, administrations start early as well, etc. Which means that you are supposed to condition yourself to waking up early if you still wish to be part of the world’s current societies. But as you are not used to that at all, you probably feel like there is no hope for you, right?

Well worry not! There are actually plenty of tips to get you out of your bed in the morning despite you being a night owl!

Keep reading to see how you can achieve what may seem impossible for you!

Here are the tricks to help you wake up early

Find your own motivation that would get you out of your bed in the morning

Telling yourself that you would get up at the crack of dawn just because you want to do so is more of a lie than anything else. You can’t just tell your brain that you want to be up early and expect it to wake you up in the morning. Just like you can’t tell your brain you want to sleep and expect it to take you off to dreamland. In both cases, there has to be a trigger.

So when you get into your bed at night, all ready to sleep, try wondering why would like to be up early the following day. Try looking for that specific something that fuels the fire in your heart and gives you motivation to not even consider sleeping for five more minutes the day after. That way, you will for sure get up as soon as your alarm clock starts ringing because you will realize that you actually do want to wake up early.

Leave it to your pets to change your sleeping schedules

Now this is a cute one. If you can’t change your own habits, then you may want to change your pets’ and then leave the rest to them. All you have to do is for instance set your pets’ feeding time very early so that they wake you up to eat. And even if you may find this irritating at first, you will definitely get accustomed to it and start finding it endearing, maybe even look forward to waking up early.

Buy an adjustable bed with a gentle wake-up alarm function

You could purchase an adjustable bed like Leggett & Platt’s Prodigy 2.0 which has a gentle wake up alarm. It will start vibrating or massaging you at the time you set. It feels great, but it would also wake you up gradually, but thoroughly to make sure you get a head start for the day!

Naps are your biggest enemy! Avoid them at all costs!

If you want to start waking up early, then napping is going to be your worst enemy. Regardless of how sleepy you may feel throughout your day, make sure you don’t give in and prevent yourself from taking a nap. Otherwise, that will just disturb your body clock which will throw you back to the endless cycle of waking up late and going to bed late.

Follow your night routine without fail

Having a night routine is similar to triggering your mind to put you asleep. That is why it is of the utmost importance for you to keep following your routine. Common routines can be as simple as including:

• drinking a hot cup of milk with honey
• brushing your teeth
• reading one chapter of your current book,

then going to bed. But as you keep on doing these things, you will definitely find it easier to fall asleep early and thus wake up early just like you wish for.

Gently change and fix your sleeping schedule

It probably sounds impossible for you to turn into a morning person, right? All those people and blog articles talking about shifting your sleeping time from 7AM to 9PM or whatever sound simply like people who can’t share your struggle, right?

Well there is something that you haven’t been told yet, and that you still may not know. Something that can actually enable you to start sleeping early – early as in 9PM and wake up early. It is a fairly easy method, and all it requires is consistence and discipline. What you have to do is to first talk yourself into sleeping 15 minutes earlier than usual and waking up 15 minutes earlier than usual. As this isn’t going to be a major change in your sleeping habits, it won’t be difficult for you to achieve. And everyday, go to bed 15 minutes early, and wake up the following day 15 minutes early. Naturally, at one point, you will find yourself going to bed at 9PM and waking up at 7AM just like any other morning person.

No more Emails and self-improving books, only light novels

One thing that could help you sleep early and thus wake up early is reading before bed.

However, it has to be specified that you don’t read your emails or new or self-learning books, as those will only stimulate your brain, which is very counterproductive at that moment of the day. Try going for fiction or light novel that you have or haven’t read before in order to empty your mind and fall asleep faster.

Camping might be the solution for you!

This one may sound fun and almost weird, but it really works! It has been discovered that if you go and spend your nights outside under the moonlight, far away from your blue light emitting devices, then your body’s clock will naturally set itself according to sunrise and sunset. As that may require some time, we recommend you to go for at least a week, until you feel like you have set your sleeping back in place and under control. And of course, make sure to leave all of your electronic devices at home so that you don’t have to look at them. Or maybe simply force yourself not to look at them after the sun sets so that your body isn’t disturbed by the blue lights. That said, do not leave your first aid kit at home when you are camping out in the wild. If you have small first aid kits for the car, you can at least keep your wound sterile and covered until you can travel home.

Remember that in spite of digital detoxification’s benefits, if you do not carry a mobile phone, you may be stranded in the wild; worse, you may not be able to call for help in case of an emergency. One way of avoiding such a situation could be by opting for a camping site or camping festival like Glastonbury luxury camping (check for glastonbury festival accommodation if interested) or others like them where you can get the full experience of luxurious camping without worrying about getting lost in the wild.

Heavy lunch? More like light dinner and good sleep

This one is easy and also very logical. Eating a heavy lunch will for sure prevent you from eating a heavy dinner, which will enable to sleep light, fast and better, and wake up in a good condition.

Fool your brain

This one is a bit tricky and also funny in the sense that you basically fool your brain.
What you have to do is to force yourself to stay up for only 10 minutes after hitting the snooze button. Only 10 minutes, and then you will allow yourself to get back to sleep. But during these 10 minutes, you have to make sure not to approach your bed, and simply do something else until you are ready to go back to bed. 10 minutes is a short time, right? You can do that for sure.

However, you will realize by yourself that once those 10 minutes will pass, you will be way too alert and awake to go back to sleep, and that’s how you would have successfully fooled your brain!

Fool your brain, but don’t let it fool you in return

We have just seen how it is possible for you to fool your brain, right? But keep in mind that your brain may fool you as well! So when in the morning your alarm goes off but your brain finds any and every excuse for you to sleep for just 5 more minutes , you should absolutely not listen to it. Because if you do, then you will fall right into your brain’s trap which is the deeper sleep it will put you into during those 5 minutes. So every time you think 5 more minutes , try seeing it as time to get up for real .

Sleep with your curtains open to wake up gently

Have you ever tried leaving your curtains open instead of closing them when you are about to get into your bed? If so, then you must have had noticed how well you feel in the morning when you are woken up by sunlight. It is much softer and simply better than waking up because of an aggressive alarm clock.

So if you want to wake up early without necessarily dreading it because of the grogginess and frustration it causes, then try sleeping with your curtains open in order to get up peacefully.