Not a Morning Person? Yeah, Me Neither.
I spend a lot of my time dragging my feet and grumbling to whoever is nearby in the mornings on the way to my coffee maker. Despite not being a morning person, I do not have a hard time waking up. I get a lot of advice to work out, set multiple alarms, or have a filling breakfast in the morning. While all of this advice was good, it never really helped. I recently discovered that my tiredness came from a lack of sleep or my quality of sleep. A lot of my preparation now starts actually the day before instead of during the wee hours of the morning. Here are a few of my personal tips on becoming a “better” morning person, which really comes down to preparing for a good night’s sleep.
- Preparing my outfits for the week
Usually, on Sunday and Monday evenings, I take some time to gather all my outfit ideas for the week. Even if my outfit changes, I at least have some outline of clothing that can be worn, which cuts out on a lot of additional brainpower in my mornings.
2. Peppermint tea
As someone with insomnia, I often stay up until 3 AM on animal TikTok or listen to True Crime podcasts when I should be sleeping. I do these things because I cannot turn my brain off, especially when I have had a busy day. By midnight if I do not find myself feeling sleepy or tired, then I brew myself some peppermint tea with honey to help relax my body and mind.
3. Plan time for leisure activities
When I first started college, I worked two jobs, so I never really had free time to commit to things I enjoyed. Sometimes, staying up late was dedicated to tasks that I could not do during the daytime. Instead of winding down for bed, I would jump into a task that I really wanted to do but did not have time to, like reading, watching a specific movie, writing, or sketching. After I noticed this pattern, I began to slow down and plan my days accordingly. If I knew that I was going to have a hectic week, I planned to have lulls on certain days for hobbies and interests.
4. Read instead of using my phone
Like most people, I have a complicated relationship with my phone. When I was bored in the middle of the night, my phone use to be my go-to, which is not ideal for your sleep hygiene. To supplement my phone usage, I went back to my favorite pastime of reading. Reading before bed keeps me from getting bored without disrupting my sleep patterns with the harsh light of my phone.
5. Charge my phone across the room
As you have probably guessed, my phone is rooted in many of my sleep problems. So, I started charging my phone elsewhere, i.e., not beside my bed. Whether we like it or not, our phones are pretty vital to how we do things now. It helps us communicate quicker, get tasks done faster, answer unknown questions, all on top of entertaining us. My phone now lives on my desk across the room while charging instead of next to me on the nightstand.
Even with these good practices in place, I still do not jump out of bed excitedly. I am still not a morning person, but these tactics do help me shift my mindset. I went from hating mornings to finding them enjoyable here and there. So, next time you find yourself saying how you hate morning or that you aren’t much of a morning person, ask yourself, “Am I really not a morning person? Or am I just tired?” Then, make a game plan for your morning the night before.
