On Becoming A Morning Person: Getting Started
Early birds are exceptionally successful and productive. So let’s wake up earlier.
Let’s clarify from the beginning that this isn’t the usual short and non-sense how-to guide. It isn’t flooded with fancy clichés rather with content that matters and has relevance.
Many people wish they could do more and of course better but lack of results brings some of them to came up with some excuses on why they didn’t achieve what they’ve planned — others, instead, aren’t looking for excuses and cleverly understand that time, especially time-management, is key for their daily work-life balance routine. This essay is for them. As a starting point, it will cover actual scientific research facts that will give you useful guidelines; those will be discussed and compared to real-life cases in order to provide you with the most helpful tips and suggestions based on other people’s experience. So let’s get started!
Those willing to get up earlier, in order to accomplish more, have to acknowledge that sleep is the starting point
You might already have encountered struggle while trying to get up earlier and most of the times it comes down to sleep. If you commit to become a morning person you shouldn’t neglect sleep — more willingly you should focus on improving it. People think that waking up earlier, as a habit, means giving up sleep time; this is one of the most common misconceptions and perhaps a reason not to start trying and keep on with procrastination. Keep in mind that many research papers suggest that sleep deprivation has a negative effect on both attention and working memory other studies have also found out that too much sleep could be harmful too. There is no need to be stressed about this, but it is fundamental to understand that your sleep activity has a significant impact on your daily cognitive and physical performance. Those willing to get up earlier, in order to accomplish more, have to acknowledge this. Moreover, quality of sleep is more important than quantity of sleep when it comes to feeling rested and rejuvenated (we will discuss this better later).
For your new wake up time don’t get rid of sleep — go to bed earlier. Choose to rest from 6 to 8 hours/night and keep consistent over the days with your new sleep cycle.
Tip: the best day to start is one in which you really feel tired. On that day, you could easily fall asleep earlier and get deep and quality sleep: exactly what we are looking for.
Try to keep night time frames consistent, this will help you get used to it, therefore you will be able to wake up in the morning without too much sleep inertia. If you are facing difficulties in falling asleep you should consider following these guidelines as suggested by many studies:
- dim your room lights because bright light and devices, such as your smart phone or laptop, have a high concentration of short wavelength lights (blue-ish) that affect levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. Absorbing those lights will continue to tell your brain that it isn’t time to sleep. It is suggested to avoid those light sources an hour before going to bed.
- avoid caffeine because the effect of the average energy drink or coffee lasts about 4 to 6 hours and interferes with your sleepiness you should not intake those substances after a certain time of the day.
- develop a bedtime routine — as an example: at 9pm set the coffee maker and pack lunch for tomorrow, set your alarm, put phone on charge and get tomorrow’s outfit and bag ready. At 9.30pm brush teeth. Lay down in bed by 10pm. Fall asleep.
Tip: you could consider buying glasses with blue light filtering lenses and use them some hours before going to sleep; you will definitely feel more sleepy.
This was part one of “On Becoming A Morning Person” in which we have covered some fundamentals on how to take the first step in order to get used to your new wake up time without risking to get dizzy during your days. Remember, you are willing to wake up earlier to accomplish more — not less. You have now understood that sleep quality is key: now it’s time to practice. Start experimenting new sleep routines and get comfortable with one of them. In the upcoming parts we will discuss the next steps.
