For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a morning person. The latest I’ve ever slept in is 10:00 A.M. and I felt like the day was pretty much over by the time I got up. Personally, I don’t believe in the concept of being a “morning person”. When I hear people say, “I just can’t get up that early” or “That’s wayyyyy too early for me”, I just roll my eyes. The thing that people don’t understand about waking up earlier is that it’s not about the ability to roll out of bed at 6:00 A.M., but it’s about what you do leading up to 6:00 A.M.
The action of waking up earlier starts with your preparation in waking up earlier. Setting the stage and preparing yourself both mentally and physically is the key to making this happen. Whether your definition of early is 4:00 A.M. or 10:00 A.M., I’m here to provide you with 10 easy tips to start incorporating into your lives if you want to start being a “morning person”.
1) Go to Bed Earlier (Gradually)
This one is easier said than done. If you go to bed at 2:00 A.M., you’re not just going to magically start falling asleep at 10:00 P.M.. In order to do this, you need to gradually start going to bed earlier. This means that if you go to bed at midnight, try to go to bed at 11:30 P.M. for a week. Then the week after that, go to bed at 11:00 P.M.. If you continue on that schedule you’ll be falling asleep by 10:00 P.M. in a month. Our bodies have internal clocks so it’s imperative that you go to bed and wake up at the same time each day in order to see those results.
2) Technology OFF
Looking at your phone right before you go to bed is one of the worst things you can do. In an article from the Cleveland Clinic, they outline the downsides of looking at your phone before bed which are that it keeps your mind engaged, the blue light suppresses melatonin which helps you fall asleep, and it can delay REM sleep which is key to good sleep. The world will not forget you if you’re not on your phone every waking moment.
3) No Phone in the Morning
Just as you shouldn’t be looking at your phone at night, you shouldn’t be looking at it in the morning either. It’s so easy to get sucked into the trap of checking your phone first thing in the morning and then falling down a rabbit hole. This concept plays well into not only being able to get up earlier, but also in kick starting your morning routine. Getting up early, getting out of bed, and getting productive is much more fulfilling than watching Tik Toks until you realize you have to scramble out of bed to get ready!
4) Lay Clothes out the Night Before
Laying out your clothes the night before is all about setting your environment. I learned this concept through one of the best and most informative books I’ve ever read along my self-development journey, Atomic Habits by James Clear (highly recommend). If you think about it, we are all products of our environment. Our political beliefs are largely shaped by the viewpoints of our parents. The weather outside determines what we wear and do not wear. Laying out your clothes the night before can streamline the process of getting ready for work or motivating you to get up out of bed and workout. If you already know what you’re going to wear, then you can just get up, get dressed, and go.
5) Read a Book
Reading a book before you go to bed can be beneficial in a multitude of ways. To begin, it gives you something to do besides looking at your phone before falling asleep. Reading a book can also help you relax your mind as you unwind. From personal experience, I would highly recommend that you read fiction books before you go to bed. With a fiction book, you can relax and let the story play out, but with a non-fiction book you have to be more attentive to what you’re reading in order to retain the information.
6) Eat Dinner Early
If there’s one way to ruin your sleep at night, it’s eating a meal right before you’re about to go to bed. I specifically remember a few nights where I ate Greek food for dinner. There’s a really good Greek restaurant within a stone’s throw from my apartment so I thought a late night dinner would be a good idea. It tasted amazing, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing like a lamb gyro and some Greek style fries. However, I paid for it dearly that night as I was up all night tossing and turning unable to get any good sleep. The lesson here being, enjoy your dinner, but don’t enjoy it too close to your sleep schedule. This way, you can get that good night sleep and be able to wake up early the next morning.
7) Countdown Method
This is a personal preference of mine if I’m ever lacking the motivation to get out from under the sheets. To perform the countdown method, all you have to do is stare up at the ceiling, count down from 3, and then get out of bed as fast as possible. This is a little hack I like to use because once you’re up out of bed and moving around, you’re less likely to want to go back down. The first 3 seconds from when you decide to get up vs. staying in bed can make that difference you need to get moving!
8) Let the Light Shine Through
Exposing yourself to sunlight first thing in the morning can have a number of profound benefits on your well-being. Morning sunlight can enhance your mood by increasing serotonin in the brain which can actually boost melatonin in the brain later on in the day. In essence, serotonin regulates your mood and memory, where as melatonin is a hormone meant to induce sleep. Think of serotonin and melatonin as being mutually exclusive. Your body needs serotonin in order to produce melatonin. A boost in serotonin can improve your mood and help your memory throughout the day, but it also helps to produce melatonin which can allow you to get better sleep at night! Both of these can help you in your quest to waking up earlier.
9) No Caffeine Past Noon
Speaking as a caffeine junkie, I’ve only recently incorporated this practice into my everyday life. Before, I would space out my caffeine intake from one cup early in the morning, another cup around 10:00 A.M., and then one cup to get me through the afternoon. That’s a lot of coffee right? Well, I still drink that much coffee, but I drink at all before noon. Considering that the half-life of coffee is around 4-6 hours, drinking your coffee before noon allows your body plenty of time to wind down before you ultimately go to bed.
10) Understand your Why for Waking up Earlier
The final, and perhaps most important tip, is to understand your WHY for doing this. Waking up earlier is a habit, just like cutting down on alcohol, doing more cardio, or starting on that side hustle. The initial motivation of doing something will only get you so far as that motivation eventually wears off. If you understand your why for waking up earlier, then you can help make this a habit that sticks. Your why can allow you to stick with it through the good times and the bad times. Simon Sinek has a book called “Start With Why” based on his world famous Ted Talk, which I highly recommend you check out if you’re trying to understand your why for waking up earlier.
I hope this article provided you with some value in terms of how to start waking up earlier. There’s something so liberating about being able to say that you worked out, ate breakfast, and worked on your own goals before anyone else is even awake. So let’s get up and get after it!
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Stay Mindful!
