“Never Wake Up” courtesy of Heiko Muller
I bet you’ve had days when you just want to stay under the duvet. Maybe you slept badly, or perhaps you just can’t face dragging yourself out of bed and facing your to-do list. Yet you know that if you could get up when you want to every day – rather than at the last minute possible – you’d be able to accomplish a lot more of your goals.
Here are nine ways to wake up ready to rock, roughly in order of when you’ll need to do them the day before. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments!
1. Exercise During the Day
There are plenty of great reasons to exercise, and I won’t rehash them all here. Many people, though, find that exercising helps them to sleep well at night – yet another health-boosting benefit.
If you’re struggling to fit exercise into your day, try looking for ways to get active in your lunch hour or straight after work: if exercise forms a natural part of your routine, you’ll be much more likely to stick with it.
2. Stop Work in the Middle of a Task
Sometimes, even when we do manage to get up on time, we’re just not in the mood to rock! At the end of the day, try stopping work in the middle of a task. If you’re a writer, that might mean ending part way through an article; if you’re a programmer, it may mean leaving something that you can easily come back to.
The advantage here is that instead of building up the energy to get stuck in on something new – where you haven’t already gathered momentum – you’ve got an easy little task to start off your day and to get you straight into working, diminishing the urge to procrastinate.
3. Avoid Caffeine in the Evening
Drinking tea, coffee, cola or other caffeinated drinks in the evening is almost certainly going to have a bad effect on your sleep. Everyone’s a bit different here, but it’s worth setting yourself a clear “caffeine curfew”. I used to drink tea at 6.30pm after work each evening but I quickly found that this wasn’t helping me get to sleep on time! Now, I rarely drink anything caffeinated after 4pm, and that works for me.
Post-dinner coffee is definitely a habit to get out of – if you like it for the taste or the social aspect, try decaffeinated instead.
4. Set Out Your Clothes the Night Before
When I wake up in the morning, even deciding what to wear can be enough effort to keep me under the covers! If that’s you, try setting your clothes out the night before: decide exactly what you’re wearing and hang your clothes at the far edge of your closet, or over a chair or on a door.
It might seem like a little thing, but waking up ready to rock means taking care of as many decisions as possible before that moment when you’re looking for any excuse to hit “snooze”.
5. Don’t Eat a Heavy Dinner
You’ve probably had the experience of eating a big dinner and then finding that your stomach is uncomfortably full, gurgling and churning as it digests your food. This definitely isn’t a good start to a night’s sleep.
You could eat a bit earlier in the evening, or simply eat a lighter meal at dinner time. Don’t go too light, though – waking up at three am because you’re hungry won’t do much for your sleep either. A happy balance here depends very much on you as an individual, so experiment a little to find what works.
6. Journal or Read Before Bed
Many of us find it hard to “switch off” at the end of the day, often lying awake thinking about all the stuff that we didn’t get done, or worrying about what’s coming up the following day. A couple of great ways to deal with this problem are:
- Write in a journal before you go to bed – get any problems out of your head and onto the paper. Often, this is enough to ensure that they’re not preying on your mind when you try to sleep.
- Read a book, preferably fiction – this is a great way to forget what’s been going on during the day, and to do something relaxing before you sleep.
7. Know What You’re Doing First Thing
What’s your morning routine like? If you decide before you go to sleep exactly what you’re doing in the morning (for maximum easiness, try to make this the same each day) then you won’t have to wake up dithering about what to do first.
Many of us find that hitting the shower first thing works well – the water will wake you up if you’re still half asleep – or you might prefer to start your day with a quiet time of meditation, prayer or reading. What you do isn’t really that important – the fact that you’re planning to do something specific is.
8. Get to Bed On Time
This is another rather obvious point, but getting to bed on time is crucial if you want to get a decent night’s sleep before your alarm goes off. Most adults find the concept of a regular bedtime a bit odd – but it’s not just for kids.
If you’ve got a tendency to get caught up in whatever you’re doing in the evening, then setting an alarm to remind you that it’s bedtime can help. Try to plan for getting at least seven hours’ sleep – you may find that you need eight or even more to feel sufficiently rested. (If you’re not sure how much sleep you need, here’s a great method for finding out.)
9. Visualize Sleeping Well
I picked up this tip from Dave Navarro’s excellent “Become an Early Riser” program. When you lie down to sleep, visualize getting a really great night’s sleep. Just as you may have tried visualization to help you towards success in various areas in life, picturing yourself sleeping brilliantly helps prime your mind and body to achieve what you’re imagining.
I know it sounds a bit kooky and weird, but do give it a try – it only takes a minute or two, and you just might find that it’s surprisingly effective.
Do any of these work well for you? What tips of your own would you add for waking up ready to rock?
Don’t Forget to Follow PickTheBrain on Twitter!
Related Articles:
How To Be Happy At Work:Employee Motivation
How To Increase Your Will Power
Great ideas!! They are all excellent ways to get ready for an awesome day.
I sure wish i had seen this earlier in the week. I have been battling to get back on schedule after having an extend weekend and it has been murder getting out of bed in the mornings. I think i will be working on items 1,2, and 6 next week thanks.
The hardest part of getting a good nite sleep for me is getting to bed on time! There’s always ‘one more thing’ to do, and before I know it, its hours past bedtime. I’m going to make a renewed effort. Getting a good nite’s sleep feels so good!
Great article. I think for me the key one is “stopping in the middle.” The mornings where I just need to continue working on what I was working on always go so much easier than the mornings where I stare at the computer screen thinking, “ok, what now?”
It’s tough balancing that out with the desire / work ethic of sticking to something until it’s finished!
Important post. Many people in the world have problems getting to sleep at night and therefore can’t get up in the morning. I really like your tip to visualize a good night’s sleep. We often forget the mind can overcome almost any situation.
Great article!! Two things on exercise…avoid doing any high level workouts 2 hours before bed( it raises the endorphin levels), and 4-10min. blocks of exercise has the similar effect of one forty min. session.
Keep the body fit, keeps the mind fit!! It does all tie together…
Body reciprocity! Run one down, and the other will suffer as a result. Cheers!
Taking a warm shower just before getting to bed works wonders for me. I seem to relax much more knowing that I am clean in a clean bed.
Nice article Ali. I like the tip on knowing what to do the first thing in the morning. Usually I take a shower, and think of what I want to do for the rest of the day. This wakes up, I get dressed, I’m ready to go!
Great article, I like all the suggestions except for “8. Get to Bed On Time”. I used to do this and never really slept properly.
I now go to bed when I start to get tired, but wake up at the same time each morning. I don’t do anything too important for the approximate last couple of hours before bed and simply read (whether on the computer or a book), watch a movie, or play a game. I don’t look at the clock before bed either, so when I wake up I can’t complain to myself that I only got 7 hours sleep instead of the much advocated “necessary” 8 hours.
It took a good month to get used to doing this effectively, but I have found that on average I now only need around 7 hours sleep, sometimes 6.5 and sometimes 7.5, but never 8 or more (unless I stay awake past the time when I get tired and then it mucks me up a bit). The best thing is, I no longer get up feeling wrecked, and I have gained extra hours in my day!
These tips are indeed wise and useful. I had to chuckle at #4 because as we raised four children and both had jobs, it was essential to have not only the clothes set out the night before, but breakfast figured out and homework by the front door, etc.
Even though I’m retired now, I still find this a useful practice for getting the day started easily. Since I walk first thing everyday, it’s even easier to just wear the same thing everyday. After all, it’s not a fashion show; it’s about being covered, warm and comfortable.
really enjoyed these tips & wanted to mention that playing music in the morning will usually get me moving and feeling better, too
Nice post and title! I’ve never though about point 2 (stopping work mid way) before and it’s very interesting. ~Also, visualising sleeping well? Will have to try it out.
[...] this first post is called “9 ways to wake up ready to rock”. Most of them I already knew, like exercise, no caffeine at night, light dinners. But some were new [...]
[...] February 2010 danperegrine Leave a comment Go to comments 9 Ways to Wake up Ready to Rock – Since my hospital admission I find myself waking up Categories: Uncategorized [...]
10. Don’t have children.
I thought I knew most of this stuff, but the points about, – leaving a task unfinished
- laying out your clothes the night before
- journaling and reading before bed
were brilliant.
I’ve (unwittingly) done those on my own at various times, and can testify they are very helpful.
Just wanted to qualify a point you made, and it probably goes without saying … do not workout too late (say, less than 4 hours before bed), if not you’ll find it difficult to go to sleep.
I bought Led Lighting Systems “Wake-up-light” and I am happy with it.
So I just stumpled on your post and want to say it was clearly an eye opener for me. Certainly did not look at this issue in that way before. Wonderful reading and writing as well. Thankyou.
thx,really good ideas