We are all guilty.
We love extending some few more minutes in bed. Our bodies become reluctant, and our mind tells us to keep sleeping. How do you handle this urge? You know you have a lot of tasks to accomplish during the day. Will you keep snoozing your alarm?
Waking up can be challenging. Knowing the techniques used by highly productive people to kick the blankets and hit the ground running comes in handy.
Please stick with me because, in this article, I will be showing how to wake up early and make it a daily habit. Waking up early will mean that you accomplish more tasks during the day, therefore moving closer to hitting your goals.
Let’s learn how to wake up early.
10 Simple Ways to Wake Up Early in the Morning
People try different things to wake up early in the morning. Some want to wake up at 7 am, some try for 6 am. No matter what time your goal is, you can follow the 10 steps below and become an early riser.
Next time you don’t have to google “how to wake up early”.
1. Go to Bed Early and Stick to Sleep Schedule
Many highly successful people have claimed to have a strict sleep schedule that they follow. Additionally, they sleep earlier, mainly before midnight to wake up early enough to start the day.
What about you? Do you stick to a sleep schedule?
Going to bed earlier makes me get enough sleep and wake up early compared to the days when I sleep late. Since our sleeping patterns can alter our circadian rhythm, it is essential to ensure that you set a specific time to sleep and wake up.
I always wake up at 5 am, and since my body has already tuned that, I am alert at 5 am whether the alarm rings or not.
Following a sleep pattern and going to sleep early, preferably between 10 pm to 11 pm, will give you ample time to sleep, and the next day you wake refreshed.
2. Change Your Wake up Schedule Gradually to Your Desired Time
Any permanent change in human behavior is developed with time. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to be doing something.
Even if you decided, it would take time to perfect and form the behavior. The 21/90 rule would still apply. You will take 21 days to create a new habit and 90 days to become a permanent change.
It took me over four months before I could be able to be waking up at my desired time. This means that the 21/90 rule was applied in my scenario.
For you to be able to start waking up early, you need to start changing your schedule gradually. If you were waking up at 7:00 am, you can start by setting the alarm at 6:30 or 6:45 and wake up for at least seven days at this time.
After seven days, you can change to 6 am then gradually up to 5:00 am. This gradual change will help your body adapt to the changes and eventually make it a permanent behavior.
3. Put Your Alarm Out of Reach
An alarm is a helpful device that helps us to wake up in the morning when it rings. If you want to wake up early, you should consider putting your alarm out of reach. If, for example, you use your smartphone as your alarm, you can increase the volume of the alarm, then put it at the far end of your bedroom.
Because an alarm distracts our sleep, waking up to go and snooze will make your body alert, thus eventually waking up. You may also set your favorite music as your alarm sound so that you wake up excited and ready to start the day.
You are probably guilty of hitting your alarm’s snooze button when you don’t feel like waking up. For you to be able to wake up, you need to avoid hitting the snooze button and waking up immediately after the alarm rings. This is an easier said than done task.
However, avoiding the snooze button will trigger your mind to wake up and be alert. Only switch off the alarm when you have already woken up.
As you do this often enough, your mind will go into expectancy mode; even before the alarm rings, you will already be up and ready to go.
5. Sleep with Your Curtain Open for Morning Light
One of the best triggers of the production of melatonin is light. Whenever we are in a dark room, our body produces a lot of melatonin, making us fall asleep. The same thing happens in the morning when the light breaks. The body reduces the production of melatonin, making us wake up.
Read more about Melatonin here.
Sleeping with your curtain open will let light enter in the morning, which will reduce the production of melatonin in your body, making you alert and awake.
Light also indicates that morning is already with us, and it’s time to wake up. Sleeping in a very dark room may lead you to oversleep because the melatonin production is high, and you feel it is still at night.
Therefore, it is recommended to sleep with your curtain open so that the morning light can penetrate your bedroom, making you wake up.
6. Understand your Motivation in the Morning/ follow a morning routine
Understanding what motivates and cheers you up in the morning can help you to wake up.
An example of something which can cheer you up is birds chirping early in the morning. If you identify yourself with them and keep it a routine to always get up every morning to listen to them, you will end up adapting to the routine of waking up early so that you can catch the birds.
It is highly recommended that one have something that motivates them in the mornings and if you do not have one, try finding one and keep a strict routine that you should follow every morning to ensure you wake up early. This way is essential as one will wake up to do something they love, excite, or motivate.
I follow a morning routine that makes my day productive, Tou can follow it too. Check out the article, “best things to do in the morning“.
7. Keep the Same Schedule on Weekends
Many people tend to wake up early during the day then let their guard down during weekends. This behavior might end up gradually getting into the week, especially on Mondays. This is what causes the “Monday blues.”
It is highly recommended that you keep the waking up schedule throughout the whole week. Ensure even on weekends; you wake up early. This will help in maintaining a routine that your body will eventually adapt to.
Keeping the same schedule on weekends will instill discipline, consistency and put you at the forefront of achieving your goals. The unproductive weekend mornings are made more productive.
8. Make a Sleep Log and Evaluate Weekly
Creating a good sleep log and ensuring that you evaluate it every week will significantly help wake you up early. Keeping a consistent sleeping schedule improves a person’s circadian rhythm, which makes the person get tired and wake up almost the same time each day.
I recommend that when setting a sleep schedule, you should select one where you get a sleep time of between seven and nine hours every night.
Those hours should be set in such a way that by the time they come to expire, it will be in the morning time during your set early time.
This method is helpful because it helps you have enough and the required sleep time and rest before your wake-up time arrives. Evaluating it weekly will ensure that you discover the times you fail to attain the set sleep hours and wake time and help in devising a way to rectify.
9. Find an Accountable Partner
Having an accountability partner will keep you on track with your efforts to wake up early. An accountable partner will help you by ensuring that by the set time you should wake up, they have woken you up hence avoiding oversleeping.
Also, the accountability partner will ensure that you do not sleep through the alarms or try to nap them in times of alarms. Instead, they will encourage you to wake up and get up and start your day off.
An accountable partner will ensure that you are not distracted by anything during your sleep time and get enough sleep before you wake up.
Responsible partners are important because, when you, for instance, miss the alarm, they can help you by waking you up, ensuring that you get up early.
If you know someone who wants to wake up early too, share this article with that person and ask to be your accountability partner.
10. Taking Action within the First Ten Seconds
Procrastination is a significant cause of failure. In the morning especially, I have seen days where I wasted two hours of my valuable morning time due to a lack of swift action.
You wake up but decide to take a quick 5-minute nap only to wake up late and behind schedule. To ensure that you always are an early riser, get to the tendency of taking action and getting out of bed immediately.
Taking action fast ensures that you get off the bed early as you do not end up losing some time while thinking and second-guessing things that might lure you back to sleep again.
My grandma used to say, “Comfort will make you poor.” And her words are valid, be comfortable in being uncomfortable. Take quick actions; wake up immediately the alarm rings. This will boost your alertness, confidence, and overall productivity.
FAQs
Why is it difficult to wake up early?
Experiencing difficulties getting up in the mornings is neither a result of you hating mornings nor loving your sleep. Other reasons such as medications, lifestyle factors, and medical conditions can hinder you from waking up early. These other reasons include:
- Parasomnias like night terrors and sleep-walking
- Depression mostly linked with insomnia
- Sleep apnea causes stopped breathing periods during sleep
- Circadian rhythm sleeping disorder preventing you from having a regular sleeping routine
- Anxiety and stress interfere with your falling asleep ability
- Medications like muscle relaxants
- Chronic pain makes it hard to get a good sleep
Sleep deficiency involves not getting quality sleep.
How long does it take to train yourself to wake up early?
The time it takes to train to wake up early depends on the person. This process takes you between thirty days to sixty days for you to get used to the routine of waking up early. Some people may take a longer or shorter period than that given time to adapt to waking up early. The moment you become used to waking up early schedule, there will be no need for you to set alarms to wake you up. The body needs to gradually get used to the routine where it should not be decided at once. It should be a gradual process where the body is given enough time to adapt thoroughly.
What are the benefits of waking up early in the morning?
Before starting the habit of waking up early, you need to know the benefits that come along with it.
There are numerous benefits of waking up early apart from the beautiful sunrise. Early morning hours are mostly the most productive times of the day since you get to have uninterrupted time to yourself. Also, waking up gives you enough time to prepare a healthy breakfast and avoid skipping it, as is expected when you wake up late.
Additionally, mornings are the best times to exercise as they give the body an adrenaline boost hence enhancing alertness and helping in overcoming the sleepy feeling. Waking up early also gives you enough time to plan your day well.
How many hours of sleep do I need?
Sleep is scientifically proven to be essential at any given age. Sleeping helps in restoring the body, powering the mind, and fortifying all the body systems.
How many sleeping hours do we require for us to get all these benefits? Adults need sleeping hours of between seven and nine hours each night. Babies, children, and teens need more sleeping hours as it enables them to grow and develop. Older people over sixty-five years are advised to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
Knowing the amount of sleep you require is the first step. It is crucial to reflect on the individual needs based on features such as an individual’s overall health and activity levels. It is essential to apply and stick to healthy sleeping tips so that you can get the recommended night’s sleep. The sleeping hours for each age group which are recommended are as follows;
- Newborns to three months old need fourteen to seventeen hours
- Infants to eleven months old need twelve to fifteen hours
- Toddlers to two years old require eleven to fourteen hours
- Preschoolers to five years of age need ten to thirteen hours
- School-age to thirteen years old need nine to eleven hours
- Teens to seventeen years of age need eight to ten hours
- Young adults to twenty-five years need seven to nine hours
- Adults to sixty-four years need seven to nine hours
- Older adults of more than sixty-five years old require seven to eight hours
For every group, the given guidelines present the recommended range of night sleeping duration for healthy individuals. In some age groups, sleeping for more or fewer hours than the generally recommended range is acceptable based on the person’s circumstances.
How to Wake Up Early: In a Nutshell
Final Takeaway
The extra hours in the morning have many benefits to improve and enhance your lifestyle. Morning hours can be spent gardening, cooking delicious meals, or even at the gym.
Waking up early additionally boosts and enhances your creativity, mindset, and productivity hence tasks will not be daunting. Even when you have a habit of either waking up or late, you can train and adapt to waking up early, therefore, reaping the benefits of the available few extra hours.
You should take small steps and set realistic goals since they are vital in altering sleeping schedules and morning routines. Keep learning and keep practicing. The daily habits will either make you better or ruin you.
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