Getting up early is one of the most complicated habits to carry out for some especially those days when the temperature outside is freezing and you want to stay in bed and enjoy the comfort of your bed and pillow.
Surely it has also happened to you at some point, that despite setting the alarm with the best of intentions and knowing that it was necessary to be up soon to complete a series of tasks, you have remained in your bed. In fact, you’ve even turned off the alarm and you haven’t even realized it.
Although a Semmelweis University study found that people with a high IQ preferred to live at night, being intelligent, in reality, It involves adopting healthy sleeping habits which allow you to be more productive during the day, perform better and enjoy greater general well-being (you can learn more about this research by clicking here).
However, some experts claim that the differences between people who get up early and those who don’t are that some are morning people and others are evening people. Evening people have great difficulty waking up in the morning, and in the afternoon or evening they feel lucid and energetic. This seems to be related to the “clock” gene, which secretes melatonin at a different rate than the rest. Now you have the perfect excuse to stay in bed until late.
You can delve deeper into this topic in this article: “Intelligent people prefer to live at night and have a harder time sleeping”
However, It is possible to adopt a series of strategies that help you get up early to be able to reach everything. They are the following.
1. Wake up to music
The classic alarm went out of fashion. Now it is possible to set some alarm clocks with songs in the morning. You can program, for example, a heavy metal song that will make the walls of your room resonate and get you out of bed quickly. You will have no choice but to turn off that annoying alarm so that your ears do not suffer. However, This strategy is not very useful if you live with other people or if you sleep with your partner Unless they also want to get up at the same time as you.
If you are not a big fan of heavy metal you can try other types of songs. A good alternative is motivational songs and those that positively affect your mood. In the article “The 20 best songs to get out of bed, according to the University of Cambridge” you can find a wide variety of musical themes that will help you get up better and be more lucid during the first hours of the day.
2. Put the alarm clock away from your bed
The main problem with getting up early when you are tired is that, despite setting the alarm, you tend to postpone getting up early by changing the alarm time or simply turning it off almost without realizing it. It is something that has happened to all of us, and that we usually do when we really don’t feel like getting up, we are lazy or our body needs more hours of rest.
A good strategy to avoid this situation is to put the alarm away from the bed. so you need to get up to turn it off If you combine it with the previous point (that is, playing songs at high volume), you will get up quickly to turn off that song that wakes up the entire neighborhood.
With the emergence of new technologies in our lives, there are many applications that we can download to make our lives easier. This also includes getting up early. That is why in the application store of your device you can find some apps as curious as “Puzzle Alarm Clock.
The feature of this application is that To turn off the alarm, users must perform a series of special actions, for example, completing a mathematical operation. This requires great concentration, so it will be necessary to be wide awake and you will lose the desire to continue sleeping.
4. Go to bed early
You might be able to get up early one day if you follow these tips, but if you want to be able to get up early on a regular basis, you need to start going to bed at a decent time.
Don’t try to get up at 7 in the morning if you go to bed at 2 “An important factor in being able to wake up easily at the desired time in the morning is having the circadian rhythm or body clock controlled,” says researcher Leon C. Lack, professor at the School of Psychology at Flinders University, in Australia. To wake up early, much of what we do the day before (or days before) has a lot to do with it.
5. Avoid caffeine after 6
This point is closely related to the previous one, but it is necessary to remember it so that you understand that it is not positive to take stimulants at night. Experts advise not drinking caffeine after 6 p.m., to avoid a counterproductive effect on nighttime sleep. Remember that not only coffee contains caffeine, but Other foods or drinks such as Coca-Cola also contain this substance
If you want to get up early, you must take care of your environment. This means that you have the correct temperature in the room, a comfortable mattress and a comfortable pillow. that allow you to sleep well and have quality and restful sleep
You should also avoid having the TV on when you go to bed, because if you like what you watch, it will probably take you longer to fall asleep and you will most likely have to wake up at night to turn it off.
7. Light dinner
If taking care of your environment is important to fall asleep at a good time and not wake up in the middle of the night because you are sweating too much or because you have to turn off the television, having a light dinner is important. Because? Because Large meals at night can cause insomnia and hinder restful sleep.
8. Work on sleep hygiene
Sleep hygiene is a set of practices that allow you to sleep well. It not only refers to the quantity of sleep, but also to its quality. Have Good sleep hygiene influences well-being and performance throughout the day
Good sleep hygiene is key if we want to wake up early and be productive the next day, and there are many causes that can hinder it: work schedule, bedtime habits, lifestyle, etc. Therefore, the objective of sleep hygiene is to go to bed and wake up respecting a schedule throughout the week, but its purpose is also for you to sleep in a healthy way, that is, respecting the 6-8 hours recommended by experts.
If you want to delve deeper into this topic, you can do so in this article: “10 basic principles for good sleep hygiene”
