Does this sound like your morning routine?
You wake up feeling groggy and grouchy. You hit the snooze button about 17 times. And even when you’ve rolled out of bed and got into the shower, you still feel like you could conk out at any moment.
We’ve got news for you: you’re officially not a morning person.
But you don’t have to accept a lifetime of horrid mornings!. With a few simple lifestyle changes and bio hacks, you can make mornings much more enjoyable.
But is it really worth being so chipper in the morning?
Just ask morning people, and they’ll tell you that being more motivated, energized and positive in the morning has serious perks. And the research backs them up.
Morning people are more likely to enjoy their job and make more money [1].
It’s also nice not to feel like you’d rather die than get out of bed every darn day. If you’re interested in rising and shining when you wake up, the tips below will help you sleep better, wake up more easily, have more energy and improve your overall health.
Why Become a Morning Person?
We’ve already seen that morning people are more successful at work. But that’s just the start of the benefits of feeling fantastic in the AM.
Here are a few more reasons you should aspire to be a morning person
- Improved mental health: Do you feel anxious or stressed during the day? Your sleep routine and moody mornings might be the cause. Studies have found that waking up early is better for your body clock and reduces the risk of mental health issues like depression [2].
- Less likely to gain weight: Morning people are more likely to eat breakfast and are also more likely to eat meals at regular times throughout the day. They’re also less likely to eat at night. This makes it easier for morning people to maintain a healthy weight [3].
- Better physical fitness: Morning people often do physical activity in the morning, while those who hate mornings tend to put off exercise until later in the day. According to science, morning exercise is superior. It’s associated with more fat loss and lowering blood pressure. It even helps you sleep better at night [4,5].
- A brighter mood: Multiple studies have found that morning people are happier than night owls [6]. This is likely because they enjoy a balanced body clock, which affects hormones like serotonin and dopamine (associated with happiness) and cortisol (the stress hormone). It may also be because morning people tend to have healthier sleep habits, and sleep is essential to a stable mood.
- A sharper mind: Why are morning people more successful? Maybe because their brains are working at full power. Research on students showed that early risers performed better academically and had higher GPAs than those who stayed up late [7].
6 Tips to Become a Morning Person
How often do you wake up groggy, hating yourself for watching that extra episode on Netflix the night before? Bad habits like this are preventing you from becoming a morning person.
The tips below will help you achieve early-morning ecstasy by making small tweaks to your lifestyle.
1. Keep a Consistent Sleep Schedule
You’re an adult, and no one can tell you when to go to bed. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Numerous studies have shown that sleep timing and consistency are critical for holistic health [8].
Maintaining a regular sleep schedule improves the quality of your sleep and helps you get more of it. And because sleep is so important, this has cascading benefits for your heart, mental health and foundational well-being at the cellular level.
When you keep a sleep schedule, you also start to naturally wake up at the same time every morning feeling well-rested and ready for the day. That’s basically the definition of a morning person.
If you have trouble keeping a sleep schedule or falling asleep at night, you can give your body a little boost by taking a sleep complex supplement.
Melatonin, often called the sleep hormone, is produced by your body. But if your body clock gets out of whack, taking melatonin as a supplement can help you get it back on track.
2. Sleep With the Blinds Open
Natural light has a huge influence on your sleep-wake cycle. It’s actually one of the most important ingredients for proper hormonal function, which includes the body’s production of melatonin and cortisol (the sleep and wake hormones) [9].
Sunlight in the morning tells your body to start producing cortisol, the hormone that wakes you up and gives you the energy to start your day.
If you sleep in a room with little or no natural light, your body clock is less likely to function normally, leaving you feeling groggy and tired even after a full night’s sleep.
The solution is simple: keep the blinds or curtains open so the sunlight shines into your room in the morning.
3. No Screens Before Bed
We may live in the age of TikTok, but our bodies and brains still function just as they did 10,000 years ago.
Remember the relationship between sunlight and hormones we talked about in the previous section?
Well, your body is not very good at determining which type of light is sunlight and which isn’t. Because of this, the light that emanates from your computer, tablet and smartphone can mess up your body clock.
Research has found that this “blue light” suppresses melatonin, preventing you from getting tired when it’s time for bed. This can throw your entire body clock off its axis, resulting in negative effects including an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity [10].
Instead of scrolling social media before bed, try reading a book.
4. Don’t Hit the Snooze Button
Hitting the snooze button might seem like a life-saver when you wake up, but it’s not doing you any favors.
The sleep you get when you’re in snooze mode is not productive, and it might even mess up your hormonal cycle and make your morning far groggier.
Scientists suspect that falling asleep after hitting snooze may trigger hormones that start another sleep cycle—which is supposed to last about 90 minutes [11].
When your alarm goes off again just 9 minutes later, you jolt awake as your body is flooding you with deep sleep hormones. This is not a healthy or comfortable way to wake up, and this hormonal hiccup can affect you for the rest of the day. Get your morning routine down and resist the urge to hit snooze.
5. Eat Dinner Earlier
Going to bed on a full stomach has a lot of negative effects, from general discomfort to weight gain.
Now, scientists also suspect that it interferes with hormone production. It’s believed that eating dinner earlier, around 4-5 hours before going to bed, can help your body achieve peak melatonin levels at the right time of night (between 10 PM and 2 AM) [12].
This is when your body is undergoing peak restoration and repair. When you achieve this level of rest, you’re more likely to wake up feeling great.
Eating earlier has also been found to be better for weight loss and blood sugar balance.
6. Manage Your Caffeine Intake
We get it. You’re a coffee addict. Even if you brew a pot before bed, you can still hit the sack without issues. But even if you can fall asleep after ingesting caffeine, the quality of your sleep will suffer.
Studies have found that consuming caffeine even 6 hours before bed significantly disrupts sleep [13]. One of the worst consequences is sleep fragmentation, or waking up throughout the night. Some studies suggest that fragmented sleep is almost as bad as not sleeping at all [14].
This can lead to negative effects during the day, including poor performance at work, a bad mood and of course, groggy mornings.
If you really need a pick-me-up later in the day, try a natural energy booster like vitamin B12. B12 is an essential vitamin known for its energizing effects, and it won’t give you the jitters or affect your sleep like caffeine does. Vitamin B12 also has loads of other benefits, such as promoting heart health and metabolic function.
Don’t worry; we’re not telling you to give up coffee. Just switch to decaf after 5 PM!
Rise, Shine and Thrive as a Morning Person
Becoming an early bird may seem like an impossible task—especially on those mornings when you wake up feeling like a geriatric sloth.
But it’s not difficult to incorporate healthy habits into your life that can improve every morning. And you can start right now.
Some easy changes you can make to make tomorrow morning brighter include having a good morning routine, switching to decaf in the evening, opening your blinds to let the morning sunshine in and eating dinner an hour earlier.
Over the next few weeks, you can determine a sleep schedule that works for you and stick to it.
And if you just can’t fall asleep, consider a natural sleep supplement like Manna Sleep Complex.
FAQs
A morning routine is a set of activities you do every morning to start your day positively and productively. It helps regulate your body clock, reduces stress, and boosts overall well-being.
To stop feeling groggy, maintain a consistent sleep schedule, avoid screens before bed, and create a morning routine that includes exposure to natural light and physical activity.
Avoiding screens before bed prevents blue light from disrupting your melatonin production, ensuring you get quality sleep and wake up refreshed for your morning routine.
Alternatives to caffeine include natural energy boosters like vitamin B12 or Lipo Lean, which promotes energy without disrupting sleep, helping you maintain an effective morning routine.
- https://www.entrepreneur.com/money-finance/people-who-wake-up-early-make-more-money-and-have-higher/300564
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399900/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4854772/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/exercise-timing.html
- https://www.news-medical.net/health/Why-You-Should-Exercise-in-the-Morning.aspx
- https://www.livescience.com/20880-morning-people-happier.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/03/the-five-benefits-of-being-an-early-riser
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33054339/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2557485/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5897701/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/snooze-button-effect-on-sleep-2017-5
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/health/many-benefits-of-early-dinner-how-it-helps-you-lose-weight-sleep-well-and-be-happy-101686889094617.html
- https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.3170
- https://sleepeducation.org/interruptions-fragmented-sleep-may-be-same-as-barely-any-sleep/
