Are you tired to Wake up in the morning? Do you just dislike the general idea of getting up every morning? Or are you one of those people that get up before you wake up? Do you think this blog post sounds like a Verimark add? If you fall into one of the above mentioned categories, this post is definitely for you! If you don’t, read on anyway to get some cool ideas of how to shake up or improve your Morning routine.

First thing’s first – find your “get up” style

This isn’t a mystic thing. It’s just about trial and error, really. Some people like to snooze, some people don’t. Other people get up early, other’s get up late. But you, how do you get up? Do you feel tired when you wake up? Are you waking up feeling drained and unrested? Does your body hurt when you wake up? Is your head clear, or do you need to shake off the Sleep first?

All of these things influence how you get out of bed in the morning. So maybe if you don’t like getting up, you need to start figuring out why. I can’t honestly think that you are in for a good day if the very first thing you do upsets you. And if you wake up like that every day, your life might seem very dreary and down to you. The good news is that you can change that. And no, you can’t change your entire life by waking up the right way and getting up the right way, but it is as good a place as any to start taking your life back.

What is a get up style?

It’s not a scientific term (as far as I and my trusty friend Google knows). So I just coined a new phrase. Cool, huh? Anyway! The phrase that I just coined just refers to the most effective way for you to get up, so that you feel refreshed, well rested, clear minded and ready for the day. So here are a couple of ways to make sure that you wake up, get up and stay up, ready for an action packed day! More on this towards the end of the post.

The key to waking up right lies in going to bed right.

Duh! Of course it is! Everyone knows that… Right..? And the answer ladies and gentlemen, is no! Everyone does not know that! A lot of people think that they can wake up feeling refreshed after drinking and partying all night. Or after staying up all night to play games or to watch series or movies. Maybe people know that they can’t wake up feeling well rested after doing these things, but they go ahead and do it anyway. But the fact is, everyone doesn’t act and live as if they know they should have a well developed bedtime routine to help them sleep well and enough.

Subsequently, they don’t get up feeling refreshed. They get up feeling groggy and angry, not fit to go to the office, but not sick enough to stay at home. So they go to work and sit around doing nothing except to complain about how they over-indulged the previous night. Do you know what I’m talking about? I’ve definitely been there. Have you?

So to make sure that you wake up feeling relaxed and ready for the day, try to do the following:

Go to bed on time.

Don’t stay up too late, just to play another game of Black Opps or to watch another episode of Community. When your body starts feeling drowsy, listen to it and go to bed.

Don’t drink too much coffee or caffeinated drinks throughout the day.

I’m pretty sure our regular readers have heard (read) this before. Heck, I basically mention it in every second blog post! Caffeine stimulates the brain to be more alert, so even if you can fall asleep directly after you had a Red Bull, the quality of your sleep is impaired and chances are that you won’t wake up feeling refreshed. Instead of having a coffee every time you get up from behind your desk, have a glass of water every second time. And the random fact for the day: Not only will drinking less caffeine help you to sleep better at night, but it will also improve your digestive system.

Sleep in comfortable clothing.

Don’t sleep in clothes that are too warm or too confining. When the body feels restricted at night it can reduce the quality of your rest. Also, if you are dressed too warmly at night, your body can’t follow the natural process of cooling down whilst being asleep. Yes, that’s right! The body goes through a heat cycle every 24 hours, reaching its peak temperature of roughly 37.5 degrees Celsius at around six pm. As a rule, we are at our coolest around 5 am in the morning at a temperature of about 35.5 degrees Celsius. (We go colder at night, because more blood flows to our core area, to increase metabolism and so on).

Do some reading before you knock off.

Preferably not on your mobile phone, tablet, TV screen or computer monitor. Unless you have blue light protection on your devices, of course. When was the last time you read a good paperback novel? Have you ever read one from start to finish? Maybe give it a go! Scientists found that reading before going to bed helps the mind to relax and prepares the brain for a good night’s rest. Apparently, focusing your thoughts on one thing before bedtime is good for you, so that when you close your eyes, your mind doesn’t jump all over the place and remembers everything that must still be done.

Write a journal. 

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just jot down the important things that you achieved that day and those things which you still need to achieve. Once you’ve written it down you can forget about it and let your brain relax in preparation for sleep. Sometimes writing something out also helps you to get all of your ducks in a row and to put the issue at hand in perspective. It helps to ease the mind and prepares the body for restorative rest.

Now for getting up!

Okay so we spent a lot of time to make sure that we are all on the same page. Now that we’ve described ways to improve your nighttime routine, let’s look at the mornings!

For me, getting up used to be a lot harder than it is nowadays. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I go to bed up to four hours earlier than I used to. Back in the day, I liked to play DotA until the early morning hours. Every night. It made getting up to prepare for work a tad daunting. But it had to be done. I couldn’t allow my work to fall behind because of my nocturnal habits. But of course, it did start falling behind. I wasn’t as productive at work as I should have been and it felt as if my vitality was slowly seeping out of me…

Take it from me, ladies and gentlemen, dedicating what little time you have for sleep to other hobbies will wear you down in the end. Rather ease off on the hobby and sleep some more. Besides, sleeping is a lot better for your body than gaming, for example. The same can be said for partying, binge watching series and even for studying and working. Don’t make the mistake to think that keeping yourself too busy with “productive” things is better than doing the same for purely recreational reasons. Whether you work or get lost in YouTube, you are still not sleeping.

Oh wait, back to the “get up” thing.

Sorry about that detour. I just tried to illustrate how staying up while you should be asleep can affect you. And that getting up under such circumstances can be tiring.

That is why I changed my bed time routine drastically. But I also changed my “get up” routine. After going to bed on time, I tried different forms and lengths of snoozing in the morning, all to no avail. I still felt kinda tired. Even after a full nights’ sleep, my body still felt stiff and my brain a bit groggy. So what was I doing wrong? I couldn’t figure it out. Me and my wife goes to bed at the same time and our alarms go off at the same time. We snoozed the same. And yet, when she got up she was ready and refreshed, whereas I was drained and irritated.

Then I read on some other sleep blog that the author puts his alarm far from his bed before he hits the hay. Then in the morning when the alarm goes off, he is forced to get out of bed to silence it. And then he just doesn’t climb back in bed. Apparently he felt fabulous every morning! So I gave it a go, and lo and behold, my mornings metamorphosed from being dreary and bleary snoozed hours into productive and well spent hours.

Okay, so your up. Now what?

I find that taking a look at the rising sun helps. So does a lot of sleep experts. According to researchers, looking at the sun in the early morning stimulates the body to wake up. It is almost as if the sun kick starts your circadian rhythm. Think about it, if your mobile phone’s blue screen can trick your mind into thinking that it has to be awake, how much more the sun tell your mind to wake up? I mean, it is just a tad more bright than your mobile, right?

What if I wake up before the sun comes up?

If that is the case, you will have to make do with artificial blue light. Do your morning routine in front of a TV screen, look at the news or just have the blue screen on in the background while you go about getting ready. If that is unpractical, spend some time to catch up on the news on your cell phone. Blue light early in the morning are used to treat jet lag. Scientists say that athletes and tourists that suffer from jet lag should spend a lot of time in the early morning sunlight as soon as they can after their flight. This will help to reset the circadian rhythm. So the perks of getting exposed to blue light in the morning is not a construct of my creative mind. It is a fact.

After/during blue light exposure

After looking at the rising sun, or at my phone for that matter, I put on the kettle and cut two slices of lemon into a tea mug. After the kettle boiled, I add the water to the mug with the lemon slices. Then I jump in the shower to freshen up for the day. After my shower I take a quick shave, and then I go to the kitchen to drink my lukewarm lemon water while I prepare breakfast. According to some dietitians, it is better to drink something that is close to body temperature first thing in the morning. If the water is too cold, it might shock your metabolic system and decrease it’s efficiency. So the lukewarm water is easy on the stomach, with the added benefit that the lemon helps to create the ideal pH levels to take up essential elements and vitamins.

What is the ideal breakfast

Unfortunately not bacon and eggs. Although that is by far my favourite breakfast food! What’s yours?

The breakfast that works the best for me is a bowl of freshly cut pineapple and papaya with a spoon full of double thick Greek yogurt. It tastes amazing and it is healthy to boot! Papaya soothes your intestines and defends it against infection, whereas pineapple just adds to the taste (okay, it also helps to regulate your bowel movement, but I won’t say that out loud. It might upset some people (sorry!)).

You can also eat a fibre rich breakfast food such as muesli or Weetbix. Oats is also a brilliant and healthy option, as it gives a lot of energy and is easy on the stomach early in the morning. Try to avoid drinking coffee on an empty stomach, seeing as caffeine is an appetite suppressant. If you start the day with coffee, odds are you won’t end up eating enough, or you’ll eat too much once hunger kicks in, because you have to make up for all the lost time and sustenance.

Now get productive!

Don’t sit around and wait for something to do. Start working immediately and set the tone for the rest of your successful day.

That’s all from me folks, I hope this post helps you to get up and stay fresh tomorrow and every morning after. Sleep well!

The post Wake up, get up, stay up. Tips on how to start your day. appeared first on The Mattress Warehouse.