How to wake up early?
No one likes waking up early but you kind of have too considering you have responsibilities and errands to run. It can get annoying having to waking up early to a minor headache and not so motivating feeling.
However, waking up early can give a couple of beneficiary. The morning is quiet as the world hasn’t begun stirring, the perfect time for meditation, writing, exercise and some quiet reading.
Waking up early can open up an hour or three hours of free time. You can use those extra hours for focus and creativity and to accomplish any errands you have to do later on that day.
Enjoy rising with the sun and get up early on purpose for awhile and enjoy the extra quiet time.
A Gradual Method
Don't just set your alarm to 7a.m instantly. If you're so used to waking up at 10, gradually set your alarm 15 minutes earlier for a few days. So if you usually wake up at 10 as said, set your alarm at 9.45a.m for 2 days then 9.30 for a couple more days then 9.15 and so on.
That might seem too slow to most people. However, in my many experimentation's, the most enjoyable and long-lasting change in sleeping schedules have been slow and gradual.
This gradual method might work for most people as sleeping patters are difficult to change.
Steps to actually get up
1) Get Motivated
When you wake up, be sure to be excited about your day. Rewire your brain from thinking 'why do I have to wake up early!?' and make waking p something you get to do!
The night before, set your mind to something exciting you're going to get to do the next morning. It can be anything, it can me your writing work or meeting someone or going on an adventure. So the morning itself, remind yourself what you were excited of? You have to be firm to yourself.
JUMP, jump out of bed when you wake up. It makes your brain mentally pumped up so you would have the energy to get p and get enthusiastic.
2) Picture your ideal morning
Turn your fantasy to a reality. Picture yourself as the morning person you always see yourself as: Are you having your morning tea/coffee on the patio with your warm sweater? Are you reading a book on your sofa with morning bright sun? Doing yoga? Are you painting?
3) Put your alarm across the room
Why? Well because if it's right beside you, let's face it you're going to put it on snooze. Most people do. By placing your alarm clock across the room, it would get you butt of your bed and walk across the room to switch it off. At this point you would have the urge to go to the toilet for number 1. It's most likely you wouldn't go back to bed after to done so.
What to do when you get up
1) Drink a glass of water
You’re dehydrated from not drinking any water all night. Water fires up your metabolism, hydrates you, helps your body flush out toxins, gives your brain fuel, and may even make you eat less.
2) Meditate
Even just for 3 minutes. It’s such a great way to start your day — doing nothing, just sitting, and practicing mindful focus.
3) Exercise
Go for a walk or a run, or do a home workout. Even just 10 minutes.
Sleeping Earlier
You can’t just wake up earlier and not sleep earlier. You’ll eventually crash. So here are some tips for getting to sleep earlier:
1) Set your bedtime
Set your bed time 7-8.5 hours before you wake up. Research shows that consistently getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night is beneficial. Any more or less can increase your risk for serious conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and even death. Getting enough quality sleep is also key to a healthy lifestyle
So if you're planning on waking up at 7 a.m, sleep at 11 p.m to total up of 8 hours of sleep.
2) Tidy place
Create a bedtime ritual. Clean up your place a little before you sleep, so you can wake up to a cleaned and polished house.
3) No computers in bed
That means no laptop, no tablets, no mobile phones. Kindles are OK except the Kindle Fire, which is the same as an iPad. No TV either. One study published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine tracked the frequency and in bed media usage. The result of the study found that computer and mobile phone use was linked to insomnia symptoms.
