1. Don’t hit the snooze button.
2. Get up as soon as your alarm goes off.
3. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
4. Drink water as soon as you wake up.
Drinking a glass of water shortly after you wake up almost immediately raises your metabolism as your body brings the water up to body temperature.
5. Have coffee on standby.
6. Exercise first thing in the morning.
During sleep, your brain activity and metabolism slow. The gradual increase in alertness that follows awakening requires increased metabolic activity in your brain cells. Exercising first thing in the morning not only helps you wake up, but it has also been linked to improved mental focus and alertness by increasing blood flow to your brain. Your heart beats faster and harder as you workout, delivering the oxygen and sugar your brain needs for the increased metabolic rate that accompanies wakefulness. This makes pumping iron, running, or even going for a bike ride an ideal early morning activity.
7. Peer pressure can be your friend. Meet up with a friend for coffee or the gym in the morning.
8. Wash your face as soon as you get out of bed.
9. Move your alarm away from your bed so you physically have to get up to turn it off.
10. Turn on your light as soon as you wake up.
Light isn’t just great for seeing; it also sets our internal clock. Our eyes contain a class of cells known as ‘intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells’ (ipRGCs). They have nothing to do with vision; instead they absorb light in order to properly set our circadian clock. Turning on the lights in the morning signals to our bodies that it is time to wake up.
11. Stretch out those muscles. Stretching is scientifically proven to help you wake up naturally.
Have you ever wondered why you stretch in the morning? When you sleep, the fluids in your body tend to pool. Stretching after you wake up helps to massage those fluids back into their normal position.
Also, your muscles protect themselves from over-extension by inhibiting the nerve impulses as they approach their limit. This safety mechanism becomes increasingly restrictive over time. Stretching briefly takes your muscles outside their normal range. This resets the feedback mechanisms that determine their normal amount of motion.
12. Give yourself a morning task.
If all else fails, you could check out one of these alarm clocks.
