7 Healthy Habits I Use to Wake Up Early Feeling Energized
Try Them Out Yourself!
Don’t you just hate waking up and feeling like you didn’t get enough sleep?
This was me every day of 2019.
I can’t believe my employers kept me for as long as they did…
As soon as mid-afternoon hit, I could feel myself dozing off. I’d be constantly yawning, struggling to focus, and completely disconnected from the work I was supposed to do.
My line manager even caught me sleeping a few times.
If you’re constantly feeling sleepy or fatigued at times when you don’t want to, you’ve likely primed your circadian rhythm wrong.
Try these 8 healthy habits I use to wake myself up feeling thoroughly rested, energized, and ready to attack the day.
1. Plan the morning from the night before
Life is so much easier when you know what to do.
Think about it…
You’re driving along the road, and someone flags you down to let you know you’ve got a flat tire.
You get out to check, and indeed it’s extremely flat.
Fortunately, your dad (or mom) taught you how to change a tire when you first got your license, so you pop open the boot, grab the spare tire, and get to work.
Within 10 minutes, you’re back on the road.
Now, imagine a scenario where you didn’t know how to change a tire, and there were no air pump stations or tire shops near you…
Which scenario do you think would be more stressful?
Of course, the latter.
When you know what to do, there’s no need to worry or think — you just do it.
The same is true of life.
The more you plan, the more prepared you are, and the more prepared you are, the less stress and anxiety you experience.
Planning your day the night before is mental preparation for what’s to come.
It also helps you manage your time better.
2. Wake up at the same time every day
Your body (and mine) follows a circadian rhythm.
This defines your physical, mental, and behavioral changes in 24-hour cycles.
One of the best things you can do to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm is to keep a consistent routine, such as waking up at the same time every day.
By anchoring your wake time in place, you send a signal to your body about when you should be awake and when you should be tired.
A growing body of research reveals that waking up at the same time every day is an investment in mental and physical well-being.
For example, in 2018, a survey was conducted by Mattress Inquirer — a sleep news site — and they discovered that people who kept strict wake-up times reported feeling more content overall in every area of their lives.
To be more specific, people who kept a strict wake-up time were 13% more satisfied with their personal lives, 45% more satisfied with their financial situation, and 42% more satisfied with their work-life balance than people who were looser with when they woke up.
TLDR: Wake up at the same time.
3. Get out of bed as soon as you wake up
In a blog post titled How to Make Your Future Habits Easier, James Clear wrote the following:
Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. This is one of the most practical and simple ways to improve your habits.
In other words, if you only use your bed for sleeping, it will be easier to fall asleep when you get into bed.
Moral of the story —
When you wake up, get up!
Your bed should only be used for sleeping.
At first, this is super difficult…
I used to hit the snooze button a lot.
According to the Sleep Foundation, any additional sleep after hitting the snooze button will be fragmented — “Disrupted sleep does not provide the same benefits as continuous sleep. In fact, it is associated with increased stress.”
This habit also applies throughout the course of the day…
Don’t lay on your bed unless it’s time to sleep.
4. Journal
Some people prefer evenings, but I prefer mornings...
The minute I wake up, I hop out of bed, take a leak, and then go to another room where I have a desk set up with my pen and journal waiting.
All I write in my journal is what’s on my mind at that moment — I’m also deliberate about writing a few things I’m grateful for.
Once that’s done, I note what I wanna achieve for the day; then I get to work.
The whole point of this ritual is to engage in self-expression.
Practicing self-expression plays a vital role in supporting mental health and well-being.
When you express yourself, you feel good; when you feel good, you are good.
I also find that expressing my thoughts and feelings in the morning allows me to shape the narrative for how my day should go.
For example, when I used to write things like “I feel shitty,” the day would go shitty.
Now, I say stuff like, “I’m grateful for another opportunity to take my best shot at life. Nothing says I’m guaranteed to see out the full 24 hours today, but I’ll make the most of what I’ve got.”
See the difference?
Journal in the morning — you can psych yourself up with it.
5. Move around / work out
There’s no universal “best time” to exercise.
We all function differently, so what works best for you may differ from mine.
But there are a few reasons why I think it’s better to work out in the morning…
The first is simple —
Regular exercise is a great way to boost energy and reduce fatigue.
In other words, working out early in the morning will likely make you feel more energized throughout the day.
Also, a 2019 study revealed that morning exercise improves attention, visual learning, and decision-making.
A morning workout may be what you need if you struggle with focus.
6. Wind down with a book
Ever noticed yourself getting sleepy when you start reading?
Exactly. Do it before you sleep then.
Reading uses up brain power.
As you process the letters you see and convert them into words, sentences, and paragraphs, your brain is working hard, and your eyes get tired.
Naturally, they start to feel heavy, causing them to close.
This is the perfect way to get yourself to sleep — just don’t do it in bed.
Reading before bed can be an extremely effective way to improve your sleep, making you more likely to wake up feeling energized.
7. Pay off sleep debt
Notice I didn’t say much about sleeping early, and that’s for good reason…
Sh*t happens.
Sometimes, you can’t get to sleep at the same time every day.
I don’t stress much about the time I go to sleep.
But d’you remember what I said about setting a wake-up time?
“By anchoring your wake time in place, you send a signal to your body about when you should be awake and when you should be tired.”
Because I wake up at the same time every day, I’m usually tired around the same time too.
Sleep debt grows the longer you stay up after you feel the initial tiredness.
Note that sleep debt is simply the amount of sleep owed to the body.
Like any other interest-bearing debt, you must pay it back— the sooner, the better.
The way you pay off your sleep debt is by taking naps throughout the course of the day.
If you’re completely against napping during the day, set an early bedtime and be strict with it.
Final thoughts
The secret to feeling energized when you wake up early is adopting healthy habits that improve your sleep quality and get you charged for the day.
7 that I personally use include:
1. Plan the morning from the night before 2. Wake up at the same time every day 3. Get out of bed as soon as you wake up 4. Journal 5. Move around / work out 6. Wind down with a book 7. Pay off sleep debt
Try them out yourself.
Thanks for reading!
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