Becoming a Morning Person

From the stable of a former notorious night person

For the longest time, I was a night person. Waking up early in the morning was a struggle. I’d stay up more than half of the night doing absolutely nothing and then wake up with a massive headache and a foul mood. I used to be very unapproachable in the morning.

How did this start?

I’ve never been the super-energetic morning person. I remember hating to be woken up by 6 am for morning prayers as a kid. But it worsened when I was writing my final exams in college. My friends and I would study all night up till 4 am. This distorted my sleeping pattern.

It continued after I left school and started a stressful internship job that required me to work late in the night. Then in my second job, I worked remotely with a US company from Nigeria. The 8hr time difference worsened things.

When things normalized and I started working at my current job that I needed to resume at 9 am, I struggled a lot.

The struggle continued for months. I would sleep late because I genuinely won’t feel sleepy till about 2 am, and I’d wake up with a massive headache when my alarm rings at 6 am. I needed to find a solution that worked for me.

I tried out different things for a while, but here’s what worked for me.

Plan the day the night before

Planning the day the night before helps you wake up with a purpose. Say you want to wake up at 6 am, but you don’t have anything set to do at that time; there is a high chance that you’ll hit the snooze button.

For instance, if you have a big day tomorrow, the chances are that you’ll wake up on time. Why? Because you have a reason to, and you have something you’re looking forward to achieving. Setting a purpose for your day can give you a reason to wake up in the morning.

Anytime I plan my day the night before, I find out that waking up is much easier than when I’m just winging it. It helps me sleep with a goal in mind and a timeline to achieve it, and as a bonus, I get a well-structured, less cluttered, productive day.

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Set an alarm

Alarms can be your friend to wake you up when you want to until your body gets used to waking up naturally at that time.

I set an annoying alarm and keep the alarm far away from arm’s reach. I put the alarm in a place where I have to stand up from my bed and walk to turn it off. Getting myself to stand up and walk is an active activity, so it helps me become less sleepy.

Also, I set the alarm for 10 minutes earlier than my wake-up time, so I can have some time to grumble about how adult life is unfair and how I would love to sleep longer before getting up to put off the alarm.

I also don’t set alarms with sounds that I like. I tried that before but ended up doing a sing-along in my sleep.

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Sleep early

The saying “Early to bed, early to rise” is not a stupid one. The earlier you go to bed, the more likely you are to rise early, without a headache, the next day.

Eat dinner earlier, ditch the late-afternoon caffeine, round up the activities that keep you late at night earlier, and retire early. Also, try not to be on your phone when you retire; it can take hours before you get off it.

Aim for 7 -8 hours of sleep every night. That means if you want to wake up by 6 am, you should be in bed with your eyes shut by 11 pm. And if it takes a while for you to drift off to sleep (just like me), aim to be in bed 10:30 pm, so you have 30 mins to drift off.

Previously I would retire at 12 am and read till about 2 am or so. This routine made my body get so used to sleeping late that even on days I wasn’t reading, I wouldn’t feel sleepy till about 2 am.

Now I force myself to retire at 9 pm/10 pm. I’ll put away my phone and every other distracting element, read for 1 hour (till 11 pm), then put my sleep patch over my eyes and either start daydreaming or mentally counting from 1 to 100.

I find that closing my eyes and doing a mentally boring thing puts me to bed really fast.

I use a sleep patch because I sleep with lights on — I’m afraid of the dark. Yep! I’m 25 and still afraid of the dark—story for another day.

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Creating a morning routine

It’s important to create a morning routine, so you know exactly what you are waking up to do. And for you to look forward to waking up early, it’s better to make this routine something you enjoy. Create a morning routine that works for you.

Since I decided to change my sleep routine, I’ve iterated through different morning routines. I make sure I plan this the night before, and my insides are happy with the plan. And when I become bored of a particular routine, I change it.

These are the different routines I’ve iterated through:

• Exercise in-house→ Bathe → Algorithms → Eat → Start work
• Algorithms | Read → Exercise in-house → Bathe → Eat → Start work
• Exercise at the park→ Bathe → Algorithms | Read → Eat → Start work
• Now, with advice from Ariana Elise, Write for 30mins → Algorithms → Bathe → Eat → Start work. I moved exercising to evenings.

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Make a conscious effort to practice this for a while

Consistency matters when rebuilding your sleep routine. The major trick to changing your sleep pattern is to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time — the body gets used to this after a while.

If you consistently use an alarm or an external body to get up at a certain time, with time, your body will wake you up minutes earlier.

For me, my “a while” is 14 days. I use this for anything I want to make a habit. I struggle with myself but make sure I consistently get up at the time I have set for 14 days, and after that, my body gets used to it — it becomes a habit.

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Consistency is key.

My routine isn’t perfect yet — far from it. I still indulge in a little late-night-nothing sometimes and wake up with a massive headache the next day. But the good thing is that it’s better than it was a few years ago.

I understand that waking up early in the morning can be difficult for some people, but if I, a former notorious night person, can make the switch, you can too. Just build a routine that works for you and makes you happy. That’s the ultimate trick.

Thanks for reading.