The Crucial Morning Habit That Will Transform Your Sleep, Productivity, and Overall Health
This simple, 10 minute habit will transform your health.
How you spend your morning is crucial.
You make or break your day in that first hour after waking. One crucial habit to include in your morning is movement. This isn’t a workout, and it doesn't need to take long.
Here’s why this habit is so important and how you can easily implement it in your morning routine.
The Importance of Morning Movement
“A disrupted clock is the mother of all maladies, and, conversely, in most chronic diseases, clock function is compromised.” — Dr. Satchin Panda, The Circadian Code
To optimize our sleep, energy, and general health, we need to support our circadian rhythms.
The circadian rhythm is your internal clock which regulates the timing of every single function in your body. Not only does it improve sleep quality, but it also supports metabolism, hormone regulation, gene expression, and brain function.
If our circadian rhythms are unaligned, our health starts to suffer.
In fact, some experts argue that the circadian rhythm has more of an impact on our health than any other factor.
“We are living out of alignment with our natural rhythms, and this is causing us to be sick. Therefore, the first step in improving our health is to realign our schedule with our natural rhythms.” — Dr. Satchin Panda, The Circadian Code
When we wake up and get our heart rate up within the first 20 minutes of the day, it’s a huge signal to our bodies and minds that it’s daytime and it’s time to be awake and alert.
This will increase our energy levels, boost our productivity, and will make our sleep the next night much better.
If you wake up and stay in bed, or sit for a few hours, your body doesn’t get the signal that it’s daytime. This means that the daytime functions of the circadian rhythm are not switched on. This can lead to you feeling sluggish and fatigued, and will negatively impact your sleep the following night. This also impacts the functioning of the circadian rhythm for the rest of the day, which is how it can start really hurting our health.
“By moving your body in the first half of the day, you reinforce the body’s internal cues that it’s daytime.” — Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar
Morning movement also:
- Increases cognitive abilities as effectively as a cup of coffee
- Increases metabolism
- Improves sleep quality
- Releases happy hormones such as endorphins, leading to increased feelings of happiness
Starting your day with a gentle movement session is also a great way to have a slow, purposeful, and grounded morning. You’re away from your phone, the news, and the chaos of the day.
What You Can Do
1. Plan everything
- What you are going to do, where you are going to do it, what time you are going to do it, how long your session is going to be.
- Without adequate planning, it’s going to be harder to be successful.
- You don’t have to do the same thing day in and day out, but make sure you know what you’re doing at least by the night before.
Here is a 5 minute routine I created specifically for the morning:
2. Wake up earlier
You may need to wake up 5–10 minutes earlier to fit your movement session in, but the positive effects on your sleep will be well worth it.
3. Don’t do a workout
Remember that this doesn’t need to be a workout — that can come later in the day. This is simply about getting your heart rate up a bit and your blood flowing.
“The key to overcoming that resistance is understanding that what we’re talking about here is not a morning workout. This is morning movement.” — Aubrey Marcus, Own the Day, Own Your Life
Want to transform your health, one habit at a time?
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