Waking up in the morning is easy, but getting out of bed with energy is hard. Since we can’t create more hours in a day, many of us are constantly wondering how to have more energy. With an endless cycle of early mornings and late nights, it’s no wonder that we’re reaching for caffeine and sugar mid-morning and early in the afternoon. Plus, sleep deprivation leads to inflammation, disease, and poor food choices. All in all, it’s a recipe for poor focus and low morale.
This is partly due to the fact that modern society isn’t necessarily conducive to our natural sleeping pattern. Some researchers have even compared working in the early morning to torture.
Why It’s Hard To Work In The Morning
Monday mornings are just the worst, aren’t they? We all look for a way on how to wake up fast, but it’s never easy.
If you ever wondered why it’s so hard to wake up early, just ask Dr. Paul Kelley. The researcher from Oxford University argues that the modern workday should be updated to start no earlier than 10 am. He argues that early morning work had devastating effects on the physical and emotional performance of systems in the body.
According to the Telegraph, “Just one week with less than six hours’ sleep each night leads to 711 changes in how genes function.” (1)
This is because your body naturally follows the sun. Hence, your waking hours should follow sunlight hours. In our efficiency-focused society, health has faded to the background in favor of 24/7 production. And it isn’t really working: “Lack of sleep impacts performance, attention, long-term memory and encourages drug and alcohol use.”
Your sleep cycle changes as you age. The younger you are, the later you naturally go to sleep, which extends into a late morning.
“Staff should start at 10 am,” insists Dr. Kelley. “You don’t get back to (the 9am) starting point till 55. Staff are usually sleep-deprived. We’ve got a sleep-deprived society.”
Dr. Kelley and other neuroscientists insist that sleep deprivation begins in adolescence. This is because teens are biologically predisposed to go to sleep at around midnight. In turn, they aren’t fully awake until about 10 in the morning (2). With school schedules following the 9-5 lifestyle, teens lose an average of 10 hours of sleep a week (3).
Combined with a drastically different sleep pattern on weekends, teenagers simply can’t adjust to the early-to-bed, early-to-rise sleep cycle. This, in turn, may contribute to the mood problems responsible for the “grumpy teenager” stereotype.
By pushing back school to 10 am in test schools, British scientists have found that attendance levels, grades, and general productivity improved.
And it isn’t just teenagers who are missing out, most 10-55 years olds skip out on 2-3 hours of sleep each day.
Why Waking Up Early Is Good for You
The 9-5 lifestyle probably won’t change anytime soon, and in some ways, it’s a good thing.
According to Forbes Magazine, early risers are more productive and more optimistic. Plus they have a better ability to anticipate problems and resolve them, making them better planners. In order to wake up early, they typically sleep earlier too, meaning they sleep better than late risers (4).
This is also due to the fact that late risers can only sleep in on weekends, throwing off their weekday schedule. Morning risers are also more likely to have better focus since the morning is a relatively quiet time.
So how do you transition from a night owl to morning person?
How to Have More Energy In The Morning
Here are a few things you can do to utilize your mornings!
Things To Do Before Bed
How to increase energy starts at night!
1. Open Those Blinds
There’s nothing better than a little sunshine to tell your reptilian brain that it’s time to wake up! Morning sun will make you feel more alert, positive and ready to start your day.
Best of all, morning sunlight actually helps you sleep. When daylight fades, your body starts to release melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. For better sleep, stay in well-light spaces during daylight hours and switch to darker rooms before winding down to sleep (5).
2. Grab A Snack
Indulge in those nighttime cravings by grabbing a healthy snack an hour or so before bed, these are healthy eating habits that you need to have. Late-night hunger can cause poor sleep and morning crankiness. Having a banana or a few carrots with hummus as you wind down from your day is a great trick to get a good night’s sleep and feel better when you awake.
3. Skip Out On The Coffee In The Afternoon
To get the best sleep, stop eating or drinking things with caffeine or sugar at least eight hours before you want to go to bed. These stimulants, along with tobacco, keep you buzzed late into the night while you’re trying to fall asleep (6).
4. Don’t Drink Late At Night
Drinking alcohol will act as a sedative and will make you drowsy, but it results in poor sleep quality into the night.
“Alcohol may seem to be helping you to sleep, as it helps induce sleep, but overall it is more disruptive to sleep, particularly in the second half of the night,” says researcher Irshaad Ebrahim, the medical director at The London Sleep Centre in the U.K. “Alcohol also suppresses breathing and can precipitate sleep apnea, or pauses in breathing that happen throughout the night.”(7)
5. Ditch The Screens
Screens on your laptop, tablet, tv, and cell phone emit a blue light that messes up your sleep cycle by slowing the release of melatonin (8). Ideally, you should shut off all electronics and dim the lights at least 1-2 hours before bedtime (9).
6. Set Your Thermostat
According to Sleep Medicine Reviews, sleeping in a colder room can actually prevent insomnia since your body naturally heats up later in the night. Experts argue that the ideal sleep temp is 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (10).
7. Write Out Your Plans For The Next Day
One of the largest obstacles to restful sleep is feeling like you haven’t accomplished enough in the day. In fact, many people start writing a mental list of their tasks for the next day the second their head hits the pillow. Ease this anxiety by writing down your goals, chores