LIFESTYLE 7 years ago

How to Become a Morning Person

Hey everyone! It’s Hannah again! As you guys might remember from this post here, I am not a morning person. I’m not even really a night person, I’m just a sleep person. See, my thing is, I like to be AWAKE early, I just don’t like to WAKE UP early. One of the girls on the CINCTeam, Jane, is so much of a morning person she goes on actual hikes before work. It honestly blows my mind.

So for this post, I wanted to try to become a morning person. I did some research and for 7 days straight, I tried 7 different tips to turn myself into a morning person:

Day 1 – Wednesday

Tip: Spend an Hour Before Bed Sans Electronics

I had big hopes for my first day of being a morning person, but I also know myself well enough to know that the chances of me actually getting up when my alarm goes off are slim to none. I set one alarm 6:45 and one for 7:00, knowing full well my tendency to ‘snooze’ usually wins. I ended up getting out of bed at 7:35, which is a full hour before I usually get out of bed, which I’m considering a WIN.

When researching the best ways to become a morning person, I read that you should cut off electronics a full hour before you want to be asleep. So I put my phone on airplane mode, turned off my TV, put my laptop in my work bag and read a book. Committing a full hour of quiet time to read is something that I haven’t been able to do in ages. Between a group chat called ‘It’s The Girl’s Room’ blowing my phone up (you guys know who you are) and the dark hole which is the Instagram explore page, keeping my hands off my phone an hour before bed proved to be just as difficult as waking up with my alarm.

I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Day 2 – Thursday

Tip: Get Everything Ready for Your Morning the Night Before

Well, Day 2 went just about as well as Day 1. Though I didn’t get up with my alarm, I did get out of bed a full hour earlier than my usual routine. I’m still considering this a win. One thing I did try to do was plan my outfit as well as get everything I would need in the morning ready before I went to sleep. So with an outfit set out on my desk chair and my french press cleaned and ready for coffee in the morning- it ended up shaving a considerable amount of time off my morning. I got to work early AND had time to stop by Starbucks for my usual bagel. Though, I’ve been known to still stop for a bagel whether or not I’m on time.

Day 3 – Friday

Tip: Move Your Alarm Across the Room

So far, this tip is definitely the most effective. I have my alarm set on my phone, and I sleep with my phone on the pillow next to me. So snoozing, or turning off my alarm and going back to sleep is easy when all I have to do is lift up my arm. So last night before I went to sleep, I put my phone on my desk across the room. Not only did it help get my butt out of bed to shut up Ed Sheeran (his song Kiss Me has been my alarm since high school) but it helped me not spend hours on Instagram before falling asleep.

Another tip, though I don’t recommend it, is going out with friends on a weeknight and wake up with anxiety that you’ll sleep through your alarm. Nothing gets me out of bed faster than the fear that I’ve overslept. I’ve also decided to continue this ‘becoming a morning person’ quest through the weekend, so wish me luck.

PIN IT
[parallax]
PIN IT
[/parallax]

Day 4 – Saturday

Tip: Have Someone Keep You Accountable

Saturdays are my days to sleep until noon. So I was nervous to keep this challenge up through the weekend, to say the least. Like I’ve said, nothing gets me out of bed faster than the fear I’ve overslept- so I knew I had to make plans that would get me out of bed.

One of the tips I read online was to schedule a workout class or something early that makes you get out of bed. I decided to put a twist on that and instead of scheduling a workout class, I scheduled an early brunch with a friend of mine. Having her to keep me accountable was great motivation to jump out of bed.

Day 5- Sunday

Tip: Alarm App

I was actually really excited to try this tip. I remember hearing about the Alarmy app from a friend of mine who’s a super heavy sleeper. She had the app set to prompt her with a math equation in order to turn the alarm off. I can’t even do math when I’m wide awake, so I chose the ‘Shake’ feature. In order to shut off the sound of the alarm, you have to shake your phone back and forth 10 times. Not just a slight shake, but a full on (somewhat violent) back and forth shake. It actually worked! Pairing this with keeping my alarm across the room, I successfully woke up with my alarm. Yay me!

PIN IT

Day 6- Monday

Tip: Wake Up to Natural Sunlight

There’s only one window in my apartment (granted, it’s enormous) and when I close my bedroom doors it’s pitch black- which I LOVE. But one of the tips to becoming a morning person is to wake up to natural sunlight. So last night I left my bedroom doors open and woke up to a flood of sunlight in my room. This tip was not as effective as I was expecting, seeing as I just put my arm over my face to shield my eyes from the light.

I also did something I never do and I went out on Sunday night, once again the fear of oversleeping was a wonderful motivation!

Day 7- Tuesday

Tip: Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day

Ah, the last day of being a morning person. Thank god. This tip was more of an accumulated tip from the past 7 days. One of the biggest suggestions online, when I googled ‘How to Become a Morning Person’, was to get yourself into a schedule and wake up at the same time every morning. (Including the weekends, *gasp*)

So every day for the last 7 days I set one alarm for 6:45 and one for 7:00. Of course, the typical period of time to make (or break) a habit is 21 days so my 7 days of getting up early hasn’t done much for my internal clock. I will say, however, that knowing I had the goal of waking up early kept me in line.

So a week later, I’m still nowhere near being a morning person. Will I continue my quest to become one? Hard to say. I love my sleep, but I also really enjoyed all the time I had in the morning. Needless to say, I’m pretty stoked to sleep in on Saturday. Do you guys have any tips that help you wake up early? Let me know in the comments below and stay tuned for my next post!

xHannah

Credits:

Photography by Drew Scott