If you are someone who longs to be the type of person that is able to wake up early, then you are in the right place! Find out the benefits of waking up early and get a list of unique strategies you can try to get you out of bed early!
If you asked me four years ago if I was a morning person I would have said, “Not at all!”
I used to have so much trouble getting up in the morning. I would feel nauseous and lethargic and my whole day would feel like a fuzzy mess.
But then I got a teaching job in Honduras, a place where it is eternally summer weather and the sun rises every day between 5 and 6 in the morning.
Things changed while I lived there.
For the entire two years that I was there, I didn’t struggle a single day to get out of bed at 5:00 in the morning. It felt so natural to rise and shine when the sun was beaming through my window and the heat was already seeping into my room.
I couldn’t believe how easily I was able to wake up every morning!
Now, nature itself was doing me some serious favours in helping me to get up in the morning. However, over the course of my time living there, I started to pick up on some of the things that made it easier to wake up early every day.
When I moved back to Canada, I won’t lie, being a morning person was much harder than it had been in Honduras, especially in the winter.
And I can tell you without any shame that I made zero effort in the winter season to wake up early. I firmly believe that, whenever possible, we should try to sync ourselves up with nature’s daily cycles, so if the sun is sleeping longer, then so am I!
But now that it’s spring and the sun is rising earlier, I want to share with you some tricks that you can use to wake up early and get a fresh start to every day!
I don’t use all of these tips every day. In fact, there are some tips I will share that definitely don’t work for me but work for people I know. To use this guide effectively, you will have to take a look at the strategies and decide which ones sound like something that will fit your unique needs. Try it out and if it doesn’t work, then pick a new strategy to try until you find the one that works for you! Be a scientist of your own life!
7 Tips to Wake Up Early Every Morning
Tip #1: Keep a consistent schedule
There is so much we still don’t know about sleep. But one thing we do know is that keeping a consistent sleep schedule can make your night a lot more restful. It can also make your morning wake-up a lot easier.
It is recommended that people try to stick to the same bedtime and wake-up time every day- even on weekends. This offers a lot of different health benefits but the one that stands out for me is that it makes the sleep process a lot easier as a whole.
When choosing your time to sleep and wake up, make sure that you are allowing yourself enough rest.
Typically, adults should get 7-9 hours of sleep. Keep in mind that this need will vary depending on the person and the season. Personally, I feel best after sleeping for 9 hours in the winter. In the spring and the summer, I only need 7 or 8 hours.
To figure out how many hours are ideal for you, it will be important to try a consistent schedule for a few weeks. Then you will need to reflect on how you feel and make changes accordingly.
Once you’ve found a sleep schedule that feels good, do what you can to keep it consistent!
Related Post: A Spring Morning Routine for Success: 7 Tips You’ll Love!
Tip #2: Prepare as much as you can the day before
If you struggle with feeling overwhelmed or anxious in the morning, then this is going to be a helpful tip for you.
Before you go to sleep every night, try to do some of the tasks that typically make you feel overwhelmed in the morning. This will help alleviate some of that overwhelm when you wake up the next day. It also gets you ahead of your day without you having to do anything that morning!
Here are some things you can think about doing the night before to set yourself up for success in the morning:
- Write down your to-do list and goals for the next day
- Clean your living space
- Prepare a bottle of water for the morning
- Choose your clothes for the next day
- Pack your bags for the next day
- Prep tomorrow’s breakfast or lunch
- Switch your shower time to night instead of morning
- Lay out your workout gear (if you workout in the morning)
- Check the weather for tomorrow
By moving as many tasks as possible to the nighttime, your morning will be a more relaxing and manageable time. This, in turn, will make you want to wake up early!
Related Post: A Simple Morning Routine When You’re Not at Your Best
Tip #3: Let lots of light in
One of the biggest reasons I was able to get up so early while I was in Honduras was because the sun was already shining bright by 5:00 in the morning! It was so easy to feel energized when the day outside was already fully in swing.
A lot of places in the world don’t function this way, though, so what is there to do?
There are two great solutions.
The first option is to leave your curtains open to let the sun’s light in every morning. It will help tell your body that the day has started and it’s time to get up.
The second option is to bring in lots of unnatural light. This might mean turning on the main lights in your room right when you wake up. It might also mean turning on a bright lamp to signal your body that it’s time to be awake.
I would personally recommend a light alarm. Instead of buying a sound alarm that wakes you up with a blaring noise, this light alarm gradually brightens until its light is fully bright enough to illuminate your room. It is my favourite way to wake up because it’s gentle and mimics the sunrise in a more natural way. Because it’s gradual and less aggressive, you might find that you don’t wake up at the exact same time every day. Your body will wake up to the light when it’s ready so that your sleep cycle isn’t cut short.
If you are someone who is able to wake up to the light, then I would highly recommend you get a light alarm!
Below is a link to the exact light alarm that I have been using for three years. It is simple and serves the purpose that I need it for. I would recommend it for anyone who is looking to give light alarms a try but doesn’t want to spend a fortune on one:
Tip #4: Be strategic with your phone
If you’ve watched any morning routine videos before, I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about how they try to stay off their phone for the first few hours of the day. Typically, I am a fan of trying to restrict our phone usage. But in this particular case, I actually feel that phones can be useful! As long as you are not scrolling through social media in the morning, phones can serve a good purpose in waking you up early.
Before we talk about them, though, let me note that these work for me personally because I don’t get notifications on my phone about social media. I primarily use my phone for utility, not communication. These tips won’t be a good fit for you if you have trouble ignoring social media.
Have an alarm on your phone that requires you to do something
There are seriously so many creative alarms out there for your phone and you might as well take advantage of it! You can find apps that make you do physical exercises to turn off the alarm. There are other apps that send you on a scavenger hunt to scan barcodes around your house. Some make you do brain exercises to wake you up. There’s even an alarm that gets real people from around the world to call you and have a conversation to wake you up! Making use of these fun and creative apps is a great way to start your morning!
Check out this list of great alarm clock apps for your phone!
Don’t allow snooze on your phone
If you want to stick with your basic phone alarm, don’t let yourself have an option to snooze the alarm. The worst thing you could do in the morning is to go back to sleep. You’ll end up feeling a lot more tired than if you had just gotten up the first time.
Put your phone or alarm across the room
When there’s something loud that you don’t want to hear anymore, you will do anything you can to stop that sound. If your phone or alarm is right beside you, you’ll barely have to open your eyes to stop it. But if it is across the room, you will have to physically get out of bed to stop it. You may still go back to your bed but it’s unlikely you will fall asleep again.
Read on your phone or watch a video when you wake up
Okay, this is definitely my most controversial advice but I stand by it! The big issue people have with using your phone in the morning is that connecting yourself to social media that early in the morning is going to mess with your head.
I don’t disagree. I think starting your day with Instagram, Twitter, and emails is the worst possible way to start your day positively.
But I make exceptions for some media. For me, I like to watch a morning routine video on Youtube in the morning. I find it calming and it reminds me to enjoy my own morning before I even start my day. Another thing I like to do is find devotional articles on Pinterest. I find that they set my mind on God right away.
Now, the reason I recommend using phones in the morning is because of the bright light they emanate. I don’t know, I feel like phones are helpful in the morning for the same reason that they are a problem at night- they wake us up! After my light alarm wakes me up initially, my phone wakes me up fully by shining a bright light.
Related Post: How to Use Your Phone With Intention and Purpose
Tip #5: Start your day with something easy
A lot of people associate morning with productivity. However, if you struggle to wake up early, then trying to tackle big things right away in the morning is not going to help you.
When you plan a bunch of tough tasks immediately upon waking, chances are you’ll end up stuck in bed because you are dreading your next hour.
One of the best things you can do to make your morning wake-up easier is to make your first tasks of the day easier. Wouldn’t you rather get out of bed for a nice warm drink rather than a brutal workout?
Here are some great tasks you can do that are slightly productive but won’t be dreaded:
- Get a morning drink (warm lemon water is a great option)
- Brush your teeth
- Meditate
- Read
- Wash your face
- Have a warm, restorative shower
- Do some slow stretches
Think of something that will make your body feel good that isn’t stressful to you. It will make it easier to get out of bed if you are looking forward to your first task.
Related Post: 5 Benefits of Warm Lemon Water, the Ultimate Morning Drink
Tip #6: Use quick tricks to wake yourself up faster
In the same way that you can use light in your favor to wake up your body in the morning, there are quite a few other quick things that can wake up your body naturally.
Here are some quick (and effective) activities that will have you feeling instantly more awake:
- Splash your face with cold water
- Drink a full glass of room-temperature water in one sitting
- Do yoga inversions to get the blood flowing to your head. (Downward dog and bending over to touch your toes work well)
- Go outside and take in the sunlight
- Play your favourite, most upbeat music
- Use energizing scents like mint, citrus, and jasmine to wake up your senses
Use any or all of these strategies to wake you up in the morning. It’s amazing how quickly you notice a difference!
Related Post: Morning Pages for a Better Day
Tip #7: Have an accountability partner
There’s nothing like a little peer pressure to get you motivated!
I remember when I was in university, my friend and I decided one day that we wanted to start getting to the gym in the morning. We decided to meet at the gym at 7:00 in the morning every day.
Unfortunately, both of us are a little on the lazy side. We usually just ended up hanging out in the sauna instead of doing a workout.
But hey, we got up and out of bed early!
Though my personal story may not be the best one to use as an example of success, the point is that having someone counting on you really can make a big difference in helping you to achieve a new goal. When you know that your decision to sleep in is affecting someone else’s day, it will make you much more likely to want to get up for their sake.
Here are some ways you could create accountability for yourself:
- Join an online group that supports you
- Plan to post a picture of your coffee on social media by a set time every morning
- Set up a schedule with a friend so that you call them every morning
- Walk your dog every morning. Your dog will get used to the walks and start asking for them if you sleep in
- Make a coffee or cook breakfast for someone you live with. Not only do you start your day early, but you start it with an act of kindness!
- Make plans for early in the morning (plan a coffee date or sign up for a gym class)
Related Post: The Remarkable Magic of Fika: Why You Need Swedish Coffee Breaks Now!
One Word of Caution: If you choose to have an accountability partner, don’t let this arrangement become rigid and unforgiving. You need to find a situation that does allow for error. Otherwise, it will just add unnecessary stress to your morning- and guilt if you fail to get up on time. Find someone that will understand your difficulty getting up so that you are allowed to have a tough morning at times without you also feeling ashamed of yourself.
Some Quick Notes on Waking Up Early
Here at In Its Season, we definitely encourage personal growth. But not at the expense of your mental health and especially not for the purpose of trying to meet society’s ridiculous standards. I want to take a moment here to clarify a few things:
Be sure you know why you want to wake up early
It is not inherently a bad thing to want to wake up early. However, you definitely need to consider why you want to do it.
With anything in life, we are driven by certain motivations.
At In Its Season, our aim is always to be motivated by our own beliefs, opinions, and desires. We aim to stop striving for desires that are simply placed upon us by society.
In this case, do you want to be a morning person for you, or is it something that society told you was important?
I’m here to tell you that it is not as important as you think.
Personally, I like to get up early because I am an introvert who likes how much alone time I get while other people are sleeping. I also find that my digestion functions better when I get up early. Nighttime is also difficult for my anxiety. I often find it best to go to sleep before I start worrying about every possible outcome of my life…
If I didn’t get these personal benefits from waking up early then I simply wouldn’t do it. And if you don’t receive any benefits from getting up early then you shouldn’t do it, either!
Don’t believe that waking up early is the only path to success
People always talk about how all the successful people in the world became successful because they got up early in the morning.
That’s simply not true and you should never feel guilty for being someone that doesn’t get up early.
If you don’t believe me, check out this article about 5 incredible CEOs that sleep in daily.
I refuse to get up early in the morning just because some CEO said that was the way to success.
Do you find that you feel better when you stay up later and wake up later? Don’t hesitate to keep that good thing going!
Be patient with yourself
Learning to wake up early is not an easy process. It takes time and effort and consistency. There will be bumps in the road and days when you don’t succeed. You will have to be able to dust yourself off and try again the next morning.
Sleep in if you need it
In the spring and the summer, I’m usually pretty consistent with getting up early. But there are some times of the year where I will allow myself to sleep in simply because my body or my mental health needs it.
If you feel yourself starting to get sick, this might be a good time to forego the alarm if possible.
And if you are just feeling way too emotionally exhausted, sometimes a little extra sleep is a good remedy for that. Listen to your body and don’t ignore its needs!
Frequently Asked Questions
This next section answers all of the most common questions that people ask about waking up early. Take a look to see if there are any answers you didn’t know!
What is a good time to wake up?
This answer is going to vary depending on your body’s preferences and your personal schedule. I follow an Ayurvedic schedule. It aims to align with the circadian cycle of the day. Their rule of thumb is to go to bed by 10 pm and wake up at 6 am.
But because the Canadian seasons change so drastically, I try to simply get up one hour before the sun rises.
In the summertime, that would be around 6 am. In the dead of winter, that time is closer to 8 am.
Another rule you could go by is to wake up at least one hour before you have to go to leave for work. This will give you some time to have a slow morning before jumping into your day.
How do I train myself to wake up early?
In addition to the strategies listed at the beginning of this article, you also have to think about how you want to introduce an earlier wake-up time into your routine.
The answer is to do it gradually.
If you typically get up at 9 but you want to get up at 7, don’t just change your alarm to two hours earlier.
Start small by shifting your wake-up time to a half-hour earlier than the usual time.
Each day or two, start moving the time earlier and earlier until you get to the time you want to wake up. Then just try to stay as consistent as possible. If you fail some days, don’t worry and simply try again the next day!
How do you wake up feeling energized?
The best way for you to wake up energized is to maintain a consistent sleep schedule, so try your best to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every day.
There are also things you can do to get better sleep at night that can help you feel energized in the morning.
Check out my post about how to sleep better at night for more tips!
Is it normal to wake up feeling tired?
It is common for people to wake up feeling tired but it is not necessarily normal.
When your body feels tired after a full night of rest, it is a sign that something is not quite right.
It could be that you are not getting enough sleep or that you’re getting too much sleep. It could also be that you are not getting good quality sleep at night. This is where you will have to play detective and try to figure out what the problem might be for you.
If it is a prolonged problem, it is a good idea to go to a doctor to see if they have any more insight that could help you.
Why am I still tired after sleeping?
Many people have to deal with something called Sleep Inertia.
This just means that your cognitive and sensory-motor performance is not quite warmed up, yet. You might be drowsy, clumsy, or weak because of it.
Typically this only lasts for about 30 minutes, though, so if you get out of bed and do some easy stuff during that time, you should be able to get over it pretty quickly.
Related Article: 12 Facts about Sleep Inertia
Is it bad to wake up suddenly?
Your body goes through cycles while you sleep and yes, it is bad to interrupt them.
Waking up suddenly will increase your blood pressure and heart rate, making you feel more stressed as a result.
The best solution for this is to wake up to natural light (remember what I said about that light alarm? It’s a good solution for this problem!)
Why is waking up so unpleasant?
If you are someone who hates to wake up early, you’re certainly not alone! There are lots of things we do in our lives that might be making our mornings unpleasant. Lucky for you, a lot of them can be changed for the better!
Here is a list of a few things that might be making your morning more unpleasant than it needs to be:
- An obnoxious alarm that wakes you up suddenly will instantly make your morning feel more stressful
- If you start your day with stressful activities, your morning will feel much more unpleasant
- Maybe you don’t warm up your body slowly enough. Start your day gently, with simple drinks and soft stretches
- Here’s a bigger problem: you don’t like your daily life, so you spend your mornings dreading the day ahead. Reflect on your life and try to see if there are things that are causing you to dread your days
- You might be too rushed in the morning. Maybe waking up earlier will actually help you enjoy your morning more
You might need to get creative to see what variables in your morning routine are causing you to dislike your first few hours of the day.
What should I do immediately after waking up?
I’ve got lots of good examples at the beginning of this article, so I’m going to keep it simple: do something you want to do.
If I could only give one piece of advice about how to wake up early and how to enjoy your morning, it would simply be to do something that you love to do.
For some reason, we are so inclined to do all of our self-care and relaxation at night, but we feel obligated to do productive things in the morning.
I would suggest setting aside at least an hour in your morning to do something simple that you actually enjoy doing. It will help to get you into the right mindset for your day and you will start to like your mornings a lot more!
I hope that these tips on how to wake up early are able to help you get up at the best time for you! Just remember: make sure that your decision to get up early is about helping you improve your life, not just meet the expectations that society has about the subject. Do it for YOU and enjoy the process!
I love how comprehensive this post is! I love being a morning person, and I’m just much more productive in the mornings. I want to get better about staying consistent over the weekend because that throws me off sometimes!
I totally understand that! I feel like my personality suits mornings best but my body just wants to sleep haha! It definitely helps to try to keep the same sleep routine on the weekend but it’s not easy! I hope some of these tips help!
Fabulous tips! I will have to start changing my habits a little to make this work!
The nice thing is that you don’t have to make a ton of changes all at once. Just a few new habits here and there will get you closer to reaching your goals 🙂
Having a consistent schedule is so important! I love the idea of not allowing a snooze function on your phone. It’s so easy to just keep snoozing! Great post!
I agree, the snooze button is definitely a tough one to conquer! I like that most alarms permit you to turn off that function.
I love all these tips! Sometimes I wake up early (though I’m not a morning person) and think it would be lovely to just get up and have some quiet time while everyone sleeps in. But, fumbling around in the dark to get myself together (bc hubby is in the same room) so I can enjoy that time deters me. I wish I could just throw on all the lights and jump out of bed and get going! I wonder if I could get away with moving into the guest room? Ha ha!
Haha I feel your pain! When I got married, sharing the bed was probably the biggest challenge I faced. It’s hard when you both have different sleeping hours. Luckily, he’s more sensitive to sound than light, so I can still use my light alarm, but it can definitely be hard to drag yourself out of bed when the person beside you is sleeping soundly :p
I like waking up early. I feel like I can my bigger task done, uninterrupted before the rest of the world has woken up – which in turns makes me feel more accomplished early in the day.
Yes, that feeling is so nice! It’s like you already got to live a full day before most people have even eaten their breakfast! So satisfying!
I have never been a morning person, but always want to be! One of the best ways to make myself wake up early is to have a friend to go workout with. I’ll show up if someone is counting on me! I’ll have to try some of your other tips too. This is a great list!
That’s awesome! I’ve been the same way in the past; it’s easier to get up when you know that someone else is counting on you!
There’s so much great information in this post! When I was younger, I loved getting up early and my body loved it too. When my chronic illness really developed and became a more major part of my life, mornings as a whole were so strenuous, exhausting, and painful that I just stopped getting up until around 10-11am. Now that I’ve learned how to manage things better, it has gotten easier and my husband often has to be at work at 4:30am, so I’ve begun getting up around that time and just staying in bed until my body is ready to truly GET UP. Usually that’s around 6:30-7, but still, it’s a huge leap for me. I meditate, do some work, enjoy a cup of coffee, and then get out of bed and I’m still starting my day bright and early with lots of light in my room and a comfortable environment!
That’s awesome that you’ve been able to take those physical challenges and work with them instead of fighting against them to make a morning routine that is comfortable for you! I am definitely not a believer in fighting against our natural instincts, so I think it’s absolutely amazing that you haven’t tried to ignore what your body needs just for the sake of creating a more traditional morning routine. Your story is a shining example of what I want to encourage everyone to do! I’m so glad that you have been able to create such a customized morning routine for your needs 🙂
You share SO many valuable tips. Some I use, many I don’t! I Have a friend that’s been creating a morning playlist lately. She has it set automatically to play first thing in the morning and says she’s dancing in bed before she even gets up! Not sure I could do this (I need to ease into it more), but it got me thinking about other useful ways to make the most of my morning. Tea and getting outside soon after I wake makes me happy. I think I need that light alarm too.
Haha yeah, my idea of ‘upbeat music’ in the morning is mostly classical music that feels a little more peppy than usual :p That’s awesome that you try to be reflective of your own morning routines. Honestly, I feel like that’s the best thing you can do because it keeps you moving towards the perfect routine for YOU! Like you, I enjoy a warm morning drink and a calm moment outside- at least when it’s warm out!
I love to wake up to the sunshine too! I feel so much better.
Yes, sunshine in the morning is the best thing ever! I definitely struggle a lot more on darker, rainier days because of it. Though the light lamp certainly helps with that!
I love the idea of being a morning person. But I have never been able to do it, especially not in the winter! I love how you suggest using the seasons and natural light to help with sleep schedules. I definitely need less sleep and have more energy in the summer when the sun is out for longer. When I was younger, I was totally a night owl, but as I get older I think I am just one of those people that likes to sleep!
Haha that’s what I always tell people now, too! I’m not a night owl OR an early bird- I just like sleep! But yes, using the seasons to your advantage is a great place to start. I’ve been using a light alarm for three years now and I love it so much! I don’t even use sound alarms to wake me up anymore.