We all know that getting a good night sleep is important, but even the best sleep can be let down by a poor wakeup routine. You might have a solid eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, only to press the snooze button a few times, making yourself groggy and late for work (not a good combo).
Our kick-start morning routine starts with letting some light into the room, especially in the winter. You can do this with natural light or artificial light which we’ll talk about in a moment. We’d recommend some kind of smart blinds system that you can schedule a time for them to automatically open in the morning, whilst remaining closed and blocking streetlights and car lights during the night. If this isn’t something you think would be practical in your situation, then invest in a sunrise lamp. These lamps can simulate the soft rise in warm lighting, easing you from your sleep with a gentle alarm function too.
Now you’re awake, you need to stay awake, despite everything telling you to ease back into a deep sleep and forget about your job. We can combat this with next 2 steps:
Turn the tv on or play some music
If you have a TV bed, you can pop the tv up straight after you’ve turned the alarm off and use the tv as your 10-minute snooze allowance. Something like the morning news or a music channel is normally what we’d suggest, this one trick alone will help you stop falling back asleep.
Drink water straight away
This requires you to get into the routine of bringing a glass of water to bed with you. This way, straight after you’ve flicked the switch on your TV bed, reach over and grab a glass of water from your bedside cabinet and try to drink it all within a few minutes. The one thing that keeps you tired and groggy in the mornings is that you’ve been dehydrated for the last 8 hours during your sleep, water will bump up your hydration levels and instantly start to make you feel more alert and awake.
Following on from the bedside water, we’d recommend drinking just water for the first hour or two of your day before touching caffeine. Caffeine actually dehydrates you, so you don’t want to actually counter your efforts to be bright and alert by drinking a cup or two of coffee before you’ve even had a proper chance to see if you need it in the first place.
This routine is fairly simple, so it’s not too much of an effort in those early mornings. Give it a try and see how you get on.