8 Tips To Wake Up Early And Not Feel Exhausted

Want to be an early bird without wanting to leap back into bed?

We've all been there, waking up feeling like a sluggish potato that wants to fall back in the depths of their cosy bed, but what if you could wake up wanting the opposite and feeling like a ray of sunshine when you woke up instead? Well, here's 10 effective tips that'll help make that process a little easier.

1.) Have A Good Reason Why

Half the battle of getting out of bed early is in the mind, think about it, your 5 a.m alarm goes off and suddenly you’re not as eager to get wake up as you were the night before. Or maybe you come up with excuses like '10 more minutes won't hurt' and you end up sleeping in for hours more. 

The solution is simple, have a solid reason why. Saying you want to wake up because it's 'life changing' just doesn't cut it. How does waking up benefit you? How much more time will you get?

Why do you truly want to wake up early? Is it because you want a head start over your competiton? Maybe you want some peace and quiet in the morning while the world is asleep? Or maybe you want to wake up to the sunrise?

2.) Don't Hit Snooze - Ever!

As mentioned in the previous tip, we all know what happens when we hit that snooze button. You'll hit that button once at 5 a.m, promising you'll wake up the next time it goes off but you do it again.. and again.. and again. All of a sudden, it's 8 a.m and your plans for the day are ruined. 

This leaves you feeling more tired and groggy than if you had just woken up on the first alarm. When you hit the snooze button every time, you're messing up your sleep cycles which is essential to maintain if you want to feel alive and awake.

In fact, you shouldn't be using an alarm anyway, instead you should be waking up naturally in the morning. How can you do this? Well.. this leads me to my next tip.

3.) Wake Up & Sleep At The Same Time Everyday

Can't wake up without needing an alarm?.. well this is probably why. Take a moment and think about what time you went to sleep yesterday and what time you woke up this morning. How about the day before and the one before that? If you're consistently waking up and sleeping at the same time then well done, you've passed, but chances are you probably aren't and this is very important to not feeling tired in the morning.

Cortisol (gives us a jolt of energy) is released when we wake up and melatonin (makes us sleepy) when we sleep. The reason we should maintain a sleep schedule is so that our bodies know when to release these hormones and if we fail to do this, our bodies will release them at the wrong times making it harder to fall asleep and wake up in the morning.

4.) Get A Full 8 Hours Of Quality Sleep 

If you go to sleep at 9 and wake up at 5 you may think that you've just slept for 8 hours, but the fact of the matter is that you haven't, especially since we tend to wake up in the middle of the night without realising. 

So I recommend being in bed from 8.5 - 9 hours so you know you've slept enough. However, this isn't an accurate way of knowing, which is why I use the FitBit Sense which helps me track my sleep (deep sleep, REM, HRV). Everyone is different, some people make only be awake for 30 mins in the night, but for others it may be 2 hours, which means they're missing out on that 2 hours of sleep. There's no way of knowing unless you track it and this way you can remedy it to get higher quality sleep so you don't wake up feeling sluggish.

5.) Drink A Tall Glass Of Water

Fatigue is a classic sign of dehydration, so maybe it's as simple as drinking some water first thing when you wake up. Try not to make the first thing you drink coffee, as it does more harm than good. 

6.) Get 20 Mins Of Sunlight Daily

Sunlight is super important for a multitude of reasons, one of them being sleep as it helps to regulate our circadian rhythms and the best part is that it's completely free - just step outside.

7.) Make A Plan The Night Before

Before you go to sleep, write down mini action steps that you need to take when waking up. Write down a small morning routine that gets you excited, one that'll leave you wanting to get out of bed. 

Some of my favourite things to do are go for a walk, enjoy the sunrise, meditate for 20 minutes and read.

8.) Wash Your Face Or Have A Cold Shower

Instead of having coffee, throwing cold water on your face or even better on your whole body can have great energy boosting effects. You'll experience increased alertness, energy and clarity. Just turn the shower to the coldest setting and get under for 1-3 minutes.