Are you a night owl? Do you want to become a morning person, but you don’t know how? Learning how to become a morning person isn’t easy. Whether being a morning person means waking up at 8am or 5am for you, it won’t be easy for night owls.
However, you can become a morning person with the right plan. Let’s look at some helpful tips and a step-by-step plan for how to become a morning person.
11 Tips to Help You Become a Morning Person
1. Start With Your Bedtime
Improving your sleep pattern takes time. Becoming a better sleeper will naturally happen as you regulate the time you need to relax and unwind before getting into bed for a healthy rest. It’s easier to adjust the time you go to bed instead of the time you wake up. Adjusting your bedtime by 15 to 30 minutes every few days can help you wake up earlier. While waking up earlier is just a part of becoming a morning person, it’s a start.
Adjusting your sleep time gradually is a good strategy. However, it can be a shock to the system if you try to adjust too quickly.
2. Eliminate Screens From The Bedroom
TVs, phones, computers, and tablets can keep you from getting to sleep on time. Not only can they be a huge distraction, but they also put off blue light. This type of light makes it hard for your brain and body to adjust and prepare for sleep.
While the next episode of a show you’re trying to watch might seem like a great thing in bed, it’s not. You should set up your bedroom for sleep. A huge step for this is eliminating screens.
It’s best to stop looking at screens at least one hour before bedtime. This will help your body to adjust and get ready for bed. If you have to look at your screens, use apps that eliminate or dim the blue light.
3. Go to Bed When You Feel Tired
We often feel tired between 10pm and 11pm, but power through another episode of some show on a streaming service. When we do this, it messes with our sleep. If you want to become a morning person, go to bed when you feel tired.
Powering through your tiredness is a bad habit. It can make it harder to become a morning person and wake up earlier. This can actually cause you to feel wired in bed, which can cause you to stay up even later.
4. Eliminate Snooze
Snooze is a tricky thing and not good for you at all. When you choose to press the snooze button, you might get a few more minutes in bed, but it’s low-quality sleep. Also, hitting snooze multiple times makes it very difficult to become a morning person.
It can be much easier and better for you to use an app like Sleep Time. This type of app will wake you up when you’re not in REM sleep. This means you wake up refreshed and ready to go.
If you have the luxury to wake up without an alarm, this is even better. Your body will wake up when it’s ready and when you have received enough sleep.
5. Get Out of Bed
The hardest part about becoming a morning person is actually getting out of bed. If you continue to lay in bed, it will be even harder to get out of bed on time. If you want to become a morning person, you need to get out of bed and get moving.
6. Use Natural Light to Your Advantage
The sooner you can get natural light into your bedroom, the better. Start your day with natural light, and don’t stop there. You want to continue to get natural light throughout the day. At least 15 minutes of fresh air and sunlight will help you to become a morning person. It can help to ensure your biological clock is better linked to the light outside.
7. Adjust Your Eating Schedule
Eating can help to regulate your circadian rhythm. Adjusting your eating schedule can help you become a morning person. Make sure you eat your meals around the same time, even on weekends.
Eating earlier is best. The later you eat, the more you might delay your circadian rhythm, which helps control when you feel tired. Unfortunately, it can also increase your chances of dealing with acid reflux at night. This can also interfere with sleep.
8. Create a Great Place For Sleep
You can improve sleep and become a morning person by creating a better place to sleep. First, get a better mattress if you don’t have a good one. Then, consider your accessories, such as a white noise machine or blackout curtains.
If you want to ensure you get excellent sleep at night, a sleep mask might be necessary. Any light can make a difference in the quality of your sleep. Even a small light on a device can interrupt your sleep.
9. Don’t Let Weekends Throw You Off
Part of the reason people are tired all the time is the adjusted sleep schedule on the weekends. Sleeping in by more than 1 hour past your normal wake-up time will not help you. Weekends are not meant to be a time to catch up on sleep. Instead, you should get up at the same time and go to bed at the same time.
At the very least, keep your bedtime and wake-up time within an hour of what’s normal for you. This will keep you from struggling on Monday when you have to get up early again.
10. Watch Your Caffeine Intake
You don’t have to eliminate caffeine to become a morning person. However, you do want to make sure you aren’t using caffeine later in the day. It’s best to cut it off about 6 to 8 hours before your bedtime or sooner. This will help you to go to sleep easier without the rush of caffeine keeping you awake.
11. Exercise Regularly
A regular exercise routine can help to regulate your circadian rhythm. It can help ensure you feel tired sooner and give you a better chance of becoming a morning person.
Some experts warn against exercising too late in the day, however. If you exercise later in the day, it can actually energize you. It’s best to exercise no later than before you eat dinner.
Getting at least 150 minutes of exercise a week is best. This comes out to 30 minutes per day, five days per week. Some people will find exercising in the morning helps quite a bit. However, you may want to exercise in the afternoon or before lunch.
How to Become a Morning Person in 5 Simple Steps
Step #1 – Determine Your Wake Up Time Goal
The process of becoming a morning person starts by setting the right goals. First, you need to know when to wake up and how much time you have or want to use to reach your goal.
Your wake-up time starts your daily schedule. Make a schedule from here, and you will be in better shape to wake up on time. Make sure your schedule also includes time to get ready for bed on time for your wake-up time goal.
Step #2 – Put Your Phone Away From The Bed
If you’re using an alarm on your phone, put it away from your bed. This will help you get out of bed to turn it off. Getting out of bed to turn off your alarm is an important part of becoming a morning person. It will likely be the one trick that makes a huge difference when waking up on time.
Step #3 – Get Productive Early
Whether it’s writing in a journal, reading an uplifting article, or doing some research, getting productive early can help wake you up. It can help you become a morning person over time.
It can help if your productive work in the morning is also positive. So start your day with 15 to 30 minutes of quick productivity to get things moving.
Step #4 – Skip The Nap
At first, you will likely be tired throughout the day. Remember, you’re making a big change to become a morning person. Skip the urge to take a nap so that you don’t stay up too late.
Step #5 – Eat Dinner Early & Avoid Late-Night Snacks
Stop eating at least two hours before your bedtime. This will help to ensure you can get into bed and go to sleep sooner. Eating snacks or meals later in the day can make it harder to get to sleep. Therefore, you want to make sure your dinner is earlier in the day and avoid the temptation to snack late at night.
If you want to become a morning person, you should create a 30-day plan to reach your goal. Then, adjust your bedtime little by little until you wake up at the right time. Don’t deprive yourself of sleep to become a morning person, however. Instead, get plenty of sleep by going to bed earlier.
Jordan Fabel
Covering different 'paths' that people's lives can take. Creative, foster parent, ticket dismissal, you get the idea. Exploring the requirements, certifications, exams, and obviously, approved courses along each path.