How to Wake Up Easily in the Morning

Note: This article is for general purposes only. It is not intended for medical advice. For best results meet with your physician.

Waking up in the morning doesn’t have to be difficult! Even if you’re not a morning person, there are some handy tricks that can make it easier to wake up and hop out of bed. Here are our top tips on how to wake up in the morning.

How Does Your Body Wake You Up?

Your body wakes you up using various brain chemicals and neural circuitry. When everything is working like a well-oiled machine, our bodies start to “rev up” roughly an hour or two before we actually wake up. That’s the circadian rhythm, which makes us wired for wakefulness during the day.

At this point, sleep-inducing brain chemicals like adenosine start to drop, and the brain gets a heavy dose of wake-up chemicals, like the ACTH hormone and cortisol. Blood pressure and body temperature begin to rise. The hypothalamus also stops producing melatonin and increases the production of vasopressin and noradrenaline, which are other brain chemicals that help control our sleep cycles.

How To Wake Yourself Up When Tired

There are several ways to wake yourself up when you’re tired. Your body isn’t built to be energized at all times, so being tired at times is completely normal! Still, there are unavoidable moments when you need to wake up even when tired. Here are a few things that may help you:

Caffeine

Whether it’s coffee, tea, or an energy drink, there’s no denying that caffeine can be quite effective in waking you up. Caffeine blocks your brain’s adenosine receptors, which prevents it from upping your sleep drive. A cup of caffeine can also increase your levels of serotonin and dopamine, which gives you energy, increases focus, and boosts your overall mood.

Be careful though – caffeine can only do so much if you’re really sleep-deprived, and too much can lead to a caffeine crash. A crash will reverse all the good effects of caffeine, making you feel even more tired, unable to concentrate, and irritable.

Water

Water can be one of two things: a glass of water to drink or a cold shower. Even mild dehydration can affect your concentration, alertness, and short-term memory. If you’re feeling a little tired and off, get a glass of water to rehydrate yourself.

If you’re still feeling sleepy, a nice, cold (or even just cool) shower can wake you up and bring you right back to your senses. The shock of cold water will increase your heart rate and oxygen intake, raising your alertness.

Power Naps

Sometimes, there’s just no getting around it – you need to sleep more. If you’re just waking up, a few extra minutes may help you shake off the sleep inertia that’s making it hard to get out of bed.

But there really is a time of day that can make you feel tired and sleep: the afternoon dip. This daytime sleepiness usually occurs in the afternoon, making it the ideal time to take a nap. A 10 to 20-minute power nap can recharge and wake you up, giving you a much-needed boost.

There’s also a study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that showed that pilots that were able to nap for around 26 minutes had “improved physiological alertness and performance” compared to those who didn’t.

Consistency Is Key

To maintain your internal rhythm, it’s important to be consistent. This means you should wake up at the same time each day – even on the weekends. If you sleep in on Saturday without setting an alarm, your body can revert to its natural circadian rhythm and you’ll have to start over.

It’s no surprise that phase delay is pretty common among those who work shift-related jobs, which includes up to 25 percent of the U.S. population.

Tips For Waking Up More Easily

If you’ve worn out your snooze button and are sick of feeling like a morning zombie, try a few of the tips we have listed here. You may not jump for joy when the alarm goes off every morning, but you might find it at least a little bit easier to get up and at ‘em every day.

Make It Hard To Turn Off Your Alarm

It’s way too easy to hit the snooze button multiple times if your alarm clock sits right next to you on your bedside table. But if you move that alarm clock across the room, it’s not so easy. You have to physically get up out of bed to turn off its annoying buzzing or beeping or other nonsense, and this can help ensure that you get up at the same time every day.

Let There Be Light

When it comes to waking up, light can be your best friend. In fact, the faster you can let in the light, the better off you’ll be. Open the blinds. Turn on the light. Step outside if you can or even go for a short walk. You might even think about sleeping with your blinds open so that the morning sun can help wake you up.

Light serves to get your brain going and can help encourage your circadian rhythm to stay on track. Some people find a sun lamp to be helpful, especially if they’re dealing with seasonal affective disorder. It can help you feel more awake and improve your overall mood. Light is a great way to drive out the morning blahs.

Get Sweaty

A morning workout – even a quick one – can get your blood flowing and help you feel energized for the day. A few jumping jacks or a brisk walk around the neighborhood is often enough to help you feel wide awake. People who work out in the morning usually have less trouble falling asleep at night. This, in turn, helps make waking up in the morning even easier.

A morning exercise session will help you feel alert – not only in the moment but also for several hours afterward, so you can say goodbye to the dreadful mid-morning slump. Keep in mind that your workout doesn’t have to be intense. Even a round of stretching can make you feel more awake and ready to face the day.

Treat Yourself

It’s easy for the mornings to become an unpleasant scramble as you get ready for your day. But if you can fit in time for a small treat, that’s a great incentive to get up and out of bed. Find something you really enjoy that you can make time for in the morning, like going for a walk, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, reading your favorite novel, or enjoying the morning newspaper.

Some morning risers even enjoy cranking up their favorite tunes and having a dance party first thing – we dare you to try it and not get into a good mood. You also can light a scented candle or diffuse your favorite energizing essential oil to make you feel pampered and comforted during your first few minutes awake.

Eat Up

Even if you don’t love the thought of food first thing in the morning, a small breakfast can fuel your body and help you wake up. Try to lean toward protein – like an egg with a piece of whole-grain toast or a cup of yogurt with berries. Breakfast can help you focus and can signal to your body that it’s time to wake up and start the day – it can do wonders for your circadian rhythm.

Too many people skip breakfast, but eating breakfast can help you out more than you may realize. In addition to helping you wake up, a healthy breakfast helps regulate your blood sugar, improves heart health, and boosts your immunity.

Calculate How Much Sleep You Need

It’s important to know yourself and how much sleep you need to plan your bedtime routine and sleep schedule. 

Try to experiment to find your sweet spot. You may even want to use a sleep app to help you track your best sleep and pinpoint an ideal bedtime and ideal waking time. Once you know how much sleep is best for your body and you have an ideal waking time, you can count backward to determine what time you need to go to bed every night to make it all work.

Make Sure You Have The Best Pillow And Mattress

If you are still tired choosing the right mattress, sheets, and pillows can turn your bedroom into a dream sleep space. We can’t overstate the importance of having the right level of support and comfort from both your mattress and your pillow. 

On the other hand, an uncomfortable mattress or unsupportive pillow is a recipe for a bad time. gnarly and non-restorative night’s sleep. It’s a good idea to evaluate your mattress every few years. If it isn’t meeting your needs, you might want to consider replacing it.

Respect Your Bedtime

If you have problems waking up in the morning, turn your bedtime into an important ritual. Having a consistent bedtime is one of the most important things you can do to protect your sleep quality. And once you settle on a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, try to stick to them.

Avoid Alcohol

Drinking alcohol within two hours of going to sleep can make it harder to stay asleep or achieve REM sleep, which is the deepest and most restorative kind of sleep.

Drinking alcohol before bedtime can also make it harder to wake up the next morning since it can make you feel groggy, dehydrated, and out of sorts. One drink with dinner shouldn’t hurt but be careful not to overdo it or you’ll disrupt your sleep schedule.

Talk to Your Doctor About Melatonin

Melatonin is a brain chemical that can help keep your body’s internal clock on the right path. An increase in melatonin is a key signal for your body that it’s time for night-night. If you’re off-schedule because of travel or other complications, or just seem to have trouble dozing off – a small dose of melatonin may be just what you need. Talk to your doctor to find out if melatonin supplements can help you maintain a regular sleep schedule.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I wake up immediately?

You can wake up immediately by having a good sleep routine. If your sleep routine is on point, then there would be no need for you to wake yourself up since you will naturally feel more awake in the mornings! But if you need a quick wakening jolt, try to splash some cold water onto your face.

Why do I struggle to wake up?

You might struggle to wake up due to sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is meant to make it easier for you to fall back asleep in case you wake up at night, but it can happen even in the morning. This is totally normal, and you can usually get out of sleep inertia in 15 to 30 minutes.

How can I force myself to stay awake?

You can force yourself to stay awake in a number of ways, but forcing yourself to stay awake when you’re already experiencing the effects of sleep deprivation can be dangerous, both to you and the people around you. 

It’s safer to take a quick nap instead so you can “reset” your body and get a quick energy boost instead of forcing yourself to go longer than you should without sleep