Ah, mornings. If you’re anything like me, mornings are a time when you fight with your alarm clock, pressing snooze until the very last possible moment. This results in a chaotic routine of super-fast showering, dressing and legging it out the door to work. Not exactly the best start to the day.
On those rare mornings when I do manage to drag myself out of bed early by some miracle, the feeling is second to none. Time to get ready! Breakfast at home! Maybe even a morning jog! Starting my morning off calmly puts me in such great form for the rest of the day… so why on earth do I do it so rarely?
Apparently, it could all be down to our biological makeup. Some of us are natural morning risers, who like to wake at the same time every day, and are most active around 9am. Others are night owls, with a more uneven waking pattern, and higher activity levels after nightfall.
I don’t know about you, but it seems like the morning people definitely got the better side of that bargain. Being at your prime at 9am is a great advantage for the majority of job and school schedules, not to mention it’s a far healthier lifestyle than staying up til 3am getting work finished.
My new aim is to train myself to be a morning person – and I’m told it can be done. While many of us fall somewhere between the morning lark and night owl categories, there are a few who fit one extreme or the other. A friend of mine, much to my complete awe, wakes at 6.30am every morning without an alarm clock. I’m not hoping to reach those dizzy heights, but I’ve been working on easing my body into earlier starts, so that I feel fresher and more alert at that time of the day.
According to sleep experts, the first key is to get more shut-eye. Okay, that much is probably obvious. One problem with being a night owl is that, although you stay up late, you still have to get up at the same time as all those pesky morning people.
Another pro tip which has been working well for me is to try waking at the same time every day. So rather than saying “I’m getting up early tomorrow,” say “I’m getting up at 6.45am every day this week” Over time this should (hopefully) jumpstart your internal alarm clock so that you begin automatically waking up at that time – like the elusive powers of the friend mentioned above.
The third piece of advice – which I’m finding most difficult to follow – is to Just Do It. When your alarm goes off, get up and get moving. Even if you just head straight to the kitchen for a glass of water, have a purpose and a plan to get you on your feet. This is going to be easier said than done once the winter weather sets in, so I’ll definitely be buying a cosy dressing gown too.
So there you have it. This might be a short-lived project for me, but I hope not. I’m already feeling more focused, more positive and more energised. Sorry, snooze button. It’s time to say goodbye!
