WE KNOW THE feeling. It’s morning, and you don’t want to get up. It’s cold, it’s still dark out, and there are a million reasons to just let yourself drift off into dreamland again.
Stop! Don’t do that. Follow these tips that will help you yourself out of bed on time every morning.
1. Superglue your snooze button to make it impossible to use
Obviously, this is not possible if you use your phone as an alarm.
If you’re still keeping it old-school, throw yourself in at the deep end and deny yourself the ability to hit the snooze button at all.
2. Put your phone on the other side of the bedroom
Entry-level stuff. Put it somewhere different every night so that you don’t get too used to the location.
3. Turn on a lamp/open the curtains straight away when your alarm goes off
Y’know how awful it feels when someone turns on a bright light while you’re sleeping? Do that. To yourself.
4. Drink a glass of water immediately after waking
A glass of water in the morning hydrates your body, gets your metabolism going, and fuels your brain.
Plus the action will force you to be alert, so you don’t spill it all over yourself.
5. Set your heating to come on half an hour before your alarm
Often the worst part of getting up is leaving your nice warm bed, right?
So if you set the heating to come on before your alarm goes off, you’re removing ‘But the cold!’ from the list of Reasons to Stay Asleep.
6. Use an app that analyses your sleep cycle
The simply-titled Sleep Cycle analyses your sleeping patterns and wakes you up when it senses you are in your lightest sleep phase. Worth a shot.
7. Get yourself a Clocky
This isn’t a cheap option, but if sleeping in is a persistent problem you might want to consider investing in Clocky – an alarm clock on wheels that jumps off your nightstand and forces you to chase it to turn it off.
Evil, but genius.
8. Train your brain to jump into action as soon as your alarm goes off
Again, this one is an investment – requiring your time more so than your money.
This is a way of tricking your mind into waking up straight away, by ‘practicing’ your waking-up routine before you go to sleep, and repeating it until the ritual becomes automatic.
Here’s how it goes, according to SleepJunkies.com:
- Recreate your bedtime routine as closely as possible (put on pyjamas, draw the curtains, etc).
- Set your alarm for five minutes ahead, then lie down in bed.
- Imagine it’s morning, and you’re asleep.
- When your alarm goes off, turn it off immediately, then get out of bed.
- Do what you usually do next – opening the curtains, going to the bathroom, etc.
- Repeat the ‘act’ every day for the next few days, until it becomes automatic on hearing your alarm.
If you’re serious about getting up on time, it could be worth a try.
9. Have a baby
Studies show that an incessantly screaming infant will get a parent out of bed 99.9% of the time. Good luck.
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