How can I be more of a morning person?

[myauntflow78]

I struggle to get up each day. I want to be someone who is up and bouncing around at 6am type of thing. Instead, I haul myself out of bed as late as I can then sluggishly rush to sort everything on a school/work day.
I go to bed at a decent time. I don't have a TV in my bedroom. I am now not using my phone past 10pm.
At 6am I could go to the gym. Do a home work out. Sit in peace with a coffee before the rest of the household wakes up. Sort the kitchen. Do some home admin.
So why can't I do it ?!
Anyone got any ideas ?

I think you either are a morning person or you aren't to be honest.

What time do you go to bed?
Are you drinking enough water?

I think your either a morning person or you aren't to be honest. Me personally I wake up at 6.30am every day, I'd love to be able to sleep to 9/10am! It's a bit of a curse at times.

I'm not a morning person either OP. I find it helps if I sort out the kids uniforms the night before ( I have three year old twins and a seven year old.)
On the days I don't do it everything feels too rushed.

I wasn't a morning person, and still like the cosy feeling of bed in the morning but at the moment I have no choice kids to get to school so we have to be out before 8am.

What helps massively is prep the night before. It's a different feeling getting up knowing you just have to do the basics than running around like headless chickens. Having a clear kitchen area to make breakfast and a coffee helps.

I set my alarm 15 minutes before get up time, I bit of a conscious doze where you sort of meditate can start a day well.

Aim for getting up 5 minutes a week earlier in the winter, it's much easier being a morning person when the sun is up.

Small changes but by bit that might stick. And don't berate yourself if you don't manage it at first or only once a week.

Embrace your more nightowl tendencies !

Are you aware of when you have your peak energy ? Mine is late morning and then late evening - 11am and 11pm. I'm not good in the early morning and have to avoid sitting down between 5-6 (I'll drop off into a deep sleep). I'm fortunate in my work as I only have 2 morning starts and I work 2 evenings a week. I love being awake when the house goes quiet - My DP is a lark and mostly goes to be about 9.30 when I'm still bouncing. Most important don't let anyone bully you or call you lazy. I like to think that when we were still being chased by sabre toothed tigers (or similar) that us nightowls kept the camp fires burning so everyone else can sleep safely.

Lumie alarm clock. Absolute game changer!

I start work early and for over a decade (especially in the winter) I’ve dragged myself out of bed like a zombie. I’ve nodded off on the toilet, in the shower etc. Had the Lumie as a birthday present and I wake up and stay awake, no more snooze button. I don’t feel in shock either just nice and awake.

The other thing I try and stick to is a fairly consistent bedtime/wake up time within reason. I make sure I go to bed and get up within roughly an hour of my work schedule so that I’m not too out of whack.

I'm with @frozendaisy Completely prep the night before. Have sandwiches made and in the fridge, clothing lined up ready to go, and sort the kitchen after the sandwiches are done. Then, when you get up all you have to do is flick the switch on the kettle, while it boils you put milk in the mug and then pour your coffee, knowing there really isn't much else to do other than delegate all responsibility to the kids to be ready at x time to leave for school.

Have a read about circadian rhythm. There's some good stuff from neuroscientists.

Getting real sunlight in your eyes in the morning can help. Reducing artificial overhead lighting in the evening too.

I’ve never been a morning person either and usually feel terrible when I first wake up even if I’ve slept really well. My theory is that it just takes my brain a lot longer to wake up than, say my DH’s who is a total morning person, awake as soon as he gets up. I can get out of bed early but don’t actually ‘wake up’ properly until maybe an hour later. I’ve even got to my desk at work, fully dressed with make- up on etc and not really remembered how I got there (thankfully I don’t drive there…)
Not much help but I’m going to follow the thread and hope for tips!!

All the advice about prepping the night before is great, but I doubt they will make the OP a ‘morning person’ who bounces out of bed raring to go with a big smile on her face.

Sometimes you just have to accept that you hate getting up in the morning.

If you aren't using your phone after 10pm, what time are you going to bed?

If you want to consistently be awake bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6am, you need to consistently be asleep at 10pm. Otherwise you'll always be dragging yourself out of bed because you won't have had enough sleep.

I think you either made that way or you are not .... I've always been a morning person but I am hopeless in the evenings ... I can't do anything useful after about 6pm ... apart from cooking an easy meal and slobbing on the sofa. I rarely go out in the evenings and always make sure it's something I can get out of by 9pm !

What time do you go to bed? I'm usually up by 5am but I go to bed early.

You’re either a morning person or not. I’d love to be in bed asleep at 10pm but I can’t- I’ve tried but I’ll lie there awake until the time my body normally goes to sleep which is much later. Doesn’t matter how early I get up.

There’s so much more I could be doing at 6am versus 10pm but my body clock won’t shift.

I don't agree that you're 'a morning person' or you're not. I don't naturally bounce out of bed - I have to force myself out every morning. But I know that I feel SO much better for getting up and getting on with it. I' m in the gym at 7am most weekdays - it's no fun getting there but I feel amazing afterwards and I love the results. I think if you tell yourself you're not 'a morning person' , you're just going to make it harder for yourself. Accept that it's shit having to get up in the dark, but do it anyway!

And yes, prep everything you possibly can the night before

But some people can get to sleep easily at 9.30/10pm so although getting up early in the dark is never easy, it’s easier it you’ve had a full 8 hours sleep.

Some people can’t get to sleep that early. I am in my best sleep (finally) at about 6am (I know this as my watch tells me). So overall it would be detrimental to me to get up at 6am unless I can be asleep by 10pm. Normally it’s about midnight and that’s a broken sleep.

I can take myself off to bed for 10pm - and I'd lie away until midnight at least. Believe me I've tried. Used to be a nurse, with shifts starting at 7.30am. I could go to bed at 8pm but would not fall asleep until midnight - it's just who I am. yes there are ways to alleviate the early rises, but they don't change you into a morning person, who as soon as they open their eyes they are wide awake and full of bounce. Some of us get up happliy at 6am, some of us have to get up at 6am, and some of us find it bloody hard to get up at 6am and function fully until later in the day. No point in be-rating the OP for the way she is.

Exactly - years of getting up early never shifted my body clock to be able to sleep at 10pm or be chirpy in the morning. Whereas my DH bounces out of bed all chatty at 6am. He falls asleep in precisely 5 minutes.

We are all different. I was listening to a radio program about it. A certain percentage of us are larks, some night owls and quite a lot in the middle - doves I think they were called. And it all goes back to our ancestors- as another poster suggested - some of us needed to stay awake to guard late at night whilst others got up early to hunt and gather.

The downside is society is designed for larks really.

I think you can train yourself to be 'better' in the mornings but you can't actively switch from your natural morning/evening person instincts. I can force myself to get up and about earlier but I'm still more naturally energetic in the evenings, even when I've had an early morning. It seems stupid to try and force it and override what my body wants to do by lying in bed wide awake at 10pm only to get up and be sluggish at 6am.

If you actively need to get up I try and put my phone out of reach ideally in a different room - then when the alarm goes off I physically have to get up and move. Then straight into the shower a) it wakes you up and b) you can't really get back into bed all wet so you may as well do something!

Love this.

There’s somewhere in between where you are now and your unrealistic aims. Set your alarm in time to give you time to do normal morning things (not “bouncing about”, gym, workouts etc), get up and do them.

I can and do get up early for work shifts, however I’m a night owl. I cannot sleep before 11.30 pm, I go bed late out of choice, sleep late but I exercise in the evening, do chores in the evening.

There are 24 hours in a day and I don’t understand the theory that being up early is the best option for people.

You’re not going to bed early enough for a regular 6 am start. Coming off your phone at 10 means …what? Doing something else for a while then getting into bed? Or does it mean turning off the phone and going straight to sleep?
i suspect you are not giving yourself enough time to get 8 hours sleep, and that’s why you feel tired in the morning.
Personally I have always struggled to get to bed before midnight, which is why I’m rubbish in the morning. But if you can get that sorted now, you will be building in a massive advantage for your future self.
I bet you are not actually doing anything much after about 9, maybe a bit of tv or social media, you might as well go to bed and use the extra morning time productively.
I take it all back if you are doing late night yoga or research for the novel you are writing, but you’re probably too tired to do anything useful late in the evening.