AIBU to ask you for tips on how to get up early??

[Pariswhenitdrizzles]

Hi everyone.

This might sound a bit rubbish (or lazy), but I find it really hard to get up in the morning.

Please could you give me your tips on how to get up early in the morning (around 7ish, for example) but still feel well-rested and have a good night's sleep?

Thanks very much in advance :)

Eat breakfast as first thing you do, then you will naturally wake up early (with hunger!)
Got told that as a student nurse struggling with 7-30 shift starts and have done it ever since!

Sorry if someone has suggested it already, but put your phone across the room from you so you have to get up to turn off the alarm. Have a shower right as you get up to wake you up.

Although unlike a lot of posters above my body clock has never reset itself. I could be asleep by 10pm and if no children were around to wake me up (or just the amazingly snoozy toddler) I could easily sleep until 8am or so. I will always need an alarm when I actually need to get up at a time.

The only thing that gets me up is knowing that I Have Things To Do that cannot be delayed.

I can always get up if I'm going to an airport, for example.

If you are wanting to get up earlier because of some vague thought of "getting things done", especially if they are things you don't enjoy doing, then your motivation is not going to be strong.

I agree Thishat, I have found it doesn't make a big difference if I go to bed early or late, I'm still not going to want to get up the next morning. I have never in my life been a natural early riser, or woken up feeling fully rested and ready to spring out of bed immediately...

I never feel fully rested as I sleep awfully but that would be the same if I got up at 5am or 8am! I have no choice but to get up early but on the rare days I get to spend longer in bed I don't feel any more rested. I usually get about 3-5 hours sleep.

I get up at 5:30 so I can have an hour to myself before the chaos that is school run starts.

I do thirty mins yoga, read for twenty mins or just sit and contemplate the day before the house gets busy. Then I'm showered, dressed and out the house by 7:30.

It takes a week to get into it and adjust bed time to suit but it makes a huge difference to my energy levels

7am isn't early!

but anyway, work out when to go to bed in terms of getting complete sleep cycles at sleepyti.me/

Lumi light...changed my life!

^Should say Lumi light alarm clock

Sleeping with the blinds / curtains open does it for me - I wake up gradually with the sunrise.

Put your alarm clock on the toilet seat. Once you made it there, you'll need the loo and then you are awake.

Don't pander to yourself. Just get up no matter how rough you feel. Non-negotiable. It gets easier if you don't give morning-you an inch.

Morning-me is a lazy, whingy, idiot. I don't trust her one bit.

I hardly ever bounce out of bed full of joy. I have the alarm on the other side of the room and I don't let myself go back to bed.

I have an exact routine for the first fifteen minutes that I do on autopilot: alarm off, toilet, downstairs to switch on coffee machine, drink of water, shower, drink coffee.

By the time I've done that lot I know how I actually feel, which might be well rested and bouncy after all.

Morning-me is a lazy, whingy, idiot. I don't trust her one bit.

Mine is too! I need @RunRabbitRunRabbit's inner Sgt-Major to be that firm with myself!

I get up ridiculously early even though I hate every second of it. Once I am up I am fine (and I never regret being up and at 'em in the early mornings). It's just getting up that troubles me!

Rabbit I feel your pain. I'm wooly-headed, wobbly and stiff first thing (I'm female so not in that way) and can't really trust myself to do anything but the simplest things for half an hour.

But, if I wake in the middle of night for a pee, for instance, I am capable of replying to emails or doing a crossword. Life's so unfair.

I'm assuming you don't have kids OP, if you think 7 is early.

There's no magic secret to it- it's all about training yourself. I leave for work at about 7, so work backwards from then, and set my alarm for 6. Every weekday morning.
I don't set an alarm at weekends but tbh rarely sleep in later which I see as a good thing as my body must be in a routine. I think it rarely works to have irregular bed times and get up times, so e.g. If you work shifts and don't start til afternoon sometimes, it's probably best to still get up at the same time rather than try to lie in.

Obviously there'll be one off occasions you want to stay up later but generally it's about routine.

I suspect my natural rhythm is not to be a morning person, but I like to be in work well before 8 (teacher) so I just do it. Irritates me when
People say gosh, how dyou manage that 5 days a week? - honestly there's no magic answer, you just get on with it

I agree with @RunRabbitRunRabbit - I do mornings on autopilot. I don't allow myself a snooze, I have a shower before I do anything else and I don't even consider doing anything out of the routine until I'm well and truly up. I get up at 5.40am and can't believe I still function but it means that by 10pm, the lights go off and I sleep much better. Echo the stuff about screen time and caffeine - I have my last coffee at work and then don't have any once I'm home.
I am TOTALLY a nightowl so if I can do it, you can too !

I regard 5.30 as a lie in! I didn't a year ago though. It's all about routine and having a clear reason in your mind for getting up earlier. When your alarm goes off, focus on that reason as the impetus for getting out of bed. Then have a ritual to get you through the first few minutes (eg shower, cup of tea etc). If you can keep it up for a few days it will become a habit and much easier. The main thing is having your movements planned in advance so you don't have to think too much in the first place.

I've been wondering this for years and have finally found some things which work for me. IME you have to do a bit of trial and error to work out which bits work for you.

For me:
Going to bed at the same time doesn't seem to make a difference but getting up at the same time really does. I read this is because your brain can 'predict' when you'll wake up and adjusts your sleep accordingly. For this reason I don't find those apps which claim to wake you in a lighter sleep stage much good.

I like to snooze. I know many people say this is counterproductive but I personally find it helpful. But I have to force myself to get up. So my combination of alarms is a phone app where you have to scan a barcode to turn it off. I have it set up to snooze twice. The first snooze is 10 minutes and I normally go back to sleep, but it's a light sleep. The second snooze is 5 minutes and I use my phone to check Facebook etc or just generally try to open my eyes. Then I can't turn the next alarm off without going to the bathroom.

Making it easy to get up is helpful. One thing I hate is leaving my nice warm duvet. So I bought a snuggly warm dressing gown and I get into this immediately, which helps with that.

Then it's having a routine I don't need to think about. Because my alarm unset is in my bathroom, I normally need a wee when I wake up so I go and then I'm at the sink so I brush my teeth. By the time I've done these two things, I'm awake enough to resist the temptation to crawl back into bed.

DS is mostly self sufficient which helps and I make a coffee and insist on him sitting for breakfast with no screens so we talk. Then I get dressed while he finds his shoes and last minute things and we walk to school. By the time I get back I feel awake and so I take the post and check emails and tasks.

Came on to see if the OP had come back, but she's clearly not managed to get up yet!

Given the time of the OP, if you're in the UK -go to bed a hell of a lot earlier.

Don't eat in the evening. Glass of water before you go to bed.
You will wake up hungry and needing the loo. Nothing like a full bladder to get you out of bed.

I make a flask of coffee last thing at night. So when my alarm goes off my first thought is 'coffee' and it means I sit up not too reluctantly, ready for an immediate sip of hot strong stuff. Might that help?

Also, the bedroom is a screen free zone. If I'm watching telly it's downstairs. I also have a bit of a break between telly and bed, so if there's a programme I want to watch that finishes after 10, I watch it the next day on catch up earlier in the evening.
My basic routine is, sit and read, chat, from
About 10 pm for 20 mins then upstairs to bed. I used to read in bed but prefer to read downstairs now so bed room is demarcated as sleep time.

It all sounds a bit dry written out like that, but the point is, if you have a good routine, you can be flexible on the occasions you want a late evening out mid week.

7am is hardly early....

We have left the house by then already.... get up at 5am.

What time do you go to bed OP? Are you making yourself late as you don't get up?
I think its all in the head. Once you make a point of getting up earlier and stick with it, then its gets easier. If you lay there and think to yourself 'ah I just can't get up now', then you are just going to lay there longer. Make a decision to get up earlier and just do it. You shouldn't need alarm clocks in other rooms, as long as you have slept well enough, for long enough, it shouldn't be that difficult. After a while, your body gets used to it. And have something to do to wake up for.... for us, we just have to bloody do it otherwise we are late, but if you have time to spare, set the coffee pot on a timer or something so that its ready when you get up.

Good sleep hygiene, plus one of these:-

1. Daylight alarm clock

Or

1. Old fashioned alarm clock, the loudest available, placed in a biscuit to (amplifies sound), in a far corner of the room. You have to get up to turn it off, stay out of bed and get on with day.