Don’t Snooze Your Alarm And 4 Other Ways To Actually Wake Up Refreshed

Good morning! I hope you’re settled in with a steaming cup of coffee because today we’re talking about waking up!

I know there’s a lot of dread that comes with early morning conversations, but don’t worry – I’m not about to demand you wake up at 5 AM to have a successful day. I want to walk you through the best times and ways to wake up. There is a secret to waking up refreshed and ready to conquer even the Mondayest of Mondays, and it isn’t waking up at 5 am. 

When Should I Wake Up? 

If you’re like me, you have 10 different alarms set on your phone right now. I don’t go to sleep until I’ve decided what alarm to use. Some nights I’m feeling very confident in my future self and I decide to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30. Some nights I choose a nicer but still earlier routine with the 7:30-8:30 range. Then there are the days when I allow my body to sleep until it wakes itself up; then, I usually roll out of bed anywhere between 9:30 and 1. 

One would hope that after so many years on this earth, our bodies would know when to wake up. That we would have cracked the code that the best time to wake up every day is exactly 6:37. But no — sadly, there is no one perfect time to wake up.  

Morning routines are very trendy right now and everywhere I look people are attempting to come up with new and exciting ways to optimize theirs. The hours are getting earlier as we rush to be more productive We live in a hyper-productive society, so why not wake up earlier? 

If an earlier wake-up time is what you want, go for it. But as we said, there’s no one perfect time to wake up. Don’t stress over the number on the clock, and don’t trick yourself into thinking you should be waking up earlier.

Creating Consistency

Life demands rhythm. You can wake up early if you want, but you need to balance that early morning with an early night. You can’t wake up one morning at 5am and then play catch up with your sleep for the rest of the week by waking up at noon. If you want to create the optimal wake-up time, you also can’t wake up at 6 on the weekdays and sleep until 10 on weekends. Have you ever been super well-rested on the weekend and then gotten hit by that alarm clock on Monday morning? It’s because you threw your rhythm off. Stay consistent in your wake-up time. 

I would suggest finding a time that allows you to wake up for work, while also feeling comfortable enough to wake up at on the weekends. This way, whatever time you choose becomes normal and natural to your body. Your body will also react to that wake-up time and adjust the number of hours of sleep you need accordingly.

Rise with the Light

Alarm clocks, phones, and electricity are all super recent conveniences. I always wonder what I would do without them — honestly, how did people wake up on time to get their sh*t done before the iPhone alarm? I’m convinced that modern tech has unhealthily vamped up productivity, but unfortunately, that’s how it is. C’est la vie.

If we want to get into healthier sleep habits, though, we should consider what the “ancients” (read: people not that long ago) did: they allowed the sun and the moon to dictate their habits. They couldn’t do work when there wasn’t any light, so they didn’t. Before electricity, people’s circadian rhythms were automatically synchronized with the sunrise and sunsets. This means they were more likely and more able to sleep when the sun set. Now when the sun sets, we turn on our lights, our devices, and our brains. 

Light affects everything from waking us up if we’re exposed to artificial light too soon to not letting us sleep by slowing the body’s melatonin production. 

I’m slowly reading To Hell with the Hustle and I found a quote I loved about this topic. Jefferson Bethke says, “The lightbulb has given us the ability to do countless things. Yet we now cheat the night and we sleep worse than any other time in history because our circadian rhythms are disrupted.”

Light is good. Electricity is amazing. But there may come a time when we realize the truth to these words. Try taking the electric bulbs out of your nighttime routine. 

Brandon Peters, MD suggests getting about 15-30 minutes of sunlight a morning to start your day off right. Starting your day with the morning sunlight has so many benefits, one of the biggest being that the sunlight helps us set our circadian rhythm. Our bodies will react to the sunlight by producing less melatonin; and they’ll increase that production again at night, once the sun goes down. 

Don’t Hit The Snooze Button

Jay Shetty hates the snooze button. He said that he never hits it because that means he’s starting his day off with a loss. If you set your alarm to go off at 5:30 in the morning and then hit the snooze button, you’ve lost time already and you’re not valuing what your past self wanted. 

Hitting the snooze button will put you at a disadvantage at the very beginning of the day and that’s not how you want to roll out of bed. Respect your past self enough to wake up on time with your alarm. Respect your future self enough to go to sleep at a time that would make sense for you to wake up when you want to as well. Sleep is all about benefiting you and allowing yourself to get the rest you deserve.

Get Those Hours

While there might not be a magical occurrence that happens when you join the 5am club, there is something to be said about getting 7-9 hours of sleep.

Your body goes into a REM cycle every 90 minutes while you’re sleeping. It’s suggested that you allow 4-5 of these cycles a night to get the optimum amount of sleep. There are a number of apps that track your movement and noise during the night in order to properly track where you are in your REM cycle, and then wake you up during your lightest sleep. I would suggest tracking your sleep with these apps or go onto sleepyti.me, a website where you can type your ideal bedtime in and it will tell you when to set your alarm (or vice versa!). 

There is a window between 8 pm and 12 am when you can go to sleep and obtain the optimal non-REM and REM sleep you need to feel completely rested for the day ahead. Sleep experts do suggest that you go to sleep earlier in this window rather than later, however.

Adjust Accordingly

You’re not going to read this article and completely change your sleep routine. You can’t, actually. Because routines are just that — they are a series of repeated habits that we do often and sometimes subconsciously. Soon enough, they become our lifestyle. I would suggest easing into a new routine if the one you have right now isn’t working. Try other people’s morning routines or looking at successful tips to have the best morning routine if you want to start somewhere. 

Also, be kind to yourself. Some mornings you might not be able to wake up when you usually do. Some mornings you might not want to. That’s okay. Just start slowly by creating small and healthy habits that will soon morph into a stable morning routine. 

What time do you usually wake up? Are you happy with your routine? Comment below!

If You Want More Morning Routine Tips, Read These Articles:

I Tried Seven Different Alarm Clock Apps, And These Are My Reviews

I Tried Oprah’s And Six Other Famous People’s Morning Routines. These Are My Thoughts