HOW I BECAME AN EARLY RISER!!!

Hey guys

I know its 6 days late but happy new month and I missed you too. There are a couple of topics I listed out for the month of December but life has been really busy that I barely have time to work on them but once I go on my break from work, I'll return to them. In the mean time, I have battled with a couple of things that I never thought I would be able to overcome, one of which was becoming an early riser.

I am not what you would normally call a morning person. In fact, I find waking up early quite challenging because early morning sleep is just out of this world (my fellow morning sleepers can relate). For many years, I was a late riser. The mere thought of living my duvet in a very quite cold morning was just heart breaking plus, I always got really clumsy, slow, unproductive and all over the place each time I was up early which was why I loved waking up to the sun and not before it rises because then, I assume it’ll radiate more energy and I can be more active and productive (lol story for the gods!!). There are times I knew I had to be up early for an activity or an appointment but even when I planned to wake up early by applying the early-to-bed early-to-rise strategy and setting my alarm, I just couldn't achieve it. The work life made early rising really important for me and I had no choice than to train myself or lose my job (aint nobody gat time to job hunt). It was hard but I achieved it. How did I achieve it? Here are some techniques I used.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND:

First of all, I made up my mind that I wanted to become not just an early riser but a productive, functional early riser (a morning person). I decided what time I wanted to be waking up daily and in my case, I had to be at work for 7am so I had to be up at 5am. Because life gets really busy once you get into the work field, I decided 4am in other to do a couple of hours, a bit of chores, my research and writing, checking of emails, messages and creating my daily to-do-list as there’s usually no time for those at night after work.

PREPARE THE NIGHT BEFORE: 

I started getting my clothes, bags and little breakfast ready the night before as they don’t involve much brain work as those I set aside for the mornings. That way, I am not overworking myself much after work.

TAKE A NIGHT SHOWER: 

Taking a night shower really helps eliminate stress and sets me in a good and lighter mood for sleep. I find that each time I shower after work and before I sleep, I tend to sleep comfortably, waking up feeling fresh and ready for the day.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY: 

Not all the time early-to-bed early-to-rise. Listen to your body and know when it’s tired and sleepy. Sleeping early helps to wake up early but sometimes, when I use that strategy, I still wake up feeling like I haven’t slept at all. I figured its best to sleep when you're tired cuz that way, you're not laying in bed awake for hours doing nothing. The best sleep occurs when you're really tired and you end up waking up feeling stronger.

DON'T EAT DIRECTLY BEFORE YOU GO TO BED: 

As a foodie that I am, I eat at anytime and every time I am opportune to eat but I realised that eating directly before I go to bed (less than 2 hours mostly) makes me feel heavy and takes me longer to sleep probably because my body tries to digest the food there by keeping me awake?..any biologist in the house? please shed some light.

CREATE A CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENT TO WAKE UP TO:  

Sleeping in a messy room discourages me from waking up in the morning not to talk of waking up early. I noticed that each time I organise my room and my bed, I sleep comfortably and I am eager to wake up knowing that I wouldn't trip over anything while trying to prepare for work.

ALARM! ALARM! ALARM! SET AN ALARM: 

This has always been the main strategy but it doesn’t really work without the help of the above strategies for me. I usually set two alarms, one by my bed side and the other at the other end of the room. Setting my alarm for 3am, an hour before my wake up time, makes it less difficult to wake up at 4am as I already would have been half awake by the time the second alarm across the room goes off. Setting an alarm across the room also really works for me cuz I have to literally get out of bed and walk across the room to turn it off.

TURN ON THE LIGHTS: 

Instead of waking up with the sun or after it rises like I said earlier, turn on your lights. For me, light has a great effect on my sleeping mood. I hate to sleep with the lights on and so when my alarm comes on, the first thing I do is turn on my lights that way, it is certain that its the end of sleep for me. If you love to sleep with the lights on I guess you should try the opposite when you wake up in your case lol.

MORNING EXERCISE: 

I am not really a great fan of early morning exercise but it helps!. Early morning exercise is great for waking a body up. It gets the blood flowing, raises levels of serotonin (happy chemicals) and would start your day off on the right foot plus it makes you feel better about yourself.

BE CONSISTENT:

 Make sure you go to bed and wake up at the same time. I did this for a month cuz I read that if you make a new routine stick for a month, it becomes a habit and it proved true in my case.

REWARD YOURSELF: 

Personally, I don’t let the reasons for getting up early be for work-related purposes only. I try waking up on Saturdays at 6am to watch my favorite programs and series just so I maintain my early morning routine and I also motivate myself occasionally by giving myself rewards to anticipate the next day. Sometimes, it is a favorite meal, ice creams, chocolates or just cloth shopping.

These were the techniques I used in training myself to become an early riser and a morning person and they really worked. There are just a few ways that you can improve your ability to wake up early or become a morning person. Finding the best routine for you is the most critical and needs to be experimented. The key thing to remember is that waking up early should be a pleasant experience and not something to dread. If you can make waking up something you look forward to, then you are already half way on your journey to becoming an early riser. 

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend.