Even though I appreciate mornings now, they’re not easy for me. It’s still hard to pull myself out of bed, away from a warm comforter, my dreams and snuggles with Little One. Here are a few things that have made getting up in the morning a little easier for me.
1. Determine the best way for you to wake up and accommodate that. I’ve been told that it’s best to wake up by setting the alarm for the actual time that you need to wake up. Setting an alarm clock earlier than needed and hitting snooze doesn’t equal a restful sleep and it can make getting up even harder. So, if you need to wake up at 6am and you find that setting your alarm for 6am works to get you up and out of bed, do it. I’ve found that doesn’t work for me, though. It takes me awhile to hear my alarm in the morning–and it’s right by my bed! Because of that, I set my alarm for an earlier time and work in the time that it will take for me to hear my alarm.
2. Turn on a light ASAP. I’ve found that having a light on really wakes me up and makes it harder for me to fall back asleep, even if I want to. Turn on the lamp beside your bed as soon as you wake up and see if that makes a difference. Or get a sunrise simulating alarm clock. I have my eye on one of those!
3. Take away decisions. Put together an outfit the night before, prepare your lunch in advance if you can and have your coffee ready to brew. The less decisions you have to make when you’re tired and rushed make the morning less stressful.
4. Have a morning that’s special. When I first started getting up earlier, I’d still sleep late on weekends, and that messed up my sleep schedule. I don’t like to get up as early as I do on weekdays on the weekends, but I realized that I couldn’t sleep till noon on Saturdays and Sundays and still expect to get up easily as early as I have to on weekdays. Once I started to create a routine that I love for weekends, it made it easier to get up earlier. I actually want to get up, because I love my weekend mornings. If you work on weekends, but have days off during the week, take advantage of those days and do something special in the morning!
5. Change your attitude. I used to hate mornings. And then I realized that hating mornings wasn’t helping me get up. In fact, it was making it more stressful and dreaded than it needed to be. Once I decided to stop thinking of mornings as the enemy, it was easier to get up in the morning.
WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR MAKING MORNINGS EASIER?
Tell me your tips for making mornings easier in the comments or share it on Twitter or Instagram (be sure to tag me!) and I’ll share it with a link back to your blog or social media in a post later this week!
