Waking up refreshed: start with a good night’s sleep
If you have not read about getting a good night’s sleep, we will briefly cover it here to catch you up. It is important to make sleep a priority. We understand there are homework, projects, papers, work, and other responsibilities and not enough hours in the day. But making sleep a top priority is essential for your mental and physical health. Adults should be getting between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. Teenagers should be getting between eight and ten hours of sleep every night.
It is also important to create a sleep routine. When you repeat the sleep routine nightly, you encourage your body and mind to fall asleep. Sleep routine components include things like:
- making sure the TV is off and the phone is put down at least an hour before bed
- performing self-care activities such as a skincare routine
- doing a calming activity such as journaling or reading.
Another important task to remember when practicing a good night sleep routine is keeping your sleep routine on a schedule, including the weekends. Going to bed at the same hour and waking up in the same hour can help train your body and keeps your routine predictable.
First Moments of the Morning
The first few moments in the morning are essential for setting the tone of your morning. When your alarm goes off, what do you do? Do you snooze it? Are multiple alarms set so you shut this one off and roll over? Do you not even set an alarm? Set an alarm the night before for the time you need to be awake and that matches the hours of sleep that are recommended for your stage of life.
Make sure you are setting one alarm and not multiple. Having one alarm is better for your sleep than multiple as interrupted sleep does more harm than good. With having one alarm set, we also want to make sure we are not pressing that large snooze button. This is similar to setting multiple alarms. So one alarm and no snoozing!
After our alarm goes off, it is easy to grab our phone and start doomsday scrolling. We do not want to do this either as we are still laying down, might feel some leftover exhaustion, and will be tempted to roll over and set another alarm. When that first alarm goes off, get up and get moving. Open your blinds and let the natural sunlight come in to help you wake up more.
Make your morning enjoyable
Once we are awake, up, and moving, our morning should be enticing or something that we look forward to. This could be a good cup of coffee, having time to read or journal, or listening to your favorite podcast. Breakfast is an important meal as this kick starts your metabolism and gives you the energy you need to start your day. Have a breakfast planned that you enjoy, whether that be eggs and toast, a bagel and cream cheese, or cereal.
Review
How we start our mornings can impact the rest of our day, so we want to make sure we are starting off on the right side of the bed. This starts with a unique night time routine that fits your needs and getting the recommended hours of sleep. Once it is morning time, we want to make sure we are setting one alarm and immediately getting out of bed.
Then, we want to do things during our morning that we enjoy, such as drinking coffee and making your favorite breakfast. The first few days of trying this might be difficult, but after some practice and a few days, your nights and mornings will start to feel like a routine with steps you cannot miss. Give these tips a chance and see how this improves your mornings!
About Therapist Bethany Winter, MA, LPC Barnum Counseling
Waking up refreshed (worksheet). Therapist Aid. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023, from https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheet/waking-up-refreshed
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