Waking Up Earlier

[wiscotitansfan]

What are some tips and things you guys do to make yourself wake up earlier before work and get a good start to your day?

Obviously for me, I need to go to bed earlier since I am a "night owl", usually go to bed around 1:00-2:00 am, and rush in the morning and get nothing done. I have to be at work by 9 so usually I get out of bed by 8:15 and rush to get showered, changed and feed/takeout my dogs in the morning. I never have breakfast in the morning but that's simply due to time, it's not like I don't like the meal and prefer to skip it.

I have a gym connected to work through a series of sky walks so if I were to work out in the morning (not just a dog walk), it would be after everything involved with waking up and would be the last thing I do before work in the morning after I leave the house for the day.

 

Ideally, I would like to be up and out of bed by 6:00 at the latest. Let's hear it.

[MamlngEnvy]

Adopt some babies

[Yoshimitsu]

Cold glass of water immediately after waking.  Lots of water with caffeine thrown in for several good measures.  

[SleepingTitan]

Wake up an hour earlier than you actually want to for the first week. Then the second week, you gain an hour. By the 3rd week, you'll be a new man. 

Never skip the gym. 

Eventually, your rhythm will change. You'll be scrambling to get out of the house to get to the gym...and you won't stay up late bc you'll be tired. It will probably be 11-12 instead of 1-2. 

[rekirts]

go to bed earlier.  Theres really no getting around this one if you're trying to wake up earlier...  No matter how much of a 'night owl' you are.  Melatonin really helps me sleep when I'm feeling especially restless.

no phones/computer/tv screens 30 minutes before bed

consistency is key.  gonna screw up your sleep cycle if you're staying up past 2 every weekend if you're trying to go to bed earlier during the week.  

maybe one of those timered coffee machines that have an automatic schedule for coffee at 6 AM every morning will make it easier to wake up if you know its waiting there and you can smell it.  

[CaliTitan3518]

Just have to do it and get use to it. There might be a struggle the first week or two but your body will adjust. I use to wake up at 5:00am and go to the gym. My wife's work schedule got changed so now she goes early in the morning while I go late at night. I'd much rather be going early because for me it's easier to wake up than to go to sleep. I still find myself waking up around 5:00am wanting to get up. If you are hitting the gym maybe set some kind of goal. Knowing you have to accomplish something should help you get up and going. I use to foam roll and stretch right when I woke up which helped loosen me up and get my blood flowing. 

You aren't adjusting your times that much so it shouldn't be too hard. If you were sleeping in until 10-11 then you might have an issue. 

[Starkiller]

I really used to struggle waking up in the morning. I'd hit the snooze button a couple of times before struggling out of bed.

Now I don't have any problem getting up. As soon as my alarm goes off I red the news on my phone for about 15-20 minutes and I'm wide awake. I don't know if it's the light from the screen or the thinking puting my brain in motion that does it but either way it works. I still have to bake in the extra time to read but I haven't needed the snooze button in years.

Going to bed earlier obviously is important, too, but I'm not one to talk because I'm a night owl, too.

[wiscotitansfan]

35 minutes ago, CaliTitan3518 said:

Knowing you have to accomplish something should help you get up and going. I use to foam roll and stretch right when I woke up which helped loosen me up and get my blood flowing. 

This is what I'm thinking I'll have to do, even if it is something simple like 20 pushups right when I wake up

But yeah, will probably just have to bite the bullet and force myself to go to bed much earlier the first few weeks and adjust my sleep cycle where I won't be laying in bed for an hour just because it's "too early"

[abenjami]

Start drinking a few hours earlier than normal.  Then you'll pass out earlier and wake up sooner. 

[Stranger]

Put your phone, assuming you use it as your alarm clock, as far away from your bed as you can before you go to sleep. 

You'll have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm. 

[CreepingDeath]

1 hour ago, SleepingTitan said:

Wake up an hour earlier than you actually want to for the first week. Then the second week, you gain an hour. By the 3rd week, you'll be a new man. 

Never skip the gym. 

Eventually, your rhythm will change. You'll be scrambling to get out of the house to get to the gym...and you won't stay up late bc you'll be tired. It will probably be 11-12 instead of 1-2. 

Listen to this guy, it's in his name.

[wiscotitansfan]

5 minutes ago, Stranger said:

Put your phone, assuming you use it as your alarm clock, as far away from your bed as you can before you go to sleep. 

You'll have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm. 

I actually keep my clock on my desk across the room for that reason, it does nothing haha.

I am a master of jumping out of bed, avoiding stepping on the dogs (usually one sleeps at the foot of my bed), slamming the snooze button and diving back into bed to get those extra ZZZ's.

[SleepingTitan]

20 minutes ago, CreepingDeath said:

Listen to this guy, it's in his name.

That stupid name is play on "sleeping giant." It was the first fantasy football name I came up with. A decade and a half later, I realize it's lame af. 

[CaliTitan3518]

1 hour ago, wiscotitansfan said:

This is what I'm thinking I'll have to do, even if it is something simple like 20 pushups right when I wake up

But yeah, will probably just have to bite the bullet and force myself to go to bed much earlier the first few weeks and adjust my sleep cycle where I won't be laying in bed for an hour just because it's "too early"

The first couple of days you might be working on 4-5 hours of sleep. This will help you get to bed earlier. 

When I was in college I did a paper route which required me to wake up at 2 am. Getting myself to wake up that early 7 days a week was brutal. It only took about 2.5 hours so I was back in bed by 5 every morning. I still don't know how I did it. 

[oldschool]

I feel for people who struggle waking up. I'm a night owl myself and routinely go to bed after midnight even though my house starts waking up around 5:30 every morning. luckily I've always been an early riser even as a kid so it doesn't bother me, only need 4.5-5 hours a sleep a night.