6 Tips To Make Waking Up Less Painful (Find The Eight Episode #3)

Imagine it is 7AM and your alarm has just gone off for the first time and you feel awful.  

You're out of it. Your body is heavy. You have a headache.

So you hit snooze three or four more times until finally you drag yourself out of bed. 

The morning is a rush and you’re late for school. Once all the adrenaline wears off, then you start to feel the grogginess again. You can't absorb anything and you spend all your energy trying to keep yourself awake.

And then the next morning, the whole thing repeats itself.

WHY TEENS ARE PRONE TO MORNING GROGGINESS

It can be normal to feel groggy for the first little bit after you wake up but, for a lot of teenagers and young adults, it tends to be a bigger problem--often because there are a lot of reasons to be sleep deprivation at this age and also because you’re probably waking up before your body clock wants to wake up.

You can address these things, but that's that more of a long-term plan.

In this article, we’re going to focus on what can you do right now to make the mornings a bit less painful.

So, I'm going to go over 6 tips today to help make the morning less painful.

HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY GET OUT OF BED

TIP #1: GET AN ALARM SYSTEM THAT WORKS

Set your alarm or phone alarm far from your bed or even under your bed so that you are initially forced to get out of bed to turn it off.  

Install an app called Alarmy which requires you to complete a task like a math problem or like having to shake your phone vigorously before the alarm will turn off.

TIP #2: KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO GO AND EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO AFTER YOU TURN OFF YOUR ALARM AND MAKE THIS THING AS EASY AS POSSIBLE

Otherwise, the pull of your bed will be too strong if you have to make any decisions on what to do in the moment, especially when you’re groggy.

It’s helpful to have a set, comfortable spot that you can go to right after you turn off your alarm. This way, you can just roll out of bed, turn off your alarm, then go directly to this spot.

Because waking up is already painful, at first, it’s nice to have something that is really easy to do the moment.

I’ve seen some people do 5-10 minutes of TikTok or a show.

This is way more appealing going straight to getting dressed or gathering your things for the day. This can make all the difference when you’re half-awake in the morning.  

While you’re doing this transitional activity, if you’re on your phone, crank up the brightness of the screen as this will help alert your body.  

In the future, once you get better at waking up, you might want to avoid using your phone first thing in the moment as it can suck you in. Instead, you might be able to move to exercises to prime your mindset first thing in the morning. But, if that’s not realistic right now, do what you need to do for now to avoid the snooze trap.

The night before, you can write down the first thing that you're going to do after your alarm goes off and write it on a post-it note or a piece of paper and stick it right on your alarm clock.

TIP #3: AUTOMATE THE VERY FIRST THING YOU WILL DO AFTER YOU TURN OFF YOUR ALARM 

Try out different options. Once you figure out what works for you, just do the exact same thing right after you turn off your alarm every day. This takes away the need to make any decisions and what you do first thing will just go on autopilot.

HOW TO TACKLE MORNING GROGGINESS AND PRIME YOUR STATE FOR THE DAY

TIP #4: GET A LOT OF LIGHT IN THE MORNING 

Bright light is alerting which is why you want more bright light in the morning and during the day and less light in the hours before sleep.

Open the blinds and let in light.

Step outside. Go sit by a window.  

Get a light wake-up alarm.  

If you use your phone first thing after waking, crank up the brightness of your screen in the morning.

Don’t stay in a dim space in the morning and during the day--This is often a problem if you have basement room. And, don’t wear sunglasses in the morning.

TIP #5: GET SOME MOVEMENT IN THE MORNING 

Movement is one of the fastest ways to change your state and you don’t need to fit in a full work out in the morning.  

Do five to 10 push-ups jumping jacks, or squat jumps.

Go on YouTube and do a 60 second or 7 minute exercise video.

Put on a fun pump-up playlist of songs that you love and just dance around.

Make your bed. Not only does this prevent you from getting back into your bed but it also gives you an early win--a little sense of accomplishment early in the morning.

TIP #6: SHOCK YOUR SENSES  

Anything that will shock your sense will help.

A cold shower will really wake you up, but probably you're not likely to want to do that.

What I suggest instead is that you get an insulated thermos or water bottle, and the night before you fill it with water and ice cubes so it's still cold the next day.

Try adding some citrus, like some lemon juice or lime juice and some salt. Set it this thermos by your bedside.

After your alarm goes off and you get out of bed, the very first thing that you do is chug this entire water bottle of cold water. Not only will the cold water alert you, but it will also hydrate you first thing. Grogginess is often worse because you are dehydrated in the morning.

ACTION

Choose one of the tips that we talked about and take the next step to get moving on implementing this tip.

For example, if you like the idea of having a cold bottle of water in the morning by your bedside, set an alarm on your phone right now to remind you this evening to prepare that water.

Or download a wake-up playlist.

Or talk to your parent about purchasing a light wake up alarm.

To get acting on the other recommendations that we talked about in this episode, there is a free printable cheat sheet that you can be found visiting @findtheeight on IG and clicking on the bio link or by visiting findtheeight.com/3.