The 5 best tips to wake up early.
By: Bruno Rojas Lopez
Tags: Sleep, Advice, Tips, Life

Sleep more (a bit obvious)

The first and most important piece of advice is, of course, sleeping more. Your body needs sleep, period. The average adult should get eight hours of sleep; but the reality is, that in our modern fast-moving society, adults get less than seven hours of sleep. We all have to get an average amount of sleep, simply because we need the energy to get through the day; whether it's for paying attention in class, doing exercise, or focusing on your work.

2. Leave the stress and anxiety behind

This tip might be one of the most uncommon ones, but definitely one of the most important. The moment you get to your bed you NEED to let go of the thought of activities you haven't finished, things that are due for tomorrow, or any negative thought you might be holding on to. If you don’t, this will completely ruin your sleep quality. Sleep quality depends on the amount of “deep sleep” you get; “deep sleep” is the third phase of sleep, which allows your body to relax, repair, and refresh itself for the next day. A good way to leave behind your worries is to avoid watching the news before going to sleep as well as meditating before going to bed.

3. No screen time before sleeping

Technology has changed the way we sleep over the last few decades, and not in a positive way. You might not notice it, but those nightly habits of scrolling through Instagram, watching your favorite series, or even answering late-night emails are all harming your ability to sleep at night. Sleep experts recommend not checking your phone from thirty minutes to an hour before going to sleep. Despite this, a study from Edsource explains that 70% of teens watch their phone thirty minutes before going to sleep; and that almost one-third sleeps with their phone beside their bed. Scientists state that this leads to poor sleep quality and sleepiness during the day. A good solution to this problem is to not have screen time thirty minutes before sleeping as well as putting a time limit on your phone and leaving it outside of your room with notifications turned off.

4. Sleep with semi-open curtains

You might think this is goofy, but curtains can have a big impact on people who can’t seem to wake up in the morning. This is why, for example, deep sleepers make sure to keep their curtains closed until they wake up. The reason behind it is that natural light stimulates the retina in the eye, which is directly connected to the hypothalamus(the part of the brain which controls bodily functions); in a way, this connection creates an internal clock. Our internal clock depends on our eyes and therefore determines the time of day by the amount of light it receives. So if you want to wake up early in the morning, make sure you remember to keep those curtains semi-open to catch a bit of that morning light.

5. Do more exercise

Exercise should be part of everyone’s lifestyle, especially if you’re looking to wake up early in the morning. Like we mentioned before, we must get a substantial amount of sleep to wake up early; doing exercise helps in just that. By logic, exercise helps you feel more tired, which allows you to fall asleep much quicker; not only that, but it also helps increase sleep time, as well as the amount of deep sleep you get. Exercise also reduces stress and anxiety, which as we mentioned before, are some of the main factors why people can’t sleep at night. So if you want to sleep better, try to do at least 30 min of exercise a day; this could be either a high-intensity sport, talking a small walk, or even stretching it out with exercises such as Yoga.