8 Tips to Become a Morning Person

by Samantha, selected from DivineCaroline

You don’t have to naturally be an early bird to become one. Make the  following changes to your daily routine and environment and give  yourself a little time to adjust and you, too, can be one who effortlessly gets  the proverbial worm.

1. Go to bed early.

Yes, it’s a given, but it’s important enough to emphasize; in order  to wake  up early and feel refreshed, you must go to bed early enough to  get a full  night’s sleep. Additionally, you should make your bedtime  consistent every  night in order to create a pattern that you will  instinctively follow if  repeated long enough.

2. Wake up at the same time every day.

Just as too little sleep makes you tired, too much sleep does the  same  thing. Plus, if you don’t create a pattern for your body to follow,  it will  resist your early-bird intentions. Wake up at the same time  every day,  including weekends, until your body adjusts and ultimately,  you may not need a  wake-up call at all.

3. Get a relentless alarm clock.

The yin to the above tip’s yang, you aren’t likely to get up early  if you  can perpetually hit the snooze button. Find a fool-proof way to  make sure you  wake when you are supposed to—without delay—and you’re on  your way to morning  person status.

4. Don’t drink caffeine or excessive alcohol in the evening.

All your good intentions will be foiled if you drink the wrong  beverages.  Caffeine obviously keeps you perky, which is great up until  the time you’re  ready to go to sleep. Don’t drink any after noon,  especially when you’re  starting out your new routine, to give you better  snoozing odds. Alcohol, too,  can foil best-laid sleeping plans. It may help you get groggy,  but later it disrupts sleep, causing exhaustion that lingers into the next  day.

5.  Exercise in the early evening.

While exercise gets the heart rate going and boosts energy, it also  helps  you get seriously restful sleep—so long as you give yourself  enough winding-down time after your workout.  Break a sweat right after work and you’ll have plenty of  time to get groggy before bedtime. Bonus: It  helps eliminate the stress that  might keep your mind busy when it should  be snoozing.

6. Eat healthy early evening meals.

Food hangovers happen all the time. In fact, most of us are  suffering from  one at any given time. Unfortunately, the kind of foods  you eat can disrupt  sleep, too. While you’re not likely to change your  diet just to accommodate  sleep, you can and should eat on the early side  so your body isn’t overwhelmed  trying to digest and dream.

7. Prepare for your day the night before.

Being a morning person doesn’t have to mean you bound out of bed and  whiz  around. Any sleepy shortcomings you have can be overcome with some  advance  planning. Get your coffee at the ready, lay out your wardrobe  for the day, and  make your lunch the night before. Then you’ll have less  to do as you drowsily  get into your new routine.

8. Reconfigure your bedroom for optimal sleep.

Sleep experts everywhere recommend that you make your bedroom a  sleep  sanctuary. That means you should keep stimulating distractions,  such as the TV,  smartphone, or computer, out of the bedroom and focus solely on soothing things  that are conducive to getting your snooze on.