How To Wake Up Early & Enjoy It!

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Let’s talk about how to wake up early, without feeling tired. The answer is so SIMPLE…

“Seriously, all you have to do is go to bed earlier.”

Yeah, if only it were that simple. Sounds amazing and would make this whole process much easier but, sadly it’s easier said than done.

Becoming an early riser takes some more finessing than simply going to bed early and also takes time. Our bodies are hardwired for us to be creatures of habit, which means we not only have to work on creating a new habit…we also have to break an old one.

Breaking a habit usually feels harder than creating the new one. I’m sure you’ve heard the “21/90 Rule: 21 days to break a habit, 90 days to create a new one,” but research has shown that it’s not always this cut and dry.

In 2021, University College London researched 96 people and found the average time it took most of them to break an old habit & stick to a new one was actually 66 days. What’s a big takeaway from this? Don’t get super hung up on the 3-week timeline if it takes a bit longer. Stick with your new habit and you’ll end up with a new habit you’re able to keep without thinking about it.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO WAKE UP EARLY?

I remember growing up, my mother woke up at 5 am, no problem. Still to this day she wakes up at this time and doesn’t even whine about it. She’s also worked for FedEx 30+ years so being an early bird is a must. Me on the other hand, I was perfectly happy sleeping until noon and waking me up was is practically impossible — seriously I’ve slept through a fire alarm before. I like sleep, what can I say?

There are multiple factors that come into play for having trouble waking up early. Going to bed late is one but, many others can be sleep quality itself, drinking caffeine later in the day, exercising late, stress & anxiety, age — explains the difference between my mother and I — sleeping in on the weekends. There are a lot of things working against us. It’s our job to learn what is affecting us so that we can make the changes we need to and reach the goal we want to achieve.

BENEFITS OF WAKING UP EARLY

Many people think that if they wake up at 5 am they’ll miraculously have more time, which is simply not true. You still have the same amount of hours as all of us. What you will have is more useful time for yourself.

When you start the day with purposeful time for you, you feel better for the rest of the day. You accomplish things you might have been putting off like taking care of yourself physically and mentally, preparing yourself for the day’s activities, finding a quiet time to find your center & feel less stress. Waking up early also leads to better sleep quality and helps your body feel naturally tired at the right time.

In my experience, I feel more accomplished and more at peace when I wake up earlier. Even on the days I feel a little tired, I get up, make the best of my morning, then within minutes I feel fresh, alert and ready to take on the day.

Here are 5 tips to help you wake up early in the morning without feeling tired for the rest of the day.

1. DECIDE WHAT TIME YOU WANT TO GET UP

Make sure you choose a time to wake up that makes the most sense for you. Lately, the 5am club bragging rights have been extremely coveted but, if that doesn’t work best for your schedule and goals don’t push yourself to do it. The only outcome will be you feeling frustrated and wishing you’d just go back to the way things were.

Personally, I enjoy waking up at 5am but that’s only because my schedule doesn’t feel rushed when I do. When I used to have a little less on my plate I was perfectly fine waking up at 6:30am-7am and not having that extra hour and a half of unintentional time putzing around the house wishing I could’ve stayed in bed longer.

I’ve also found that summer is the easiest time to start implementing an early riser routine. The sun rises earlier and my body feels like it isn’t working so hard to get up in the pitch black winter mornings.

Now, if you’re reading this at the end of summer or during the winter and don’t want to wait months before you can work on this goal, there are plenty of tools that will help you make it a reality. The absolute best thing I ever did for myself was using the Hatch Restore Sunrise Alarm Clock for Gentle Wake Up! I had absolutely no faith in it since it wasn’t a blaring alarm (again, girl who sleeps through fire alarms here) but I was instantly surprised with how well it worked. Within a week it had made waking up early so much easier because my body naturally wanted to wake up with its sunrise light and signaled my brain to say it’s time to get up.

I give myself until 10:30pm latest to get to sleep, provide myself with at least 7 hours of sleep, then feel like I wake up with the sunrise & gentle sounds before starting my morning routine. This made a huge difference in my ability to wake up at 5-5:30am. I also give myself that window, even though everyone will tell you to avoid the snooze button. Sometimes I feel like I need it and I feel less stressed knowing I can use it when the time calls for it.

2. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF ABOUT YOUR PLANS

I know it’s easy to fall into the “successful people wake up at 5 am, so I have to do it too” thing, but it’s not the sole reason people are successful. I believed in it for a while, too and while I now love getting up at 5am it’s for different reasons. The first time around I started reading, writing, gratitude journaling, goal journaling, work journaling – all the reading and journaling. You know it felt like? A job!

These things didn’t make sense for my actual goals, weren’t exciting, creative, personal to me and just didn’t serve me any purpose — especially not in the morning. Instead of having this amazing morning routine that all the top entrepreneurs credit a portion of their success to, I was frustrated before 9am, not finishing the tasks I really wanted to and just wanted to watch Netflix when I got home. It was time-consuming and simply not worth waking up at 5am.

Now, to be fair, some of these things served me purpose and I have kept them in my morning routine, but in a way that serves me. I don’t read personal development books or novels. Instead, I read a daily excerpt from The Daily Stoic and allow write my own personal notes and takeaways. I don’t write a long gratitude, goal and work journal, but a quick & simple one in The Five-Minute Journal. These steps take less than 10 minutes and serve a much better purpose by allowing me to reflect and think positively without consuming a bunch of my time.

Be very honest with yourself! What do you want to do in the morning? Why do you want to wake up early? Decide what time makes sense and what your priorities are, so you can feel awake and accomplished. Be intentional about everything that you do and have a plan. Otherwise, you won’t want to wake up early.

3. PREPARE THE NIGHT BEFORE

We set ourselves up for success in all other facets of life and your plan to wake up should be no different. Once you’ve decided what time you want to get up, give yourself 6-7 hours of sleep and commit to your nighttime routine.

Yet another reason why I love my Hatch Restore Sunrise Alarm Clock: it’s designed to come with a wind down routine that’s customizable to each user. I’ve set mine up to tell me an hour before my latest bedtime (10:30pm) that it’s time to start winding down. At this time, I know to take my OLLY Sleep Vitamins set out the clothes I want to wear tomorrow — starting with my morning workout through my work day — start doing my PM skincare routine, a relaxing yoga/stretch session, then read a novel with the alarm’s reading light set to turn off in 30 minutes, and fall asleep to a soothing soundscape.

Knowing how much sleep you need to feel rested also plays an important part. According to sleep studies, 6 hours is the bare minimum our bodies need to function properly, but 7-7.5 hours is the most recommended. I personally need 7 exact. My body rejects naps completely and if I try, my internal clock has a little laugh and says “yeah sure honey, I’ll see you in 7 hours.”

Learning your body’s ins and outs helps you to plan accordingly so that you can go to sleep at the right time and give your body exactly what it needs.

4. DO IT EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK

The first week always seems to be the hardest, and that’s with every new habit we take up. We feel excited and motivated in the beginning and then we get tired and want to take a break. This is where dedication comes into play and remembering why you started in the first place. Again, this is why tip #2 is so important!

The first few days of waking up early were absolutely dreadful for me and all I wanted to do was hit snooze and go back to bed. You have to be resilient and wake up no matter how tired you are those first few days. Even if you walk to bathroom with your eyes closed and tell yourself you’re still getting some sleep with those steps, that’s fine; just get out of bed and do it! Splash your face with some water, turn on the lights around you, take your morning vitamins — I personally like Women’s One A Day Multivitamin Gummies and Airborne Vitamin C Gummies for that instant citrus burst to wake me up and keep me healthy. Do things that wake you up.

I committed to waking up with my alarm at 5am each morning for one week and made the mistake of wanting to sleep in for the weekends, but instead of ruining all my progress, my body naturally woke up at 6:15am. I was so glad I didn’t throw away the 5 days I completed and learned that my body would still wake up early on the weekends with the right amount of sleep.

Now, I have my weekday alarm set for 5am and my weekend alarm set for 6:30am. This also means that I get to do things with friends on the weekends that may run later than my usual bedtime of 10:30pm. I still use my Hatch Restore Alarm’s nighttime routine but I get to sleep no later than midnight.

Our bodies are amazing learners and they will adjust. The important takeaway here is making sure you are consistent and wake up the same time each day. There is some leeway to this — as you can see with my weekend rise time differing — but I do this every weekend so my body has learned that will repeat, the same way my weekday 5am wake up time repeats.

Choose your times and stay consistent. Even when I travel or go on vacation I make it a point to wake up around the same time. I might give a little wiggle room and sleep until 7am latest but I don’t like going past that and my body even starts tossing and turning if I try to stay in bed longer.

You’ll also notice that your body naturally starts feeling tired in the evenings and prompts you to get to sleep earlier. I used to be a total night owl and struggled with this the most, but after that first week I was yawning by 9pm.

5. GET EXCITED ABOUT WAKING UP

When you make plans to complete tasks that you’re excited about in the morning, waking up becomes more meaningful and you’re happier about getting out of bed.

For me, I enjoy taking care of my skin with a good morning skincare routine, completing a quick 15-minute yoga session with Alo Moves or Asana Rebel, listening to the birds and smelling the fresh morning air on a short walk with my pup in the neighborhood, taking a pilates class with a community of supportive women. All of these things give me peace and make me feel excited about getting out of bed!

My mornings have become my favorite part of the day and if I oversleep and miss out on them I regret it all day long. It’s the time that is truly mine where I can relieve myself of stress, envision my perfect day, take care of my body, express the most gratitude and welcome the day to come.

As I mentioned before, what I don’t like to do is read and go deep into my journaling in the morning. That quick paragraph from The Daily Stoic and 3 questions in my Five-Minute Journal are about all the time I want to spend on these tasks in the morning. Reading is something I enjoy, but after a half hour it makes me sleepy so I save it for the nighttime.

Find something that makes you look forward to your mornings and start doing it. Turn these things into a little checklist and revel in that feeling of accomplishment as you check them off. It’s a feeling that never gets old and leaves you wanting more, creating an urge for you to keep going and completing the rest of your day with the same momentum.

There are so many things you can do in the morning that will get you excited about waking up and enjoying the rest of your day!

These are my favorite tips for waking up early and enjoying my mornings! I hope you learned something new and helpful and feel ready to take the next step so you can master this skill and achieve what you really want!

Thanks & We Wish You the Best!
Let’s Do BetterTogether!