6 Ways To Wake Up Early In the Morning

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Sleeping is not on how long we slept, but on how well we sleep. The main point is the quality of sleeping rather than the quantity. Although we have slept for eight hours, it's useless for us, if our sleep were not effective, and our sleeping position had made us felt uncomfortable.

The often you wake up in the middle of the night, will determine that your sleeping hour is not effective. Your body will feel that you haven't got enough rest, after waking up early in the morning. If you are working with shift work like me, you will also experince the same way, hard to get up early in the morning. Here are some ways that might help.

Go to Bed Earlier
In order to wake up at 4 am, at least I had to take a night sleep at 9 pm. Although sometimes, my busy overtime work, had made me getting home at 11 pm, and I must get back to work at 6 am on the next day. The disease of being sleepy will haunt me at that 1st day of the month, when my shift work has changed, from midday shift at 10 am to 6 pm, into morning shift at 6 am to 2 pm. Then I will use the trick from my previous post How to Get Rid of Being Sleepy.

Start Your Daily Activity Earlier
If you normally start your daily activities at 8 am, add some additional activities at least an hour before. For example, jogging, swimming, cooking your own breakfast, or doing whatever activity you love most, as long as you are enjoy doing it. Make your new activity as daily routine activity, so that it'll become part of your new lifestyle.

How about myself? I'm not exactly adding some activities. What can I do on 4 am in the morning? I just jump off from my bed, perhaps I may water the plants on my garden. And then took a shower at 4.30 am, breakfast at 5 am, and went to work at 5.15 am. It only takes 15 minutes for me to arrive at my place of work.

Avoid Consuming Coffee, Alcohol, and Chocolate Before Going To Bed
The study had shown that above types of foods and beverages are the most potentially sources that will disrupt your sleep. Also if you start to have your dinner above 7 pm, for example you're dining at 8 pm, and went to bed at 9 pm, it can make your stomach to digest at whole night, and your sleep will become uncomfortable.

Place a Glass of Water Near The Bed
Once you wake up, the 1st thing you should do is to drink glass of water that you has been provided. This is useful to get your body ready for your daily activities, and you wouldn't feel lazy anymore, or wanted to go back to sleep again. In order to be more healthier, or improve your health, you may add more glass of water to do water therapy.

Use At Least 2 Warning Alarm Clocks
Why I say at least 2 alarm clocks? Because I'm using 3 alarm clocks. Three? Yeah 3 warning alarm clocks, in which one of them is the sleepy killer alarm. In case I went back to sleep after turning off my killer alarm, I also use another 2 warning alarm using my 2 cell phones, in which each phone will ring every 5 minutes after the killer alarm.

Make It a Habit
OK! You've managed to get up early from Monday to Saturday (I still work on saturday) for instance. And then? May I wake up at 10 am on Sunday? No! I'm not. I must go to church on the 1st Mass at 6 am. If I'm not able to wake up at 4 am on Sunday morning, then I took the 3rd Mass on the afternoon at 5 pm.

One thing you should remember is that to make your schedule which has become your new habit. If you have already getting used to for a week to get up early, your body will wake up itself at the same hour. But, if your routine schedule is broken, suddenly you're waking up late for 3 days in a row for instance, your body will follow the new schedule.

Do you have an insomnia? You find yourself difficult to sleep at night! Read my previous post 10 Ways to Get a Good Night's Sleep, or if you are having trouble of being sleepy at work, then you may read the post How to Get Rid of Being Sleepy. I hope you gain health by keeping a healthy habit for your better life.

How to Get Rid of Being Sleepy

Drowsiness, or being sleepy is the enemy for those who have tight schedules. And when it suddenly attacks, not only you will feel lazy, but also will lead to difficulty on concentrating. Especially in this month, when Europhoria comes to attack on those who like to stay up late at night, watching live football match (just like me). Also for those of you who like to hang out until late at night, whereas in the morning, you have to go to work.

Well, below tips will help you to overcome the drowsiness that often attacking your activity.

Quick Nap

Some people suggested that sleeping less than 30 minutes during the day, can make the body will feel more tired than not taking a nap at all. But according to Barry Krakow, M.D, author of Sound Sleep, Sound Mind: 7 Keys to Sleeping Through the Night, he suggested that you should not take a nap more than once. Take a nap for 5 to 25 minutes, said Barry.

Try to take your rest hour of work for a nap! At least wait for 15 minutes after having your lunch, just like I used to do. Eventhough I'm only slept for about 5 to 15 minutes, I feel more fresh after wake up from a quick nap. How? First, I had to give a suggestion on myself, by casting this Javanese spell Saking kersaning Gusti Allah, niat ingsun turu limang menit, rasane kaya limang jam, which translate as Wishing to the almighty God, willing to sleep for five minutes, feels like five hours. It was surely worked on me. One thing you should remember when you are using this spell, is that not to raise, or change the number 5 with 8 or 10. I've done it, and it makes me feel more lazy, because it is like you just wake up from 8 or 10 hour of sleeping.

Drink

When drowsiness suddenly attacks you, it means that your body is dehydrated. You must have a drink. It will be better if you drink water than coffee. Though drinking coffee might be the best sollution to stay awake, due to the active compounds in coffee can increase the body's energy metabolism.

But If you're drinking too much coffee to make you stay awake. You will get tremors, have sleeping problems and often getting insomnia, feeling stressed and uncomfortable. On the other hand, drinking water may also help your body stay awake, due to your blood will fill with lots of oxygen that you get from water. Too much drinking water like I did, help me stay awake, by going to the toilet for every half an hour.

Keep Your Mouth Busy

When you chewing on something, whether it's a bubble gum, candy, or a snack, indirectly will strengthen your muscles and stimulate your body, so that you don't feel sleepy. Talking with your friend while still focussing on your job, might distract the drowsiness that is attacking you.

Energy Saving

Make your body comfortable while you are working. Whether you are working by sitting or standing, your body posture is determined. Poor posture will tire your muscles, ligaments, and joints. You have to work harder than when the body is straight as appropriate. Your body will feel more tired, due to the blood and oxygen, that flows to your brain, are reducing to 30%.

Time Management

Working on a shift work, makes your body unable to distinguish whether it's a day or night. So, you must manage your daily schedule. What time do you have to sleep, eat or doing any routine activity. Try to stay on your schedule! For example:

Shift 1 (8 am to 4 pm)
Work hour from 8 to 4 is the basic hour of daily work. You may wake up at 5 am, breakfast at 6.30 am, lunch at 12 am, dinner at 7 pm, and night sleep starts at 9 pm. Your sleeping time must at least 8 hour a day.

Shift 2 (4 pm to 12 pm)
You should try to stay breakfast at 6.30 am and having lunch at 12 am. You may have your dinner while on the rest hour of work at 7 pm. You can manage your sleeping time between 2 am to 5 am, 8 am to 12 am, and 1 pm to 2 pm. It's really difficult to manage sleeping time on the 2nd shift, because mostly it is your hours of being awake, and gathering with your family.

Shift 3 (12 pm to 8 am)
This shift work is the hardest one, because many work accidents happened on the night shift. Where people are generally using the hour of working to get a night sleep. Try to not to eat at your rest hour of work at 3 am. Use it to get a nap for an hour.

Your breakfast time may disrupted by the night shift work, because you might get home at 9 to 10 am. If you are having late breakfast, then you might also miss your lunch, but you must keep on dinner at 7 pm. The hours of having at home are plenty, especially when you have a day off after the night shift. So, use your time wisely!

Just like a battery, your sleeping time is like a battery's charging time. When a battery is overcharged, it will damage the battery's cells and lower its lifetime. But in human body is different, a baby spent its day by sleeping to grow. After getting older, the sleeping time may have decreased.

When you are sleeping, your body also activated the process of absorbing food nutrients. That's why your eating time schedule will also determine, how valuable is your sleeping time. So, avoid of eating on a different time everyday!

And when you are spending on a straight 10 to 12 hours of sleeping, you may wake up with more tired body, feel lazy to do anything. It's just like an overcharged battery. One thing you should keep in mind is that, your body is not a machine, in which you can turn it on constantly.

Sound Sleep, Sound Mind: 7 Keys to Sleeping Through the Night by Barry Krakow, M.D.

Quality of Sleeping for a Happy Baby

Does your baby usually revealing a sullen face and inclined to be fussy, when woke up in the morning? A baby who is getting out of bed without a smile, can be categorized as an unhappy baby. If the condition continues to recur, it would affect the baby's growth conditions.

Sleep is an optimal process for children growth, especially for the development of brain cells. A baby aged 0 to 6 month will spend all day in their bed, and you shouldn't disturb your baby's sleeping time. A baby is usually woke up from sleep at night for 3 to 5 times, or even more. This is because of baby's ability is not able to distinguish the time, whether it's a day or night. A baby aged below 3 months old can't see very well, due to baby's eyes are still on the developing process. So, turn off your camera's flash, when you want to take picture of your baby. Flash light from your camera, especially a xenon flash, will hurt your baby's eyes.

Based on my experience with my children, when my elder daughter aged a month old, she slept with room lights on at night. Because when I turned off the lights, suddenlly she woke up and cried immediately. Fortunately, I was helped for a full month by my favorite TV show, a live broadcast of World Cup 2006 soccer match.

This didn't apply on the second month. At the age of 2 months, I tried to teach my daughter to distinguish between day and night, also taught her to sleep well at night. Every time she woke up crying, my wife and I had never lifted her up from the bed, or even carried her out from my bedroom. Enough with the breast-fed by my wife, she then went back to sleep. It's just the same when she was pooping and peeing. I purposely didn't get to put disposable diapers on my daughter, especially at night.

The result was, she had managed to distinguish between day and night, when she was 3 months old. When she woke up in the morning, she were always showing a smile. She also rarely cry at night. But if she did, once upon a time, she cried for almost an hour without stopping. The incident was repeated until 3 times, it happened when she was aged under 6 months old. Older people once said to me that if a baby cries endlessly, it can be caused by disruption of the delicate creatures, such superstitious beliefs, but it's true.

Sidoarjo, Indonesia, January 23, 2008. 2 days old Michael got his 1st kiss from his sister.

When Michael was born, since the age of 1 day, he slept with room lights off. Wait a minute..!? You may wonder? How come my son could get home on the day after my wife gave birth on him? My wife gave birth on both of my children, were not in a hospital, but in midwife's home clinic. The day Michael was born, I carried my wife to the clinic at 5 am, and Michael was born at 9 am. At 4 pm on the same day, they both were allowed to go home by the midwife.

Why did a day old Michael could able to sleep with room lights off at night? It all because of his elder sister, who aged 20 months, was already used to sleeping with the lights off. My daughter woke up instantly at midnight, when suddenly I turned on the light to change her brother's diaper.

I can ensure you that both of my children are categorized to be happy babies, in which the characteristics are:

• Always smile when wake up in the morning.
• Wake up at night less than 4 times.
• When your baby's waking up in the middle of the night, will be able to go back to sleep again.

The quality and quantity of sleeping for children will determine the level of their emotion and intellect. Children aged under 5 years old should have at least 9 hours of sleeping at night. You should avoid putting a TV in your child's bedroom, it will reduce your child's sleeping time.

10 Ways to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Did you often become forgetful lately?

That might be due to the disruption of your sleep time. Lack of sleep can cause us to forget easily, difficulty on concentrating, and susceptible to diseases. Sleep may activate the immune system, and helps the brain consolidates memories.

The most important thing in sleeping is not on how long we slept, but on how well we sleep. Good night's sleep makes our body more comfortable, and boost immunity against diseases.

1. Do an exercise, jogging, or treadmill before dinner, accompanied by your favorite music. It can help to relax the tense muscles.
2. A warm bath before bedtime can also make you more relaxed and sleepy.
3. Massage your body with body lotion or baby oil. Especially at the base of the neck, shoulder, foot and calf. Ask for help on your partner, if you find it difficult.
4. Check the air circulation in your room. Stuffy air can make difficult to sleep.
5. Note the food you consume. If you feel hungry, eat with a small amount, and avoid eating foods contain lots of fats. Disorders of the digestive tract can interfere in your sleep.
6. If you have problems with your partner. Do not bring it on your bed. Solve the problem together before you both sleep. Too many problems inside your head, will make your brain always awake. Stress makes you difficult to sleep.
7. Consider on what you are wearing. Do not wear tight clothes during sleep. Choose clothes that can make you feel comfortable, loose, and absorb sweat.
8. Do not drink coffee 2 hours before your bedtime. Avoid drinking water excessively. It can cause you to wake up to urinate.
9. Do not bring your work on your bed. Stress is a major cause of sleep disturbance.
10. Intercourse with your partner before bedtime, can make your body more comfortable and sleepy.

Remember to sleep at least five to eight hours in the night. Less than five hours of sleeping, you will experince a dizzy headache, sleepy and dehydration.

Drink a lot of water to make you stay awake, if you find yourself having a bad night sleep. By having good night sleep, you will gain more energy for your activity in the next morning.

Related articles:

6 Ways To Wake Up Early In the Morning

How to Get Rid of Being Sleepy