How to become a morning person

Want to switch from being a ‘night owl’? How to become a morning person?

Switching from “night owl” to being smart opened eyed is no easy task, but there are simple steps to take that can make the transition more manageable. 

Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash

Take time to understand your motivations behind why you want to become an early riser. Is it because you think you should rather than because you have to? 

You should be realistic with your wake-up goal, too!

Extreme night owls may find it almost impossible to wake up very early in the morning. Instead, focus on making your night owl schedule as productive as possible.

There are simple steps to take that can make the transition more manageable.

Developing morning habits helps you to lead a healthy lifestyle.

So take back your mornings without sacrificing the sleep you need!

Benefits of becoming a morning person

Successfully shifting your sleep schedule will require you to make small steps toward your goal (more on this below).

The bigger the move to an earlier wake time you want to make, the more time (and patience) you have to give yourself to get there.

This will also be compounded by the strength of your chronotype. For example, an extreme night owl trying to rise in the early morning will take a while to reach their new goal.

People change their sleep schedules for all sorts of reasons.

If you need to become more of a morning person to support a new work or school schedule, help out your family, or simply because you want to, it may help to follow these tips.

Tips for becoming a morning person

People change their sleep schedules for all sorts of reasons. 

For night owls wanting to become morning people, it can be easy to set an early wake-up goal, only to build up sleep debt as you can’t fall asleep early enough to meet your sleep need each night.

If you need to become more of a morning person to support a new work or school schedule, help out your family, or simply because you want to, it may help to follow these tips.

1. Make it routine

Try to be consistent on bedtime and wake up. 

Filling your morning routine with things that make you feel happy and energized may help you feel more motivated to get out of bed.

That could include your favorite morning beverage, or sitting outside with your beloved pet for a few minutes.

How the next day begins depends on how you prepare your body and mind the night before, and this is why reviewing and rebuilding your nightly routine is important.  

A quiet bedtime routine is a key to helping you fall asleep earlier. At least an hour before lights out, dim the lights and power down your electronics.

Consistency matters because going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time is key to shifting your sleep pattern.

2. Exercise Regularly

Physical activity will help wake you up and exercise undertaken first thing in the morning is more effective at charging up your metabolism than exercise undertaken at any other time of the day.

By the evening, we get too busy and find too many excuses not to exercise.

Plus, morning workouts will give you an extra shot of energy to carry you through the day ahead. Consider it your secret weapon as a newly initiated morning person.

 If you’re a night owl, an early morning jog might sound like punishment. But if you can get yourself into the habit, exercising in the morning can give you the energy to jump-start your day.

4. Eat your dinner early

if you’re experimenting with becoming a morning person, you’ll want to aim for an earlier dinner as well a good three hours before lights out.

Eating an early dinner will help you with lower blood pressure, better sleep, improve digestion, and better metabolism to reduce obesity and many chronic diseases risk.

5. Try alarm technique

Keep the alarm clock far enough away that you have to get out of bed to shut it off.

The effort of having to rise from bed to shut it off will be enough to start waking you up properly.

it is important to learn to wake up earlier as a matter of will.

Your alarm clock is the main source of helping establish your new routine when changing over your sleeping patterns.

Hitting snooze is all too tempting, so remove that option. Try putting your alarm clock across the room, so you have to get up to turn it off.

6. Be realistic and give it time

It can take time to transition from a night owl to a morning person. Becoming a morning person literally won’t happen overnight.

Stick with the process; it’s not going to be easy for the first few mornings.

While it’s perfectly fine to let yourself hit the snooze button on a weekend morning. Or when you’re on vacation, try to honor your new schedule as much of the time as possible.

I used to do that, but I try to maintain my waking time for the next day to avoid confusion in my body.

The more your body becomes used to the light cues and the regular bedtimes. The more you’ll find it easier to transition.

Final Thoughts

With the right tools in place, it’s possible to become someone who wakes up early with no alarm at all.

If it’s hard for you to be a morning person, you probably have a late chronotype. Meaning your body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up later. Mornings may also be hard if you’re not getting enough sleep each night. 

Maintaining good sleep hygiene and keeping a consistent sleep schedule can help you become a morning person.

Build a routine that works for you. Remember that waking up with the sunrise is a gift, not a chore.

If you can able to identify your why power. And why it’s even important for you to become a morning person then it will be so easy.

For me, this was wanting mornings that are peaceful, nourishing, and productive time without any distractions. What’s your why-power?

Let me know in the comment box below!

I will see you soon in another blog post!

With

❤️

Nasreen