Conquer your Alarm Clock: Tips to wake up Early

Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

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Alarm goes on and there is an ache in the heart, and a big question that arises in mind, WHY?

Why is it so difficult to wake up early or sometimes even on time?

     One reason can be that the body’s clock is mismatched with the demands of life. The body’s clock is under control of suprachiasmatic nucleus; this is a part of brain, which controls body’s biological rhythms. Research shows that the preset rhythms often don’t align with daily realities and hence it gets difficult to adjust school or work’s start time with person’s sleep schedule.

     Individuals who have difficulty in getting out of bed everyday, probably have inner mismatched clock to sleep and wake-up times, this condition is called phase delay. And this can be adjusted by maintaining the sleep-wake cycle on weekends as well and by not sleeping in till late.

     All the successful people wake up before sunrise. But how can one resist not hitting the snooze button!

• Try to sleep early, to get atleast 7 hours of sleep.
• Slow and steady wins the race. Start with waking up 10-15 minutes earlier each day, till you reach the targeted time.
• If one has difficulty in getting out of bed, keep an alarm by your side and another bit far, so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
  Note- There is a risk of waking up the partner with this method.
• You snooze you lose. Try not to hit snooze because anyways once an alarm goes on, our body and mind won’t get restful sleep anyways.
• Getting out of bed and stretching body for 5 minutes, this will awaken the body better.
• Be excited for the day, instead of getting frustrated. Drinking a glass of water can help you feel more awake.

     Don’t wake up and run to school or office, give your brain and mind time to be prepared for the day. Waking up early will eliminate sleep inertia (physiological state of impaired cognitive and sensory-motor performance that is present immediately after awakening), which lasts for two hours or more. So, wake up early to increase your performance, reaction time, memory, alertness, performance of basic mathematical tasks and attention.

     The pace at which we are living the life, all these things sound bizarre and far-fetched, but we can try to schedule our day and try to maintain sleep-wake cycle to function efficiently.