I first want to let it be known, that I am not a morning person naturally. But I’m also not a night owl either. Which has left me in a conundrum for most of my adult life. Should I take off the morning pressure and embrace my productivity in the evenings? Or pursue the early nights on my mission to wake early and seize those early hours?
Once I’m up, I really love the peaceful quietness of the mornings. Particularly if I get up at 6am, I love the feeling that most people are still asleep, and I’m cracking on with my day already, it brings me such a feeling of peace. And it also makes me feel like I’ve earned a relaxing evening and early night, so they really do go hand in hand. Whereas when I stay up late I often feel groggy and guilty if I don’t wake early the next day. So after trialing both methods I know that a morning person is who I want to be.
Oh how life would be so much easier if rising early came naturally!
Getting an early night, or at least going to bed at a reasonable hour, is the first key to becoming a morning person. I have found that solidifying a relaxing night time routine, that you enjoy doing, is really important to making sure that early night actually happens. Being able to switch off and get to sleep is always something I’ve struggled with. Avoiding screens, not watching TV in bed, and trying to avoid my phone for an hour before bed, is the first thing for me that I have to stick to. And then having a bit of semi-indulgent self care, which for me is a hot shower followed by my skin care routine and putting my PJ’s on, which all just seems to really put me in a relaxing bed time mood. From then my ideal scenario is to get into bed with a hot drink and read my book until I feel like I can start to drift off.
So that is the evening routine, but what about actually getting out of bed earlier than the crack of dawn? It is so much easier said than done, especially on those cold, dark mornings, where the comfort of your own bed seems to be multiplied by a hundred. I am notorious for snoozing my alarm, which is a slippery slope for my ability to get out of bed, and also drives Luke absolutely mad. So one thing I have started using in the past couple of years to try and make waking up that little bit easier is a light up alarm clock. They’re pretty popular these days, but basically aims to wake you in a more natural and gentle way, by simulating sunlight, starting half an hour before your alarm time and getting brighter and brighter over the 30 minutes. Waking up without a horrid noise is so much more enjoyable than the typical screeching alarm ringing that I truly believe practically wakes your body into a pure state of trauma.
Then once you have woken up, knowing that you have an enjoyable morning routine with little things scattered through that make you feel joy, whether it’s a hot coffee, a tasty breakfast, a dog walk in the fresh air, or even meditation or exercise that you can look forward to the peace it brings you. I think overall when you can smash the morning person routine, it is so rewarding and makes for some genuine inner contentment.
Are you a morning person? If you have any more tips and tricks please do let me know, we could always do with more ways to make it easier to get out of bed!
