How to Wake Up to an Alarm - Tips and Tricks for Improving Your Mood All Day Long
Waking up in the morning is something that almost everyone dreads, particularly on a workday. The sound of a morning alarm is often enough to put people into a bad mood even if they’re already awake, due to the preconditioned horror that the sound accompanies.
But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Too many people have a rude awakening each day, and this can lead to all sorts of issues from poor mood to various health issues, particularly if you aren’t getting enough sleep.
There are many ways to make the dreaded morning alarm more enjoyable and healthier for your sleep and rest, and in this guide, we’re going to look at some of these solutions to make your morning wake-up more peaceful and natural.
Waking up to the panicked clamor or sudden and loud alarms almost always makes for a more sluggish and unmotivated start to the day, and using some of these solutions will likely improve your mood as well as your productivity in the morning, and help you to unlock your full potential even if you’re not really a morning person.
Your Natural Rhythm
First and foremost, you need to ensure you maintain the natural rhythm, known as the circadian rhythm, as not maintaining a healthy rhythm can lead to all sorts of health issues both physically and mentally.
Having the discipline to go to bed at the right time and allow yourself a full night’s sleep is critical to being able to wake up for your morning alarm. While it can be tempting to steal an extra hour or two for yourself at night, it almost always comes back to bite you the following morning, leaving you tired and stressed, and generally run down.
The Importance of Routine
The importance of routine for getting up with your alarm is critical. You should be striving to get at least a solid 7 hours of sleep, and ideally, allow yourself an hour before bed to rest and begin the process of getting to sleep so that you have more time for real sleep.
This will make it much easier for your body to get up at the proper time.
Additionally, it's important to ensure you sleep when it's dark and wake when it starts to get light, as the natural hormones which control your circadian rhythm and sleep cycle react with the changing light conditions and fighting these natural hormones can lead to a lot of disruption of your sleep.
Use a Gentle Alarm
A great way to make waking up easier is to change your alarm to something gentler, or one which gradually becomes louder over the course of a few minutes. This will allow you to wake up slowly and gradually, lifting you out of sleep gently and with care, which is much more natural and leads to a much more effective and lasting wake up that starts with alertness and improved mood, instead of a loud and abrupt alarm which breaks your sleep suddenly and unnaturally.
This sudden break in your sleep rhythm can deprive you of valuable REM sleep and lead to poor mood and tiredness even when you’ve had enough sleep, so consider using a gentler alarm for a vastly improved wake-up. Also, try to avoid using the snooze button whenever you can.
Use a Natural Sounding Alarm
You can improve your morning routine even more by using a more natural-sounding alarm, ideally birdsong or waves or even rainfall, as this will lift you out of sleep much more gradually and easily, and is also far more pleasant to wake up to than the sound of a bell or other loud alarm ringing in your ears.
Combining this with a gradual increase in volume is one of the best ways to improve your morning routine.
Set Multiple Alarms
If you’re someone who still struggles with getting up, setting multiple alarms and staggering is a strategy you can use, especially if you have urgent plans or appointments you need to be able to wake up for.
While this isn’t ideal, for some people it's the best way to ensure that you get up, even if it can be a little annoying.
Really you should only need one or two alarms maximum, but using more is possible if you’re really struggling to wake up in the mornings.
Place Your Alarm Away From Your Bed
Positioning your alarm away from your sleeping space is perhaps one of the best ways to ensure you wake up fully in the morning, as getting out of bed and onto your feet is a way to wake your body up and get the blood flowing, which kick starts your metabolism and your hormones, making it much harder for you to fall back to sleep.
Position your alarm so that you have to get out of bed fully to use this to its fullest effect.
Look Forward to Breakfast
Another great way to get up to your alarm is to ensure you have a nice breakfast to look forward to.
Ensuring that you have a healthy and enjoyable breakfast to get up to will improve your mood and make it much more likely that you will actually get up.
Think of it as a small bribe to yourself for actually getting out of bed at the correct time.
Go to Bed Earlier
If you’re struggling to wake up, it likely means you aren’t getting enough quality sleep. Going to bed earlier is the best way to ensure your body wakes naturally and refreshes.
Use Light
There are some alarms which give off a natural light that brightens as your wake up time nears. This helps trigger the hormones in your body to start waking you up, and can be hugely beneficial in the winter or if you live somewhere dark.
Additionally you can use lighter curtains to allow more light into your room in the morning which will also help you to take up more naturally.
Final Thoughts
Sleep is something that’s really important for our health, and waking up effectively and efficiently is a big part of this process.
A rude awakening is a horrible way to start the day, so try to use these tips to make the morning something to look forward to instead of something to dread.
