If you've been listening to the Freakonomics podcast over the past couple of weeks and their episodes about sleep then you'll know that peoples' night time routines are a very serious subject, and also, can be super weird. From the guy who slept every night, head to feet with his wife, to the lady who's keeping a spreadsheet on how she sleeps day-to-day, there's plenty of weird routines out there that people use to make sure that they have a better night's sleep.
But what about getting up in the morning? Surely people are just as obsessed with that? As I shared last week, I've got my 13-minute foolproof bed-to-bus routine that's still working for me in my late twenties, 15 years after I created it, and, although frowned upon by those people that just leap out of bed in the morning, it works for me OK?
What about other people, though? What are their tricks for getting out of bed in the morning? We scoured the internet to find some of our favourite tips on how people do this thing to see if there's anything we can learn. Read on to maximise your morning.
This person who is down with the shock factor
'As soon and I mean as soon as I wake up I drink cold water... like as cold as I can get it. It kind of jolts the body. Then make your bed. Why? Because you need to start steam rolling wins to start making momentum and making your bed literally takes 30 seconds and in turn makes a circle where you can go to bed easier at night coming to a place that is not chaos.'
This guy, who's answer is probably the most sensible
'I sleep at 10. Every fucking night, I got to bed at 10. I have a social life, don't get me wrong, but I hang out with friends all day and night, then at 10 I go to sleep. The latest I'll let it get is 12, and that's if I have no reason to get up before 8 the next day. Otherwise, 10 o'clock rolls around and it's lights out for me. I feel healthier, more alert, and, quite frankly, more confident/attractive throughout the day now. And my god, the TIME that I have now. It's amazing how much time I used to waste on the computer late at night that not only was poor for my sleep and health, but also really boring (so many nights kicking around subreddits that I was barely interested in, just basically existing.)'
This person, who's all about the pills
'Take 1000 to 2000 IUs of vitamin D before going to bed. I usually jump awake as soon as my alarm initializes and I don't feel as strong a need to roll back over. It has also helped with feelings of depression I would experience most strongly trying to start my day.'
This person, who is all about the cold (gross) coffee
'The night before, brew coffee. Put a cup next to your alarm clock and set your clock so it's 30 minutes before you really wanna wake up. So if I want to be up by 6:30, I'll set it for 6. When the alarm goes off, slam the cup of coffee. By now it will be cold and, for some reason, it's really easy to chug the second you wake up. Then hit "snooze." My clock goes off in 10-minute intervals when I hit snooze. Each time it goes back off, just hit it again. By the third time the coffee has kicked in and I need to piss. I get up, fully awake and ready for whatever.'
This person who is possibly one of the greatest minds of our time
'This requires set-up for a few days, but once it works, you're good so long as you don't run it. First, get a new alarm sound. Doesn't matter what it is, just something you don't wake up to now. Next, set your alarm to go off in one minute. Now, get into bed, covers up, eyes closed as if you were asleep. As soon as that alarm goes off, throw off the covers, get out of bed, and go do something. Doesn't matter what do long as it's something that takes a minute or two. Do push-ups, brush your teeth, feed the dog, whatever. When you finish that thing, kill the alarm. Then reset it for another minute out and repeat the whole process five to ten times. Do this every night before bed for a week.
What you're doing is giving yourself Pavlovian training for how to react to that sound. When you hear it in the morning you'll be up and out of bed literally before your conscious.
Here's the kicker though. You can only have that alarm go off when you actually want to get up. Don't set it for an hour before you need to be up then snooze. Don't get back into bed for five more minutes after you've done your thing. Pick a different alarm for weekends. If you hear that alarm and don't get up, you'll weaken the conditioning.
Most people don't realise that they do this to themselves already. We just do it in a way that makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning. We hit snooze five times, or look at our phones for half an hour, or click on the TV and then roll over for a while. If you instead condition yourself to pop out of bed at that sound, then reinforce that conditioning every morning, you'll never have trouble getting up ever again.'
This person, who relies on technology
A dawn simulator. Super legit. I have seasonal effective disorder (i.e. winter months cripple me like depression). These things can be set to begin the "sunrise" whenever you want and gradually use blue light (which penetrates the eyelids and gives nature's energy) to get you to want to rise. They are a game changer. Then you want to drink a gallon of coffee to make sure.
This person who might have kind of an extreme solution
My alarm clock was actually designed for deaf people, so it's extremely loud and it has an attachment you put under the mattress that vibrates the bed. So often times when it goes off in the morning, it startles me and my heart is beating so fast that it's impossible to go back to sleep.
This is their alarm clock BTW
This person who uses an old but good solution
I put my phone on the other side of my room. That way when the alarm goes off I need to get up to turn it off. At that point I might as well get ready for work...
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Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.