Waking Refreshed Fact Sheet
Needing to hit snooze an extra time or two because you are waking up tired in the morning? Having trouble getting going in the morning lately? Your sleep wellness factors are more than just the duration or perceived quality of your sleep. How you wake up is just as important and can provide many insights into the quality of your sleep, no matter if you got your eight to nine hours of sleep or not. If you aren’t waking up feeling refreshed and are groggy, grouchy, and just want to stay in bed all day, something is disrupting your sleep at night whether you realize it or not.
How you wake up determines many things for your morning and possible your entire day including your mood, your productivity, your energy, your attentiveness and ability to concentrate, and the overall quality of your day. Poor quality nights easily turn into poor quality days. To make sure you start your day off right by waking up refreshed every morning, we have compiled some lifestyle and behavioral tips you can try. Enjoy!
Cut back on sugary beverages
Just like caffeine before bed makes it difficult to fall asleep and causes disturbances in your sleep cycle, so can sugary beverages. Consuming sugary beverages or foods before bed will both give you a sugar rush, prohibiting you from easily falling asleep, and significantly increase your insulin levels. It will take some time for your body to regulate its insulin levels back to normal and this can make it difficult to fall asleep and can cause disturbances if you do succeed in falling asleep.
Cut back on the caffeine
Don’t drink caffeine before bed and really you should avoid it after 5 p.m. Even small amounts of caffeine can stay in your system for up to six hours making falling asleep at a reasonable hour very difficult. If you are a heavy coffee drinker or consume large amounts of caffeine every day either through coffee, energy drinks, pop, chocolate, or a combination of them all this can make it difficult for you to fall asleep even if you stop consuming caffeine by 5 p.m. Large amounts of caffeine take longer to wear off especially when compounded throughout the day. We suggest you try to cut down on the caffeine in general if you consume large amounts every day.
Exercise in the morning
The benefits of daily exercise are immense. It should come as no surprise that exercise also aids your sleep. However, we recommend you don’t work out within four hours of your bedtime; the natural energy boost your get post workout will make it difficult to fall asleep. Choosing to exercise in the morning is the best choice. This gives you a reason to get up and get going in the morning, hopefully keeping you from staying in bed longer or hitting the snooze button again. Exercise naturally energizes and will boost your morning, start your day off right, and make it easier for you to fall into a deep sleep at night. You’ll wake up feeling refreshed and jumpstart your day.
Eat some fruit
Fruit will actually help you prepare for sleep and help you fall asleep quicker. The carbohydrates in an orange, some grapes, or other fresh fruits kick start melatonin production in your brain, making you drowsy and helping you drift off to sleep.
Take a melatonin supplement
If a light dose of melatonin from your handful of fruit isn’t doing the trick then you can reach for a melatonin supplement instead. A stronger dose could be just what you need, especially if you have been having a lot of difficulty winding down, or have recently undergone a shift change at work. Make sure to take your melatonin supplement an hour before you plan to go to bed. Use this time to unwind and get prepared for the sleep that is coming. Your brain needs time to absorb and process the new melatonin, but don’t worry, soon enough you will be sleeping well.
Drink more water
Drinking water is very important in general, and most people do a poor job of staying properly hydrated. Putting an emphasis on drinking water each day will help you cut back on sugary beverages and caffeine if you are struggling in those areas. However, the most important reason to drink water during the day is to stay hydrated. Don’t drink so much before bed that you are up half the night with trips to the bathroom, instead drink water throughout the day so that you are hydrated enough that you don’t need to drink a lot before bed. Keep in mind that while you are sleeping, you can go eight hours or more without any water. That would be dangerous during the day so don’t compound the problem and go to sleep underhydrated. Being properly hydrated will also both make it easier to fall asleep and aid you in progressing through each sleep stage of your sleeping cycle, putting you into a sustainable quality deep sleep.
Get started on the path to better sleep by testing out some or all of these tips on our list to improve your ability to wake up refreshed. You’ll want to pair these with the action steps for any other sleep issues you’re having to put an end to waking up in the morning still feeling tired and groggy. When you take action, you’ll soon wake up feeling better than ever and start to enjoy a better quality of life.