How can you become a morning person?
Is it possible to become a morning person? From letting the sun into your bedroom to habit stacking your mornings, what makes a person a morning person? How do you become a morning person in 30 days? How do you stop being a night owl?
Here are 11 answers on how to become a morning person:
- Let the Sun into Your Bedroom
- Go to Bed Early
- Decide in Advance
- Start With Something You Enjoy
- Track Your Sleep Metrics
- Leverage Your Circadian Rhythm
- Exercise Good Sleep Hygiene
- Find Your Reason
- Don’t Hit Snooze
- Start with a Healthy Breakfast
- Habit Stack Your Mornings
Answer 1: Let the Sun into Your Bedroom
Making the transition to becoming a morning person can be difficult, but there are some things you can do to make it easier. One of the most important things is to keep your shades slightly open so that natural light can enter your room as the sun rises. This will help you rewire your internal clock and make it easier to wake up in the morning without relying exclusively on the alarm clock. It will also help you ease into your day and avoid starting your day feeling stressed or rushed.
Michael Sena, SENACEA
Answer 2: Go to Bed Early
If a person doesn’t have a habit of waking up early in the morning, the best thing to start with is getting to sleep early at night. Depending on the schedule for the evening, working out or engaging in any calorie-burning activity can help create an early sleeping routine. Listening to soothing sounds while sleeping such as rain music and stories can also help an undisturbed sleep that, in turn, helps you become a morning person.
Sri Sagar Kalisetty, Terkel
Answer 3: Decide in Advance
Five years ago I saw a video of an ex-Navy seal describing how he wakes up at 4:30 am daily. I decided to try it and wake up at 5:00 am. I chose 5:00 am because the sun was just starting to come out and that was easier for me to know when it was time to get up.
If someone is trying to become a morning person I recommend starting in the summer; it made it easier for me to wake up with the sun already coming up.
The navy seal didn’t have some trick for waking up other than just a commitment to waking up early. The first week I dreaded every morning, but you get to love having 2 hours of personal free time.
Evan McCarthy, SportingSmiles
Answer 4: Start With Something You Enjoy
If you’re not exactly a morning person, it doesn’t mean you can’t become one! Along with the usual tips of getting to bed early and getting up at the same time every day, try to start your morning with something you really look forward to. When you’re making up your daily task list, make your first task something that you enjoy, typically leaning towards more creative projects. In this way, you’re ready to leap into what can set the tone for the entire day!
Ryan Rottman, OSDB Sports
Answer 5: Track Your Sleep Metrics
In the business world, we track our metrics to see the effects of our strategies and to stay motivated, and this should be done your efforts to become a morning person. If you do not keep notes on any changes, you will have difficulty remembering and tracking what works and what falls short. In addition, even in the best case scenario you will have setbacks, and being able to monitor the positive steps you have made to become a morning person will help with motivation and keep you going. By tracking your sleep metrics and noting the places of progress, you will be better able to reach your goal of becoming a morning person.
Adelle Archer, Eterneva
Answer 6: Leverage Your Circadian Rhythm
Open up your blinds, turn on some music, and get moving. The circadian rhythm is affected by light, so it’s good to expose yourself to light to encourage wakefulness. Music is a mood stabilizer and is known to boost the production of dopamine, also known as the motivation chemical. Whether it’s a walk, stretching, or breathing exercise, getting your body moving will warm you up and help you feel alert. These activities act as a natural alarm clock and are great ways towards achieving morning motivation.
Bradley Hall, Sonu Sleep
Answer 7: Exercise Good Sleep Hygiene
If you want to become a morning person, you must have a routine of healthy sleep practices, which are commonly known as sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is just a set of habits that helps you to promote better sleep, like: regular exercise; avoiding excessive caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol; eliminating naps; having relaxing pre-bed activities, like reading, meditating, and listening to podcasts; and making your bedroom dark, quiet, and cool.
Brenton Thomas, Twibi Digital Marketing Agency
Answer 8: Find Your Reason
Discover your “why not?” Many have used their “why” as a motivator (why they want to achieve a dream). But sometimes, even your reason for wanting something may feel so far away that it doesn’t seem real.
For example, you may envision your company helping millions of people better understand their finances, but that kind of phenomenal success can feel elusive, making it tough to get up any earlier.
If instead you ask yourself what happens to the people you want to help, if you don’t achieve your dream, then working toward said dream becomes more urgent and so will getting up in the morning. In short, why NOT push hard early in the day toward your dreams? Because if you don’t so many will miss out on so much!
Michael Van, Furnishr
Answer 9: Don’t Hit Snooze
Don’t start the day by hitting snooze. It’s bad for your motivation, psyche, and only makes waking up that much harder. When you hit snooze and drift off, your brain starts its sleep cycle again—this is counterproductive and starts your day on the wrong foot. When the alarm goes off a second time, you’re likely at an even deeper part of your sleep cycle, which results in an even worse feeling than the first time.
Alex Wang, Ember Fund
Answer 10: Start With a Healthy Breakfast
There are many ways that you can become a morning person. One way is to start your day off with a healthy breakfast. This will help to give you energy and get your day started off on the right foot. You can also try to get up earlier in the morning so that you have more time to get ready and start your day.
Aviad Faruz, FARUZO New York
Answer 11: Habit Stack Your Mornings
One of the most difficult things for many people is to get momentum going in the morning. If you can start your day with momentum, it’s so much easier to keep carrying that through to have an incredibly productive rest of the day. The best way to do this is through Habit Stacking (covered well by James Clear in Atomic Habits).
Habit stacking simply means lining up your habits so that one thing naturally follows the other. Once you start a habit, it’s easy to flow through and complete the others.
For me personally, I have my phone as an alarm outside of my bedroom. When I pick it up, I need to solve a challenge to turn off the alarm (Alarmy App). This is next to an empty glass, which I’ll pick up to go drink a fresh glass of water. Now I’m in the kitchen, so preparing my morning coffee is easier – and so on. Figure out what habits are key to starting your morning on the right foot. Then line them up so it’s easy to do one after the other.. even if you’re still half asleep!
Craig Anderson, Tech Detective
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