There aren’t many things I would change about myself A slightly smaller nose, maybe? A speedier metabolism, or hair that isn’t quite so unruly, perhaps?
NO.
One thing I have always been unhappy with is the struggle I face each and every morning to get out of bed. I am not, nor have I ever been, a morning person. Waking up is literally the worst part of my day and I’d do anything to make it easier to get up and at ’em in the mornings. And as the mother of an early riser (5.50am today, WOOHOOH) this does NOT work at all.
I’ve been trying to think of how to describe just how excruciating it feels to wake up: OK so that might be over-egging it a bit, but it really is tough. My brain feels like it’s stuck in syrup, I can’t open my eyes and the only thought I have revolves around going back to sleep. SLEEP, lovely sleep. It literally seems to take me at least half an hour to get over this feeling and it just feels horrible. Is it like this for everyone, or just me?
After 29 years of being me I know my body clock. I’m a night owl and if left to its own devices my body would sleep at midnight and wake up about 8am. This is what happens when the children stay with their Dad, but when they’re at home I revert to going to sleep at midnight and rising at god-knows-what-hour. So I usually get six hours of sleep (usually interrupted) – not enough.
After four years of being fairly sleep deprived (I know I know, I never mention it, you’d never know) I’ve decided to take charge a bit more and work on getting a better quality sleep in each night – and more of it. I’ve done extensive research (i.e. Googled the hell out of this) and have come up with some guidelines to follow over the next week or so to really try and feel more human in the mornings. An experiment, if you like.
I’d love to know how your nights and mornings go: do you feel like you get enough good-quality sleep? Let me know if you have any help on this journey of sleep discovery…
How To Become A Morning Person
Switch off devices
On a usual evening I will be on my iMac, my MacBook, my iPad, Apple TV and one or both of my iPhones (work/home), right up until I go to sleep. It’s a terrible thing but the sidebar of shame really seems to help me drift off. I work a lot in the evenings and need to start limiting screen time so I can switch off and get my brain ready to sleep. I’m making 10pm the device curfew and will turn off everything at this time.
Go to bed (doh)
Do you have a bedtime? I need a bedtime. 10pm is going to be the nominated time I’ll turn the house off and go upstairs to get ready for bed. And no dawdling, either: teeth, face, pjs.
Read
Pre-kids I’d get through three books a week, easy. I loved reading and I miss the way a good book makes you feel – I’ve forgotten how a good book makes you feel! I’m going to make every effort when I get into bed at just-past-10pm to spend at least 20 minutes reading a book in the hopes it’ll help me relax. I even bought a new reading light to help!! So I’m obviously destined for success.
Tidy up
I pretty much do this anyway, but I really don’t like getting up to an untidy house. I’ll make sure the house is sparkling before I go to bed, the thought of which will entice me up out of bed.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
It’s really hectic when you have to fill school bags, make lunch, sponge-clean school clothes (we’ve all been there, sodding stealth yoghurt stains) and hunt for water bottles before you get in the car in the morning. I will do all this the night before.
GET UP
When Elfie wakes me up pre-6am I send her back to bed to read books (hoping this will train her to just stay in bed one day. I am very optimistic). I then lie in bed, not going back to sleep, just waiting to get up. Meditating (well, you know, not meditating). Thinking about how good sleep feels. It’s kind of a waste of time and I really should just get the hell up and start the day rather than just prolong the agony.
And that’s when my inspiration ended and I Googled ‘how to get up in the morning’. I found this article which was almost completely useless because 50% of the points revolve around an alarm clock and my alarm clock has arms, legs and answers to the name of Elfie. She does not respond well to being placed on the other side of the room.
So come on, give me some inspo! How can I be better in the mornings? Blog world, you are my last hope.
I really need to follow this advice! At 10:13pm I really should just turn off the iPad. It’s so important. Getting organised, tidy and reading a bit before bed are definitely things I need to do.
I’ve done the no iPad/iPhone thing for two nights now and I have to say… it feels weird! I could hear my iPhone vibrating on the other side of the room and managed to resist going to see what was going on.
Not feeling better for it YET ;)
Sorry, I’m of no help at all. Ramona stays in bed until someone gets her even though we’ve told her she can get up if she wants (weirdo) and has learned to call Ash because I can sleep through a tornado; I have genuinely slept through a hurricane before. Good luck, my friend – and tell me if you ever find out!
Can I borrow Ramona for a week or so, she can come and teach Elfie and Hux how to stay in bed for a little longer?!
I too have an early riser and I too am a zombie if I don’t get my ‘8 hours’!! I really feel your pain. The only way I can cope is if I try and go to sleep at 9pm. I hate losing half my evening, but I really can’t function with a 5.30am/6am start and 1am/3am interruptions without going to bed that early. I haven’t quite conquered doing the housework the night before or preparing stuff for nursery yet etc but its on my to-do list! Hmmmmm! Good luck with it all, i’m going to follow your tips and see if I can get it nailed too :)
Eek, 9pm! I should follow your lead, but will begin by easing in to it. When do you have time to watch all your box sets?! ;)
Someone on Twitter mentioned eating as early as possible to make your body more sleepy so I’m trying this too!
hmm, no answers here. I absolutely despise being woken up early, I actually feel angry for half an hour when I have to get up (at the bequest of my own little alarm clock). Yep, just early nights, no checking emails at night, deep breathe and try not to get stressed about it. The little buggers will be sleeping in late, soon enough. (Big sympathy though. It’s hard.) xx
And I can’t bloody wait until I have to prise them out of bed ;) x
I’m not too bad in the morning… IF I’ve gone to bed at a reasonable hour… at 11pm I turn into a pumpkin, so I try to get up to bed as soon after 10 pm and have some wind-down time, reading. I also bought an alarm clock (not for the alarm – I have a human version of this too…!) but just so I can see the time, because I now leave my phone downstairs so I am not even tempted to look at it!! I take a note book to jot down anything that pops into my head. Previously I would get the phone and google whatever random thing it was! Now I can just do it in the morning if it’s that important. It usually isn’t (eg. “Why are some eggs browner than others?” Exactly.)
If I can’t sleep because I’m too agitated, I get up. I sometimes do this bedtime yoga video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOTGz-1vizY&index=5&list=PLui6Eyny-UzwCnJ3-L2ATvLNHE3zsunZi or I drink Valerian tea, which tastes disgusting, but seems to work for me.
Like I say, I’m not too bad in the morning, but I am a beast ALL DAY if i don’t get to bed at a good time!
Good luck & report back!!
Snap on the earlier riser front with all of the wonderful night interruptions too from the boy. The one thing that seesms to be working(ish) is that I set my alarm for 7 – anytime before this S gets sent straight back to bed, post alarm and as SOON as she hears it she can watch cartoons on my phone, she will run in shouting Caaarrrtoooons… I’m still woken early but can prolong the getting up for the day bit just that little bit longer! Good luck!
When I was a young’un I would survive on hardly any sleep. I could stay up until 3am and then get up for work at 6am absolutely fine. Now I have Elsa I go to bed anytime from about 9pm and she normally wakes up for the day at around 7.30am. You’d think I’d be getting enough sleep but I usually lie in bed wide awake until she cries to come in with me at about 12/1am ish, and then I spend however long settling her and trying to get to sleep. By the time that has happened I probably get around 4-5 hours and when she wakes up I just can’t get up. I put her on the floor to colour or read books, or I give her my iPhone to watch YouTube for half an hour so I can start to function. I used to be fine without sleep and I’ve always struggled to go to sleep but now I just can’t do it and it’s so frustrating lying awake at night knowing I’ll be exhausted the next day.
I think the no screens thing is probably a good idea but I do find that staying up late reading blogs or pinning on Pinterest makes me sleepy so I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t do that. I read a lot but I can’t read in bed very well, for some reason it frustrates me.
Sorry for the giant rant. I’m no help whatsoever but I hope you manage to figure something out!
Good ideas, I am a fellow morning hater, I’d really just rather stay in bed later but my children have other ideas. I find having a morning routine helps, that way I can do the things I need to do on autopilot until I wake up. So I get up, supervise the kids getting dressed and washed, make their packed lunches, organise school bags etc, plan my day (0n paper or I would forget everything) and finally have a shower and get dressed. Works for me.