We all know that when it comes to waking up in time for your 8 a.m. class on a Monday morning after a relaxing weekend, the struggle is REAL—but one scientist may have just found the solution to your early morning blues.
David M. Greenburg, a music psychologist at the University of Cambridge and City University of New York, recently collaborated with Spotify to come up with a playlist that can help even the deepest of sleepers wake up and feel ready to take on the day. The result? A 20-track playlist that’s full of tunes that were already some of our favorites, like “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay and “Downtown” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
So how exactly did Greenburg decide on the best songs for waking up? Apparently it wasn’t easy. Greenburg told Mic.com, “It’s kind of a tricky situation because waking up is a pretty unique event,” Greenburg said. “You’re starting out in a tired, grumpy, cranky state. For most of us it’s a struggle, and you’re trying to go from that state to a state where you’re feeling alert, energetic and optimistic about the day at best.”
Because of this, Greenburg strategically chose tracks that would help with this process. Each song chosen to appear on the playlist starts off calm and slow, and builds up to an upbeat, positive chorus—essentially, they all mirror the long struggle that is waking up. Greenburg also chose songs that have a tempo of around 100 to 130 beats per minute, which, according to scientific research, is the ideal “motivational” tempo.
We have a feeling this playlist is about to become our new morning essential—after all, who wouldn’t want to make those early weekday mornings a little less rough? Who knows, maybe it will be a replacement for our morning coffee!