If someone told me at the start of my college career that I would be willingly waking up at 6:30 AM every weekday, I would have laughed. Slowly, over the course of the past year, I’ve turned myself into a morning person and couldn’t be happier about it. My mornings have become more relaxing and I always look forward to them! It can be difficult to train yourself to get into the early bird mindset, but if you’re looking to become a morning person I hope these tips can help you – they work for me!
1: Have a consistent sleep schedule…
I know, I know – with all the work everyone has to do, it can be hard to keep consistent on when you go to bed. However, this is the first and most important step on changing how your mornings go. It is widely recommended that college age people get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, so work around that. Decide what time you might want to start waking up and work backward from there. Making sure you go to sleep within the same half an hour time range every night is helpful, too!
2: …but ease yourself into it.
It can be daunting to try to start getting up at 7:00 am instead of 10:00 am, so take time to get your body used to it. Start waking up 15 or 30 minutes early for a couple weeks or until you reach the time you’re aiming for. This way the switch won’t feel as bad!
3: Stop hitting snooze.
It can feel like instinct to tap snooze on your alarm as soon as it goes off, but sleeping in short little bursts more can make it harder to get up when you finally do. As soon as your alarm goes off immediately jump out of bed and start your day. No more setting six alarms in a row!
4: Don’t check your phone as soon as you wake up.
It is so easy to open Instagram or a news website as soon as your alarm goes off. However, this can often make people feel sleepier or cause them to even fall back to sleep. While it’s understandable that you want to see what you missed online during the night, wait until you’re ready for the day to do this. You won’t miss anything else in the time it takes you to wake up!
5: Give yourself a reason to get up.
Starting some sort of routine that you can look forward to can make the prospect of an early morning more exciting. I personally go to the gym every morning when I wake up and it’s a great way to start the day off right. Getting up early can even mean that you get to read a chapter of your new favorite book, have more time to pick out the perfect outfit, or can simply just mean that you can make yourself a full breakfast. Any little thing that makes your morning more relaxing for you is a great way to force yourself out of bed!