It is a daily struggle to force ourselves out of the bed. Morning person? What’s that? Keeping our eyes open is alone a task, let alone waking up from the bed. After hitting the snooze button multiple times, you are somehow up after reminding yourself that how much you need the money from your job and eventually somehow you reach the kitchen to fix your daily dose of caffeine. Sounds like your everyday routine? Then you must have spent time wondering why waking up in the morning has to be so hard. The struggle is real and comes with a possible explanation according to psychology.
For nocturnal people, there can be quite different reasons to not like waking up in the morning. Psychology believes that whether you’re a night owl or a morning lover, it can be a combination of your genes and your environment.
“If you have one of the many genes of being a ‘morning person’, your melatonin or the sleep hormone levels are likely to rise early in the evening and fall earlier in the morning than someone with ‘night owl genes,” explained Dr. Mike Dow, a psychotherapist, Ph.D. and an author of the book
Heal Your Drained Brain. Dr. Dow also talked about sleep inertia or popularly known as the pre-coffee stage after waking up in the morning. It is the time when you might be up and still not ready for the day or your mind refuses to be fully awake. While few people are addicted to caffeine to ward off sleep inertia, morning person might not feel its effects at all. For people who’s not a morning person and looking for an effective way overcome the sleep inertia, a 30 second of a cold shower can do the trick. It can kick off your stress hormones like cortisol and adrenalin to wake you up from dreaming again and make your hot cuppa more pleasant in the morning.
Another issue can be “phase delay” when your body adjusts according to your sleep schedule. This usually happens when you compromise your work schedule according to your work demand and not caring for what your body needs. Do you stay up late at night to binge-watch your favourite series? To treat this habit, it requires determination to wake up everyday at the same time, even during the weekends. Experts suggest, dimming lights after 8 p.m. and taking melatonin (only under doctor’s advice) can help to fix such bedtime issues.
Apart from these having a bedtime routine, indulging in self-care, practicing yoga and meditation, along with limiting screen time before hitting the sack can help you feel less exhausted in the morning. Avoiding sugar, alcohol and blue lights before sleeping is also beneficial. If you’re not an early riser by habit or nature then it might need a little change. However, it isn’t impossible with daily practice.
Photo credit: Google
