Are you getting enough sleep? If you have problems getting up in the morning it might be because of what you do after the alarm clock rings and not what happened overnight. You need to get moving right away once you wake up, say the experts, due to something known as the Circadian rhythm.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) explains Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Most living things have circadian rhythms, including animals, plants, and microorganisms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm, and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night.
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“The circadian rhythm, your internal biological clock, operates on a roughly 24-hour cycle and dictates when you feel awake or sleepy, largely influenced by light exposure,” Dr. Chester Wu, a double-board certified psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist, told The Huffington Post. “Health behaviors in the morning reinforce a strong circadian rhythm, promoting wakefulness during the day and sleepiness at night.”
So, what should you do?
First, avoid hitting the snooze button. Those extra few minutes do not make you any more rested. It is the opposite, actually, since the falling back to sleep prevents you from fully waking up. And after those extra five minutes you just feel more tired.
The best thing to do is to just jump out of bed immediately and get yourself going.
Also, turn on the lights. Light helps wake you up. It does so by telling the brain to cease production of melatonin, the hormone produced by the body that helps you sleep. And natural light is best for this so get out of bed and open the curtains.
Another good piece of advice is to not sleep late on any given morning. Try and get the same total hours of sleep every night. Sleeping in, even just once a week, can disrupt your sleep cycles. The important thing is to be sure to always get enough sleep every night of the week.
