Have you ever watched one of those morning routine videos on Youtube where the person is like “I start every morning with a smile!”? While those people are incredibly lucky to be morning people, that is definitely the opposite of me. I strongly dislike waking up early and I never thought I would be able to successfully do it.

This semester, I found myself facing 9 am classes four days a week. I know 9am isn’t that early, but I don’t live on campus so I had to get up around 7 to drive to school. Please keep in mind, “early” is a relative term. As a night owl, getting up for school sounded like hell to me especially after last semester when my earliest class was at 11. After adjusting my routine, I was able to successfully get up early and take down my second semester.

Tips for Waking Up Early:

–Plan for 8 Hours of Sleep

The first and most important step of getting up early is going to bed early! I cannot stress enough what a difference getting enough sleep makes when waking up in the morning. I know it’s kind of an obvious step, but our society tends to value productivity over sleep.

As I said before, I had to get up at 7. To plan for 8 hours of sleep, this meant I had to be ASLEEP by 11 o’clock to achieve this. Most nights, I tried to go to bed between 10 and 11 to make sure I could get the rest I needed. As someone who enjoys staying up late, this was definitely a big adjustment for me, but it made a significant difference in how I felt in the morning and throughout the day.

–Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day

If you read my post, Insomniac’s Guide to Falling Asleep, you know that this is also one of my tips for getting a good sleep! This tip was also a huge adjustment for me because I love sleeping in on the weekends. By going to bed and getting up similar times each day, I found it was much easier to wake up when my alarm went off. Even when I didn’t set my alarm on the weekends, I would naturally wake up around 8. I also noticed when I stayed up until 12:30 am on Saturday nights watching SNL, it was extremely difficult to get to sleep early on Sunday evening. The human body likes routines!

–Leave Enough Time in the Morning to Get Ready

I know it can be tempting to set your alarm as late as possible to maximize sleeping time, but I’ve found that when my mornings are rushed, I feel more tired and stressed. Also, if you plan for 8 hours of sleep this shouldn’t be an issue! Finding the perfect balance between getting up early enough so that your mornings aren’t rushed, but late enough that you get enough sleep and aren’t sitting around can be tough. A good amount of morning time for me is about 50-60 minutes, giving me enough time to eat breakfast, do my skincare and makeup.

–Don’t Hit Snooze a Million Times

This is another tough tip for people who are passionate about sleeping. I once read in an article that hitting snooze isn’t good for your because you’re disrupting your natural sleep/awake cycle. Also, is another 10 minutes of sleep really going to benefit you that much? Admittedly, I have 2 alarms 10 minutes apart just in case I do fall back asleep.

–Don’t Skip Out on Breakfast

Breakfast really is such an important meal. I make sure to drink water and coffee while I’m eating breakfast all before I leave the house. I find it very difficult to truly wake up in the morning if I’m hungry. Me being hungry in the morning is also dangerous for others because tbh I get pretty hangry lol. I also take a multivitamin after I eat breakfast. I don’t know if this actually affects my energy, but I’d like to think so haha.

I hope these tips help out my fellow grumpy night owls 🙂