Drat. Waking up on the right side of the bed doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Some of us just aren’t born morning people. Like zombies, we moan and groan, drag our feet and cringe at the morning light.
Luckily being a morning bah humbug isn’t a forever deal. We can change it. All it takes are a few healthy tweaks to our daily schedules and -- here’s the hardest part -- the discipline to to stick to them and for at least about two months straight.
Here are a few changes you can make to turn yourself into that shiny, happy morning glory you always wanted to be:
- Don’t hit the snooze button. Research shows that pressing “snooze” even once before peeling off the sheets makes the get-out-of-bed battle even harder. Falling back to sleep on and off over and over throws your body’s natural sleep rhythm out of whack. Bottom line: When you press snooze, you lose.
- Wake up at the same time every day. Yes, even on weekends. Go to bed at the same time every night, too. Doing so makes the wake-up process far less painful.
- Resist the temptation to lounge. Instead of lazing about under the covers half-asleep, get up and jolt your body and mind into alert mode by exercising for a few minutes first thing in the morning. Even a few jumping jacks will do the trick.
