7 Ways to Wake Up Feeling Fresh

If you struggle to feel energized in the morning, these tips will help you sleep more soundly and add some spring to your step as you start your day. 

Get ready to awaken the lively, new morning person in you!

1.  Get in Tune with Your Body’s Circadian Cycle.

Your circadian what?  You might be asking.  All this means is that your natural sleep/wake cycles are designed to be in sync with the rising and setting of the sun. 

But with access to light 24/7, the consumption of stimulants and the excess stress of our modern-day lifestyles, our sleep/wake cycles have become seriously disrupted, keeping us awake during the hours we really should be sleeping!  So staying up late is no way to develop a healthy, fit body!

Over time, disrupted sleep/wake cycles lead to a host of nagging health problems like headaches, chronic fatigue, poor memory, inability to concentrate, weight gain, viral infections and even neck pain. 

In order for your body to function at its best and wake feeling energized you MUST be asleep during your body’s critical repair time.  During the hours of 10pm and 2am your body releases hormones that allow for physical repair and during the hours of 2am and 6am your body releases hormones that allow for psychogenic or mental repair. 

But you have to be asleep during these times to reap the beneficial repair of these hormones!  If you don’t go to bed until 12:30am you’re basically depriving your body of two and half hours of essential recovery time!

If you’re following your natural sleep/wake cycle you should be winding down as the sun goes down and you should be asleep by 10pm to allow your body’s repair cycles to kick on.

2.  Avoid Sweets Before Bed.

Eating sugar in any way shape or form is not a good idea before bed!  When you eat sugar it causes your blood sugar levels to fluctuate, which ultimately triggers stress hormones, and stress hormones are awakening hormones.  You’re only making it harder to fall asleep, and stay asleep, if you stimulate your body when it’s actually time for your body to unwind. 

And if your sweet treat of choice contains chocolate, that’s a double whammy!  As I’m sure you know, chocolate has caffeine in it, but what you may not know is that caffeine has a half-life of about six hours.  So that means if you eat chocolate at 8pm, shortly before bed, by 2am, when your body should be entering its “psychological repair” cycle, you’ll still have half the caffeine in your system stimulating your adrenal glands releasing stress hormones (a.k.a. stimulating hormones). 

So to promote restful sleep at night and a healthy body, ideally you should avoid all caffeine-containing products after lunch.

You may be saying, well, I can eat sweets before bed and they don’t affect my sleep.  But this is nothing to brag about.  If you can put something stimulating in your body and not feel the rousing effects, there’s a good chance that your adrenal glands are exhausted and you could be dealing with adrenal fatigue.

3.  Sleep in Complete Darkness.

For some people, the slightest bit of light can disrupt their sleep.  Why?  Because all forms of light are stimulating to your body; when your eyes or skin are exposed to light your brain and hormonal system basically interpret this signal as morning time, and therefore, your body releases activating hormones to get your body moving so you can start your daily activities!

So the best way to create a relaxing bedtime environment to promote healthy sleep and healthy body is to unplug or cover up all light-emitting devices in your bedroom and use darkening shades to block out streetlights and headlights from cars.      

I actually went so far as to cover the green light on my ceiling fire alarm and completely removed my digital alarm clock to create complete darkness in my room, and I now sleep like a baby!

4.  Escape into Fantasy.

If you’re a night time worrier and you have a hard time calming your mind before bed, there’s a good chance you’ll either have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep or both!

Remember, thoughts of worry are only stressful and stimulating to your body—they do not support a healthy body!  So to help you relax and pull your mind away from your worries, allow your mind to drift into fantasyland.  Think of a place that is peaceful and stress-free and imagine yourself there.  You may be surprised how powerful your mind is and how much it helps you achieve calmness when you redirect your thoughts to peaceful thinking. 

I use this escapist fantasy myself when I close my eyes and lay my head on my pillow as I get ready to fall asleep.  I envision myself vacationing in Italy in a private villa overlooking a breathtaking view.  The best part of this fantasy is that I’m on my own schedule and my only responsibilities are to feed myself the delicious Italian food and get outside to enjoy the sunshine and my view.  It is with this thought in mind I drift off to restful sleep!    

Your problems will still be there for you to resolve in the morning.  Losing sleep over them does nothing to help you—it only makes it harder to maintain a healthy, fit body.  Fantasize your worries away (for the night anyway)!

5.  Start Your Day with Positive Affirmations.

While filling your mind with good thoughts before bed promotes restful, peaceful sleep, bringing positive thoughts into your mind first thing in the morning sets the stage for a positive, highly-charged day!

Start your day by focusing on what you want versus what you don’t want.  Your body believes every word you say and think, so supercharge your healthy, fit body with energy-boosting thoughts. 

If you’re having a hard time thinking of an affirmation, here’s one for you to start with: I am a beautiful, strong, confident, healthy, fit woman, and I can achieve anything I want! 

6.  Drink Water Upon Rising.

Drinking water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is a great way to kick-start your day!  It will stimulate your metabolism, boost your energy and make you more alert. 

And as an added bonus, to really keep your body healthy, and clean, you’ll stimulate your bowels to remove waste and flush toxins out of your body.  Drinking water every morning helps you stay “regular.”

It’s part of my daily routine to drink two ten-ounce glasses of water first thing every morning. 

7.  Vitalize Your Body with Energizing Exercises.

Movement is life!  When you move your body you literally feed it energy as you distribute nutrients throughout to keep your body healthy, vital and fit.

Movement in and of itself also produces energy.  The best way to energize your body first thing in the morning is to get moving! 

But that doesn’t mean you have to do a full-blown workout!  Just 5-10 minutes of energizing exercises will leave you with the vitality you need to jump-start your day.

If you’re wondering about what exercises to do, I’m going to share my “Top 5 Energy-Boosting Exercises” in next week’s post.  So stay tuned!

To the new, energized you!

Melissa Koerner