How to Wake Up Early

If you're not a morning person, but find yourself in a position that requires you to get up early, you may find yourself struggling. However, there are methods that can help motivate you or even reset your biological clock. This page will help teach you how to wake up early.

Some people are naturally morning people. They spring out of bed in the morning like toast out of a toaster. For the rest of us, we greet the morning by pounding on the much-cursed alarm clock until we've pulverized the snooze button into submission. Yet, for centuries, philosophers and scholars have been advising us that we need to wake up early to be productive. Benjamin Franklin wrote an entire book about the subject entitled Early Rising: A Natural, Social and Religious Duty.USHistory.org: The Quotable Franklin However old, the idea of getting up early is still quite popular. This is great if you happen to be a morning person, but what about everyone else? Can a night person become a morning person? Well, that may be pushing it a bit, but there are a number of ways that you can make getting up early a bit easier.

• If you do not get enough sleep, your body won't want to wake up. Many people think sleeping is a luxury, but in reality it is essential to both our physical and mental health. Most adults need seven to eight hours a night.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep However, some people need less and others need more. So what is your magic number?

• Here is how to determine the amount of sleep you need. However, it will require you to avoid smoking, alcohol and caffeine during the duration of this test.

1. Starting on Sunday, go to sleep at the same time every night.
2. Get seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep for the next six nights.
3. On Saturday, allow yourself to wake naturally.WebMD: How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

• If you woke up later than you normally did, you experienced a sleep debt and your body needs more sleep a night.WebMD: How Much Sleep Do You Really Need? If you woke up earlier, then you may need less sleep.

• You also want to make sure that you practice good sleep hygiene. This means that you do things such as keep a regular schedule (even on weekends), avoid caffeine after certain hours and go to bed only when you are tired.Sleep Education.com: Sleep Hygiene The more routine your sleeping schedule can be, the easier you will find it is to get up in the morning.

• For more information, check out Mahalo's How to Get a Good Night's Sleep.

Humans are diurnal, meaning we are biologically predisposed to sleep at night and be awake during the day as our bodies follow the 24-hour cycle of the sun.Cleveland Clinic: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep We can use this to our advantage through the use of light therapy, also known as phototherapy.

• Light therapy involves being exposed to bright light of about 2,500 to 10,000 lux. The lux is how intense the light is. Some examples of the lux of various situations:

1. A living room at night: 100 lux
2. Bright office lighting: 300 to 500 lux
3. Outside on a cloudy day: 1,000 to 5,000 lux
4. Noon on a sunny day: 50,000 luxMedicineNet.com: Shutting Off the Night

• By exposing yourself to natural or artificial bright light greater than 2000 lux in the early morning, you will eventually cause your internal clock to shift.Center for Environmental Therapeutics: Dawn and Dusk Simulation as a Therapeutic Intervention (1989) Here are a few tips for using light therapy:

1. The best time for light therapy is right after you wake up.MedicineNet.com: Shutting Off the Night
2. Start by using it once-a-day for about 30 to 60 minutes.MedicineNet.com: Shutting Off the Night
3. Do not use ultraviolet light, heat lamps or tanning lamps.WebMD: Light Therapy Use either natural sunlight or a light box, which simulates natural sunlight.BNET: Wake up refreshed! (July 2002)
4. If your bedroom has an eastern exposure, try raising the blinds to let the sun shine in.WFTS-TV: Becoming a 'Morning Person'

• Light therapy products come in various forms such as light boxes, desk lamps and light visors. They can be very expensive, running anywhere from $100 up to several hundred dollars.Sleep Education.com: Bright Light Therapy

1. Allergy Buyers Club: Natural Full Spectrum Lighting to Brighten your Mood
2. Apollo Health: Light Therapy Products
3. Bio-Brite: Light Boxes
4. The Sunbox Company: Light Therapy Products
5. Verilux: Light Therapy Lamps

A classic method used for getting up early, the alarm clock is an effective tool to help you wake up. Yet for some, the regular buzzing of an alarm clock is not enough to rouse them from sleep, and they need something more. If your alarm clock is not working for you, then you need to reevaluate your situation.

• If you have had the same alarm clock for years, chances are you have programed your brain to ignore the sound. Our brains are more likely to respond to new noises than familiar ones.BNET: Wake up refreshed! (July 2002) Try switching alarm clocks and perhaps rotating between two or three different ones or using two at the same time.iamnext: Wake Up Early: Alarm Clock Strategies for Students

• If this doesn't work, perhaps you need a louder alarm clocks. Consider purchasing one of the alarm clocks made by Sonic Alert or Equity Time. These companies offer alarm clocks with adjustable alarm tones that can reach up to 113 decibels. Many of these clocks also come with bed shakers, if the sound just isn't enough.

• You can find these alarm clocks below:

1. Amazon.com: Sonic Alert SB200
2. Amazon.com: Equity Alarm Clock
3. Amazon.com: Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock

• It can be so tempting to hit the snooze button and get just a few more minutes of sleep. However, hitting snooze can be counterproductive. Which is why technology has been developed to help prevent you from continually hitting snooze. One such device is known as "clocky." Clocky looks innocent enough sitting beside your bed, at least until you hit the snooze button. Hitting the snooze button causes clocky to roll off the bedside table and look for a suitable hiding place, which means when he sounds again you have to get up and look for him.Columbia News Service: For Reluctant Wakers, an Alarm Clock that Runs Away

• Another alarm clock that runs on a similar principle is the Flying Alarm Clock.Firebox.com: Flying Alarm Clock This alarm clock has a little propeller that sits on its base. When the alarm clock goes off, the propeller flies of the base. If you want to turn it off, you have to get up and find the propeller. There are also puzzle clocks that shoot their puzzle pieces in the air when the alarm goes off. To turn the alarm off you have to find and put the pieces back in their proper places.

• You can find these alarm clocks below:

1. Amazon.com: Clocky Mobile Alarm Clock
2. Amazon.com: Flying Alarm Clock
3. Bim Bam Banana: Puzzle Alarm Clock
4. Perpetual Kid: Puzzle Alarm Clock

• YouTube: Clocky: An Alarm Clock for the Morning-Impaired (Time: 1:16)

If you need a more subtle alarm clock because you hate the idea of being jolted awake every morning, then consider purchasing a dawn simulator alarm clock. Dawn simulation involves gradually brightening the lights in the room. While this is often listed as a part of light therapy, they are not the same thing. Light therapy involves using lights of a greater lux than dawn simulation.ScienceDirect: Dawn Simulation and Bright Light in the Treatment of SAD: a Controlled Study

• You can find dawn simulation clocks below:

1. Allergy Buyers Club: Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Lamps
2. Apollo Health: Daybreak Duo
3. Bio-Brite: Sunrise Clocks
4. Full Spectrum Solutions: Dawn Simulators
5. The Sunbox Company: Dawn / Dusk Simulator Selection
6. Hammer & Schlemmer: The Peaceful Progression Wake-Up Clock
7. Verilux: Sleeping & Waking Products

• Chronotherapy is a treatment often used for advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS) and delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS), which are circadian rhythm disorders.WebMD: Behavioral Treatment of Circadian Rhythm Disorder People with these disorders have biological clocks that tell them to sleep and stay awake at odd times.National Sleep Foundation: Night Owls and Morning Larks Chronotherapy is used to reset their biological clocks.Reader's Digest: Tips for Better Sleep

• During chronotherapy a person progressively delays going to bed for three hours each night until she or he moves her sleep schedule around the clock.Reader's Digest: Tips for Better Sleep For example, if a person normally falls asleep at 2 a.m.:

1. 1st night: Goes to sleep at 5 a.m. and awakens at 1 p.m.
2. 2nd night: Goes to sleep at 8 a.m. and awakens at 4 p.m.
3. 3rd night: Goes to sleep at 11 a.m. and awakens at 7 p.m.
4. 4th night: Goes to sleep at 2 p.m. and awakens at 10 p.m.
5. 5th night: Goes to sleep at 5 p.m. and awakens at 1 a.m.
6. 6th night: Goes to sleep at 8 p.m. and awakens at 4 a.m.
7. 7th night: Goes to sleep at 11 p.m. and awakens at 7 a.m.

• Once consistent sleeping and waking habits are established, they can be adjusted slightly.SleepChannel: Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome: Treatment However, it is essential that the person maintains a regular, scheduled bedtime and wake-up time.WebMD: Behavioral Treatment of Circadian Rhythm Disorder Any straying can nullify the effects of chronotherapy.SleepChannel: Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome: Treatment

• YouTube: Teen Night Owls (Time: 2:33)

• Without the right motivation waking up early will only be that much tougher. Since motivation is a personal choice, what works for you might not work for someone else. Here are a few motivational suggestions to get you started:

1. Plan something fun, such as watching a favorite video or listening to a book by your favorite author, on the way to work.BNET: Wake up refreshed! (July 2002)
2. Prepare a special morning breakfast treat for yourself, such as a special brand of coffee.Zen Habits: 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It
3. Meet a friend for breakfast or plan a similar morning date.BNET: Wake up refreshed! (July 2002)
4. Make a list of how you can use all that quiet uninterrupted time you gain by waking up earlier.Zen Habits: 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It
5. Schedule a morning appointment you can't miss.Happiness and Success: Advantages of Waking up Early
6. Pair up with a similarly motivated friend.Dave Cheong: Waking Up Early - 15 Tips That Work (June 15, 2007)

• Method 1: Get Enough Sleep
• Method 2: Change Your Pattern
• Method 3: Use Light Therapy
• Method 4: Use Your Alarm Clock
• Method 5: Get Moving
• Method 6: Don't Hit Snooze
• Method 7: Rise with the Dawn
• Method 8: Chronotherapy
• Method 9: Motivate Yourself

The content in this page is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you continue to have sleep problems that affect your daily life, you should consult a doctor for further advice.