Want to wake up early without feeling tired? Try these 7 hacks

It hasn’t always been easy for me to wake up early without feeling tired. I do consider myself to be a “morning person,” meaning I feel most productive when the day first begins. I like to get the majority of my work and tasks done then.

I’ll never understand how someone can go through a whole day of work, eat dinner, and watch TV that evening…

Only to hop out of bed and crank out tasks between 9 PM – 12 AM. Meanwhile, I’m basically useless after 6 PM.

However, something I’ll admit is that, despite being a morning person, I actually don’t love waking up early. I consider “early” to be any time before 7 AM, or a time before the sun is up.

Especially in the wintertime, there’s nothing worse than waking up to your alarm at 6 AM and feeling absolutely exhausted. And then, remembering you were supposed to get out of your warm bed to go do some morning routine thing.

I think it’s pretty natural that waking up before the sun comes up takes some getting used to. After all, the sun is “nature’s alarm clock.”

Over the years, I’ve picked up quite a few tricks to make waking up early much more bearable. They particularly work well when you’re feeling tired upon waking.

1. Get up as soon as your alarm rings

This particular tip definitely takes some willpower, but it’s 100% worth it once you get used to it. Despite what your sleepy, cranky brain might be telling you when you open your eyes and feel like you haven’t slept in 10 years, hitting the “snooze” button won’t make you feel better.

Sure, you might have the immediate relief of getting to close your eyes and drift away again in that moment, but in just 9 minutes the alarm will be going off and you’ll be in the same situation all over again.

As difficult as it is, start practicing getting out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off. Here are a couple of things you can try:

1. Promise yourself that you won’t turn the alarm off until you’re out of bed and on your feet.
2. Put your alarm clock (or phone) across the room. That way, you physically have to get out of bed to go turn it off.

Getting up right away requires your brain to wake up so that you can safely get to your feet. That means you’re bound to feel more awake if you can just leave the comfort of your bed.

2. Put on your favorite music or podcast

I don’t know if this is weird… But sometimes I feel a little anxious about getting up while my room is still dark.

Something about it being eerily quiet gives me haunted-house vibes and almost like it’s not safe to leave my room.

Recently, I’ve been putting on a podcast when I wake up instead of listening to nothing but the silence. And the breathing sounds coming from my husband, who’s likely still sleeping. This helps to “keep me company” when I’m up by myself in the wee hours of the morning. It also works to release feel-good endorphins that make me feel more alert and awake instantly.

Try putting on music when you wake up and getting out of bed once the first song is over. Or, you can even set your alarm ringtone as one of your favorite songs.

I would advise changing this up every so often, or your “favorite” song will quickly become one you despise. 😂

Another thing I love to do is pair whatever habit I’m working on with listening to my favorite podcast. I don’t allow myself to listen to the podcast anytime outside of the time I’m doing this habit.

In his best-selling book Atomic Habits, author James Clear calls this “temptation bundling.”

You want to pair habits with something fun and enjoyable so that it’s attractive enough for you to get started.

3. Flood the room with light

As I mentioned before, there’s just something that feels very unnatural about being awake when it’s dark inside.

Would you lay around another area of your house in complete darkness and just stare at the ceiling? Most likely not, and if you did, it probably wouldn’t be long before you fell asleep.

I’m a firm believer that natural sunlight is one of the best ways to wake up in the morning. I actually prefer to wake up to the sun instead of an alarm clock if I am able. It’s much less jarring and I feel so much more awake every time.

Start going to sleep with your blinds open enough for the natural sunlight to get through in the morning. Also try to avoid sleeping with a sleep mask or blackout curtains, as this obviously defeats the purpose.

If you’re wanting to wake up at an hour before the sun comes up, as painful as it may be, I encourage you to try turning on either a lamp or the lights in your room.

This ties with tip #1 if you have to get up and cross the room to turn on your lights.

If fluorescent lighting is too harsh for you first thing in the morning, consider purchasing a sunrise alarm clock. They mimic the sun’s natural light and are said to wake you up much more gently than a traditional alarm clock.

4. Drink a large glass of water

Do you drink the recommended 8 cups of water per day most days? I know I personally don’t, and I’ve been working on trying to increase my water intake throughout the day.

Drinking a glass first thing in the morning is a great way for me to get started! Plus, it has the added bonus of making me feel much more awake.

I have an easier time drinking a glass of room temperature water than a glass of ice cold water, so that’s something you can try if you find that you struggle to drink a lot of water at once.

I also highly recommend brushing your teeth before having your water! Most of us collect tons of bacteria in our mouths while we’re sleeping.

If you’re still not quite up for getting out of your bed first thing, you can keep a glass of water next to you on your bedside table. When your alarm goes off in the morning, sit up and drink the water right away. You can even wait until you finish drinking it before turning the alarm off.

5. Move your body

I think this one goes without saying, but moving your body around or starting your morning with a workout is a surefire way to feel more awake and alert in the morning!

I used to religiously go to the 6:15 AM workout when I was in graduate school and had a solid morning routine – not only was it a great way to wake me up and give me lots of energy for the day, but it’s also a great way to get the ball rolling on other habits.

Going to the gym would always lead me to shower afterwards, which would then lead me to meditate for 15 minutes on the couch, which would then lead to some journaling.

One caveat here is if you don’t live close to a gym, it can be pretty brutal (and not the most safe tbh) to have to drive a long distance in the wee hours of the morning when you’re feeling tired.

The gym I used to go was only 15 minutes away, and while that’s not bad at all for my morning commute, it used to be quite the struggle at 5:45 AM.

That doesn’t mean you can’t still get in a great workout, though – doing some push-ups or jumping jacks are great, easy exercises to get your blood flowing. You can also go on YouTube and find some easy, at-home, no equipment workouts.

6. Get enough sleep (on the right cycles)

Okay, I know this one sounds painfully obvious, and you might even be slightly rolling your eyes at this point. I can definitely say for a fact that there have been times where I got PLENTY of sleep (9 hours or more) the night before, but I still felt like an absolute zombie when my alarm went off.

But even though getting at least 8 hours of sleep isn’t a bulletproof strategy to avoiding morning fatigue, it’s still very important and has the best chance of setting you up for success.

Aside from helping you to feel well rested the next morning, sleep is a critical process that our bodies must go through in order to cleanse, refresh, and heal our cells.

If you aren’t giving your body enough time to go through this process, you will be unwell overtime and you may even start to develop disease. You will also struggle with mental function, alertness, and mental clarity.

All that being said, another crucial aspect of not feeling tired upon waking is making sure that you aren’t waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle.

You can read more about sleep cycles if you’re interested, but in a nutshell your body goes through periods of alertness, REM sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep throughout the night. These cycles take about 90 minutes, so ensuring you go to bed that allows you to complete a whole number of sleep cycles will help a lot with that drowsy feeling.

My favorite sleep cycle calculator allows me to figure out when I need to go to sleep depending on what time I’m going to wake up, or decide what time to wake up depending on when I’m getting to bed that night.

7. Have something to look forward to

I have saved what is, in my opinion, the best tip for last in this article. It’s near and dear to me because I personally have struggled with it, and making this one change has made a world of difference for me.

The best and fastest way to feel alert and awake in the morning is to have something you’re genuinely looking forward to waiting for you.

When I had days that I was feeling sad, gloomy, or pessimistic about the day ahead, no amount of “wake up early” hacks was going to motivate me to even get out of my bed in the first place.

I used to think to myself: “I’m not even excited about this day, so what’s the point of having a morning routine? What’s the point of getting out of bed so early? I think I’ll just go back to sleep.”

Conversely, when I had breakfast with my friends later that morning or I was going on a trip to the beach, my eyes popped open (sometimes before my alarm) and I easily jumped out of bed.

Why is this so important?

Having things to look forward to is one of the biggest forms of motivation in our lives. Without anything to look forward to, life seems gray and kind of pointless. Are you doing the same boring things, over and over, every single day?

Do you work a job that you hate, and normally the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is get dressed in 10 minutes and rush to said job? It’s no wonder you’re not feeling very motivated to leave your bed in the morning!

Try scheduling in at least one or two things during the week that you can look forward to. Knowing those things are waiting for you down the line will give you motivation each day to have an awesome week.

Conclusion

I hope these tips hoped you realize that even if you’re currently a “night owl” and getting up early seems like it will always be impossible for you, there are simple changes you can make to make the experience much easier.

The more you get into a routine of waking up early, the more your body will get used to it and soon it will feel completely natural. You’ve got this!