Most people are aware of how it feels to wake up and try to operate on a day where you’ve had a poor night’s sleep. Therefore, you must take steps to get the proper rest that your body needs to make sure that you can perform better and enjoy every day with more energy.
If you’re frustrated with sleeping but not feeling rested, this post covers 5 steps that you can follow to give yourself the best chance of getting a good night’s rest to wake up feeling refreshed every day.
How Can I Wake Up Feeling Refreshed?
Expose Yourself To Sunlight
Upon waking up in the morning, try to expose yourself to natural sunlight as quickly as possible. This is because research has discovered that there are certain parts of our vision that only work to take note of light and they don’t have an effect on your overall vision.
These cells in your eyes are there to detect when it’s becoming light so that your body can start to naturally wake up. So, they have a role to play when it comes to your internal body clock, which is also known as the circadian rhythm.
When you expose your body to sunlight first thing in the morning, you’re sending clear signals to your brain and body that it’s time to wake up. Once you manage to form a habit of this, you’ll begin to find it much easier to wake up naturally every day.
In the beginning, you may still feel a little groggy. Over time, you’ll enjoy waking up feeling well-rested and ready for the day ahead. Those of you who aren’t able to expose yourselves to natural sunlight first thing in the morning can turn on the lights as soon as possible to have a similar effect.
Avoid Snoozing
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is hitting the snooze button in the morning. In the moment, pressing snooze on the alarm and getting extra sleep seems like a good idea as you can get a little more sleep to hopefully wake up more rested.
Well, this isn’t necessarily how it works in reality. Avoiding snoozing is one of the ways to feel better with less sleep.
Sleeping in for those extra minutes after hitting snooze can cause your body to go into different stages of the sleep cycle. As a result, you can end up having to wake up partway through a sleep cycle stage which is disruptive and likely to make you feel tired instead of refreshed.
It’s also important to get yourself out of bed as soon as possible. Waking up and lying in bed for too long while you’re awake keeps you relaxed and sends mixed signals to the brain as it doesn’t know whether it’s time to wake up or go back to sleep.
Therefore, to wake up feeling refreshed after 4 hours of sleep, you’ll have to force yourself to get up to feel better throughout the day. Although, this isn’t something we advise doing regularly as getting 7-8 hours of sleep is recommended for adults.
A helpful tip to avoid hitting snooze and lying in bed for too long is to set up an alarm in the room somewhere that involves you having to physically get up to turn it off. Once you’re out of bed, you’re much less likely to go back to sleep.
Keep Electronics Away From The Bed
A huge contributor to waking up feeling groggy is electronics. Many of us like to use phones, tablets, laptops, and TVs while in bed. It seems like a good way to unwind for the day and relax watching your favorite shows or scrolling through social media.
However, looking at screens too close to bedtime impacts your body’s ability to produce melatonin. Melatonin is produced naturally and is a hormone that’s released to make you feel tired and go to sleep.
The blue lights emitted from screens suppresses the body’s ability to release melatonin which makes it harder for you to fall asleep earlier. As a result, you can end up feeling too stimulated and struggle to sleep for hours and wake up not having gotten enough sleep.
We recommend keeping all screens turned off 1-2 hours before your desired bedtime. This can help you have an easier time relaxing as you’re not being stimulated by the screens. In addition to this, it’s a good idea to keep yourself in a dark environment leading up to your bedtime.
When your body senses that it’s dark, it’s able to release melatonin which is your body’s natural cue that it’s time to sleep.
Invest In A Comfortable Mattress
If you’re serious about getting a good night’s rest and waking up refreshed, you’re going to want to invest in a comfortable mattress. Sleeping on a mattress that’s uncomfortable causes you to experience restless and uncomfortable nights of sleep that result in you waking up not feeling well-rested.
Sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress can also lead to pain in the neck, back, and shoulders which disrupts your ability to sleep deeply. So, spend some time trying to find the mattress that’s right for you.
Some people prefer firmer mattresses, whereas others are comfier on softer mattresses. It comes down to personal preference and there are many different kinds of mattresses available nowadays so that you can find the one that’s best for you.
Exercise In The Morning
When you first get up out of bed, you can use exercise as a tool to help you feel more awake and active. This is especially the case if you’re trying to stick to a new sleeping schedule and are feeling fatigued upon waking up.
Going straight into some form of exercise can be an excellent way to get the blood pumping which is bound to wake you up and give you a head start to feel energized for the day ahead. You don’t even need to jump into the most intense forms of exercise. Something as simple as going outside for a brisk walk for 20-30 minutes could do the trick.
Exercising also releases serotonin which is known as the feel-good hormone. When serotonin is released, your mood is uplifted and you’re more likely to feel excited for your day.
Conclusion
Waking up and never feeling refreshed after sleeping can be a frustrating cycle that’s difficult to get yourself out of. However, you can now start implementing the tips in this post to learn how to wake up more refreshed.
You may want to start small with one or two of the tips and focus on making them a normal part of your routine. You can then slowly start introducing the other tips to help improve the quality of your sleep and ensure that you can wake up feeling well-rested.
