Tips on getting up on a morning!

OK, as you know, I've been stopped now for 2 weeks. My sleeping patterns have returned to normal, the cravings have vanished, and generally, I am getting my life well on the way to being back on track now.... Yay for me!

However, if theres one thing its proved so far, its that the difficulty I had getting up in the morning had nothing to do with smoking weed, drinking, or both, I still struggle to do it. And I am getting enough sleep now!

I've long suspected I was never a morning person, and tbh for a good period of the morning, I am one grouchy bugger! And getting out of bed REALLY IS a struggle, I feel so shattered every morning. I snap out of it eventually but its well into the day (not before about 11:30am in my experience). Even on a weekend, if I've done nothing, this is still the case.

So, are there any others who share this most annoying problem who can offer tips to get myself out of bed.

Its not helped by the fact I have flexible working hours. I set my alarm for 7am this morning. I actually woke up at 6, but instead, used it as an excuse to snooze for more than 2 hours, and I still feel tired, LOL!

 

Put the alarm clock out on the landing, closer to the bathroom than your bedroom. That way you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Once there, the bathroom is closer then bed.

 

Or you could have a small hi-fi in your bedroom and set it to wake you up playing (way too loud for comfort) a record you really hate (you could buy one if you don't own one already)

 

I've struggled with getting up and with considerable issues regards feeling depressed and disorientated after I get up since my early teens.

When I gave up the Mary Jane in '96 after about 12/13 years I expected to start feeling differently. Never really made any difference to this specific problem. However I think I have realised (for me anyway) the root of the problem - I think it's connected to sleep patterns - as follows: whether I get into bed at 2330 or 0100, I'm usually near wakefulness after around 7 hrs 15 minutes. If I set my alarm and actually force myself out of bed (having lots of children makes this easier) I feel "normal" within the hour (a triple shot riposo expresso helps me enormously). I feel alert and myself all day and I then feel tired at the right time in the evening and so on...

If I went back to sleep, and even if I then got 9 hours sleep altogether when I eventually got up I would feel disorientated for most of the day. My vision would be strange - everything would appear flatter and dimmer which made driving difficult. I would often have a headache which would develop and get worse as the day progressed a bit like a migraine I suppose and I would find it very difficult to really do anything of worth. Yawning and pale looking all day, it felt like my brain was bathing in some substance which made wakeful brain function almost impossible. I could explain that if I was still smoking the indica, but two years on I was substance-free.

After the birth of our first child I actually sought help - the GP referred me to have the blood supply to my head examined with ultrasound, my cervical vertebra were xrayed, tests for MS and a general neurological examination. I stopped short of having a body scan though was offered one. I was put on anti-depressants and eventually became convinced I had some for of neurological illness. Yet looking back I'm now certain it was all to do with my sleep patterns being affected.

I think there is something for me about going back into a deeper sleep and then waking up in the middle of that cycle (or waking up in the middle of an earlier cycle) which leaves some legacy, chemical or otherwise, which makes functioning as awake really difficult for hours later. I have no idea what it is, but there is definitely a very big difference if I get up at the right time.

The difficulty though is how do you find the motivation to get up at the right time when you dont really need to??

 

Something by that nice James Blunt perhaps


Sleep cycles last 90 minutes and it's best not to wake in the middle of one. 6 hrs is good. 7.5 hrs is OK. 9 hrs is a no-no. Too many toxins build up in the body with that length of sleep. You will feel groogy for hours afterwards.

Research suggests that if we all got 90 minutes in the afternoon, we would only need 4.5 hrs at night. This is what our ancestors used to naturally do before the industrial revolution came along and messed up our natural cycles.

 

Greg, your description sounds just like me every morning. Yesterday in particular I was pretty depressed for half of the day, and headaches are common.

Seems like the amount of time your asleep is probably as important as anything else.

Incidentally, I had over 2 hours to snooze this morning, and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, it hasn't helped.

Maybe I'll give a go to your 7 hour 15 theory, although I guess its going to vary from person to person - it sounds like the trick is not to wake up diuring a period of deep sleep.

 

I'm terrible too, I almost lost a job through often being late in the morning. I must admit I only "solved" it through living with someone who is more of a morning person than me, and sharing the same transport (car or cycle together to work) so I get shamed or kicked out of bed. I know this doesn't help you much directly, but if you continue sorting your life out in the way that you are, you'll be a much more attractive prospect for someone who could fulfil this function

Going to bed at a fixed time helps too -since I'm really a night person, but giving in to a lengthened evening just makes the cycle worse and worse. One or two things help indirectly, such as a PVR to record late-night progs I'd otherwise be tempted to stay up and watch; b) an ipod to play just-slightly-boring podcasts in one ear while lying in bed thinking I can't get to sleep - usually works.

Thirdly, people's half-life for caffeine is quite variable - some people have to stop drinking coffee quite soon in the day for it to have worn off by bedtime. You know what it feels like when you've had a coffee too late, so try pushing back the time of your last coffee until you don't feel it at bedtime.

Fourthly, people say that exercise helps you sleep. For ordinary levels of MTBing and running I never found that the case, but if you can get yourself up to the point of managing a 10 miles or more run, then IME that does work, so long as you stop yourself from having naps before bedtime

 

Goto bed at a fixed time.
Do not have a tv in the bedroom.
Set two alarms (A lot of sleep issues for me was the worry the alarm would fail)
Drink plenty of water through the day.
No caffine after 4pm (I have stuck to this religeously)

Also bare in mind although you have achieved a lot for staying off for two weeks, I can assure you there is still plenty of that crap running around your body.

 

I'm no morning person though my work situation requires that we get up at 6am. Luckily for us, we have two rather clever moggies who have an uncanny sense of time, and the younger cat will almost always jump onto our bed at around 5.30am. I reckon it's got something to do with the sound of the heating kicking in at around that time.

SHould this not work, the younger cat then thoughtfully spends the next half an hour tormenting the elder cat (imagine little elephants with claws making mewing noises up and down the stairs). By the time the alarm goes, just before 6am, we're awake (even if we don't want to get up).

The drawback is that the cats have no concept of weekends :-(

John

 

Quality

Somewhat similar to me in that my alarm is set for 0630 with the intention I'm in the bathroom by 0635 in time for my dearest who needs to be in by 0645 (she's up at 0530 !!)

Helpfully I'm forced to get up by daughter # 2 or # 3 who's bowels appear to need to be emptied at 0630 on the dot, so I get a "tapping" on the wall in the bathroom which equals just above my head in bed - I tap back to say I'm on my way, but then fall back to sleep. The second phase of tapping is angrier and so on until I'm up greeted with the view of someone else's dump and the job of wiping one or the other butt. Lovely start to the day - and again weekends are the same!

 

All very solid. I fully agree.

 

Having no TV in my room is not an option for me, unfortunately.

 

Could be a change in your diet might help. Although for all I know you have a perfectly healthy diet - a diet with as few processed foods as possible, not too much sugar, plenty of fresh fruit and veg and less bread and wheat products than is typical for a UK diet may give you a lot more energy. Did for me.

 

So its not just me that does that? this is the only solution for me :SLEEP:

 

I'd also suggest getting up at the same time every day - even if you don't have to (except maybe weekends).

Jeff

 

I found the longer I forced myself to get up at the right time, the easier it became. I do it almost every day at 6.15, and now I even wake up about then at weekends. I can usually drop off again though until 7.30 8ish but then I have to get up. It is worth persevering.

 

And my alarm is one of those that goes on for a full five minutes getting louder and more annoying as it goes. There's no ignoring it

 

Two things make a huge difference to my being able to get up in the morning:

- Going to bed before 10:30 (fairly obvious that one!)
- Not drinking any alcohol with dinner

If either of those conditions isn't met it's much, much harder to get up.

I also find that the whole snooze, two alarms etc. thing makes it harder for me to get up. Rather than having an alarm at 6:30 and then snoozing/waiting for second alarm until 7:00, it's much better to set the alarm as late as poss. for when you actually have to get up in order to be on time for work. That way you get maximum sleep. I find if I'm disciplined and actually get up as soon as the alarm goes off this works much better. Once I've had a shower I'm fully awake, no probs at all.

It's also much easier to get up if you're motivated about the reason for getting up (work, usually). For instance, if I have to get up at 4am to catch a plane then it's no problem at all, in the shower seconds after the alarm goes off. It can be difficult to get that motivated about going to work though!

Michael.

 

Get out of bed when the alarm goes off, do not press snooze, no more "five minutes", do not pass go, etc. It's the only way!

 

Neither seem to make much difference for me. Over the last couple of weeks, I've tried both at various points, but neither seem to make any real difference. In fact, sometimes if I've been drunk the night before (say after a mid week night out with the lads at work), I often find it EASIER to get up the next day. Don't ask me why though...