wake up refreshed

1. No late night stimulation.
2. No more coffee.
3. Same bedtime every day.
4. Same time up every day.
5. Mild exercise every day.
6. Medication in balance.
7. De-stress every day.

I always woke up at a reasonable time when I lived with my roommate at college. Mostly because she was a morning person and made me feel like a bum when I woke up and she’d already gone to class, hung out with friends, and worked out at the gym.

When I came home for the summer, I promised myself I’d stick with the whole “waking up in the morning hours” thing. But…I didn’t.

And now I want that to change before it’s too late. And I want this time to be even better. I want to not only wake up earlier, but wake up more refreshed.

At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to go about doing that, but now I think I’ve compiled a collection of tips that will help me have a better night’s sleep.

1 – Stop thinking.

I use to do this a lot last summer and I really remember feeling like I’d gotten a better sleep when I tried it. I breathed slowly and each time I exhaled, I let my thoughts slip further away. Then I’d focus on my breathing, only thinking about the energy it gave me when I inhaled and the power leaving me when I exhaled. It’s pretty similar to meditation, and after a while, I just naturally slipped off to sleep.

2 – Write important things down.

Sometimes I suddenly get an idea or remember something I need to do in the middle of the night. If I write all of these things down before I sleep, I won’t have to strain myself to remember them althrough the night and into the morning.

3 – Get more sleep.

I am in college, and I do love the nighttime, but I really need to stop staying up until 3 AM for no reason. 2:30 is pushing it as well. I think I’ll consider 1:30 to be especially late for me from now on.

4 – Stretch in the morning.

I’m not sure if I should just do some calming yoga exercises or do a full-blown workout in the morning. I think I’ll try both and see which one I response to better. Whatever makes me feel most awake in the morning.

5. Do not bargain with myself.

When the alarm goes off, I always wake up with a headache and think “Well, I’m not getting up now. I feel horrible! I’ll wait 20 minutes.” And then the next thing I know, an hour and a half has passed and I still feel like shit. I need to just get up and get it over with.

Alright, so here’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m pretty sure I’d be much more content if only I got up on the right side of bed each morning instead of hitting the alarm and then going back to bed and grumbling to myself about the misery of living life as a commuting college student and my nonexistent love life (nonexistent LIFE for that matter) and why acne is starting to pop up and stuff like that and then yelling at myself to REALLY JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF BED. But I don’t. I grumble and moan about the state of things and I pretty much miss my first lecture doing it.

No. No more of it. And while the semester’s ending, I think this is good practice next term when I need to get up by 5AM instead of 7AM…so I’m going to start waking up refreshed with happy positive thoughts, thoughts of sunflowers and blue skies and such. Maybe it’ll work.

Going to start my bedtime routine at 9.30 pm so I’ll feel all fresh and calm. Then going to go to bed before midnight. All of these 43 goals are inter-related. I need to save the cash for my sunrise clock, my mate bought one for £100 on my recommendation, I still cant afford one yet but he said its the best thing hes ever bought and its helping him in all areas of his life!