Are you a morning person?
Not me! Yet, we all feel the most alert in the morning, especially after a good night sleep. Here are a few tips to start off your day feeling refreshed:
Set your alarm for the latest possible moment so you're not tempted to fall back asleep.
Lose the snooze button. You might go back to sleep for a few minutes each time you hit the knob, "but you're getting crappy sleep," Breus says. "You just feel worse."
Sit up and swing your legs over the side of the bed.
Breathe deeply three or four times to orient yourself to the real world to infuse a short meditation to your day
Exercise or stretch with some light yoga poses first thing in the morning to energize your mind and body and boost your fitness. But don't choose exercise over getting the sleep you need.
Since sleep cycles range from 90 minutes, which means you need at least 7.5 hours of sleep each night. So, if you count backwards from when you have to wake up, you can figure out what time you need to go to sleep in order to wake more easily.
Sleep cycles is another reason we feel so disoriented from a nap. To obtain a “successful nap” try to time them in 90 minute increments, otherwise you’ll just wake up cranky. "Most people hit their deepest sleep between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.," says WebMD sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD, D, ABSM, "so it's very hard to wake up during that time."
