Are you having a hard time waking up…or do you need an occasional energy boost to get through the day? Coffee is the usual go-to, if you don’t mind the cost, aftertaste, indigestion and jitters! Here are healthier ways to wake up…
Stop stalling: Don’t hit the snooze button on your alarm clock in the morning. You may think that a bit more rest will improve your day, but actually it won’t. You’re allowing yourself to drift back to sleep just when your body is beginning to wake up. You’ll probably feel more out of it, even though you actually spent extra time in bed.
The fix: Try to fall asleep and wake up at the same times each day. If you can’t wake up naturally, it’s OK to use an alarm, but get up when it first wakes you. Choose an alarm with a sound that’s gentle, not jarring (smartphones have some soothing tones). Or look for an alarm clock with sounds or light that gradually increase in intensity. Open your shades right away and get as much light as possible—bright light wakes you up and invigorates you.
Jump-start your day hydrotherapeutically: This is a great way to beat morning brain fog. Hydrotherapy sounds like a lot of work with fancy equipment, but all you need to do is hop in your shower. Begin with warm water, then make it hotter for 10 seconds (not burning hot), then cold again for another 10 seconds, then hot again for another 10 seconds. (Do you notice a pattern forming here?) Repeat the hot/cold cycles 5 times.
Hot water dilates blood vessels for a circulation surge…cold water constricts blood vessels for a slowdown in circulation. This switching act revs up the morning’s sluggish blood flow, sending oxygen to the brain, which should make you more alert for the rest of the day.
Slap this. It’s not your face: A Chinese theory is that “tiredness” collects on the insides of one’s elbows and the backs of one’s knees. Wake up your body by slap-slap-slapping both those areas.
Run away (but then come back): When you just can’t keep your eyes open or your head up and you don’t know how you’ll make it to the end of the workday, run away from it all. Go to the bathroom or a secluded spot and run in place. Run (or jog) for two minutes—this should help you keep going the rest of the day.
Thanks to Reza Yavari, MD, founder of Beyond Care, a lifestyle-management center based in Madison, Connecticut (BeyondCare.net), and Jon Gordon, author of The Energy Bus (JonGordon.com), for help with this tip.
