Shortcut: 4 Ways to Wake Up Energized

Sleep affects everything from cognitive function to emotional stability to physical health—but a good night’s rest is often elusive. In today’s fast-paced, stress-filled world, many of us struggle with sleep-related issues that lead to fatigue, decreased productivity, and chronic health problems. There are, however, steps you can take to enhance your sleep, helping you wake up refreshed and energized to face your day.

1: Get Sunlight in the Morning

In Sleep Smarter, Shawn Stevenson advises exposing yourself to sunlight, especially in the morning. Natural light triggers nerves in your hypothalamus—the brain region that regulates hormones—and cues the release of hormones that govern your circadian rhythm (your internal sleep system). This helps you feel alert during the day and sleepy at night.

Studies back the importance of daytime light; Stevenson cites research showing that office workers who worked near windows during the day slept an average of 46 more minutes every night.

Experts thus recommend you seek out the sun—arrange to work by a window, if possible, and schedule outdoor time when you can. For example, take a short walk before work or have breakfast on your porch.

2. Eat When Your Body Can Handle It

Another way to help your circadian rhythm function properly is to regulate your eating habits. In The Circadian Code, Satchin Panda writes that you should only eat when your body is primed to digest foods. He explains that your digestive system isn’t designed to work all the time—it needs time to rest, and eating at inappropriate times can lead to digestion troubles that can disturb your sleep.

Panda recommends three eating habits:

• Keep a regular eating schedule: When you eat around the same time every day, your body learns to expect and prepares for food. For example, your stomach might produce more acid.
• Avoid late-night snacking: Your body shifts from digestion to repair late in the day. If you eat after this shift, you interrupt this healing process, so stop eating two to four hours before bedtime.
• Give your digestive system a break: Restrict your eating to a 12-hour window to allow time for your gut to repair damaged cells. This reduces inflammation and improves your overall health, enabling you to wake up feeling stronger and more refreshed.

3: Change Your Mindset

In The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod argues that you can increase your motivation to wake up in the morning by changing your thinking. He recommends that you:

• When you go to bed, tell yourself you’ll wake up refreshed. How you feel when you wake up may have less to do with how much sleep you get than with how much sleep you believe you need. For example, if you’re expecting a short sleep but tell yourself you only need that much, you’ll wake up more energized than if you think about how tired you’ll be in the morning.
• Think positive thoughts as you fall asleep. Your first thought in the morning is often your last thought at night. If you think of something aspirational or exciting, such as, “I’m going to spring out of bed tomorrow ready to follow my dreams,” you’re likely to follow through.

Elrod also writes that you should make it hard to stay in bed and easy to get up, with techniques such as:

• Putting your alarm clock across the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
• Sleeping in workout clothes—if you wake up already dressed to exercise, you’ll find it easier to kickstart your day with a healthy routine.
• Using a timer to turn on your bedroom lights. This triggers your body’s light-prompted wake-up cues discussed above.

4. Dream More

Before writing The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss wore a headband to bed that measures brain activity and discovered that when he had a higher ratio of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, he felt better in the morning.

He recommends various methods to increase REM sleep:

• Sleep for longer than nine hours.
• Sleep for a typical duration (eight or fewer hours) but break it up by waking for five minutes after four and a half hours, then going back to sleep.
• Practice polyphasic sleep, in which you sleep in brief chunks, thus forcing your brain into REM mode. He discusses various schedules that can accomplish this, each of which incorporates 20-minute naps throughout the day and nighttime chunks of sleep ranging from 1.5 hours to 6 hours.

The Bottom Line

In general, sleep experts recommend working with your body’s natural inclinations to improve the quality of your sleep: Restrict stimulating activity near bedtime, darken your room, and allow your body to drop in temperature. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance this cornerstone of well-being and achieve the restful nights you deserve.

Read the Full Guides

Shortform note: Read the full Shortform guides mentioned in this article (image: Kinga Howard):

• Sleep Smarter
• The Circadian Code
• The Miracle Morning
• The 4-Hour Body

Join the Conversation

Do you have a favorite way to fall asleep? What do you do when hit with insomnia? Share your comments!