First Thing in the Morning

[darksai]

This morning, as is quite common, I woke up a little bit before my alarm went off. Since I'm used to waking up in the middle of the night, usually my immediate reaction is to not let myself wake up full in case I'm unable to go back to sleep and lose a whole lot of sleep, however my body just slowly woke itself up and when I checked the time, it was indeed wake up time. Now while I was laying in bed waiting in bed for my alarm to actually go off, as I usually would do, this time I thought "hey, I don't feel so "bad" (tired), if I snooze my alarm, I'm not gonna wake up this nicely again" and thus promised myself that I would get out of bed as soon as my alarm went off. But the next thought was the what was really revealing: "So, what are you gonna do after that?" and I realized, with that, that the first I've always done when I wake up is go back to sleep.

"This is terrible!" I thought, "How can I expect Wake Up permanently, if I can't even wake up normally?!" and so I promised myself (or if not then I am now!) to make every effort to never use that devilled snooze button ever again.

This still left me with a bit of a problem though, and that's "What am I going to replace snoozing with, at least temporarily, as the first thing I do when I wake up?" and to this, I had no real answer, except to ask this very question to all of you, as knowing myself well enough, I need to choose this with some cunning; it can't be too trivial or it won't wake me (and I'll still feel "grumpy"), nor too big that it takes a lot of time, and it has to be something that I don't do in the morning currently else I'll easily forget.

So, what is the first thing you do in the morning to stop yourself from going back to sleep?

 

[ajseph 21]

I would say smoke a cigarette! It's a great way to get the brain and mind going!

 

[Voyageur]

...
Since I'm used to waking up in the middle of the night, usually my immediate reaction is to not let myself wake up full in case I'm unable to go back to sleep and lose a whole lot of sleep...

Just in case it is your night sleep interruptions that are causing the morning "going back to sleep" issues, not sure if you have read the EMF thread, whereby things like alarm clocks or other electrical devices near your bed may be actually causing these interruptions and morning lethargic feelings. There are a number of good sleep forum threads after doing a search that might help.

So, what is the first thing you do in the morning to stop yourself from going back to sleep?

For me it is not what i do, it is the dogs making sure i'm up. :)

 

[darksai]

I would say smoke a cigarette! It's a great way to get the brain and mind going!

I don't take to well to tobacco on an empty stomach at the moment, though once I'm in full keto that'll certainly be something to try out

...
Since I'm used to waking up in the middle of the night, usually my immediate reaction is to not let myself wake up full in case I'm unable to go back to sleep and lose a whole lot of sleep...

Just in case it is your night sleep interruptions that are causing the morning "going back to sleep" issues, not sure if you have read the EMF thread, whereby things like alarm clocks or other electrical devices near your bed may be actually causing these interruptions and morning lethargic feelings. There are a number of good sleep forum threads after doing a search that might help.

Thanks, I haven't had it in a while now, and not regularly in a long time, though I do have a fair amount of EM I can take out of my room or simply turn off (PC's hard-switch, for example).

So, what is the first thing you do in the morning to stop yourself from going back to sleep?

For me it is not what i do, it is the dogs making sure i'm up. :)

This gave me an excellent idea: get straight up and go check the kitties' food and water first thing. ;D

 

[TheLostBoy]

Good thread! I too have difficulties in the morning, and the biggest has always been (which I ask myself while laying half-awake in bed, sometimes for muuuch too long), "Okay, what's the first thing I'm going to do today/How do I start my day"?

I've read (I'm forgetting where atm) that having something to look forward to right away in the morning helps motivation and gets you in the habit of actually waking up when you get up.
Checking the cat's water and food could be good, so long as you don't fall into a trap like "I checked it last morning, I know kitty's not out of food n water yet..Snooooze" or anything like that. Something pet-related could be a good idea if you have animals.
Sounds like smoking is a good suggestion so far. Someday I think that would be a nice way to kick off the morning! However, I'm with you on not trying that one until full keto/on the diet.

Some other ideas that come to mind:
Making coffee, tea or warm lemon water right away might be a nice, easy way to wake up
Stretching out (light and easy) or/and Yoga
Taking a short walk (depending on weather, your location, etc.)
Shower (if you shower in the morning) and get ready for the day
Watering the house plants

 

[Keit]

So, what is the first thing you do in the morning to stop yourself from going back to sleep?

Well, half of the time I do hit the snooze button until the point when I really have to get up in order not to be late to the uni. ;) But your question made me think, and there is something that helped me to get up during the last month and a half when I had an opportunity to live alone. Those where either lectures, or documentaries, news reports, or anything else that was posted on SOTT and I didn't have enough time to listen to them or watch them during a day. They were just playing in the background, and I could prepare myself, listen and sometimes glance.

Another thing that came to mind, that perhaps could help you to avoid stretching your hand toward the snooze button, is upon opening your eye to do couple of warrior breath shouts! :) Shower in the morning is also a good idea.

 

[theos]

Just in case it is your night sleep interruptions that are causing the morning "going back to sleep" issues, not sure if you have read the EMF thread, whereby things like alarm clocks or other electrical devices near your bed may be actually causing these interruptions and morning lethargic feelings. There are a number of good sleep forum threads after doing a search that might help.

Yep. It's not a good idea to keep electrical devices right by your bed. Although I usually wake before my alarm, I keep the alarm clock (turned face down so the light doesn't shine out into the room and I can't see the time) on the dresser across the room so when it goes off I have no choice but to get out of bed to turn it off. I haven't used the snooze since putting it there.

A good thing to do upon waking is to get on SOTT and have a news update like reading the paper in the morning. :)

 

[ajseph 21]

I would also say a great suggestion I received from the network was doing the pipe breathing before anything else in the morning , and if you can make it your aim, ( write it on a piece of paper). And yes once you get keto adapted an empty stomach and smoking won't feel bad at all! I wonder if keotones and nicotine have a symbiotic relationship because the sensation I get in the morning after a smoke is like a "body surge" if that makes sense. And on the shower idea you could make sure its cool because this has been shown to help people wake up in the morn.

 

[trendsetter37]

I get up and prepare bacon for the rest of the family. It smells great and if I go back to sleep for whatever reason it will burn and set-off the smoke alarms so it's a pretty good morning sleep deterrent. I also have to walk the dog while i have a smoke so having more than one thing you MUST do might help.

 

[Mal7]

These days, whatever the time, we tend to wake in a darkened room with the curtains drawn. Perhaps biochemically we are more designed to wake up naturally with the light of the sun?

I also find that I have a good internal biological clock, so for example if I have something important to get up early for, and I set my alarm for 6:43am, I may wake up at 6:41am anyhow, even if my normal waking time is more like 11:00am.

With regard to natural hours for sleeping, I am reminded of a story about some well-meaning efforts to try and prevent depletion of firewood supplies in an area of Nepal. Electric power was introduced, with the idea that people would use electricity rather than wood for their cooking. What happened was that people used the electric power to keep electric lights on at night, staying up later than they used to, and while up, burning even more wood than before.