For the past 20 months I’ve had a part-time job tutoring English conversation at a big corporate company in Korea. Unfortunately for me, the tutoring sessions start at 7 a.m. (before the businessmen start their workday) so I need to wake up at 5 a.m. to get ready and take a bus to work. I wasn’t born a natural early bird so it hasn’t been easy waking up that early! So I’d like to share some of my tried and true tricks to waking up early in the morning.
#1. Schedule a reminder to go to bed early.
I like to set a reminder on my phone that I have to get up early the next day. This way I’m aware that I need to go to bed early so that I’ll get enough sleep before I have to wake up. There have been days where I’ve forgotten I had to get up early the next day and consequently went to work on just 4-5 hours of sleep. Ouch! So I calculated that if I want to get 8 hours of sleep I need to sleep at 9 p.m. Of course, sometimes I’m too busy to sleep a full 8 hours or simply don’t feel like sleeping that early so I set a hard deadline of 11 p.m. in order to get at least 6 hours of sleep.
#2. Tuck yourself in bed an hour before you have to sleep.
In line with being aware of having to sleep early, get comfy in bed an hour before bedtime. I have a tendency to read or check things on my phone before falling asleep in bed, regardless of whether I go to bed early or late. So I’ve found it’s helpful to schedule time to indulge in some reading before going to sleep so that my bedtime doesn’t get pushed back later than it needs to be.
#3. Choosing a book before bedtime.
You probably know this by now, but artificial light can keep you from getting sleepy! Although I tend to buy e-books rather than hard copies, I do have a few paperbacks that I keep for bedtime. Instead of reading a novel full of suspense, I opt for informative books that won’t keep me awake all night.
#4. Set more than one alarm.
If you’ve ever slept through an alarm before, this tip is definitely for you! Setting three alarms instead of just one will guarantee that you get up in the morning. If your alarm has a snooze function, by the time you get to your third alarm you’ll have been through two alarms and two snooze alarms!
#5. Start with a soft soothing alarm and build up from there.
I find that waking up with a soft soothing alarm is kinder on the nerves than a sudden loud blare. Waking up with a jolt puts me in a cranky tired mood so I like to start with a softer alarm and save the loud ones for last.
Do you have any tips for waking up early?
