If you have trouble feeling awake and alert, you can probably relate to how I felt. Waking up so exhausted EVERYDAY omggggg, am I right? I hate feeling like this. Luckily, I have tips to help people feel more awake and just plain more alive, and I will give those tips in the following instruction!
1. **Get Enough Sleep**:
Don’t you know that sleep is important? Most of you are aware that getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night is ideal. Why don’t we get that? Multiple studies have shown that getting less than six hours per night of sleep feels like being unclear-headed all the time. Getting less than four hours is worse. If you are low on energy, chances are it is because you are not getting at least an hour or two of solid hours of sleep. It makes a huge difference, trust me.
2. **Know Your Chronotype**:
In what mood do you usually wake up? Are you a morning person, or a night owl? Be aware of these patterns; they’re worth differentiating between, because what works for you in the morning might not work the same way at night. For example, say your rhythm leads you to be at your best around 10pm; but you try to go to bed at 9pm anyway, with the same expectations. Forcing your body to sleep three hours earlier than it’s used to is a recipe for restless nights. When you feel yourself shifting into a different pattern, honour that evolution. You might have changed.
3. **Morning Routine**:
I want to talk to you about your morning. Do you have an alarm sound? Do you use the same one every day? There’s actually some evidence that it can make you less sleepy in the morning to awaken to tunes (literally), so switching out your alarm sound is a good idea. What’s more, don’t you dare snooze. If you’re anything like me, snoozing simply irrevocably throws you into deep sleep once again, which you’ll then need to shake off. Instead, get up! Moving a little first thing in the morning can make a big difference, as little exercise as it may be. And then get some sunlight! It helps you wake up and get on track with your circadian rhythms.
4. **Watch Your Caffeine Intake**:
Caffeine: that pick-me-up of pick-me-ups. In moderation and at the right time of day, it can be a healthy ingredient in the recipe for quality shuteye. In the wrong amounts and at the wrong time? Then watch out, because it can wreck your rest. Try to cut back on caffeine, especially in the afternoon and evening, so that you’re able to drift off to sleep a little easier and enjoy more consistent quality sleep all night long.
5. **Diet**:
What you eat can really help or hinder your energy levels. I get a very different energy boost from eating well, and it’s certainly noticeable. Bear with me here, because this is one of the more complicated and controversial topics, but we’re working with a cross-section, here. There is a good basis in science to suggest that eating well, with whole foods and avoiding too much junk or processed foods, helps your energy levels. Relatedly, diets that are high in sugar and low in fibre also seem to interfere with night-time melatonin, which could in turn impact your sleep quality — the key thing to note is that it’s a double whammy. However, and this is an important caveat, you may need to do some trial and error to find the right diet for you. The amount of time it took me to stop being sluggish through the day by making healthier food choices is one of those things that’s hard to be precise about.
6. **Exercise**:
Talk of exercise can be yawn-inducing, but I think it’s worth it. Doing any form of additional exercise — especially walking — will make you feel better during the day and improve your sleep overall. This might not seem like the most rigorous connection is being made, since nights when you work out hard do not necessarily precede your best nights of sleep. But I think the benefits are there in a more insidious way, and come when you least expect it. Workouts throughout the week change blood flow, improve hormone regulation, and strengthen muscles — which over time leads to a clearer and easier-to-sustain pattern of good sleep. On a related note, I’ve found that activity can most immediately increase my energy during the day, even when I’m mostly sedentary for other reasons.
7. **Napping and Alcohol**:
Naps! Naps! Naps! Naps. A short nap, too short, for example, 20 to 30 minutes, can make you more alert, will help you remember things better. But if it’s under 30 minutes, you very seldom will go into deep sleep. If you’re going to have a longer nap, then go for 1.5 hours, because that’s a full cycle. And don’t nap too late in the day, like after 3 pm or it will make it harder to fall asleep at night.
And what about alcohol? It’s tempting to knock back a nightcap to help you relax, but alcohol actually works against a good night’s sleep by disrupting the timing of your circadian rhythms and interfering with getting deep, restorative sleep. While it might help you fall asleep, it often leads you to wake up more during the night, and leaves you feeling pretty rough in the morning.
8. **Bedtime Routine**:
When it’s time for bed, take a long, warm bath or shower in the first instance. The drop in body temperature from getting out of the warm water is ideal, as it replicates what your body does when you fall asleep. But aren’t baths supposed to make you feel clean and awake? You might think this, but when you factor in the important signals of warmth and decreasing body temperature, a well-timed bath can lull you into sleep day or night.
You should sleep in a cool, dark room because darkness signals to your brain it’s time to sleep. If you know those bright lights or HD big-screen televisions are a temptation, make sure to turn them off so you don’t have to see them. It’s also a good idea to remove the clock. I know people who sleep with the clock turned so it’s facing away from them.
And for the bedroom, talk to screens: Phones and computers before bedtime make your brain too active to drift off to sleep — and having any phone by your bedside, aware or not, is a nighttime distraction.
If you are lying there for an hour and still haven’t dropped off, then you can get up and do something else for a while until you feel drowsy again. But don’t look at the clock too much, as this tends to make you anxious, which only makes things worse. And when you do get up, turn down the lights, so that your body knows it is still night.
My final top tip is a reminder that health issues and illnesses do undermine sleep and energy, so, if you give everything a try and still don’t feel right, I’d raise it with your doctor.
But the big trick to staying energetic: put yourself on a sleep schedule! Sleep and exercise made all the difference for me, as have good sleep habits, of which
a sleep schedule is the easiest to follow. Go to bed and get up at the same time each day. If you can’t do anything else, do this one. Your body runs more smoothly when it is on a schedule; it is a bit like a well-oiled clock. When I travel or when I have a wild weekend, and my schedule is disturbed, it throws me off rhythm for days. The more you can do to stay consistent, the better off you’ll be. Your body will know when to sleep, when to wake up, and when to be energised. Mine is midnight to bed and 8 a.m. to wake up, but it might not be yours. Having a schedule like this works well for me; I never need to set an alarm, because my body wakes me up on its own.
In short, I’ve found that my sleep schedule improved, correct diet, and some exercise, balances the energy level the most. I have very rarely days that I feel fatigued. The good news is now my energy level is outstanding and way more than it was, before. I hope you can find this helpful. Obviously, we all are different, and our bodies. But if you can reach of course certain level of sleeping, healthy diet, and a good exercise, you will achieve the same level of your good energy.
If you have any story and might be a tip as well, you can always share with us. A lot of people are browsing the internet looking for ideas to have a good sleep and how to improve energy.