Many people have a hard time waking up in the morning. There are days when the alarm clock goes off and you just want to turn it off and sleep for another hour. If you feel like you want to hide under the blankets and not get out of your bed in the morning, these tips could be useful for you!
Songs that wake you up
The loud and unpleasant sound of an alarm clock is not a comfortable way to wake up. When you hear this sound, your first thoughts of the day will be negative. You do not want to start your day like this! Many people say that they find it much more pleasurable to wake up to the sound of music. When choosing a good song to wake up to, you should look for these three characteristics:
1. To begin with, the song needs to have a buildup. It is a comfortable way to wake up if the song starts gently and quietly and then builds up. This ensures that you can wake up gradually, which is a much better start to your day than being torn out of sleep brutally by the alarm clock.
2. The second characteristic of a good morning song is that it gives you a positive feeling. As soon as you hear the song you should feel motivated for the day and wanting to jump out of bed to start your day. This way you avoid a grumpy feeling in the morning. You will have a feel-good attitude right away.
3. The last important feature of a wake up song is strong beats. Research has shown that 100 to 130 beats per minute is the best way to get a good mood and to wake up with a nice feeling.
Besides these three criteria, it is of course especially important that you use music that you like. You can also experiment with different songs. One morning try a more quiet and calm song and the next morning an active song with strong beats. This way you will find out what suits you best! You can also let it depend on the type of morning you have. If you have to get up very early, you might benefit more from a song that gets you out of your sleep at once, while you can allow yourself to wake up a bit slower and calmer at the weekend with a gentle song.
You can just use music that you already know and love as your wake up song. But if you need some inspiration for songs that other people use as morning songs, you can check out this list:
· Wake Me Up by Avicii
· Viva La Vida by Coldplay
· Wake Up by Arcade Fire
· Elevate by St. Lucia
· Money On My Mind by Sam Smith
· Downtown by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
· Good Morning by Kanye West
· Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by WHAM!
· Everybody Get Up by Five
· Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves
· Rather Be by Clean Bandit
· Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen
Warning! Chances are that you won’t like your wake up song anymore after a while, because you start to associate your feelings about getting up in the morning with the song. So, maybe it is best to not use your favorite song in the whole world, to avoid the risk that you start to hate it!
If you prefer to be surprised by the song in the morning, you could also set 1 alarm to wake you up a bit and then turn on the radio to slowly wake up. These are some radio stations that we suggest:
· Q-music
· Skyradio
Light
Another tip to wake up easier in the morning is to make use of the light. We naturally wake up to light, because the light sends a message to your brain: ‘Hey! It is time to wake up, the day has started!’. So if you struggle waking up, try leaving the curtains open to allow the light to come in your bedroom in the morning. Of course, this won’t really help in the winter, because then it stays dark longer in the morning and chances are that you have to wake up before the sun rises. In this case, you can use artificial light, for example a ‘wake up light’, which you put on your nightstand and starts to shine light at a certain time.
Prepare the night before
There are many tasks, which you normally do in the morning, that you can prepare already the night before. For example, you can already decide what outfit you want to wear tomorrow and put it next to your bed. When you wake up the following morning, you can just grab your clothes and put them on. This saves you a lot of time, as decision making can be hard in the morning when you are not fully awake yet. Another example is already packing your bag, for the same reasons as the outfit. If you need to hurry in the morning, you will thank yourself that you already did it. This way, you do not have to do so many tasks in the morning, which makes it easier for you.
