Tips: Switching from Night Owl to Early Risers

As health consciousness amongst Millennials is on the rise, a lot more youngsters prefer being an early riser to a night owl. Those who habitually stay up late are also striving to become early birds by adjusting their schedules or even their lifestyle. Sleeping late every day attracts a host of health problems as it is not always possible to attain eight hours of sleep every night.

Moreover, waking up early in the day gives you a few hours ahead of the rest of the world, making it possible to attain maximum productivity. Studies suggest that merely making small changes to sleep schedule can make it easily possible to become early birds. In light of this, the following tips will help you make the switch from night owls to early risers.

Start by sleeping an hour early

The sleep-wake cycle of night owls works differently. By sleeping an hour early every week, and waking up an hour before in the morning, will slowly help change the sleep-wake cycle. The human body cannot cope with drastic changes overnight. Keeping this in mind, slowly shifting your sleep schedule to earlier in the day, while maintaining the whole eight hours of sleep, will put you on the path of becoming early birds. With every passing week, sleep earlier and wake up earlier. Once you have comfortably reached the sleep and wake up time you desire, your body will automatically get used to sleeping and waking up at that time.

Make your early morning productive and interesting

Most often we wake up and rush to get to work. On the contrary, people who wake up early to take time to get into the mood, work out early morning and eat healthy breakfast are far more productive and healthy, when compared to late risers. Waking up early to simply not do anything defeats the whole purpose of trying to be early birds. Develop a morning routine that motivates you to wake up. Most importantly, the morning routine should be something you love doing – be it going for a run, or a morning walk, meditation or even reading – and it will never seem difficult to wake up early daily.

Be steady and do not break the cycle

The key to any change is being steady. It is widely known that any practice can become a habit if continuously done for over three weeks (21 days). This is because the body takes so long to get used to any change or any new habit. Every day, sleep a little earlier and wake up a litter earlier. And before you know it, you are an early bird. Furthermore, changing meal timing in accordance to sleep-wake time can also make the process a lot easier. Avoid eating heavy meals before bed and instead, eat healthily as soon as you wake up. Ensure your night schedule is not filled with activities to keep you awake and alert. Instead, read a book or listening to calming music. Breaking this cycle will only mean you need to restart the process all over again.