I want to be an early riser. How do I stay alert in the mornings?

October 29, 2016 3:19 PM

So, I'm a home-based worker and I've got the waking up at 5am-6am part down. The issue is that I'm in a mental fog for most of the morning. I've played around with sleep schedules and it seems I DO get enough sleep (7 hours), just that I have a hard time staying alert. Do you have tips or strategies on staying mentally sharp early in the morning?

My mental fog seems to kick in about an hour after I start work. For 2-3 hours I feel like I'm struggling to stay form coherent thoughts.

I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect it has to do with my blood sugar levels. If I eat a couple of nuts or a small bowl of oatmeal, I notice I start feeling "out of it" about 20 minutes after consumption. So normally I just drink tea until around 9 or 10am, when I finally eat an actual meal and then feel exhausted and want to nap afterwards.

Oh, and I drink black tea, not coffee, if that makes a difference. I can try coffee again, but I notice it makes me jumpy and then I still end up crashing about an hour later.

I would love after midnight instead, when I usually feel my sharpest, but I realize it's very inconvenient and also conflict with my partner's schedule.

Things I've considered: staring at a blue light in the morning, a brief session of exercise, trying to work around the lethargic bit by doing chores during that period, changes in diet or caffeine.

I'd appreciate any tricks or advice you have with regards to mentally waking up in the morning. Thanks!

posted by neeta to Health & Fitness (23 answers total)

Is there a reason you're getting up at 5AM? If you have to do this because of work schedules or tasks that can only be completed at that time, it's understandable, but most people have trouble waking up when it's dark outside, and if you work from home and thus don't have a hard and fast start time for which you are held accountable by a boss watching you walk in the door or looking at a timeclock, it can be tough to get down to it when it's still dark outside.

If I was strictly required by my job to be up and working at 5AM, I would probably do what I've had to do when I needed to be on a job site at that hour: multiple alarms, out of bed and directly into the shower, followed by lots of coffee and getting DIRECTLY to work with no dallying.

I work from home, and I often need to start my workday around 7AM. At this point, it's much more light outside and thus reasonably possible to wake up without trauma. Could you start just a little bit later in the morning?
posted by Sara C. at 3:36 PM on October 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Try eating a few scrambled eggs for breakfast to test the blood sugar theory.
posted by michaelh at 3:39 PM on October 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

I recommend a pre-work workout! It really does the job. When I lived a few miles from my office, on days that I'd bike to work, I noticed there was no fog. None whatsoever. I could start working right away.
posted by destructive cactus at 3:40 PM on October 29, 2016 [12 favorites]

Glass of OJ usually does the trick for me!
posted by Hermione Granger at 3:59 PM on October 29, 2016

Take a walk! I have a dog, so that is a strong incitement, but it really changes my morning: most days I wake up really tired, and then I take a walk with the dog, and I am all awake and happy.
posted by mumimor at 4:25 PM on October 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Get out of the house for a bit. This can be walking as suggested, going to get morning coffee or breakfast or any other reason to get out really. I find that's actually leaving my home engages my brain more. If I don't, it's foggy a lot longer.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 4:39 PM on October 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm an early riser most days, and breakfast is often my biggest meal of the day -- eggs, sauteed greens, sausages, Greek yoghurt, etc. Not a lot of carbohydrates, usually, because they make me want to go back to bed.

Are you sure you're getting enough sleep? Some people need more than seven hours, some need more than eight. Are you waking up on your own or do you need an alarm clock? If you need an alarm clock, try going to bed earlier. And earlier. Like, nine o'clock, you're in your PJs heading upstairs.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:52 PM on October 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

You might try eating something just before bed - boiled egg, piece of cheese, small serving of yogurt - to see if it makes a difference in the morning. If a few nuts are making your blood sugar spike and drop, that's doctor-pronto territory, but if your blood sugar is actually low from the night before, that might make more sense.

When I have to get up that early, I pretty much have to shower or I don't really get my eyes wide open for several hours. I don't know if it's psychological, vascular, just dangerous enough to really wake me up, or some other factor but a shower makes a real difference.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:03 PM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you work from home, is there a way you can stack your day so that you get the routine housekeeping that doesn't require much thought out of the way in the morning, and then focus on the more challenging stuff later in the day during the window of time when you're most productive? Everyone's level of productivity and mental focus goes up and down a bit over the course of the day, usually in a predictable manner. Arranging things so as to take this into account makes a big difference.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:13 PM on October 29, 2016

Response by poster: These are great answers so far, everybody, thank you!

To answer the question about needing more sleep, it seems that if I sleep later (like at 3am) and wake up at 10am, I don't have these brain fog problems. The 7 hours seems to work for me. Of course there may be other factors, like a few of you pointed out. Not having as much light at 5 or 6am is probably one of them.

As for why I need to get up so goshdurn early, my husband gets up at that time. I can hear him get up and I wake up almost ever single time, and I think it'd be better if I just didn't get interrupted mid-sleep. It would also be nice to have more waking hours together.
posted by neeta at 6:27 PM on October 29, 2016

Check out the SleepyTime calculator and see if you're waking up mid sleep cycle. I started looking at this near bedtime and I have found that waking up during the suggested timeframe has helped my mornings. It calculates a typical sleep cycle and tells you either what time you should get up or when you should go to bed.
posted by amanda at 6:50 PM on October 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

I have not tested this personally but my early riser friend (who is much more productive and efficient than I am) swears that a big glass of water first thing in the morning works wonders. She says getting dehydrated overnight makes you foggy.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:51 PM on October 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

The night owl/ morning person is totally a thing! Are you only recently making this change? your body maybe is doing some sort of jet lag, here! (Reason why everyone moans the day after daylight savings.) It takes one day per hour difference to resettle.
Maybe try shifting wake up time back by an hour from 10 over a week?

Sunshine totally makes a difference to circadian rhythms. It's coming into summer, and combined with daylight savings, I'm finding I can get up and out by 8, rather than willing myself up by 8. I am seriously considering one of those sun lamps for SAD sufferers.

Try caffeine not straight away when you wake up but a bit later.
posted by freethefeet at 8:14 PM on October 29, 2016

I second a big glass of water (I prefer iced for extra wakeyness) and holding off on caffeine until later in the morning. Another thing nobody has mentioned that helps me is to run a washcloth under cold water and pressing it to my face; it refreshes me and wipes the sleep out of my eyes and reduces some of the puffy sleepy face effects--I look as well as feel more awake after. That's literally the first thing I do every morning upon rising.

Nthing exercise, even just some light stretching or sun salutations, and a protein-rich breakfast.
posted by padraigin at 8:48 PM on October 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect it has to do with my blood sugar levels. If I eat a couple of nuts or a small bowl of oatmeal, I notice I start feeling "out of it" about 20 minutes after consumption. So normally I just drink tea until around 9 or 10am, when I finally eat an actual meal and then feel exhausted and want to nap afterwards

For me this was salicylate sensitivity + an overloaded PST pathway + a possible decreased ability to digest food bc of b12 fuckery. (Which made sense, given my particular circumstances.) i think brain fog is also a sulfur thing. is it all foods and all meals or can you narrow it down?
posted by schadenfrau at 9:05 PM on October 29, 2016

For me it was undiagnosed dairy and wheat intolerances causing serious brain fog and fatigue in the mornings (as well as digestive upset). Maybe consider cutting out one or more common food allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, aliums...) for a couple weeks? You can add them back one at a time and see if you notice a change.
posted by cnidaria at 11:32 PM on October 29, 2016

What are you having for dinner? I found that I when I was overcarbing at night with lots of bread, grains, or pasta, I'd feel my worst. A serving of protein and a couple of veggie sides works way better for me the morning after. That, and regular workouts seem to have nixed my morning brain fog.
posted by missmobtown at 8:46 AM on October 30, 2016

YMMV, but you might try taking some theanine capsules along with coffee (or a caffeine pill). My anecdata is that it does work much as claimed, when I combine it with caffeine I find the stimulation much calmer and more focused, with less of an abrupt crash at the end.
posted by protorp at 11:26 AM on October 30, 2016

Is it possible that you have a natural circadian rhythm that is out of sync with your hubby's? It's hard to change your chronotype. However, there is a medication called Provigil aka modafinil that is designed for shift workers and people suffering from jet lag as well as more serious issues like narcolepsy. If all else fails, ask your doctor.
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 1:32 PM on October 30, 2016

Have you thought about trying a wake-up light alarm clock? I have one that starts providing increasing amounts of light about 30 minutes before the desired wake-up time, and then will beep or play nature sounds at the exact wake-up time.
posted by the thought-fox at 4:39 PM on October 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

You could also try crosswords/Sudoku from the morning paper (or a book).
posted by plep at 5:49 AM on October 31, 2016

Night owl who now gets up at 5am.

I vote for no screens/internet before bedtime and loads of quiet time before sleep and immediately after waking up.

I meditate between 5am and 6am and between 9pm and 10pm. Getting up earlier to meditate helps me be more focused by 6am. Since I started this routine, I've also been sleeping much better, getting up way less and hardly disturbed by my partner. Previously a very light sleeper.

I reckon you might get similar benefits by reading/yoga etc.
posted by mkdirusername at 11:45 AM on October 31, 2016

Your chronobiology might make you a night owl, in which case the best thing you can do is to find a way to sleep in. Highly relevant reading.

I'm a lark, and my wife is a night owl, so I try to be as productive as I can when she's sleeping so that we can spend time together when we're both awake.
posted by rjacobs at 11:27 PM on November 1, 2016