I want to feel that good all the time!

August 20, 2007 6:14 AM

I woke up this morning and felt GREAT. Not just physically well but emotionally too. I felt motivated to do my morning workout, actually spoke with my father instead of the usually morning grunts, sang aloud in the car to the slug line (HOV rideshare) and was in a general all-around-good mood. I kid you not. At one point while getting dressed I thought "today is the first day of the rest of my life" HA!! Crazy I know! I was actually thinking of ways to be productive and it wasn’t even 6 in the morning! My question is... How do I make that happen EVERYDAY, how can I enjoy such motivation and well feelings on a consistent basis?

And just for some background, here’s what I did yesterday.

Slept till 11:30... drove a friend to their locked out car. Went home. Watched a Netflix DVD. Ate Lunch. Got Online. Played a game or two. Worked on a friends website. Watched last Comic Standing, ate dinner (pizza) and went to bed at 12:20. I also read for 10 minutes (how to win friends and influence people) and got up at 5:20. I did wake up once at 3am and drank some water and took off my socks and shirt (it was hot).

In general I am not a morning person... So that makes this odd sense of wellness even more strange.

Anyway... There's the background info & the question. Any insight? Anyone else have this happen?

posted by crewshell to health & fitness (23 answers total)

I blame the Dale Carnegie.
posted by box at 6:24 AM on August 20, 2007

Did you do more exercise than usual during the day yesterday? It could be endorphins.

Maybe it's related to a feeling of goodwill for helping your friend with his car, and the other friend with the website? Or just general happiness from watching TV comedy and reading about having friends?

Did you have a NutriGrain bar?
posted by danb at 6:27 AM on August 20, 2007

Well, that was only for 10 minutes, maybe a 5 or 6 pages and was before I hit the sack... I usually read before bed and have read Mr. Carnegie several times prior and did not have this effect.
posted by crewshell at 6:27 AM on August 20, 2007

Do this everyday:

Sleep till 11:30... drive a friend to their locked out car. Go home. Watch a Netflix DVD. Eat lunch. Go online. Play a game or two. Work on a friends website. Watch last Comic Standing, eat dinner (pizza) and go to bed at 12:20. Also, read for 10 minutes (how to win friends and influence people) and get up at 5:20. Wake up once at 3am and drink some water and take off your socks and shirt (it is hot).

No, seriously, sleep well, eat well, exercise and do stuff you like to do. I don't think there are any secret hacks except that to feel good every morning.
posted by sveskemus at 6:28 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Definitely not the endorphins, I was actually more lazy than normal.

The website-helping-friends stuff is pretty par for the course for me I would say... so I dont think I can pin it there.

Overall it seems random... do you other Mefites have this occur in your lives? Random days of motivation.

To be honest.. its already starting to slip away (I did get my work out in though, yay!)
posted by crewshell at 6:29 AM on August 20, 2007

Sounds like you simply slept well. I suspect, but am not sure, that a good night's sleep is rare.

Do you snore at night? You might be suffering from a little sleep apnoea.
posted by deeper red at 6:36 AM on August 20, 2007

You woke up during your lightest phase of sleep.
posted by prostyle at 6:38 AM on August 20, 2007

Brace yourself: some days are just better than others.
posted by hermitosis at 6:44 AM on August 20, 2007 [13 favorites]

Were you coming out of a slump of a couple of days?

I find my motivation is a bit of a pendulum swing, some days are just better than others. For example, two weeks ago, I was cracking along at work, getting lots done, and feeling really good about myself (highly unusual for me). Today, I woke up feeling like the world had a loaded gun to my head. YMMV.
posted by LN at 6:51 AM on August 20, 2007

Brace yourself: some days are just better than others.

Remember this next week when you inexplicably wake up feeling depressed, tired, and grouchy.
posted by billysumday at 6:51 AM on August 20, 2007

I feel exactly this way, as near as I can understand, when I go a night without sleep. As a matter of fact, I went last night without and sleep and felt terrific for a good portion of the day, until I crashed, and woke up at 5 a.m. fairly depressed.
posted by ifthe21stcentury at 7:15 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Obligatory Red Dwarf reference:

KRYTEN: Well, at a very basic level [Dr. Lanstrom] predicted a kind of "reverse flu" -- a strain of virus which promotes an unaccountable feeling of well-being and happiness.
LISTER: That's happened to me! Me life's been turned to complete and utter crud, and I've woken up in the morning feeling good for no apparent reason!
KRYTEN: The chances are, sir, that on those occasions you had unwittingly contracted Lanstrom's virus. According to her notes, twentieth-century DJs suffered from it all the time.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:18 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Mild sleep deprivation gives a temporary mood boost (looks like you slept for only 5 hours). I don't have a cite, but I remember reading about a study where they forced depressed people to wake up early, and they temporarily felt a bit better.

Problem is, at least in my experience, when you get back to a normal 7-8 hours you temporarily feel a bit worse until you even out again.
posted by dixie flatline at 7:40 AM on August 20, 2007

Maslow might say you're having a "peak experience."
posted by pardonyou? at 7:52 AM on August 20, 2007

Seconding prostyle; I once read about the theory of waking up during the lighter and deeper phases of sleep, and how that would affect your morning. I tried setting my alarm to go off about half an hour before it was time to wake up, coming on to very quiet music, and found I would wake up sometime within that half hour, feeling great. The idea is that the quiet music is only loud enough to wake you up when you're barely asleep anyway.
posted by pocams at 7:53 AM on August 20, 2007

Seconding ifthe21stcentury: whenever I go a night without sleep I feel more focused and engaged, more able to stick with the same task for a long period of time, and more empathetic towards other people. But a lot less creative. Then it all goes away at about 5pm, when I crash.
posted by msittig at 8:19 AM on August 20, 2007

Partial sleep deprivation has anti-depressive effects. It's part of why people get "punchy" after staying up too long.
posted by the jam at 8:30 AM on August 20, 2007

some days are just better than others. i too am not a morning person, but woke up this past saturday in a GOOD MOOD. i can't remember the last time that's happened.

but, for me, it often comes after having a chill, fun, relaxing day/evening the day before.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 8:43 AM on August 20, 2007

There are a few possiblities here. The obvious one is of course that you need to become enlightened like Buddha did and abandon the cycle of death and birth. That's the first thing to try. Since that's difficult, there are simpler options.. Ok, so here's what I noticed: this has to do with weather, pretty often. When it's raining, I feel really really great, especially in the evening. It's not any type of rain, but it seems that sometimes rain accompanies certain atmospherical conditions that make me feel perfect. Sometimes not. At other times I get a headache - a really terrible one - for a couple days also due to a certain type of weather. You can also feel really good if you run for a week or so and then don't run for 1-2 days. You also feel really good if a number of things happily coincide - exercise, work, etc. One curious thought I had is that we tend to immediately waste that energy. We always have a number of things that were hanging around for a long time and when we have plenty of energy, it gets wasted on work, family, etc, and this is a terrible mistake. If you feel good, don't do anything. Do not try to fix that which isn't broken. Therein lies the problem, because then you'll start thinking and getting upset over a multitude of things that need to be done, and are not getting done. So this is really a matter of getting rid of friends, family (to the extent it is possible), and work, which is not to say that you should get bummed out, but do only a little work that will keep you going. It's really terrible if you reflect on the fact that people can't generally do that because they have payments on car, house, school, etc etc. Have to keep turning those gears folks! You feel really great when you change from feeling lousy to feeling somewhat less lousy. That doesn't last long. Have anyone else gotten this that you suddenly feel that you feel *too good*? That's hard to explain. Like, when you realize that what you really want is to feel 2x better than you usually do, or 3x better, as it were, but if you suddenly feel 8x better, you're reeling, out of whack, and you don't feel like yourself anymore. One thing I can tell you is that for me, if I want to reverse this effect, I know that if I eat a bagel with a bit of butter and cream cheese, in about half an hour that good feeling will magically go away. Not eating anything for a day is an almost certain way to feel really good (as long as you don't do anything hard).
posted by rainy at 9:15 AM on August 20, 2007

I get a similar feeling quite often, but it strikes out of the blue, and can happen at any time of day or night. I feel really good, like I'm on a high. Nothing can drag me down. Everything seems "fantastic". It's like someone just flicks on a lightswitch, and everything is bathed in feel good vibes.

I don't really do anything to encourage them to happen, because I prefer to not know when they are coming. It makes them like a surprise present. I find them happening more, though, when I take care myself, and have something to look forward to. For example, a few weeks ago I was planning a trip to the garden centre. I'd been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. The previous night, I started running a bath (my weekly treat) and one came over me. 10 minutes later, I was enjoying the nicest bath I'd had in months.

I've found them happening more since I started to make myself be more optimistic, too.

Also, I've been listening to some Paul McKenna hypnosis tapes on the PC. They might be having an effect.
posted by Solomon at 1:23 PM on August 20, 2007

Watch your sleep habits. If this happens two or three days in a row, and you don't feel like you needed the sleep you missed, you might have a problem.

Especially if you struggle with oversleeping and depression much of the rest of the time.

OTOH when I have struggled with depression in the past, I've intentionally slept less to get a mood boost. My doc would not have approved!
posted by konolia at 6:05 PM on August 20, 2007

Some may scoff, but don't underestimate the power of comedy. I'm convinced there is nothing better for overall well-being than a genuine belly laugh.
posted by acorncup at 8:38 PM on August 20, 2007

You could meditate on happy things before you go to bed... I always feel great after a really happy dream.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:46 PM on August 20, 2007