"As soon as you wake up after a night of sleep, you should get out of bed. If you lie awake in bed, your brain links being awake to being in bed," according to Professor Matthew Walker from University of California Berkeley.
Early Risers May Have a Lower Risk of Developing Chronic Disease. An early wake-up call may also impact your metabolic health. A recent study found that people who wake up early utilize more fat during rest and exercise and are more insulin-sensitive than late risers.
You can't escape sleep inertia altogether. If possible, give yourself about 90 minutes in the morning before you have to do any important tasks. Some people may feel groggy for two or more hours after waking up, so give yourself more time if you need it.
“It becomes kind of like jet lag,” says Dr. Winter. “You wake up feeling kind of groggy, like you have a dull headache, maybe a bit of nausea, and lethargy—you just don't feel like doing anything.” Your best bet is to resist the urge to nod back off after you wake up.
Yes, there may be benefits to being awake at 4 a.m. when everyone you know is sleeping. But there are also big drawbacks, and they aren't worth it. Instead, figure out how getting up ultra-early might help you. And then find ways to get those benefits into your day while still getting up at a reasonable hour.
Is it better to wake up naturally or with an alarm?
“If we wake naturally from a [90-minute] sleep cycle, we will feel more alert than if we wait for our alarm to disrupt us mid-sleep cycle, which leads us to feel groggy,” says Artis.
Why you should not stand up immediately after waking up?
Move too quickly and your muscles may spasm and put you at risk for lower back pain or even a slipped or ruptured disk. Another reason to get up slowly: When we stand after lying down for hours, the blood rushes to the legs, and this can cause a lightheaded feeling that puts us at risk for a stumble.
How long is it okay to lay in bed after waking up?
Staying in Bed Too Long: If you wake up during the night and cannot fall back asleep, experts recommend getting out of bed after 15 to 30 minutes. To help your brain associate your bed with sleeping rather than with being awake, you want to avoid lying awake in bed for too long.
As the sun sets each day and it gets dark outside, you should ideally be winding down to go to sleep. But bingeing that TV show or scrolling through social media keeps you up past midnight instead of hitting the hay at a decent hour. A recent study suggests that going to sleep at 10 p.m. is the optimal time.
So if you occasionally wake up early after putting in at least seven hours of sleep the night before, it's probably your body's way of telling you that you've satisfied both systems and you should get up and start your day, Morgenthaler said.
Some experts say yes. For starters, getting up earlier can improve confidence, Snowden says, because it can feel like an accomplishment. And there's something to be said for not constantly feeling like you're in a rush, which only elevates stress levels and negatively impacts mental health.
The reasons for morning people being more successful seem to be linked to their general attitude and mindset. A Harvard biologist, Christoph Randler, did some research on this and concluded that early birds are generally more proactive, and this results in higher levels of productivity.
What should you do when you wake up in the middle of the night? The next time you wake up at 3 a.m. (or whatever time), give yourself 15 to 20 minutes to doze back into dreamland. It's OK. If you're awake longer than that, it's best to get out of bed, advises Dr.
Waking naturally might help you ditch chronic social jet lag for good. Work and school dictate a lot about how we structure our days, from day-care drop off to commute length, to when we eat and go to the gym. Most importantly, these obligations impact when we wake up and go to sleep.
Should I stay in bed if I wake up before my alarm?
Paradoxically, experts say to get out of bed. Yes, even at 3 a.m. “Abandon the idea of getting back to sleep,” Troxel said. “When you do that, when you let the pressure go that sleep isn't so effortful, sleep is more likely to come back.”
What time should I be in bed if I wake up at 6 am?
Take the time you plan to wake up (say, 6 a.m.) and subtract the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep (which is around 9 to 11 p.m. the night before). This is your bedtime ballpark.
Research on circadian rhythm have shown that sleeping from 10pm to 6 am gives the best results in terms of productivity and vitality. The light has a key role.
The bare minimum of sleep needed to live, not just thrive, is 4 hours per 24-hour period. Seven to 9 hours of sleep are needed for health, renewal, learning, and memory. Disruption of the sleep cycle from shift work creates problems for the quality and quantity of sleep.
An average sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Ideally, you need four to six cycles of sleep every 24 hours to feel fresh and rested. Each cycle contains four individual stages: three that form non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and one rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.