There is no better way to improve our overall productivity than starting your mornings with the right foot! And one of the most addressed problems for people dealing with chronic stress is coincidently the fact they need to reach the mid-evening to start feeling their brains awake enough to feel capable of concentrating; but is there an underlying cause for such condition?
Doctors highlight sleep deprivation as the main cause of oversleeping, lack of energy and overall motivation during the morning, which also can be linked to both physical and our lifestyle habits. Therefore, let’s explore some convenient methods that not only can troubleshoot our bad sleeping conditions during the night but also improve our morning routine in less than we can expect!
1. 8-hour Sleep as a rule
The 8-hour sleep requirement isn’t just a silly promo to force people to stay more time in bed, is a metabolic demand to get our cogwheels moving correctly! Both younger adults and adults require a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a day, which can go up to 9 hours depending on the kind of activity to perform. The reason behind this is strictly biological, leading to severe consequences if sleep deprivation starts becoming a habit like lack of alertness, impaired memory, reduced quality lifestyle, increased blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity, depression and diabetes.
2. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
One of the killer factors people often do is skipping breakfast for a large number of reasons: feeling sick during the mornings, not having enough appetite, lacking time to sit down and eat, etc. Professionals agree that this nasty habit not only sets a direct link to a lack of energy during the mornings but also increases our chances to develop obesity. How so? Consider the following scenario.
By skipping breakfast, probably we engage on a mid-morning snack to keep hunger at bay, which usually are high refined carbohydrates like biscuits, soda drinks, milk chocolate, and any other pastry sweets. Therefore, we are adding calories and sugar content to our diet as the only nutritional factor instead of having a proper meal that covers these needs plus proteins, complex carbohydrates and fibre.
If you already know you don’t have enough time to sit down and have breakfast, then consider waking up a couple of hours earlier than you usually do. Set a minimum of 30 minutes a day to have a proper breakfast which should include proteins, vegetables, milk products and coffee/tea as the essential nutritional groups to cover.
3. Morning workouts
By engaging in early morning exercise, you will get your endorphins to flow and improve your mood. Yes, it’s true most people actually hate doing exercise, especially after they set a foot out of bed, and winter colds only make the tendency worse; however, adding a light exercise during the early hours of the morning is set to get your alertness levels up and get you ready for what’s coming up next.
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Don’t forget to have breakfast prior doing your routine, as lack of food during exercise routines isn’t only going to make yourself hate the habit way more but put you at risk of fainting due to lack of nutrients.
4. Just a cuppa’ coffee!
If you wake up cursing everything that comes across your path and feel groggy, then you should probably set a coffee machine at your kitchen for improving your morning experience.
Drinking caffeine, from coffee or drink shortly after waking up will boost your alertness, preventing yourself from falling asleep again. However, do not add any cream content or soothing tea like peppermint or chamomile as that will only set your mood back to sleep time.
5. Plan your morning the night before
Instead of just feeling overwhelmed due to some things you need to complete during a single morning, start planning the tasks you need to do prior hitting the sack. Track down a list of the priority tasks to cover, time to assign to each task, and if by some reason you need to do a special activity like doing paperwork at public offices, visiting the doctor or having a meet up with friends/colleagues that are likely to distract your focus from your usual productivity routine.
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Remember, mornings aren’t just for sleeping but for doing something to improve your lifestyle quality. Instead of skipping almost 6 hours of daily activity each day, find the motivation to achieve all those milestones you are aware that need to be fulfilled. Good luck!
