Simple Morning Tricks to Have Energy All Day

The snooze button seems like a remedy for a bad morning, when you give yourself some time to nestle up in your cozy bed for a couple of minutes. Don’t get into that trap: this trick only makes you groggier and grumpier. The snooze button makes your body believe you’re gonna sleep some more, so it obviously enters another sleep cycle.

This way, it starts releasing sleep hormones that won’t make you feel any peppier. If you get out of your bed right after the alarm goes off, your doziness won’t last over 30 minutes. Instead, getting up after even a short lie-in gets you 4 hours of sleepiness. Not a fresh start.

To make this groggy morning even worse, check your phone while enjoying those fake 10 minutes of a snooze. Don’t lie to yourself you do it just to keep abreast of the latest news — you must be checking social media instead. Scientists say this habit increases stress and anxiety. Plus, tons of notifications might make you feel like you missed out on some important things yesterday, which subconsciously makes you feel bad and doesn’t add to your productivity.

A shower instead can work wonders for those who struggle through mornings. But, taking a shower every single day can be bad too. An everyday shower didn’t appear long ago. With the rise of built-in showers in the 20th century, people took the privilege of lathering their bodies with soap.

A daily shower with aggressive soaps washes down the drain all the body oils that keep harmful bacteria away. Many dermatologists say 2 or 3 showers a week are enough for our bodies to stay sanitary and healthy. Bonus advice: 3 minutes are enough, no need to spend half an hour under a cascade of steaming water.

Off to something you gotta do at least twice a day. If you brush your teeth after breakfast, sorry, you’re doing it wrong! The thing is, nasty bacteria gather in the mouth overnight and if you have breakfast before you brush your teeth, you share all those morning sugars and carbs with them. When they thrive, teeth aren’t happy.

If you just can’t resist temptation to grab a cup of coffee right after you wake up, wait 20–30 minutes after you’ve finished. Many foods and drinks weaken the surface of our teeth, and brushing can make it even worse. It’s best to brush your teeth first and then enjoy whatever you enjoy for breakfast. No need to brush them again after you finish the meal, just rinse your mouth with water.

Coffee before 9 am is a no-go. Cortisol, the stress hormone, doesn’t get on really well with the liquid happiness aka coffee. This hormone isn’t only responsible for stress, but for sleep cycles too. Its levels spike between 8 am and 9 am. Coffee only adds to anxiety at this time, so it’s best to grab one when the cortisol level is at its lowest.

Cortisol also spikes between noon and 1 pm, and between 5:30 and 6:30 pm. Try to stay away from coffee during these periods. Plus, cortisol always increases by up to 50% right after you wake up, so you have to wait about an hour after you start a new day before gulping down that liquid bliss.

Most people feel tired twice a day: at 2 am and 2 pm. But since humans are the only mammals who can delay their sleep deliberately, most of us never have a midday nap at 2 pm — the perfect time to grab some coffee!

If you still want to doze off for a couple of hours, be careful: make sure you have it no later than at 5 pm, or you’ll find it really difficult to fall asleep that night. Don’t forget to open the blinds. Morning daylight helps us release cortisol naturally, so we’re ready to start a new day.

A morning workout is a great way to charge your batteries as long as it’s kinda soft. Aggressive movements can harm our spinal disks that absorb water overnight to rehydrate. By the way, it explains why we’re somewhat taller in the morning.

This process stiffens our spine, so flexing and bending too much might be a bit dangerous. Workouts aren’t the only way to wind your body up. Meditation is an awesome alternative. If you don’t feel like doing anything of this kind, try coloring or some other activity that releases the stress. Taking time to relax is the key point.

There are many foods you should stay away from in the morning, even though they seem like breakfast classics. Toaster pastries are packed with carbs and sugar, so are nut spreads and breakfast cereals. Such foods as waffles, pancakes, and buns made of refined flour have very little nutritional value.

Fruit juice, despite its healthy reputation, is usually just some sweet water, plus, it doesn’t make you feel full unlike real fruit. Another bad guy in disguise is a granola bar, which only boosts your cholesterol level. In fact, there’s not much difference between a candy bar and a granola one.

Make sure your breakfast contains proteins. Carbs usually mean “energy crash” a couple of hours later. It leads to blood sugar crash which is bad for your productivity and makes you feel sleepy, tired, and grumpy. Banana protein smoothie, scramble, or quinoa are good examples of long-lasting energy food to keep you focused for several hours.

Making your bed right after you wake up isn’t right too. When you do it, you also make a cozy home for tiny dust mites. Your pillow, blanket and sheets seem clean and ok, but these little guys thrive just inside. They love dark spaces like your mattress.

Bad news: you can’t see them without a microscope, but even if you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean they don’t chill out in your bed. So if you cover ’em up while making the bed in the morning, they’re gonna be kinda grateful for creating an idyllic environment for them. One thing they’re terrified of is sunlight. Now you’ve got a perfect excuse not to make your bed if you’re too lazy.

A good morning starts with a good night’s sleep. If you crave sweets before you go to bed, it’s for a reason. Chocolate soothes and calms down, so it’s easier to fall asleep faster. Watch out for caffeine! Even chocolate has some small amounts of caffeine, but it can be enough to disturb your sleep. Anyway, it’s better to avoid food at least one hour before you go to sleep. Hearty meals will be too heavy for any digestive system in the evening. Evening food should be light, it might be some snacks, milk, or cheese.

Eating breakfast for dinner is really helpful for those who want to fall asleep faster. Bananas, eggs, toasts are rich in potassium, protein, and carbs. All these elements can help relax and aid sleep. So consider having a brinner if you’ve had hard times falling asleep.

Check the temperature in your bedroom: when it’s too hot, it may be really hard to fall asleep. Stick one foot from under the cover and let it cool. When it’s a bit cold, you fall asleep faster. Another trick you may try is to cover yourself with a wet blanket, but this one is valid for tropical heat nights only.

Also, if you take a hot shower first and then go to a probably much cooler bedroom, your body temperature will significantly drop. You’ll fall asleep as soon as your head touches the pillow. Make sure your pillow is neither too high nor too low.

If you like sleeping on your stomach, you may want to try putting your pillow right under the stomach to make it more comfortable. The best pillow cases are made of silk. Your face literally glides on it, so it won’t get wrinkled in the morning. The hair doesn’t rub against silk either, so it won’t get messy.

Not all the pillows guarantee sweet dreams. Some of them make you sleep in an unnatural position and don’t support your head. The pillow itself isn’t that likely to cause backache, but it can possibly worsen some of the old conditions. Without a pillow, you’ll sleep in a more natural position, and you’ll probably feel better in the morning.

If you find it almost impossible to fall asleep, you’re probably not tired. If you fail to fall asleep after 20 minutes, you should probably get up and do something relaxing. Some nice calming ambient music will do!