To celebrate coming back to uni and getting 100 followers (one. hundred. :O ), it’s #optomstudies here with my first ever study tips post! Here’s a step-by-step guide on sleeping and waking up early! Follow me for weekly study tips!
I decided to make this my first topic because this year I’m unfortunately going to have 8am lectures, meaning I’ll need to wake up at 5:30am to get there from my house! And on top of that night time clinic will last until 9:30pm we’re told, meaning I’m going to be getting home at like 11:30pm :( So I’m resetting my body clock to prepare for it :)
The sunrise from this morning’s run :) #nofilter
Turn off your devices an hour before sleep. The blue light from your computer and mobile can really disrupt the natural melatonin levels that control your sleep cycle, so I always try to end the day with some sort of reading, whether that be for leisure or some summary notes at the end of the day.
Don’t drink any tea or coffee before you sleep. Better to finish the night off with some warm milk and honey (thank you kuroshitsuji) or something similarly soothing.
Write down a list of what you want to achieve by waking up early. Seeing or even remembering the list can stop you from crawling back to the warmth of your bed, especially in the middle of winter. When the morning you isn’t able to think clearly, let the motivated you make the decisions! And I wouldn’t recommend making a list of what you achieved today to feel accomplished because how’s that going to help you when you’re going to be asleep and unconscious anyway?
Pick out the clothes you want to wear for tomorrow, and make sure they match the weather! Like with the tasks you want to achieve, it’s not a good idea to let the morning you fumble with clothes and what matches well. Definitely do include a jacket or hoodie that you can slip off once the day gets warmer!
Keep your bed reserved for sleeping. Put your smartphone on the other side of the room so that you aren’t tempted to go and check up on your messages on social media. This will reduce the chance that you start a conversation with some night owl friend that ends up continuing past midnight.
Make sure your room is pitch black. This is so that light doesn’t end up disrupting your sleep cycle and so that you condition your body into thinking that it’s time for sleep.
Clear your mind. Whether you achieve this by meditating or otherwise, don’t think about anything, lest you stay up tossing and turning. This includes both exciting events tomorrow and sad events from today.
Get either 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep. This is because the brain has sleep cycles that are approximately 90 minutes long, so sleeping past will immediately pull you into the next sleep phase. When you wake up in the middle of deep sleep, you end up feeling groggy and tired throughout the whole next morning.
Reset your sleep cycle by waking at the same time each day. We all have those nights where we absolutely need to finish something by tomorrow (because the professors all conspired with each other and decided to give us double the homework for each subject due the next day :P) but try to keep it constant when you wake. So if you miss the point where you would’ve slept 7.5 hours, go for 6, since you still have a complete sleeping period, and usually that extra hour or so is enough to get the work finished. So don’t think about sleeping in for afternoon classes, because you’ll just feel worse for wear the next time you have morning classes.
Go cold turkey. Willpower is like a muscle, the more you exercise it the stronger it gets, and I can see no greater struggle than waking up early, jks. I have tried the gradual method of waking up at 7:30, 7:15, 7:00, etc. but I found the best way is to just so straight to your target wake up time. The first day you feel tired in the middle of the day, but it’s easier than adjusting to a new sleep cycle each morning for a week (or longer if you miss a day).
Wake up with a full blast of natural light. If your bed is next to a window like mine, then pull up the blinds to let as much natural light in as possible to stop the production of melatonin.
Set an alarm that you know will wake you up. Whether it be a song you like or a super annoying alarm bell, choose something that you can associate with waking up in the morning. For me, I always use BoA’s song Who Are You, because the music video reminds me of a new day, and it has a lovely and soft piano intro :)
Wake up the first time your alarm rings. Although you want to sleep a little longer in order to feel more refreshed, hitting the snooze button is actually detrimental as this explanation from Maimonides Medical Centre explains:
According to Dr. Yizhak Kupfer, Assistant Director of Critical Care and Pulmonary Medicine, using an alarm clock often wakes a person up in the middle of their sleep cycle and cuts rapid eye movement (REM) sleep short. “Over the course of a night, a person goes through five shifting stages of sleep,“ explains Dr. Kupfer. “The brain constantly goes through these stages, emitting different brain waves that reflect if a person is experiencing lighter or deeper periods of sleep.” People who are reliant on their snooze button can diminish the positive effect of a good night’s rest because they are constantly drifting back to sleep only to be abruptly woken up a few minutes later. This causes a shortened, disrupted sleep cycle right before a person starts their day.
Jump out of bed immediately. Don’t lie in bed thinking; you’ll just drift off again.
Have a glass of cold water, but don’t just down a whole bottle in one go, because your kidneys are remarkably good at preventing our electrolyte balance from being thrown out of homeostasis, so downing a heap of water will just make them overwork to reduce the water levels. Just see this ELI5 from reddit, though probably with a pinch of salt, considering all the differing opinions. Best to keep that glass of water next to you as you work and drink a few sips at a time while you are working.
If you drink an excess of water, you have diluted the careful balance of electrolytes. Your kidneys will rapidly dump that water to ensure these electrolyte concentrations are not diluted.
Put on your clothes quickly! This one comes from personal experience. In the past just to avoid that chilly feel from clothes when winter comes along, I would get out of bed and get my clothes and stuff them under my blanket and take a quick snooze while they got warm. But that usually just ended with me getting my clothes wrinkled rather than actually doing much in terms of warming them up >_< Plus, now I find that doing it quickly is like a burst of energy to get you going for exercise.
Finish what you were going to do. Remember that list we wrote last night? Do it now and feel great about doing at least one thing extra this morning.
Don’t have a cup of coffee (yet)! On waking, our bodies stop the production of melatonin and start the production of cortisol to get you going. Cortisol isn’t just for stress, it also starts gluconeogenesis to increase your blood glucose levels (which is important for your brain function) and increases your metabolism. Drinking coffee will disrupt this natural waking hormone, and it also reduces blood flow to the frontal cortex which is responsible for higher order thinking and cognition, explained in this article:
Caffeine increases energy metabolism throughout the brain but decreases at the same time cerebral blood flow, inducing a relative brain hypoperfusion.
What this means is that although there is more sugar available, oxygen supply decreases. If you do drink coffee, it’s recommended to drink it around 9:00 or so, after the natural cortisol kicks in. I say it’s better to stick to exercise, which is proven to benefit your health in almost every way.
Exercise. There’s no need for me to explain that this is the best way to feel energized and refreshed for the rest of the day and to get your heart pumping! The morning air is dewy and hasn’t yet been tampered by the smell of car fumes and other pollution, so breath in :) Play some music with beats that will get you moving (this morning’s run brought to you by f(x)’s Rude Love). I snapped a picture as I left the house just before the sun started to rise :)
Enjoy the benefits of a job well done. Give yourself a pat on the back, because it’s tiring to get up at 6am or earlier! You’ve got your study space all to yourself, enjoy it with a cup of orange juice, and some peace and quiet. Get to work/uni/school nice and early, ready to learn something new and feel proud that you aren’t one of those groggy students with their heads glued to the table!
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my first study tips post, I intend to publish more and better posts in the future too! Follow me, as I’ll be doing the 100 days of productivity challenge starting March! (this coming week!)
WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES
0 Choosing a Degree , 1 Administration , 2 Getting to Class
3 Studying , 4 Extra-Curriculars , 5 Exams , 6 Social Life
7 Part Time Work , 8 Four Secrets Uni Tells You
new!! 9 Best Study Spots on Campus new!!
new!! 10 Saving Money 1 (Food, Transport, Entertainment) new!!
coming soon!! 10 Saving Money 2 (Textbooks, Tax, Scholarships)
Study Spaces Masterpost , Studying and your Visual System
Catching Up with Your Studies , Dealing with Bad Results
Sleeping and Waking Up Early , Google Keep
My 2017 Planner and Bullet Journal , Study Space , 2017 goals
+ my cute stationery + washi collection + my spreads!
blakekathryn
yousharknotpass
janainaart
vaporwave
kaledo-art
origamiaround
