Picture it: It’s 6 a.m., you’ve snoozed your alarm twice, and now you’re almost late to work. Sound familiar? Some people are just not early birds and have a harder time waking up as the sun rises.
While it may feel like you should be wide awake after, hopefully, a good night’s rest, you’re still struggling to open your eyes. According to the Sleep Foundation, our bodies go through four different stages of sleep: three stages of NREM (or non-rapid eye movement) sleep, and one stage of REM sleep.
The first stage of the sleep cycle is you beginning to fall asleep, and takes anywhere from one to five minutes before your body begins stage two. During the second stage of sleep, your brain activity, heart rate, and breathing slow down.
Your body actually spends almost half of its time sleeping in this stage, per Sleep Foundation. The final stage of NREM sleep is when you sink into a deep sleep, so you’re harder to wake up. However, this is also the stage when your body recovers from the day prior because it’s fully relaxed.
When you reach REM sleep, brain activity and dreams increase, while your body enters atonia or temporary paralysis. During this time, your eyes quickly move under closed eyelids, hence the term “rapid eye movement.”
How to wake up in the morning
Why a person feels so tired in the morning can vary on many different factors including underlying sleep disorders, biological clock, or age. No matter the reason, there are a few tricks you can try the next time you find yourself having a hard time feeling awake in the morning.
According to Mindbodygreen, 10 to 15 minutes of extra sleep can affect you physically and mentally, making you more groggy upon waking up. Avoid hitting the snooze button in the morning so you can prevent grogginess while creating a sleep schedule by staying consistent. Move your alarm across the room to ensure you’re getting out of bed.
Try improving your bedtime routine by making some quick changes. Some activities you do before bed interfere with how you wake up in the morning. Healthline reports that looking at your phone, napping too much, or drinking alcohol and caffeine can affect your sleep cycle and cause you to be more sleepy in the morning.
For those who find themselves in bed and almost back to sleep, they may want to drink some water as it prevents tiredness, according to WebMD. Leave a glass of water by your bed so you can have a sip first thing in the morning.
you’ve had a sip of water, turn on some lights to help yourself wake up. A bright light alerts the body and decreases how tired you feel.