Finding that extra hour in the morning

Here are some ideas you can try to motivate yourself if leaping out of bed an hour earlier than usual doesn't seem possible for you.

Take it slowly

Compromise by sitting up in bed, but allowing yourself to keep your eyes closed and continue "sleeping". It's not comfortable for most people to sleep sitting up, so you'll start to wake properly after a while. As you wake, grab a notepad and pen or a sketchbook and dabble for a few minutes.

Turn a light on

Flick the switch as soon as the alarm goes off, even if you hit the snooze button. Keep your face turned to toward the light but allow yourself to keep your eyes closed. Light is a trigger to wake up, so you might find yourself surfacing more quickly.

Or you could try tricking yourself into thinking you get to sleep while you're walking around. This is a similar idea to trying to stay dozy when you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night so that you can fall asleep again. Can you find the bathroom with your eyes closed? Climb in the shower with the false intention of getting back into bed when you're finished. Even nice, hot water will wake you up soon enough, and you'll be ready to face your day.

Hit the snooze button

Perhaps you just need a longer waking period. Set your alarm an extra 30 minutes to an hour earlier than the time you want to aim for and keeping hitting snooze until you're ready to get up.

Choose a time that represents your old waking time. If you manage to get up even one minute before that time, reward yourself. Try to find something constant that just represents your reward for waking up earlier - using the same reward for different behaviours can confuse you and limit their effectiveness, so if you're rewarding yourself for other successes, try to use something different (and exclusive) to reward yourself for waking early.

After about a week or two, move the target to waking up at least five minutes before that time, then up to eight minutes, and ten minutes. If you're battling, make the increments smaller until you're reaching your ultimate goal.

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