Who would think that your morning habits could have an effect on your entire day. But it isn’t always just lack of sleep! Here are some habits that you might be doing and why you should change them to help save your energy to get through your day!
1. You spend an extra 20 minutes in bed on your phone
I am officially guilty of this one! I wake up early and just look at my phone for up to an hour every morning. But the problem is NOT the phone, it is laying in bed that causes you to be exhausted during the day. “The bed is meant for one main thing: sleeping,” says Raj Dasgupta, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “If you stay in bed, then it gives your mind the feeling that it’s time to sleep and not start your day.” Even worse, he says, is if you fall back asleep. If your “just 10 more minutes” turns into “oops, it’s been an hour,” then you’re waking up from REM sleep instead of the lighter stages of sleep that you would’ve woken up from had you gotten out of bed the first time. Waking up from that deeper sleep can actually make you even more tired throughout the day than someone who got less shut-eye but woke up from a lighter stage of sleep. Bottom line: When you wake up, get up.
2. You are closely monitoring your Fitbit
If you are a Fitbit owner and you are using it to track your sleep, do you immediately look at the stats in the morning to see how your sleep quality was? If you are, STOP! This could be causing you to stress out too much if you see stats that show restlessness during the night. You might start thinking that you are going to have a bad day and assume that things might not go well that day because you didn’t sleep well. This could set you up with a negative mindset into thinking that you should be tired – even if you actually are not tired.
3. You are not drinking enough fluids when you wake up
Research from the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory shows that even mild dehydration makes you tired and irritable. Get drinking before you even head out the door; Kate Zeratsky, RDN at the Mayo Clinic, suggests 8 oz of liquid, this includes coffee or tea!
4. You take a hot shower at night
You might think that it is relaxing to take a hot shower at night after a long day but it could actually be affecting your sleep. As we fall deeper into sleep, our core body temperature drops to somewhere around 60°F. So “taking a hot shower at night is kind of like exercising at night,” Dasgupta says. “It’s not a good idea because it increases your core body temperature, so it takes longer to cool down and get to sleep.” On the other hand, he says, taking a warm shower in the morning can boost your body temperature from frigid sleeping conditions to warm, energized, and fully awake.
5. You exercise after work
It is hard for a lot of people to wake up early and exercise in the morning before work but it actually helps give you energy for the rest of the day.
Exercise of any kind floods your body with feel-good endorphins while simultaneously delivering oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, according to the Mayo Clinic. Extra oxygen to your tissues means your heart and lungs will work better and give you more energy to go about your day. If you don’t have the time for a full workout even a quick walk around the block will help energize you for the day.
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