you know those nights when you just flop on your bed. you think about how much you’re
going to do the next day... how you’re going to wake up early and be so productive. maybe
you can go on an early morning walk, or do sunrise yoga. you can cook an aesthetic and
healthy breakfast and finish the rest of your homework. but.... the next morning you wake
up. you go and check your phone and you realize it’s already the mid morning or even the
afternoon. maybe your alarm didn’t go off, or you didn’t set one in the first place,
but you didn’t expect to sleep for 12 hours?!?! you might feel groggy, unmotivated, and even
mad at yourself. you might think to yourself you’ve already spent half of your day unconscious,
lying in bed... might as well spend the rest of the day in bed and start over tomorrow.
it’s tempting to just give up today and hope tomorrow will be better. after all, people
always say “the early bird gets the worm”... I guess you didn’t get the worm today. but
it’s time to change that mentality. after all, it doesn’t matter what time you wake
up, but what you actually do during the time that you’re awake. just because you’ve
slept in during the morning, doesn’t mean the rest of the day has to be “wasted”.
remember it’s normal to oversleep, and not everyday has to be a 5am ultra productive
day in the life. today, i’m going to show you how to save an overslept day!
the first thing that is the catalyst for every other
thing you do for the rest of the day. and that's just
getting out of bed. I know it can be so difficult sometimes. i count down in my head and when
the number strikes 1, i don’t even have the time to think about how uncomfortable
it is or how much i don’t want to get up. i just do. ready? 5 4 3 2 1.
now that you’re up, continue with your regular morning routine.
for me, this consists of brushing my teeth,
washing my face, doing my skincare routine, and my daily morning tidying like making my
bed. sleeping for such a long time also means you must be extremely dehydrated and hungry.
drink a ton of water and have a proper breakfast, even if you don’t feel like eating. if you
don’t have an appetite, even eating some fresh fruit is helpful. remember your body
needs fuel to continue functioning properly and after sleeping for a while, your body
goes into fasting mode, saving energy for only essential body functions like breathing.
if it’s not too late in the day already, i also like to drink coffee to clear myself
of the morning fog and elevate my energy levels to help me get started with the day. when
you sleep in, your brain can wake up in the middle of your sleep cycle- even during deep
sleep, leading you to feel groggy.
next, I like to make a todo list for the day filled with easy tasks like simply filling
up my humidifier, in combination
with some bigger tasks/daily habits like exercise and editing
a youtube video. the smaller, easier things
help provide motivation for the larger things.
two things I always put in my todo list, especially when
I sleep in, is to get fresh air and exercise outside, and clean my room. there was a trick
I saw on the internet once where you put your clothes on your bed so you have to fold them
before you go to sleep. nope, doesn’t work for me because I literally just throw them
on the floor or my chair before i go to bed... and in the morning I wake up to a huge mess
- definitely not a great way to start the day. From multiple studies, it has been found that
those who have cluttered bedrooms full of their hoardings take a long time to fall asleep
and their sleep quality is also poor enough that it leads an increase chance of depression
and stress. When your bedroom becomes a peaceful and ordered place with no clutter around,
you will feel less stressed and less distracted, much more ready to tackle the day. Being outside
additionally can help bring feelings of happiness, along with the endorphins - feel good chemicals
- that exercise brings out. Exercise outside will also set up your next day as well, as
it will “help you fall asleep more quickly and improves sleep quality,” says Charlene
Gamaldo, M.D. , medical director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep.
I’ve been also trying to stretch after exercise as it keeps
the muscles flexible, strong and healthy.
after all, you may not feel the impact of not stretching now when you’re still young,
but when you’re older you’ll definitely feel it.
Waking up early doesn’t necessarily make you healthier, happier, and more productive.
Yes, it works for many people but what’s true for one can be very wrong for the other.
It’s just that our culture, like work and the school system, tend to be scheduled around
a regular circadian rhythm, so those who naturally have a later sleep schedule are constantly
sleep deprived and therefore can’t do as well in school. From a young age, we’re
told that waking up late is a sign of laziness, but for some, they have what’s called a
“delayed circadian sleep phase” according to Dr. Syed Moin Hassan. Some people can’t
be productive early in the morning, and instead work better later at night - and they can
be just as productive and hardworking if their schedules allow it. what sucks is that their
schedules usually don’t, leading them to go against their natural sleep schedule and
stay tired and sleep deprived. However, if you’re oversleeping more than the regular
upper limit of 9 hours a day, you might want to ask yourself why that’s happening. No
matter when you wake up or when you sleep, the most important things are keeping a regular
sleep schedule, a routine
so your brain doesn’t continually have to wonder when you’re going to sleep and when
you’re going to wake up. and secondly, it’s more important what you actually do during
the hours you’re awake than what time you wake up.