how to become a morning person?

hellraisedfire

it pains me to need to make this post, but I need advice on how to be able to go to the gym in the morning! (before 8am, maybe around 6?)

backstory: I'm an engineering student, I have a job on MRFS where I work until 7, and TW I have class until 7/9:30. during the day I'm doing a lot of lab work (lab is only open during the day, can't be there at night :l) so unless I go past 10pm most nights, it's really hard to get a workout in. that's not even including homework

so I have come to the conclusion, I need to go in the morning. but I'm a terrible morning person what can I do to make this easier on myself?

j3nn14er

All I can say is start going to bed earlier, but with your schedual it's going to take intense dedication to get everything done by like 1030 so you can go to sleep... good luck though!

Kymmu

It beats me, I'm yet to convert - It's half past midnight here now and I'm not tired yet......

Boshnivay

definitely start going to bed a little bit earlier each night and then wake up just at 6, and even if you are sleepy just get up and make yourself go anyways. morning work outs are amazing i like to eat a small piece of fruit just so i don't feel too shaky after a workout. simple carbohydrates

BobbyDaniel

I've been a night owl since college where trips to IHOP at 11pm followed by 1am shopping trips at walmart was the norm...almost 20 years later and staying up is still a hard habit to break. I've never liked mornings, but have had to get up early due to family so that has meant trying, more often than not, to get to bed before 11pm. Not easy, but it is possible.

lstnlondry

I think it happens when you're older & you listen to Oprah make you feel guilty about waking up & appreciating your day like a gift. You open your eyes & say "Im up, now how can I make the most of today?" Best of luck !

mathen2

I was never a morning person and would love to stay up at night since I was more productive then. But once I decided to start working out and my crazy work hours with my job( related to medical/engineering stuff), morning was the only option to be consistent and not be lazy. So the first few mornings ( took me 2 weeks to get used to it)I would force myself to wake up and get to the gym. Will you be cranky for the rest of the day? Most probably especially if you have few hours of sleep. But once you fall into that routine, you end up being tired and heading to bed at around 10 30 pm instead of 1 am. So that has worked for me. Plus after working out in the morning, I have more energy now and feel I am more productive and get a lot done. By 3 pm, I feel like I have completed my work for the day and have all this free time for me! So hope this perspective works for you to try it out at least. But give it time to stick as a routine.

risskie

I hold down a job and a half. My pt job requires me to work 8pm - 12:30am. When I get back home from that job, it takes awhile to wind down so I usually go to sleep after 1am, but have to be up and on my way to my FT job by 7:15am. My strategy for getting up by 6am is to just get my feet on the floor. I struggle to get my feet out of the bed, but when they hit the floor, I'm ready to get up and going. Another strategy is to have everything ready to go out the door with me at 7:15am (lunch, coffee,etc) and already know what I'm wearing to work the night before. Organization is a must. Good luck.

StephShuttle

I'm a final year student and work in a nightclub 3 times a week so I feel you're pain. I find it really hard to keep a normal sleep pattern when I cant go to bet until 4:30-5:00 at the earliest 3 times a week. Up until this year (and the joys of my dissertation) I didn't get home until 9am and mid night shopping trips were the complete norm.
I've found that going to sleep earlier then forcing my self to get up after about 8 hours sleep to be working. At first I couldn't sleep util about 3am but I still got up at 8am and carried on like normal. This made me really tired by 10pm so I fell into a more normal sleep pattern.
I've managed to start swimming twice a week before I start uni work. I go at about 7:30- 8am and yeah I am super sleepy at first but the water and exercisesoon wakes me up.

autovatic

Tough question - I struggle with this myself. I work in healthcare, so shifts start between 6 & 7 am. I have the ability to work out in the evenings, but when I'm getting dinner on the table and cleaning and etc... I'd much rather get my workout done first thing.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of helpful solutions to offer - I'm more of a morning person now than I was three years ago, but working out first thing is still beyond me. No matter how motivated & prepared I am the evening before, I can't find that motivation come four or five am. I've even gotten an alarm clock that rolls off the bedside table that I must chase to shut off - but once I get up, I just potter around the apartment. Maybe the fact that I CAN fit in a work out in the evening hinders me here, mentally.

I have heard positive things about melatonin being used to shift your circadian rhythms to an earlier hour - but I didn't find enough actual scientific evidence to go this route myself. You might bring it up with a Dr. and see what they think though.
Good luck!!

amanda_lessofme

For me, at first, it was just sheer determination. I decided that I was going to wake up at 6 no matter what. But, I also really wanted to get in 7 hours of sleep, so I made sure I started to head to bed around 10:30, so I'd be asleep by 11.

I made myself quit using the snooze. I didn't allow myself "five more minutes." At first it was hard, but after I added in my morning exercise, it's actually quite easy. My body wakes up ready to work out. I actually will sometimes wake up at 5:30 with no alarm, ready to go.

And, like one previous poster said, I have more energy since I"m sleeping 7 hours and getting in good exercise, so I'm not tired and am in fact much more productive in the morning now.

So, the keys are (1) get enough sleep for you--head to bed at the same time each night (it varies person to person), (2) wake up at the same time no matter what (even on weekends and vacation I only allow myself an extra 30 min in bed, but I usually wake without the alarm regardless), (3) really do the morning exercise on a regular basis at the same time (your body will start to crave it at that time of day).

Oh, and twice a week I don't even get home till 10:20pm. On those two nights, I am still in bed by 11, but I might not be asleep by then. It's tempting to stay up later so I can "unwind," but it's not worth it.

iuew

former night owl here; i'm as close to a morning person now as i've ever been.

what helped me : regular bedtime, and as close to eight hours of sleep each night as possible. i got tired of making mistakes in the lab due to being tired.

started doing half my daily cardio before breakfast. it goes faster when you're half asleep, and it helps to wake you up.

finally, i used to burn the candle at both ends all week and then sleep in big time on the weekend. now i do the opposite; regular bed time during the week, and then i tend to stay up late and get up early during the weekend.

basically, if you have to do it for a long enough time, your body just gets used to it.

LabRat529

I have never successfully converted either. 9 times out of 10, that alarm clock gets SNOOZED. *sigh*

btzisabel

I guess I'm lucky, I love mornings... but al 10 pm I have to be in my bed or I'll fall asleep anywhere. But yeah, you have to be determined to go to the gym, and you have to get up, and after 2 or 3 days or maybe a week of doing that, you'll feel tired early, and hopefully you'll start going to bead earlier.

christibam

Force yourself to get up and do it. It'll suck a lot at first but it'll end up giving you more energy during the day. I hardly ever woke up before 9AM and now I wake myself up around 7 every morning, without an alarm clock. Granted, I am pretty lazy in the mornings since all I really do is take the puppy out, feed him, make breakfast and then maybe study a little... but I never really have trouble getting up in the mornings since adding a workout into my day.

Also, are you able to take little breaks during the day? Do some wall push ups or pushups if you can. You can do leg raises and all sorts of things with just a chair and a few feet of space!