Seeking recommendations to make waking up early manageable (or even enjoyable?) for non-morning people who love to sleep in.

When I have to wake up early for work, I often get a headache, feel bad in my body, and am generally extremely tired all day, EVEN if I get 8-9 hours of sleep. Help!

Question

Seeking recommendations to make waking up early manageable (or even enjoyable?) for non-morning people who love to sleep in.

When I have to wake up early for work, I often get a headache, feel bad in my body, and am generally extremely tired all day, EVEN if I get 8-9 hours of sleep. Help!

GK · Answer

Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light: This alarm clock has been life-changing for me. As we head into darker mornings, this alarm clock mimics the sunrise and is essential for waking me up.

Emily · Answer

Sleep cycle app: This app helps wake you in a window of time vs the big harsh main alarm. I find I’m less groggy using it.

Olivia Frasher · Answer

Cheap amazon alarm watch: Extremely low tech, actually way too bright, but the nicest gentlest wakeup possible. Every time I decide to branch out and try something new and fancy I end up crawling back to this fugly watch.

Eva Schipper · Answer

Waking up in the alps with your bestie: Have you considered this??? Worked really well for me. (Ily)

Charley · Answer

Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light: I live in the PNW and in winter, it’s completely dark at 8am. I love to sleep and need a lot of it. This alarm clock really helps me wake up: over 30 min, it plays local jazz radio and gradually mimics sunrise until the saxophone is blaring and it’s bright directly outside my eyes and I must get up

Robin · Answer

Hatch Alarm Clock: If you have trouble falling or staying asleep and trouble waking up, I can't recommend this baby enough.  I've had sunrise alarm clocks for years and after struggling with some ambient noise outside our apartment waking me up at night I started researching white noise machines.

Enter the Hatch!

But the real kicker is the routines you can set up to trigger your brain and body that it's time for sleep.  I have mine set to begin with sunset-style lighting and soft piano music about 30 minutes before I need to be asleep.  I crawl into bed and just like Pavlov's dog the noise and gentle light have totally trained me to go to sleep.  Then white noise continues until the sunrise alarm goes off in the morning.

There's meditation audio, music, birdsong, tons of different options! There's even Gilmore Girls music to wake up to for perfect sweater weather.

JaperMoon · Answer

Drink Water as Soon as You Wake Up: A bunch of it.