THE 5-STEP SNOOZE-PROOF WAKE-UP STRATEGY
“If you really think about it, hitting the snooze button in the morning doesn’t even make sense. It’s like saying ‘I hate getting up in the morning, so I do it over, and over, and over again.’”
—Demetri Martin
“I’d like mornings better if they started later.”
—Unknown
Hi, my name is Hal, and I am a recovering snooze-aholic. It’s been 15 years, 3 months, and 12 days since my last snooze.
All kidding aside, if it weren’t for the simple five-step strategy you’re going to learn in this chapter, I would still be addicted to the habit of repeatedly hitting the snooze button and adhering to my lifelong, self-limiting belief that I was not a “morning person.” Let’s talk about how to overcome both of those.
I’ve heard it said that nobody really likes having to wake up early, but everyone loves the feeling of having woken up early. The same is often said about exercising—that nobody really likes working out, but everyone loves the feeling of having gotten in a workout.
Although thinking that we’re not going to enjoy a new habit may be true in the beginning, once the habit is established and we’ve experienced the benefits, it not only becomes automatic and enjoyable but also can become difficult not to do. For example, my wife struggled to start working out again after a long layoff, and now she loves going to the gym and is disappointed when she can’t. Personally, I love waking up in the morning and doing my S.A.V.E.R.S., as do most Miracle Morning practitioners. It’s become so ingrained, and is still so beneficial to my quality of life, that it’s difficult not to do.
One perspective that helped me, as I began waking up earlier, was that I was merely trading unproductive evening time for highly productive morning time. Suddenly, instead of staying up late watching TV, scrolling social media, drinking alcohol, or engaging in otherwise mind-numbing activities, I was trimming the fat at the end of my day so I could reap the benefits of productive mornings. Your Miracle Mornings do not require any compromise to your sleep—that time can be sourced from the biggest time wasters in your day.
Increasing Your Wake-Up Motivation Level
Consider your average morning. The moment your alarm clock sounds, if you were to rate your level of motivation as it pertains to waking up and getting out of bed on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being ready to wake up and start your day, and 1 meaning you want nothing more than to go back to sleep), where would you rate yourself? That number is what I call your wake-up motivation level (WUML), and I think it’s safe to say that most of us would probably rate ours closer to a 1 or a 2 than a 10. It’s perfectly natural when you’re still half-asleep to want to hit the snooze button and keep on sleeping. That’s the effect of sleep inertia.
The question is, how can you generate the motivation you need to get out of bed and create an extraordinary start to the day when your WUML is only at a 1 or 2 the moment your alarm clock starts beeping?
The answer is one step at a time.
The Five-Step Snooze-Proof Wake-Up Strategy
Here are five simple snooze-proof steps that make waking up in the morning and beating the snooze button easier than ever before.
Step 1: Set an Empowering Intention Before Bed
The first step to set yourself up for a successful morning is to remember this: Your first thought in the morning is typically whatever the last thought was that you had before you fell asleep. The same is true for your mental and emotional state. If you go to bed thinking stressful thoughts and feeling worried or overwhelmed, you’ll likely wake up thinking and feeling the same. Whatever mental and emotional state you dwell on at bedtime weighs on your subconscious mind while you sleep and affects how you feel when you wake up. So, it only makes sense that we prioritize being highly intentional about what we think about and dwell on as we’re drifting off to sleep.
The first step to waking up in an optimal mental and emotional state is to take responsibility for and be proactive about waking up in an optimal mental and emotional state. The easiest way to do that is to consciously set an empowering intention, right before you lay down to fall asleep, for how you’re going to feel when you wake up. We’ll be exploring bedtime affirmations, as well as other tools for ending your day best prepared for the Miracle Morning, in Chapter 11.
This first step—setting an empowering intention before bed—is more impactful than you might realize and should not be overlooked. Remember, your mental and emotional state in the morning is typically whatever mental and emotional state you dwelled on as you fell asleep. This can’t be overstated. In just a few minutes each night, you can set an empowering intention to wake up feeling energized and excited to optimize your day.
Step 2: Move Your Alarm Clock Across the Room
This may be one of the easiest and yet most effective strategies for getting yourself out of bed in the morning. Simply move your alarm clock as far away from where you sleep as possible. I keep mine on my bathroom sink. This ensures that you get out of bed the moment the alarm sounds and that you immediately move your body. Movement generates energy, so when you get up and walk over to turn off your alarm clock, it naturally helps you to feel more awake so that you can stay awake.
Here’s another way to look at it: every minute you are awake and upright, your wake-up motivation level increases. Simply setting yourself up so that you have to get out of bed and walk across the room to turn off the alarm clock will instantly take your WUML from a 1 to a 2 or a 3. However, you still might not feel ready to start your day. So . . .
Step 3: Brush Your Teeth
I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, Hal, seriously, did you just tell me to “brush my teeth”? Are you suggesting that oral hygiene is the solution to this whole struggle to get going in the morning? Not exactly. The point here is giving yourself some mindless activities that keep your body in motion and give you more time to continue waking up.
After turning off your alarm clock, go directly to the bathroom sink and simply brush your teeth. While you’re at it, you might splash some warm (or cold) water on your face. This simple activity will give you more time to acclimate to the day and continue increasing your wake-up motivation level from a 2 or a 3 to a 3 or a 4. Now that your mouth is minty fresh and you’re starting to feel more awake, it’s time to rehydrate.
Step 4: Drink a Full Glass of Water
You may or may not realize it, but after six to eight hours without water, we are mildly dehydrated when we wake up, and dehydration causes fatigue. When people feel tired—at any time of the day—what they often need is more water, not more sleep.
You’re not hydrating while you’re unconscious, and it is well documented that we lose as much as a liter of fluid during sleep through perspiring and expelling water vapor every time we exhale. Thus, it is imperative that you make it a priority to begin rehydrating as soon as possible after waking up.
For many people, coffee is their morning beverage of choice. And while coffee has many benefits, rehydrating isn’t one of them. Coffee is a diuretic and can cause further dehydration. Don’t worry, you can absolutely have your morning latte; I just wouldn’t recommend doing so until you’ve consumed at least one glass of water.
For added benefits, including replenishing as many as 84 essential minerals and electrolytes, increasing your energy, detoxifying your liver, and even helping you lose weight (since research shows that staying hydrated helps the body increase its metabolism), simply add a pinch of Himalayan sea salt and fresh lemon juice into your water. This concoction also provides vitamin C, boosts immunity, and helps you feel rejuvenated inside and out.
To help me remember to drink water first thing in the morning, I place a glass of water on my bedside table just before I head to bed. After brushing my teeth in the morning, I immediately drink about half of it, then I begin sipping the rest.
The objective here is to rehydrate your body and mind as quickly as possible to make up for the water that you did not get during the hours you slept. When you drink a glass of water and hydrate yourself, your wake-up motivation level continues rising from a 3 or a 4 to a 5 or a 6.
Step 5: Get Dressed in Your Workout Clothes
Finally, get dressed in whatever clothing you prefer to exercise in, so you’re ready to leave your bedroom and immediately engage in your Miracle Morning practice, which will incorporate a brief period of exercise (the E in S.A.V.E.R.S.). These extra few minutes of mindlessly getting dressed not only give your mind and body more time to wake up, increasing your WUML to a 6 or a 7, but also send a clear message to both your subconscious and your conscious mind that you are officially up for the day.
It only takes a few minutes to execute each of these steps, and when you do, your WUML naturally increases, making it much easier to stay awake and generate the energy needed to do your Miracle Morning. Attempting to make that decision when your alarm clock sounds and your WUML is still hovering around a 1 is much more difficult.
Miracle Morning Community Bonus Wake-Up Tips
Keep in mind that although this simple five-step strategy has proven to work for countless people, these five steps are not the only way to make waking up in the morning easier. One major benefit of being part of the global Miracle Morning Community is that each person is focused on optimizing their rituals and routines, sharing what’s working, and actively supporting the community. Here are a few tips I’ve seen shared by members of the Miracle Morning Community:
•Use a vibrating alarm clock. If you sleep next to someone who is adversely affected by the sound of an alarm clock going off in the morning, such as a spouse or a baby, you may need to get creative to keep in that person’s good graces. Luckily, there are dozens of options for vibrating alarm clocks. There are two primary designs: wearable technology, such as a wristwatch, and a vibrating pod that goes under your pillow. Just go to Google or Amazon and search “vibrating alarm clock” to see your options.
•Set a timer for your bedroom heater. If you struggle to get out of bed in the morning because it’s uncomfortably cold where you live, this tip may be useful. One member of the Miracle Morning Community said that in the winter, she keeps a portable heater next to her bed, plugged into an appliance timer that is set to turn on 15 minutes before her alarm clock sounds. That way when she wakes up, the room is warm, and she isn’t as tempted to crawl back under her covers to avoid the cold. She said it makes a huge difference!
•Keep caffeine next to the bed. I hesitated to include this tip in the updated and expanded edition of this book because it runs somewhat counter to what I wrote earlier about starting your day with coffee, but hear me out. Something I’ve been doing recently is making a packet of Pique organic jasmine green tea (it’s finely ground powder that easily mixes with room-temperature water) and keeping it on my bedside table. It only requires a minimal six to eight ounces of water and provides 45 to 55 grams of caffeine. Green tea is loaded with polyphenols that have remarkable health benefits, as well as the amino acid L-theanine, which helps balance the effects of caffeine. Studies have shown it to help increase focus and attention, too. As soon as my alarm clock sounds, I drink the entire glass of green tea in one shot, so that while I’m following the rest of the snooze-proof wake-up steps, the caffeine is kicking in to increase energy and mental clarity. I’ll take all the help I can get! Of course, I immediately follow this by drinking a full glass of water to rehydrate.
Feel free to customize your own snooze-proof wake-up strategy. Remember, the objective is having a simple, effective, predetermined step-by-step process that requires minimal effort and makes waking up and getting going as easy as possible.
Don’t wait to implement this! Start tonight by moving your alarm clock across the room, setting an empowering intention before bed, placing a glass of water on your nightstand to drink after you brush your teeth, and then getting dressed in your workout clothes so that you’re ready to engage in the S.A.V.E.R.S., which the following chapter will cover in detail.