It is possible to train yourself to wake up well.
The alarm ringing is a bad time for many: some go back to sleep several times, while others get up in a fog and end up being late. Heavy sleepers have difficulty adapting to the schedules of our society, but this is not inevitable. You can get into the habit of getting up early in the morning, without “suffering”.
The first thing to do is to identify your sleeper profile because there are two types of people: those who are morning people and those who are evening people. These typologies are called phenotypes and are constitutional characteristics of a person. Our ability to wake up properly or not is determined by these characteristics. ““Evening people tend to go to bed later and get up later, and morning people tend to go to bed early and get up early.”explains Dr Didier Cugy, specialist in sleep and alertness disorders. “When you are an evening person and have to get up early in the morning, you very quickly find yourself in a situation of sleep deprivation and this situation worsens over time. This is why these people take naps or compensatory lie-ins on the weekend.” If this is your case, it is because you are in this situation of sleep deprivation.
You must then analyze your normal physiological sleep time, which is between 7 and 8 hours as an adult. “If you sleep less than 7 hours naturally, you are in the category of short sleepers; if your spontaneous sleep time exceeds 8 hours, you are in the category of heavy sleepers” explains Dr. Cugy. A week of vacation allows you to realize your natural sleep needs. To be in good shape, you must have finished your physiological sleep time when you wake up. “This means that if you have to be up at seven in the morning and you have a physiological need for eight hours, you must be asleep by 11 p.m. at the latest.”continues Dr. Cugy.
The bedtime routine is important to make it easier to fall asleep at the right time and thus get into the habit of getting up early. To fall asleep easily, our specialist reminds that it is important to:
- Go to bed at the same times
- Go to bed at the first signs of sleep (yawning, brain fog, drooping eyelids, etc.)
- Have a room that is only used for sleeping
- Maintain a temperature between 18 and 19 C° in the room
- No noise
- No light
- No screen
- Eat dinner early and avoid meals that are too rich before sleeping
Likewise, it is important to establish a getting up routine: “You have to get up at set times and mark the awakening with a ritual: get up, have breakfast, shower… This is how the body gets into habits”explains Dr Royant-Parola, psychiatrist specializing in sleep disorders. “It is necessary to learn to answer the alarm ringing, get up and be active immediately (no more hanging out in bed, editor’s note). To be active, it is possible to do some stretches or gym exercises when you get up.”, she continues. By knowing your sleep needs and adopting good habits, it is possible to wake up dynamically again in just two or three weeks.