I am by no means a morning person, however I've been having even more of a difficult time getting up to my alarm every morning now that its getting colder out. Even on mornings where I'm not tired, forcing myself out of the warm covers into my brisk apartment is always a struggle. For this reason alone, I spent my entire evening last night rearranging my apartment to make it more conducive to a good nights' sleep and an easier early rise.

First off, I am lucky enough to have a 2-bedroom apartment, one of which is much smaller and brighter than the other, so we moved our bed ino the smaller, brighter room because it's easier (and cheaper) to keep warm and it brings in more light in the morning which makes a big difference in terms of getting up more easily when the sun is still working on rising. And after one night, it made a big difference! I was warm getting out of bed in the morning and the natural light in the room put me in a positive mood and helped to wake me up more quickly than I have since August. Here are some changes I am going to focus on making to further help with this little struggle, and I encourage you to try our some yourself!

1. Regulate temp - I know going to sleep in a cool room is extremely cozy, but it also makes getting out of bed that much more difficult in the morning. Find a temperature that you can easily control so that your room is cool in the evening and warm in the morning, even if that means putting a small portable heater next to your bed and turning it on in the morning before you need to get up.

2. Let in the light! - I recently purchased really nice, long, thick curtains for my bedroom that help to block out almost all of the light, but just like my pesky little temp situation, that's great until it's time to get up. Instead, I've been leaving the curtains open and wearing a sleep mask to bed so that I can block out all light at night but take off my sleep mask in the morning (or let's be honest, it has usually fallen off in my sleep before that point anyways). Natural sunlight does a better job of waking you up than artificial lights from a lamp, so the earlier you look at natural sunlight in the morning, the easier it will be for you to wake up naturally.

3. Choose your appropriate shower time - Some people wake up from taking showers, but I have always been a night time shower girl, so showers tend to make me all cozy and sleepy. With that being said, I often find myself too lazy to shower at night so I leave it for the morning and that never works in my favor. Showering in the morning never puts me in a good mood because it makes me so cold and uncomfortable and then I have wet hair for half the work day. So I need to put more effort in to reminding myself not to be lazy and to just get it over with at night. For you morning shower lovers, this may work wonders at waking you up, so stick with it! However, if you find that your morning shower is more of an cold, wet hassle that makes you late, try switching up your routine and take a shower at night.

4. Watch your caffeine intake - There is a lot of controversial evidence regarding caffeine consumption, however I know that on the days where I do drink coffee first thing in the morning, I am at least 50% more likely to need upwards of 3 more coffees that afternoon. However, if I avoid caffeine until around 12 or even 2:00 pm, I am usually okay without another one for the rest of that day. This is because my body naturally wakes up around 10:00, so when I add coffee to the mix, my cortisol levels get all out of wack and I end up becoming even more tired later on!