Waking up early is hard. That's a harsh fact, unless you’re a morning person. However, August is almost over and for most students, that means having to wake up early for school - or at least getting ready to do so. For those in first through 12th grade, they don’t have a choice, as school starts way too early and they don’t really have a say in the matter.
College, on the other hand, gives students a little more freedom in terms of scheduling classes. You can choose what days and times you want to take classes (given the appropriate options), so if you plan well, you can choose later classes so you don’t have to wake up early, if that’s what you want.
However, as someone who does not plan her schedule well, getting stuck with many 8 a.m. classes is a very common occurrence. As a night owl, waking up for those multiple 8 a.m. courses is painful, annoying and dreadful.
Yet, despite the misery of waking up early, I do actually want to go to class, so I’ve tried many, many things to get myself awake and out of bed, although it’s often with just enough time to brush my teeth, change my clothes, grab a Pop-Tart for breakfast and then speed walk to class. So, to help out those that struggle with getting up early in the morning like I do, here are some tips:
1. Use an alarm
This is kind of obvious, but there are some especially creative ones that may help you wake up and stay up. There are ones that make you physically get out of bed to shut the alarm clock off, such as those that make you stand on a mat in order to shut off the alarm and ones where once the alarm goes off, the alarm clock moves around the room and you have to get up and chase after it in order to shut it off. Others will shake you awake by placing a device under your mattress and then shaking violently as the alarm, for somewhat of an abrupt wake up call. For a gentler one, there are also alarms which gradually emit light to wake you up.
2. Use a smartphone alarm app
There are many alarm apps that you can use to help you wake up. On the Android phones, for example, there is an app called Shake-it Alarm, where, depending on the difficulty that you select, you have to shake your phone continuously to shut off the alarm. Another, called Alarmy (Sleep If U Can), allows you to choose how to shut the alarm off, whether it’s by solving math problems (with adjustable difficulty levels) or getting up to take a picture that’s the exact same as the one taken while the alarm is set. Similar ones, as well as different ones, can be found on the iPhone - just kind of test out a bunch and see which one(s) work for you.
3. Set a series of alarms
This is especially important if you tend to just turn off your alarm instead of snoozing it, like I do. To make sure that you don’t oversleep, set multiple alarms, with five to 10 minutes in between each. While you still might fall back asleep, depending on how many alarms you set this system makes it so that it’s harder to fall back into a deep sleep and thus, oversleep. Besides, even if you do fall asleep again, at some point you’ll give up on doing so and then just get up.
4. If you have multiple alarm devices, make use of that
You can set up your alarms so that they’re staggered and go off at different times, but if you have many anyways, use them. Set up your alarms so that more than one (although I recommend only two, maybe three, at the most) goes off at the same time. This will not only double (or triple) the sound, but if both alarms are some of the more effective/annoying (depends on how you look at it) ones like those mentioned above, then you’ll have to complete double the number of creative tasks in order to stop the noise, meaning that you’re awake for longer, which increases your chance of waking up.
5. Sit up and/or stand up right after your alarm goes off
When your alarm goes off, or right after you shut it off, tired as you may be, try to force yourself to sit up right away. At this point, you’re already awake and from this point to whenever the alarm goes off again won’t be enough time to actually really go to sleep, so you should just get up when the first alarm goes off. If you convince yourself that you’ll snooze “just one more time” or sleep for “just five more minutes," there’s a likely possibility that one time will turn into 10 and five more minutes will turn into 30 more minutes. Either way, you’ll sleep in much longer than you, in your groggy state, intended to.
6. Give yourself a reason to get up
If there’s no reason to get up early, there’s a good chance that you’ll just fall back asleep - after all, why would you wake up early if you don’t have to? So, for the days that you want to wake up early, create a reason as to why you’re getting up early and commit yourself to waking up early so you can do whatever it is you need/want to do. For the days that you’re waking up early for class, make yourself get up so that you can get to class. You’ll make and keep a good impression and learn things that you can’t from the textbook. However, if those (and any other reasons you come up with) don’t give you enough reason to wake up for those early 8 a.m. classes, keep in mind that college, for most, is expensive and each class works out to be quite pricey. So, for each class that you skip, think about how much money you’re wasting - that should serve as enough of a wake up call.
7. Have your roommate wake you up…
...by dumping cold water on you! Okay, I’m joking of course, but that would serve as great revenge after you’ve likely woken them up trying all the different loud alarms. Plus, obviously, cold water, especially poured suddenly, is an effective way to get someone to wake up!
8. Invent a personalized alarm
If you have the time and creativity, try this. After all, you know best how to wake yourself up for real, since you know the reasons why you hit the snooze button and fall back asleep. You might not want to create something as painful as this one, but you do want to make something that will get you out of bed.
