I don’t think that I would have ever categorized myself as an authentic “morning person.” I like to set five consecutive alarms for my 9:30 a.m. class, only to get up 15 minutes before it starts and run out the door while frantically downing coffee. I’m not good at waking up without alarms or getting up early enough to eat breakfast, let alone giving myself enough time to actually do something with my hair. If I could sleep all day, I would. That’s what I thought that summer was for.

However, the problem with sleeping until 1:00 p.m. every day is that your “morning” is actually afternoon and, pretty soon, you’re sitting down to dinner before your breakfast has even digested. The days go by quicker and you feel a bit off.

We may not want to admit it because it feels like a doomed idea, but maybe our parents were right. Maybe the way to beat this off-kilter feeling is to just get up a little bit earlier. The thought of waking up early during class-free summer days sounds just as pleasant as doing the polar plunge at the end of March might sound. However, think of all that you could accomplish if you just gave yourself a few more hours of daylight. There’s far too much to see, learn, and do in a lifetime to consecutively spend more than half of the day underneath covers in a dark room.

Keep your blinds up when you go to bed so that the natural sunlight seeps through your window and wakes you up. It's is a much more enjoyable way to get up than listening to your iPhone’s default alarm tone ring for five minutes straight.

If you do set an alarm, put it on the opposite side of the room so that you physically have to get up to shut it off. Also, try to make the noise more soothing than a fire alarm noise, but not gentle enough that you can sleep through it. Find that happy medium so that you don’t cringe every time when you hear a similar noise out in public.

Drink a glass of water, brew coffee, make breakfast, exercise, take the dog for a walk, or read part of a book. Just do something that doesn’t involve mindlessly scrolling through the same social media accounts for hours on end. Your body will thank you, your brain will thank you, and you might just feel a little bit more put-together.