Morning hacks

I am not a morning person. Not, not, not. 

In fact, I have never been cheerful in the mornings.  Even as a youngster my parents told me I was like Grumpy Bear from the Care Bears when they woke me.  Ordinarily, during alert times, I was happy and affectionate.  But first thing in the morning?  Um, no.

As an adult and mother I have tried hard to curb my negativity in the mornings.  But it hasn’t always worked.  Some of my children are naturally morning people.  The others are not.  They clash and I tense.  This is not the way any of us want to start our days.

Which leads me to today.  It is a beautiful, wintry Saturday. I had the luxury of not working this Saturday.  My sleep had been warm, comfortable and pleasant.  Duration was excellent.  I had every reason to be happy and only a few reasons to be unhappy and I did not intend to dwell on them. 

Yet, I still awoke in a funk.  Why? 

As it turns out, there is a name for it (there always is).  It’s called “sleep inertia” and it is the state we find ourselves in as we are waking up and easing into the day.  Some people zip through the process in five quick minutes.  Some of us take up to an hour.  We feel groggy and our brains foggy.  It isn’t detrimental, but it isn’t comfortable.  

But there are things you can do about it.

1: Acknowledge stress-They say there is such a thing as unacknowledged stress.  Just because you desperately want to believe that you are coping fine with life and its myriad changes, doesn’t mean you completely are.  This alone might make you chronically overwhelmed.  Sleep might be the first time we actually allow ourselves to relax completely in a day.  Coming out of this relaxed state and back to whatever daily battle you find yourself in is unsettling. 

2: Make relaxation a priority-If you identify with the above stress (and most of us can), it is suggested that we find time to relax.  This is hard.  But it might require eliminating something that isn’t as necessary as we thought.  It might mean that instead of vegging out in front of the T.V. with the family, we go somewhere else for 5-10 minutes and focus on a relaxing practice of some sort.

2: Include daily pleasurable activities.-So we tend to jam our schedules full of crap that we feel we must do.  Include some fun, pleasurable activities.