Increase Your Productivity by Waking up at the Same Time
We measure our success with productivity. During the workdays, working out in the gym, completing our routine tasks, we all want to stay energized and make the most out of every hour. But if you ask around, you'll probably discover that most people feel tired and unmotivated throughout their life.
Thankfully, there is an effective lifehack to increase your productivity during the daily routine — the key to staying more effective lies beneath the development of healthy morning habits. Start by rising at the same time every day to experience the benefits as your effectiveness levels soar. Let's examine the reasons why this works.
The role of a healthy sleep regimen for your productivity & energy
Healthy sleep is imperative to help you perform at your best and don't become sluggish in the middle of a busy day. It has been linked to high quality of work, more creative thinking skills, decision-making abilities and perseverance towards goal-oriented objectives.
Most people think that they can spend their nights of rest dedicated to anything they want - read a pile of books or watch Netflix! However, these distractions can make a person lose sleep which will have negative effects on their productivity. Surprisingly, poor sleep routine can turn you to poor food choices and missed opportunities in socializing with friends and family.
Typically, the health benefits of good sleep are obvious: productive days, decreased anxiety levels, improved memory and emotions. While you don't need a lot of sleep, it contributes to overall health of the body and brain. A good night's sleep is needed for feeling happy and motivated in the morning.
Why do you need to get up at the same time?
Develop your bedtime regimen
Most busy people fall into the familiar trap — they wake up early to get to work, delaying the moment of going to bed until the last. Then they sleep all weekend to make up for the missing hours of sleep. But such a daily routine disrupts the natural balance of energy in your body, reduces your effectiveness, and prevents you from achieving life goals.
But when you start waking up at selected hours, you'll gradually get used to retiring to bed the same way too. That's how you can reset your body's internal clock, which in turn will enhance the quality of your sleep.
As studies state, regular bedtime decreases the latency of your sleep. In other words, it will take you less time to fall asleep. Many people who usually experience insomnia find that their sleep became calmer and more profound after developing a regular bedtime.
Setting up your sleep routine leads to a better day. When getting enough sleep, you get up energetic and ready to knock the world flat. Thus, you'll be more effective during the workday, which will make you stand out among colleagues and show off your strengths.
Avoid social jet lag
One of the essential parts of our routine is meeting friends and spending time with family. A healthy sleep schedule allows you to stick to your plans and get the complete pleasure of communicating with your loved ones. In turn, people with no sleep routine tend to wake up too late or too early. They often find it difficult to jump on their start time, which leads to falling behind. All the while, they may also be struggling with stress and anxiety.
How often have you declined your friend’s offers to meet & have a beer because you’re too sleepy or have no energy in the evening? Poor sleep routine can cause a social jet lag - a phenomenon that makes you cut off from the social world. By waking up at the same time every day, you help keep your plans solid and, thus, support your relationships with people around you.
Fix your circadian rhythm
Our bodies run on a twenty-four-hour biological cycle known as a circadian rhythm. It's a natural, internal process that repeats itself daily, and our sleep patterns are an inseparable part of this cycle. Recent studies of sleep hygiene have highlighted the importance of our circadian rhythm. Synchronizing your sleep schedule to this rhythm is essential to increase productivity and better overall health.
When we don't stick to our body's natural rhythms, we impede its biological processes that take place at night. For instance, it may disturb melatonin production, a hormone central to our wake cycle. Melatonin orients our circadian rhythm by increasing output with the evening darkness.
Another example is growth hormone. While we sleep, our bodies experience a surge of growth hormone, which functions to repair bone, muscle, and tissue. When we disrupt our natural sleeping patterns, we hinder our body's capability to utilize these hormones, putting ourselves at increased risk of getting serious diseases. On the contrary, when we allow these processes to occur by setting a regular sleep routine, our body manages to remain strong and energized.
Obesity, impulsivity, and slowed cognitive processes are among the negative consequences of ignoring your sleep regimen's natural cues. In the long run, disrupted circadian rhythms have an increasingly detrimental effect on our health. Tapping into your circadian rhythm will reduce stress, give you more motivation and energy.
Enhance your sleep quality
Scientists claim that our society is facing a sleep crisis, ironically, primarily due to the demands we place on ourselves to make the most out of our time.
Lack of sleep has a strong negative impact on our health and energy level. It makes you annoyed, depressed, dizzy and can cause constant headaches. But that's not just about sleep more to stay energized. People who have trouble sleeping have weaker immunity, so they're more likely to get sick. An unhealthy sleep routine may lead to such health disorders as cardiovascular diseases, depression, or even sugar diabetes.
And even though each of us has a unique internal clock, experts agree that most mature people require up to 9 hours of sleep to perform at their best. Start your day at the same time regularly to eliminate daytime fatigue, increase your creativity and improve your critical thinking skills. Even if it is hard at first, then you'll develop a habit.
Turn your sleep routine into your efficiency
Setting your daily grind is a significant component of enhancing your performance levels. Not only will it improve your efficiency, but it also brings structure and consistency to your life and productivity. Meanwhile, consistency may transform your habit into a daily routine. Start by deciding when you are most productive throughout the day to design your plans and wake-up time according to it.
Surveys prove that waking up early and doing some routine tasks help to tune in to a productive working day. There's also a theory that we divide into "larks" - those who like to get up early and "owls" - those who prefer waking up later. So when setting your sleep schedule, you should stick to your needs and likings.
Sleep schedule motivates you to complete all daily tasks and solve problems more efficiently, bringing you closer to long-term goals. It will also help you become way more refreshed and energized each day. Furthermore, experience your emotional stability improving as you optimize your sleeping regimen.
Improve your cognitive performance
Having trouble sleeping may also drastically affect your brain functions. Sleep is crucial for it to function, and in fact, it remains active while you're sleeping.
Proper sleep supports our cognitive function and improves mental clarity. Without decent sleep, you will find it difficult to focus. It is also harder for our brain to take in and adequately store new information. The research shows that concentration, memory, problem-solving skills, and learning capabilities will expand if you get enough rest.
Insufficient sleep not just affects our mental processes but our emotional functions as well. When you're asleep, your brain manages all emotions you have during the day. People who have trouble sleeping show more negative emotional reactions and lower motivation in general in comparison with those who have a wholesome sleep schedule.
So how can you fix your sleep regimen? You can start by choosing the hours to wake up and go to bed, even if you're not used to it. After some time, you'll feel all advantages of the healthy sleep routine - you'll be less tired after work, less stressed, and more effective while working on complex tasks.
Tips on how to start waking up at the same time:
1. Go to bed at the same time every day despite the circumstances
It is not easy to stick to a routine of waking up early in the morning or getting enough sleep. So it may take some time to get used with your new sleeping schedule, but there are many ways you can increase the chances.
While sometimes we just may feel like going to bed a little earlier and long before we actually have that urge, strictly going to sleep at the same time every night is essential. That way your body knows ahead of time when it should start winding down. And you’ll wake up well-rested even if you get less sleep than your usual 7 or 8 hours.
2. Put your alarm away from the bed
Are you hitting the snooze button a few times in the morning to “sleep just five more minutes”? Then you have a higher chance to feel tired and sleepy during the day. The alarm clock near your bed is the enemy when you want to get up and stay energized through the day. Instead, make sure it works the way it should - by waking you up.
Scientists claim that fragmented sleep messes up your circadian rhythms and gives you 2 times less energy than normal sleep. So try to put away your alarm from the bed, so you’ll need to get up and turn it off. If you can put your alarm away from your bedside cabinet, and fall asleep in dim light conditions, you will feel great even in waking up earlier than needed.
3. Take melatonin supplements at the same time every evening
Found it hard to fall asleep at night? Insomnia could stand in the way of a consistent sleep routine. In turn, melatonin supplements are effective in helping you sleep long hours and stick to your regular sleeping schedule.
They contain synthesized sleep hormones that can help improve sleep quality and duration due to their sleep-inducing effect, promoting relaxation. The most significant benefit of melatonin supplements is that it allows you better regulate your circadian biorhythm. It may also improve instinctive sleep patterns, which usually provide optimum health-oriented sleep.
It also prevents age-related changes in natural melatonin production and helps people suffering from insomnia. When taken at the same time every day, melatonin may help you achieve fixed sleep hours and wake up most productively!
4. Spend more time in natural sunlight
Natural sunlight has a lot of benefits for different parts of the body. The lack of sunlight creates excessive stress which is why people often have sleep issues. You may need more windows in your office space to allow as much natural light as you are able to while improving the quality and quantity of sleep you get. Setting time for sleeping and waking up at the same time helps human bodies to achieve rhythm in life. It helps you establish a pattern and balance of healthy sleep and waking hours every day.
Of course, it's not easy to stick to a routine of waking up early in the morning or getting enough sleep. It may take some time to get used with your new sleeping schedule, but there are many ways you can increase the chances. Exposing yourself to environmental stimuli during daylight hours could be an option for defeating sleep deficiency. It helps you maintain a proven rhythm by reducing the effects of artificial lighting sources provided by devices like smartphones.
Wrapping up
Choosing a fixed time to rise each day is the first step towards achieving your professional goals. It will become a foundation for other wholesome habits required to enhance productivity, including creating stability in your life and boosting your energy and performance. So by maintaining a healthy sleep schedule, you make the groundwork to perform at your best.
We all want to spend our days feeling alert and invigorated. We all want to be more productive and accomplish our full potential each day. There is no great secret behind improving your productivity levels. A more productive day is waiting, begin with one mere thing: wake up at the same hours every morning.
Resources:
- Buried in Sleep Debt (2021)
- A Time to Think: Circadian Rhythms in Human Cognition (2007)
- The Amygdala, Sleep Debt, Sleep Deprivation, and the Emotion of Anger: A Possible Connection? (2018)
- Disruption of Circadian Rhythm Increases the Risk of Cancer, Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease (2013)
- Healthy Sleep Tips (2020)
- Here’s What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep (And How Much You Really Need a Night) (2020)