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6 Healthy Reasons to Wake Up Earlier
Start your day right with these early-morning wellness routines.
Posted September 26, 2017 Reviewed by Devon Frye
It’s hard enough getting out of bed when your alarm goes off at the latest possible moment to get out of the house on time. Is there any justification for setting the alarm several minutes, or even an hour or two earlier? As a matter of fact, dozens of experts eagerly agree that there is.
Recently, I asked health, fitness, and mental-health professionals who choose to wake up early every day about their morning wellness routines. Below, six experts share advice on getting your day off to a healthy start.
Practice yoga and meditation.
“Beginning my morning with yoga and meditation enables me to be my best self for the rest of the day,” says Chelsey Kapuscinski, a certified yoga instructor and Rolfer in New York City. “I’m calmer and more present for my clients, my relationships, and myself.” Often, she’ll devote 60 to 75 minutes to her practice. For someone just starting out, however, she recommends a 10-minute morning routine.
“Start with 8 minutes of your preferred yoga poses,” Kapuscinski says. “Then follow with 2 minutes of meditation: Sit up as comfortably as possible, rest your hands on your knees, close your eyes, and observe your breath. Use a timer if you like. When the 2 minutes are up, blink open your eyes and gaze at an unmoving point on the ground a few inches in front of you. Then take a deep, slow inhalation, and exhale out your mouth. This helps ground you before you transition into your day.”
Quick tip: Match your choice of yoga poses to your energy level. For example, Kapuscinski does Sun Salutations when she’s in the mood for a dynamic workout and Child’s Pose when she feels like taking a gentler, more relaxed approach.
Get your daily workout done.
Sean Hashmi, M.D., assistant area medical director for Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills, California, hits the gym at 4 a.m. before going to work. He typically spends 2 hours on a workout regimen that includes cardio activities, yoga with mindfulness meditation, and weight training. “It’s my way of attaining my first accomplishment of the day,” Hashmi says.
Exercising before work also lets him start his day on a positive note at the biochemical level. “When I work out, I get endorphins going,” Hashmi says, referencing the brain chemicals that produce feelings of well-being during exercise. “I have the positive energy that allows me to go to work and perform at the level that I expect of myself and that my patients deserve.”
Quick tip: Pack your gym bag the night before. Sign up for an early-morning exercise class or personal training session for an extra push out of bed.
Take your dog for a walk.
If you’re a dog lover whose schedule doesn’t require getting up in the predawn hours, this routine may be for you: Trinity Perkins, M.S.Ed., a certified fitness trainer and lifestyle blogger, takes her Jack Russell terrier, Ace, for a walk first thing in the morning. “Not only does he need to go out, but it also gets me out into the fresh air and sunlight,” she says. Depending on the weather, their walk may last up to 45 minutes.
Perkins appreciates the serenity of her suburban neighborhood in the early morning. “It’s my quiet time, before I log into work or check my phone,” she says. “It makes me happy watching Ace sniff the neighborhood like it’s the first time he’s been here. And it keeps me on schedule, because I know Ace depends on me to let him out.”
Quick tip: Follow your morning walk with 5 minutes of stretching, Perkins recommends.
Eat a nutritious breakfast.
Jennifer Glockner, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Los Angeles, begins every day by making and eating breakfast. She recommends allowing at least 20 minutes for your morning meal when possible—5 minutes for preparation and 15 minutes for eating. “Ideally, breakfast, like any other meal, should be eaten mindfully and slowly to allow satiety [a satisfied feeling of fullness] to set in,” she says.
“We fast overnight, leading to a low blood sugar level and a slower metabolism,” Glockner says. “Breakfast is an opportunity to jumpstart your metabolism and provide key nutrients that the body needs to promote wellness and maintain proper weight. In contrast, routinely skipping breakfast may cause overeating at later meals, which eventually may lead to weight gain.”
What’s on the menu? Glockner says that a nutritious breakfast should be primarily composed of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, high-quality proteins (including nuts, seeds, and beans), and a little healthy fat. “For example, I’ll eat a whole-grain waffle with nut butter and berries,” she says. “Or I’ll have a whole-grain tortilla with an egg or beans, avocado, and tomatoes.”
Quick tip: Get a head start the night before by making overnight oats or hardboiled eggs and chopping fruits or veggies.
Consume inspiring media.
Erika Martinez, a clinical psychologist in Miami, believes that establishing morning and evening routines to bookend each day reduces worry. One component of her morning routine is reading, watching, or listening to something that makes her feel grateful or inspired. She cites readings from the Daily Stoic and videos of TED Talks. “Novels and self-help books can also be great options," she says, "especially audiobooks for the commute to work."
Martinez says that the effects of engaging with something positive in the morning can reverberate throughout the rest of the day. “It helps me be more mindful of how I go about my day and use my time,” she says. “It also helps me not take the people or things in my life for granted.”
Quick tip: Write in a journal about something that inspires you as an alternative method of eliciting this frame of mind.
Revel in the peace and quiet.
Lisa Santangelo is a pharmacist who also runs a lifestyle blog called Food, Family, and Chaos! The busy mother of 9-year-old twins gets up 45 minutes before the kids so she can ease into her day with a leisurely shower, a big mug of tea, and some undisturbed me-time.
“My day just flows better if I don’t have to rush when I first wake up,” she says. “I sit in my recliner, cuddle up in a blanket with my dog, and check my personal email and Facebook—my guilty pleasure,” she says in a tone that sounds not at all guilty.
Quick tip: Save work email, news websites, and anything else that’s likely to be more stressful than soothing for later in the day.
Rise and shine!
Scheduling wellness activities early in the day ensures that you get around to them. If you decide to give it a try, don’t forget to adjust your bedtime. When you’re getting up an hour earlier, you need to go to sleep an hour earlier, too, to avoid shortchanging your sleep.
It’s unclear whether early to bed and early to rise makes you wealthy and wise. But it should make you healthier, if you find an early-morning wellness routine that works for you.
