Why is waking up early so HARD ?

As the old saying goes the “The first step to winning is waking up early”. Despite knowing it as a fact or being fed with this thought we still find it, perhaps, the most difficult task. 90% of people on earth want to get up early and start a fresh day with full of zest. But when it comes to put into action a lot of fail. There are often nights where we have a big event the next day, and probably the last thing we remember before floating into dream world is getting up early. When that alarm rings early in the morning, unless – you are a kid planning for a day out with your friends/family or a lovebird looking forward to spend that quality with the loved ones or a employee/entrepreneur wanting to portray your determination, you might find it hard getting up in the morning. For the rest of us we find ourselves dragging out of the bed, while our mind tries to clear the brain fog. This feeling can last for few of minutes to couple hours, till the adrenaline starts to wake up our senses.

We often have self-made promises or a new year resolution, but how often do we find it tearing apart. Even if you do not have either of these still there could be those thought on a normal day, after repeatedly snoozing the alarm and realizing at the last hour, ohh fish I am late again. Why on Earth am I not able to get up in the morning?    

Well, the good news is that you are not the only one who is having these thoughts running your mind while you rush to get ready and conquer this world. There are a lot of studies done on this pattern. Some of the studies suggest that at least 70% of people suffer from, what scientist call as, Sleep Inertia for first couple of hours after waking up. In normal English, sleep inertia is the feeling tiredness, drowsiness, grogginess right after you get your senses back after waking up. You can consider this like a period brain goes though, what we can call as brain-lag. During this period your reaction time is terribly slow. Reasoning, thinking ability and memory is foggy. When you wake up and pass though the period of sleep inertia, the frontal part if the brain is not so ready to bloom and ignite that spark of life.  

Causes for Sleep Inertia

When we sleep our body cycles through these stages of sleep. If a person is wakes up during a – what is called as a non-Rem stage, one would have that groggy feeling, starting the day with a lag.

Some wise minds have performed studies that say its common to have this brain lag or feeling low in the morning during winter season. The reason for this could be the lack of sunlight hitting the eyes, which instead would tell the body clock to keep generating the sleep hormones – Melatonin, vaporizing that zesty feeling you might have early in the morning.

Our body has a fixed sleep-wake pattern to rev up our biological motors and gear us for the day ahead. In the morning even before we wake up, our body starts to release a powerful hormone called – Cortisol. Cortisol surge is the highest during the morning hours till around 15-45 minutes. Now this does not mean Cortisol is our best friend if we want to be a morning person. Even though this surge boosts our energy and motivation the blood sugar levels are at it highest during this period.

Right after we are awake, our brain swings between 2 different modes. These happening in 2 different circuits in our brain. One is a focused task-active mode, which is in play and help us during our active time of cognitive thinking. The other one is a non-focused, task-negative mode, which is for more responsible for a mind-wandering. While we just wake up, we switch between these two modes: When our brain transits into task-active mode and begins to be operative there is a decrease in activity in the task-negative circuit.

Problems with Sleep Inertia

Studies show that during sleep inertia, most of the cognitive functions are impaired. Human mind’s ability to process information is 70% slower than in normal times. The reaction times is 360% slower than compared to a fully awake period. Even if you think you are clear head, you should refrain from making big decisions, the ability to make good decisions is 51% worse.

Sleep inertia can also cause, problem remembering things, lack of motivation when you wake up, stronger feelings of pain during emotional situations, low sex drive, dark circles under your eyes and wrinkled skin and dark circles.

How to treat Sleep Inertia

Sleep inertia is very common among the people of all ages, but thankfully it’s only a temporary condition. There are different techniques that one could use to overcome this feeling is a blissful way.

Well, the golden rule of thumb says adhere to your body’s clock and follow the pattern to as close as possible. For most of us, its just a matter of making certain changes in our lifestyle. Maintain a regular sleep cycle and keep away objects that could disturb your sleep cloud reduce the issue with sleep inertia a little.

Don’t be awake too later in the night. Get enough sleep – for children between the age of 6 – 12 years, recommended sleep is 9-12 hours a day. For teenagers betweem 13-18 years recommended sleep is 8-10 hours a day. Adults, 7 or more hours of sleep.

For a normal person even after this if you continue to feel groggy (not just morning), get out in light. As the word goes in almost all the Abrahamic monotheistic religions “Let there be light”, try to get out int daylight to kick start your body clock. If you are Scandinavian, you may consider a light therapy immediately after waking up.

You can also try some stretching or gentle exercise to get that boost and blood flowing through your veins. Any activity that could raise your heart rate, will flush the blood to the parts of brains, clearing that clog or brain-lag and boost your energy levels.

Try adding caffeine to your morning routine as studies have shown that caffeine intake during the morning, brain lag period help reduce the groggy feeling.

If you don’t experience sleep inertia a lot often, or the grogginess upon waking tends to wear off shortly after, you probably don’t need to worry about it. Now if none of this works for you, my advice is not to google it any further and try to seek some medical attention. Meet someone who had expertise in sleep disorders. Sleep inertia can also be a symptom of an underlying condition such as depression or chronic fatigue syndrome. For most of the people sleep inertia is more seasonal which tends to wear off with good habits.