Let’s be honest, sleeping in every morning sounds way more relaxing than getting up early and doing work. However, there are a lot more benefits to getting started with your day early on, especially as a college student. Here are three major benefits to becoming a morning person.
1. You have better mental health.
How many of us have slept in past noon and felt guilty later for missing half of the day? *girl raising hand emoji* According to research, 25% of morning people have increased feelings of happiness compared to night owls. Just the feeling of getting up early and checking off tasks on your to-do list provides a great sense of relief and peace that can result in better mental health. You’ll also be more focused early on in the day because of fewer distractions. While everyone is still rolling out of their beds, you could be halfway down your list of things to do for the day.
2. You sleep better at night.
Waking up early and going to bed at a decent time regulates your body more efficiently. Your body needs a certain amount of rest that it just can’t fulfill via a nap or a quick snooze during the day. Sleeping peacefully during night time heals your body from the days’ stress. By waking up early, your body will force you to go to bed and off your phone earlier than your current bedtime.
3. You’ll be more productive and procrastinate less.
As college students, we’ve all had late nights at the TECH and skipped our first class the next morning to sleep in. Could you imagine if you would’ve started your work earlier the day before and finished it before midnight? You could’ve turned in your paper on time and avoided that panic attack. Waking up early and getting on with your day results in more productivity and less procrastination.
Sure, all these benefits to becoming a morning person sound great, but how do you actually accomplish waking up early? This doesn’t have to be a gruesome process. Start off by waking up five minutes earlier than usual. Every morning set your alarm a little earlier than usual until you achieve your desired outcome. Going to bed earlier is a crucial factor. Your body needs enough sleep to heal. You might be surprised at how much you can get accomplished by waking up just a little bit earlier than usual.
(Btw, I wrote this blog very early in the morning.)
This blog post was written by Freya Christian, Treasurer.