Waking up too early
Introduction
You are wide awake in bed at half-past three, right in the middle of the night. You turn to the side, look at the clock, and mutter, “Oh, come on. Not again. It’s 4 AM...”. Right then and there, you realize you won’t be able to go back to sleep. You were never able to do it when you wake up in the middle of the night, and there are no exceptions. After a while, you slowly drift back to sleep only to wake up half an hour later. That’s when you get out of the bed agitated and fed up.
“You see, I knew it didn’t make sense to stay in bed.”
After you left your bed, you went out and had something to drink. Maybe you looked for a puzzle or a book that could entertain yourself until the sun rises. Two hours go by, and your eyes begin to feel heavy again. You decide it’s best to make use of the time you have left to sleep. But it doesn’t feel as good as 8 hours of sleep when you only have one hour left before the alarm clock goes off. You know you are going to wake up exhausted anyways.
How do you get into the pattern of waking up too early?
Because you started to wake up in the middle of the night several times in a row, your body adjusted itself to this pattern. Your body felt the need to wake up way before your alarm clock goes off. And every night you wake up at 3 or 4 AM, you start to think about your job or the issues you are going to face when the sun rises. Because of that, your brain thinks it’s time to wake up. Eventually, you find yourself waking up at 3 AM every night, almost as if you were on automatic pilot.
Early risers will be able to relate to the fact they are already thinking about the next day when they wake up in the middle of the night. And they look at the clock to confirm it’s always at the same hour! One big mistake!
“Your body cannot stay in bed if your mind is already out of it.”
How can I motivate myself to get out of this situation?
Your exhaustion, fatigue, concentration problems, physical pain, and short temper are all the result of poor sleeping patterns. Your many hours’ worth of sleep deprivation is the best motivation you have to change your situation. You can take this anger and frustration to change once and for all your harmful sleeping patterns.
You have to tell your brain way before bedtime you are not going to think about work until it’s 7 AM. Until then, it’s time to sleep, and you will behave accordingly. If you wake up and the alarm clock has not gone off, DO NOT look at the clock. Time is not important right now. The only thing that matters is that it’s time to sleep. Worst case scenario, you are in a warm, comfortable bed. It’s pleasantly silent and dark. You don’t need anything, and nothing is important. You are at peace and relaxed; no thoughts are coming through your head. You only know about your breathing patterns and your soft pillow, where you rest your sleepy head.
You are going to feel like you need to check the clock. That you need to know what time it is. That you need to think about your work tomorrow. This habit is exactly what’s driving your sleeping problem. Learn to ignore these issues and reeducate your brain. You and your brain need to understand that nothing is as vital as sleep between 11:30 PM and 7:00 AM. You can learn this habit with sleep exercises.
Result
Breaking the habit of waking up too early can take up to four weeks. Your brain doesn’t want to change after it adjusted. Even after a few days, your mind will not be convinced that everything would go well if you sleep the night through. However, you can train your brain to understand that days are better when you sleep through the night. Once this happens, your internal alarm clock will relax and let you sleep. Being consistent and clear about your intentions is the key to success.
You will see how lovely the results are once you can bring your nightly inner motor to a halt.