Steps to ensure your morning routine isn’t making you tired

Somedays you are just tired. You can’t explain it, you didn’t go to bed that late, you didn’t wake up in the night, but for some reason you are sluggish and just want to go back to bed.

If you have a sleeping problem, then you might need to get treatment from professionals on that, but if you sleep regularly well, it could actually be what you did before or after the bed that has doomed you to being tired all day before you even get up. The plus side to these problems is that you will have the ability to do something about it.

Hanging around in bed
When you wake up in the morning are one of the millions that have a look at their phone? Maybe grab your book for a read before you start your day? Dr Raj Dasgupta from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine told Men’s Health “The bed is meant for one main thing: sleeping”. He continued “If you stay in bed, then it gives your mind the feeling that it’s time to sleep and not start your day.”

The solution is that if you are awake, you should get out of bed. Check your phone or read a book over a cuppa which is easier said than done on those winter mornings.

You could be dry as a bone
One of the reasons that you feel so tired, and also one of the causes of the relationship threatening “morning breath” is that your body is running low on fluids. Your body is still burning through whatever you had to drink before you went to bed so if you hadn’t had much to drink before bed and didn’t drink for a while after you wake up, dehydration could be making you tired.

A 250ml glass of water before bed and when you wake is a great solution to ticking this one off your list of potential problems.

Showering at night
It seems like a hot shower should relax you and put you into a peaceful slumber, but studies are showing that it could be doing the exact opposite. Dr Dasgupta says that ““taking a hot shower at night is kind of like exercising at night”. He continues “It’s not a good idea because it increases your core body temperature, so it takes longer to cool down and get to sleep.”

Preliminary studies have shown that having a shower in the morning will wake you up even more. Though these same studies suggest that an ice cold shower is the most ideal. We advise you to find the temperature that works for you.

If you need to feel clean before hopping into bed, it’s good to have the shower a few hours before bed so that your body has the chance to cool down before you go to sleep.

Your mind is working against you
If you are a fit bit user or any other sleep monitoring system, if could be putting the wrong idea into your head. Users who expect a certain sleeping result can be disappointed if their sleeping goals haven’t been met and start to think that the day is ruined. Thinking that the day is ruined will ruin the day. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

What other things do you do to keep your energy up in the morning? What tips to you give others for sleeping better?