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Stop Hitting Snooze and Wake Up Early

If you had your choice, would you rather know how to wake up early or stop hitting the snooze button? Through this past week of waking up at 6am, I realized my biggest problem was with the latter- hitting snooze. By combining just about every sleep trick I’ve read about, I was finally able to stop hitting snooze this week, and as a result, wake up at 6am.

My Snooze History

Growing up, my parents represented to the two extremes of waking up: my father was up as early as 4am, never setting an alarm, and rarely sleeping in past 6am on any day of the week; my mother overslept 5 days a week (she didn’t usually set an alarm on the weekends), and loved the snooze button.

When I was in high school, I was more like my dad- I woke up the first time my alarm went off and never looked back. In college, I slowly start to become addicted to snooze just like my mom. It of course started like any addiction- just hitting snooze once or twice, every couple of days. By the time I graduated in 2006, I was setting my alarm 2 hours early, just to hit snooze every 9 minutes until I truly had to get up.

After entering the real world, my addiction dropped slightly- only a couple of hits of the snooze each week. When I started blogging in 2007, I decided that one of my goals for the year was to quit the snooze for good. That lasted for awhile, but eventually ended when I went into relapse. With 2008, I decided to re-instate the challenge, but I couldn’t even go a month without hitting the snooze button. Every monthly review just reminded me of my addiction:

• “Never hit snooze? Yeah, no go here.”
• “Never hit snooze? The snooze button is the bane of my existence.”
• “Never hit snooze? I lose.”

Hitting Snooze versus Waking Up

Enter this past week’s project- wake up at 6am. Immediately I had a dilemma. Given my love for the snooze button, do I set my alarm for 5am and hit snooze for an hour, or do I just go cold turkey into waking up at the first ring of the alarm? I realized I would rather be able to wake up for the time I set on my alarm.

By learning the discipline of waking up the first time, I can change when it is I want to wake up. Right now the desired time is 6am- so I set my alarm for 6am and I’m good to go. But what happens if I need to start waking up at 5am, or decide to get up at 8am? If I only learned to wake up exactly at 6am, hitting snooze or otherwise, then changing that wake up time is an added challenge. But if I can get up as soon as the alarm clock goes off the first time, then it doesn’t matter for what time I set it.

How to Stop Hitting Snooze

I had my decision- learn to not hit snooze (which, in retrospect, would’ve been a much easier task had I wanted to wake up at 10am every day). But it’s one thing to say I’ll wake up early without hitting snooze, it’s another thing to actually do it. And if I told you that I didn’t hate every minute of 6am, I’d be a liar. I’ve had to combine all the tips and tricks that I’ve learned and read about through the years (trust me, I’ve done a lot of research on this), just to make it work.

The 12 step intervention plan I used is below. I tried to link to the original sources I learned each tip from, where I could remember. Also no two people are exactly alike. You have to find out what motivations, tricks, and techniques work for you. The tips start out more theoretical and then get into actionable steps you can take.

12 Tips to Stop Hitting Snooze and Wake Up Early

1. Appreciate waking up.
   One of the most important steps for me was changing my mindset about waking up. It was easy for me to hit snooze because my morning mind was focused on returning back to my warm, welcoming bed. But now, waking up and mornings are different for me- every time my alarm rings I focus on the fact that it’s a new day with new opportunities. I’m only 24, so hopefully I have quite a few more years ahead of me, but there’s no reason to not start living each day to it’s fullest.
2. Set an alarm you’re happy to wake up to.
   I hate the process of waking up- regardless of what time it is. You’re in the middle of a great dream, and then suddenly an annoying, loud sound comes from nowhere to wake you up. I decided if I’m going to appreciate waking up, I can’t use the same old alarm clock. Instead I switched to a sound I actually enjoy, one that I’m happy to hear in the morning – the song “A Brand New Day” from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog.
3. Have something to do /a reason you are getting up.
   Do you ever have an early flight on a Saturday morning and find it easier to get up at 4am that day than to get up at 6am on any normal day? It’s because you have a deadline for when you can be up, and you have something immediate to do upon waking (getting ready and getting to the airport). By having something you need to do, it makes it easier to stay awake and avoid the snooze. In my case, I’m trying to learn to wake up early so that eventually I can start working out in the mornings. Exercise isn’t technically required of me every morning, so for the time being I need something else to do as soon as I wake up – writing. If you can’t think of anything that you want to do immediately upon getting up, showering is a good start.
4. Set a short goal.
   My goal for waking up at 6am was technically only for this week. While the intention is that I keep going, this challenge set the goal at only 5 days- and I kept repeating that to myself every morning when I was tired. If I thought about my goal in the long term, that for the foreseeable future I’d like to wake up at 6am, it’s much more daunting. By having the mindset that I just have to get through this week, it’s more manageable. Now next week I’ll be telling myself the same thing.
5. Go to bed earlier.
   This one is obvious, but it certainly does help. I know that my body needs an average of at least 7 hours of sleep each night for me to be productive during the day. That means if I want to wake up at 6am, I need to be in bed by 11pm. It’s much harder to wake up early if you go to bed late.
6. Don’t sleep too comfortably.
   Often my problem in the morning isn’t not having something I could be doing, it’s that I look back at my bed and think of how it incredible it would be to be able to return to it. By sleeping in a slightly less than heavenly bed, the allure back into it diminishes. Luckily I have a Sleep Number bed, so I’ve set the setting to 70, much firmer than I’m used to, because it’s not as entrapping as sleeping on 35.
7. Try to wake up in the right cycle.
   Studies show that how much sleep you get isn’t nearly as important as how much REM sleep you get. They also suggest that waking up in the middle of an REM cycle can leave you drowsy, but waking up in between one can be more refreshing. By sleeping for the right amount of time (e.g. 7 1/2 hours instead of 8), you can make it easier on the body to wake up.
8. Put the alarm on the other side of the room.
   By putting the alarm on the other side of the room, it’s a lot more inconvenient to keep hitting snooze. If you have to keep getting up and walking, you’ll get your muscles moving and the body up.
9. Turn on the lights.
   Despite the invention of the light bulb, instinctually we still desire to rise and sleep with the sun- that’s why most people want their rooms to be dark when they’re sleeping. Well the same is true for waking up- light signals our body that it’s time to get up.
10. Drink some water.
    Not only does drinking water get you doing something physical (walking to the kitchen and getting water), it also supplies the body with it’s most precious resource after a 6-8 hour drought. Drinking cooler water also helps wake up the body because of the additional energy required to heat the water during digestion.
11. Wake up at the same time every day.
    Waking up at the same time every day allows your body to set your internal clock so that it becomes accustomed to the 6am hour. Over time, your body will naturally start prepping itself to be awake at 6am, often times allowing you to wake up just before your alarm, and if you have an alarm sound that you are looking forward to hearing, it can make it even more pleasant to hear it from the beginning. This one wasn’t as important for this first week, but it will be going forward. Also the weekends is what screws this up for most people. They wake up at 6am all week and then sleep in till Noon on Saturday. The general rule of thumb is to wake up no later than 2 hours after your normal waking time, otherwise you destroy any internal clock setting.
12. Commit.
    Perhaps the strongest driver this past week was committing to waking up. I wish I could pretend that my discipline is so great that I just committed it internally to myself and that was enough, but it’s not. I committed to it as a project, which means if I fail it, I owe someone $100. I also committed to a friend, who decided to wake up at 6am as well. Each morning we IMed each other at 6am to prove that we were both up, realizing that we’d call each other out if we didn’t wake up at that time. Money and friendly challenges can be motivating factors.

By attacking my snooze addiction from multiple angles, and creating myself a routine using the above tips, I’ve been able to survive waking up at 6am. I’m sure that not everyone will need to incorporate all of the tips like I do, but at least you can pick and choose which ones will work for you. Good luck, and good mornings.

My Wake-up Routine

For those of you curious about my specific routine, this is what a morning looked like this past week:

1. Alarm goes off playing “A Brand New Day.”
2. I wake up, walk across the room to my alarm- usually forcing myself to sing along with the alarm.
3. I turn off the alarm, hit the lights, and go to the kitchen for a glass of water.
4. I come back into my room, drink the water, and get on my computer to IM Pat.
5. We prove to each other we’re awake, I agonize over being up at 6am.
6. I check for any interesting emails, then start to write in some form or another (outline, plan, or just start writing).

© 2008 drew tarvin blog.