Tired of being tired? If you almost always wake up each morning with that ever-fleeting yet constant thought of ditching your entire life for a couple of snoozes, you may begin to rethink your career or relationship decisions. But most likely, all that you need may be a simple but often overlooked solution: more morning energy!
When your blues aren't just limited to Monday mornings and extend to Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and well, pretty much the rest of the week, you may have morning fatigue.
While there are those eager beavers who just seem to bound out of bed every day, many find it hard to be that bubbly ball of energy first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, if you're one such person, morning sluggishness can direct how your day progresses, affecting your work productivity and even quality time with loved ones later on in the day. Fortunately, you can turn your zero-zest mornings into supercharged ones with these proven hacks. Read on to find out how to have energy in the morning.
Energy Hacks to Boost Your Mornings
1. Get a good night's sleep.
This may seem like a no-brainer—sleep well to wake up refreshed. It's a proven fact that having sufficient sleep will enable one to have the energy to start the day right. Yet many people don't get the rest they need. While there may be medical conditions and sleep disorders, many get fewer Zzzs because of poor sleep hygiene. Banish the morning blues by developing a proper bedtime routine.
Reschedule the stimulating activities to another time in the day. First, set a consistent bedtime schedule to help maintain your internal body clock. Start off by winding down an hour or two before going to bed. Enjoy a relaxing warm soak with lavender scents. Lose your smartphone and other electronic gadgets to "deactivate" your mind. Improve overall sleep quality by sipping some chamomile tea, which contains a sleep-inducing chemical compound. Bring down the thermostat to a cool and comfortable temperature. Keep the room dark to signal the body that it's time to rest or wear an eye mask. Then prepare to sleep blissfully through the night.
2. Avoid the snooze button like the plague.
Do you feel like you're doing your tired body a favor by pushing that snooze button (over and over again, perhaps)? Then you may want to reconsider that. That instant gratification may feel good momentarily but can make you lose much more than you bargained for. Those 5 to 10 minutes of extra sleep can lead to sleep inertia—that languid state between sleep and wakefulness. When the alarm clock rouses you, and you hit the snooze button to fall back asleep, this causes your body to get confused.
To be able to wake up refreshed, the delta waves in your brain associated with deep sleep need to wind down. Additionally, adenosine (a chemical compound regulating sleep) needs to decrease as you ease into wakefulness. When you're sending mixed signals to your body, your body does the opposite of what it's supposed to do: increase your delta wave activity and adenosine levels. As a result, you end up tumbling out of bed groggy and disoriented, not exactly a precursor of an amazing day ahead.
3. Nourish your body the nutrigenomics way.
From your mom and grade school teachers to your nutritionist, everyone has been telling you all your life to "eat a healthful and well-balanced meal. While this remains sound and relevant advice to this day, it fails to underscore just how pivotal a role food plays in our overall wellbeing.
Biohacking is a growing science-based and experimental movement in our quest to gain better control of our health. One of the latest developments in this field is nutrigenomics.
In a nutshell, nutrigenomics is the study of understanding the relationship between our genes and the food we eat to attain optimum health and vitality. And "vitality" is one word we'd surely like to associate more often with our mornings.
Here are a couple of nutri-hacks to beat the morning blues:
- Do the water treatment first thing in the morning.
Drink 650ml or 3 cups of water on an empty stomach to enhance your metabolic rate by 24%. This will help improve your digestion, so your body can receive the nutrients it needs to fuel up. Downing plenty of H20 also aids in cleansing your colon so that you can eliminate toxins and other indigestible materials from your body more efficiently.
- Detox from coffee
This may seem counterintuitive. But did you know that quitting coffee or at least lessening your intake can actually get your energy levels up? Studies show that caffeinated beverages can cause hormonal shifts by elevating estrogen levels in women, leading to fatigue and a depressed mood. By breaking away from the caffeine habit, you can also help protect your brain's chemistry, making you less susceptible to artificial highs just to get going.
Additionally, the tannins in coffee may inhibit the absorption of essential nutrients such as calcium, iron, and B vitamins. This weakens your bones, hampers the delivery of oxygen that can lead to fatigue, and negatively affects your cell health.
4. "Freeze over!"
Some stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the right amounts, it can enhance your alertness, boosting your cognitive performance. This principle underlies the biohacking technique of taking cold showers or baths. The idea is to expose yourself to small pockets of positive stress in the form of extreme temperatures to trigger your body to respond. There is scientific evidence that "short intervals of stress can build resilience." Prolonged exposure to chronic stress can be damaging. However, creating brief challenges within a controlled environment can elicit just enough physiological response to "survive" the challenge. For instance, dipping in ice-cold water enhances our immune system to fight illnesses. The freezing temperatures can also increase blood circulation as your body flips over to survival mode, awakening your body far better than a cup of coffee can.
Just a word of caution: Do see your physician before jumping into any activity that is particularly strenuous or exposes you to extreme conditions.
5. Motion before emotion
You'll probably do a double-take with this next tip—because it's all about moving your body. Yup, like the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma, moving is an effective way to get the energy you need to be able to move in the first place. But we promise it gets better as your body gains the muscle memory to exercise with less and less resistance.
Let's start with the most basic of all—breathing exercises. It may not seem like a lot is going on. But as you do more regular breathwork, this practice helps expel "old" air and elevate oxygen levels to help you breathe better. And when you can inhale and exhale without difficulty, this boosts your stamina to be more physically active, whether in the morning or at any other time of the day.
Aerobic exercises can also improve the quality of your sleep, so you can wake up just raring to be up and about. On top of that, a light cardio can boost endorphins that stimulate your brain into more wakefulness. Eventually, your body becomes positively addicted to that happiness boost. Pretty soon, you may even be looking forward to waking up in the morning just to exercise!
6. Ramp up with NAD coenzyme treatments.
NAD coenzyme therapy is yet another innovative biohack increasing in popularity even among medical and scientific circles. NAD stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.
That mouthful may translate to plenty of benefits!
NAD plays a pivotal role in metabolism and many other fundamental biological processes. Research shows that the coenzyme (an organic substance that enhances the action of enzymes) may help repair DNA damage and boost cell vitality. Additionally, the molecule helps manage sleep cycles for better waking-up moments. Also, decreased levels of NAD are linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer's and Type 2 diabetes.
So, guess what it can potentially do? It may be able to rewind the clock so you can get out of bed in the mornings feeling all youthful and invigorated. Thus, NAD treatments, commonly in the form of injections, are used to treat a variety of reasons, from stimulating blood vessel growth to enabling peak energy and performance.
7. Get the light in!
What better way to get up all bright and sunny than by letting the light into your life—through infrared light therapy!!
An infrared light treatment, also known as a low-level light therapy, ranks high among the most effective biohacks ever invented. Through innovative technology, we can now tap all the healing and restorative powers of natural light.
Infrared light therapy uses red or near-infrared wavelengths, which are beamed onto the entire body or selected body parts. This triggers a photobiological response where the mitochondria or power generators in our cells absorb all the heat energy from the low-level light.
The newly fired-up cells now have the power to boost blood circulation, heal wounds, reduce pain and inflammation, and regenerate tissues. In addition, the low-frequency radiation ensures that infrared light treatments are not just effective but also safe.
Yet not all infrared light therapy treatments are created equal. Trust HigherDOSE to deliver only the highest quality products, such as the HigherDOSE Infrared Sauna Blanket, which increases your body's thermal energy to support natural detoxification. On top of that, it can also boost circulation for optimal energy levels whenever you want to DOSE up! Why not make your mornings the best part of your day with HigherDOSE? Shop our cutting-edge infrared-light line today
