Especially for women, healthy, restful and sufficient sleep is the most important key factor for well-being, health and performance. Out of this reason, within the sleeping process the proper waking up is just as important as the proper falling asleep. Basically, waking up in the morning is the first signal for falling asleep in the evening. Because we are awake, sleep and dream in a time-rhythmic sequence. For women it too became a real artistry to wake up in the morning feeling rested and to start fit into the day. The reasons are manifold (profession, children, care) and only when you do your own personal bit you will succeed in doing so. Furthermore, the “dark time of the year” is coming along -– and this, too, is influencing our waking up as well as the morning. Now, it is clearly darker and light is one of the most important control factors for sleep. During the next weeks and months this clearly increases our need for sleep and makes waking and getting up even more difficult.
When it comes to getting up, the biggest challenge is the phenomenon of the “chronical lack of sleep’”. Already 80 % of all grown-ups have too less sleep and therefore over years have built up a sleep debt. A special example: a mother of a baby builds up a sleep debt of up to 600 hours (!) in one year. Ok, women are a bit less sensitive and tougher than men but this sleeping deficit makes waking and getting up in the morning more difficult. In the long term, it even is harmful for our health and supports exhaustion, depression and burnout.
The evidence of a sleeping debt is very easy: you need an alarm clock in the morning! Most people who need an alarm clock go to bed too late and have to get up too early, from their point of view. Most of the time, these people are chronobiologically speaking “owls”. In this case, it is predestined that getting up as well as the morning are not fulfilling, since the sleep was either too short or too less recreative. When suffering under a chronical lack of sleep, the only solution for waking and getting up easier as well as for being more recreated is: more sleep! Often, going to bed 15 or 30 minutes earlier are an improvement.
The counterpart to the “owls” concerning waking and getting up are the happy “larks”. They have no problem with early morning hours, normally are immediately wide awake in the morning and are in top form mid-morning. Most of them don’t need an alarm clock, since they very seldom suffer under a lack of sleep.
Besides sleep duration, sleeping quality is a further decisive factor. Sleeping quality is the real decisive factor whether you are able to have a good and rested start into the day. Here, the quality of the day (nutrition, exercise, sunlight, breaks, leisure time etc.) as well as the “sleep-healthy-trio” bed – sleeping place – bedroom are playing the key role. Additionally, there are clear rules for sleep hygiene, beginning with regular sleep rhythm, the personal lifestyle up to avoidance of too much caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.
It is important to understand that all tips and tricks for getting up better sleep biologically are going to nothing as long as the real causes aren’t eliminated. There are a lot of “mental-tricks” -– up to the well-known snooze button which are spoiling the day. So, if you are having trouble to get up in the morning early enough and recreated, there are three decisive ways:
1) Reduce your sleep dept. Check, whether you are suffering under a sleep debt. If yes, reduce it and every evening go to bed 15 to 30 minutes earlier. Sleep late during the weekend and take 2 to 3 powernaps during the day (each from 5 to 10 minutes). By the way, independently from the real amount of sleep, in one night it is only possible to make up for two hours of lost sleep.
2) Check your bed, your sleeping-place and your bedroom. To a large extent, the quality of your sleeping- and mattress-system decides about your sleeping quality — in combination with a disturbance-free sleeping-place as well as a harmonious room climate. From the sleep-biological point of view, the most important furniture in your house or apartment is your bed. Each year, we spend about 4 months sleeping –- out of this reason, the material, the orthopaedics, the bedding-climate as well as electro-biologically your bed has to be from highest quality.
3) Check your sleep-efficiency. A high-quality sleep is characterized by a sleep-efficiency of 97 to 98 %. That means, the time you are spending in bed should contain only 2 to 3 % waking time. When you are lying in bed for 8 hours but only have a really good sleep for 6 hours, your sleep efficiency is only 75 %. Each percentage point is decisive for how well rested you are in the morning and for how easy it is for you to get up. The better you sleep, the better you will wake up in the morning and will be able to start fit into your day. By the way: women are more prone to fall asleep and sleep-through disturbances than men.
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