21 Jun 2021 | 5 mins

While you’re young, you can put in the hours and stay awake until two o’clock in the morning and wake up at seven, feeling refreshed and restored, but as you get older, your procrastination at night and sleep-ins start to become more of the norm in your everyday life. With university, work and relationships in the picture, it can be a real struggle adapting to early starts.

You’re either a night owl or a morning riser and in case you didn’t know, you can’t be both. As much as everyone wants to get to sleep early and wake up early, reality is, that never happens. No matter how early you set your alarm, you’ll snooze it. No matter how early you want to get to bed, you’ll be staring at your ceiling wishing you could fall asleep.

 

So, read below our tips on figuring out if you need to catch some extra zzz’s or need a morning wake up call.

Work around your fixed schedule

If you’ve got set work hours, where you need to wake up at six in the morning, go to bed early. Your body clock will come naturally and you’ll start to get tired earlier so make sure you’re not a sleep deprived zombie! If you’re more of an arvo or night shift worker (been there) just catch some zzz’s where you can get more than six hours at a time.

Attempt to reset your body clock

Everyone’s sleep requirement is different - maybe you’re all good on six hours of sleep but if you hit a wall and get sleepy at three in the afternoon, try getting eight hours of sleep. You’ll also be in sync with the regular rhythm of modern society. I had a roommate that got to sleep by half past eight every night and I thought “are you even tired yet?”. Turns out, going to the gym before sunrise takes a toll on your body.

Listen to your body

Take a step back and feel what your body needs. It’s much easier to stay awake than to wake up early so if you’re feeling tired, that’s your sign to call it a night! 

Or maybe you generally wake up before your alarm - it’s an amaaazing feeling and you feel like you’ve awoken from the best slumber but make sure to get up and not fall asleep again, otherwise your body will think you haven’t slept enough.

Work out how you get the best quality sleep

Trial it out! I used to work 2-6pm in admin and then 9pm-4am at a pub. Hey, blockout curtains work wonders and I still got an amazing sleep (despite my partner waking up two hours later to go to work). Sometimes I had a cheeky power nap in between shifts after dinner, feeling refreshed and ready to go. If you’re on the grind, find out what works best for you.