Why You Should Wake Up At The Same Time Every Day

If you struggle to rise in the morning, you are in very, very good company. It’s a common experience, research shows, to feel groggy and sluggish when you wake up.

Scientists call the drowsiness felt upon awakening “sleep inertia.” Though it often dissipates within minutes, some people find that the sensation lingers for an hour or two and impairs their attention and performance at work.

But there’s good news: It’s possible to wake up feeling more refreshed. One way to make your mornings easier? Start getting up at the same time every day.

“Your body does best in terms of attention and focus when you keep a regular schedule,” Lynelle Schneeberg, a Yale Medicine sleep psychologist and the author of “Become Your Child’s Sleep Coach,” told HuffPost.

Here’s why having a consistent rise time can transform your mornings:

Many bodily functions, including sleep and digestion, are influenced by your circadian rhythm. This 24-hour cycle, which is linked to the idea of a biological clock, prompts the body to release various hormones, such as cortisol and melatonin, at specific times.

The strongest cues for the circadian rhythm are said to be light and darkness. When you wake up in the morning, you are likely exposed to daylight. That tells your body to stop producing melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Meanwhile, your body ramps up production of cortisol, a hormone that provides energy, in anticipation of your wake time, said Jamie Zeitzer, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

Why does this matter? According to Zeitzer, cortisol is crucial for giving you the energy you need to go about your day. When you wake up at 7 a.m. one day and 8:30 a.m. the next, your circadian rhythm may be out of whack and your body might not know when to get the cortisol flowing. As a result, you could wake up with insufficient cortisol levels and feel extra groggy.

When you rise at the same time every day, however, your circadian clock may be more stable, which means you could have a more robust and reliable cortisol surge before you wake, giving you more energy.

Waking up at the same time can also help you fall asleep more easily at night. Rising at the same time every day can stabilize your circadian rhythm, and that effect carries over into the night.

Schneeberg explained it simply: Your rise time sets your bedtime. “Your body expects to go back to sleep about 16 hours or so after you’ve gotten up for the day,” she said.

According to Zeitzer, one of the biggest sleep issues that people experience is guessing when they’ll get drowsy at night. Having a consistent wake-up time can cut down on the guesswork and give you a more predictable bedtime.

You could get a good night’s sleep and feel more alert, attentive and productive the next day. “Your performance improves if you feel rested and alert,” Schneeberg said, adding that “these are more likely to occur if you have a very consistent bedtime and wake time and have achieved adequate, restorative sleep.”

In an ideal world, everyone would be able to wake up naturally without an alarm each day. But since that’s unrealistic for many people, alarm clocks are the next best thing. And if you rely on a morning alarm, you’ll want to avoid continually hitting the snooze button.

Why? Research shows that using an alarm’s snooze feature can prolong sleep inertia, making it even harder to get out of bed.

“If you are consistently using the snooze button, you are almost certainly sleep-deprived, and you are fragmenting the last part of your sleep phase by having to wake and shut off the snooze button several times,” Schneeberg said. So, try to use your snooze button only once, or twice if you really need to, and don’t snooze for longer than 15 minutes, she advised.

Schneeberg also recommended keeping your wake-up time within the same 30-minute window each day. (Yes, this goes for weekends, too.) Your morning routine might feature an enjoyable activity — say, listening to a playlist with your favorite songs, or having a quick yoga or meditation session — so you feel motivated to get out of bed, Schneeberg added.

Zeitzer suggested sleeping in a room without window shades. “You will get a good dose of morning light even if you are still asleep, and this will still help robustly synchronize your circadian clock,” he said.

It’s all about taking care of your biological clock. The more stable it is, the more likely you are to get better sleep, and the more rested and focused you may feel throughout the day.