Those who cannot wake up early are often unreliable, don’t you think? Intelligence and good awakening is actually strongly related.
Who can wake up pleasantly in a morning often study or do some work early in a morning, called “morning activity”. Accomplishment in a day is little, but continuation for few years will make a big difference.
It may sound exaggerated, but awakening early in a morning makes you “smart”.
Now I will explain how to awake smoothly and do morning activities.
5ways for good awakening to be intelligent
1. Avoid heavy drinking
It is reasonable. It’s OK to drink a bit too much on weekends, but getting drunken everyday in no good.
Small amount of alcohol has no harm on you, but too much of it has great affect to stomach and other organs. Especially eating a bowl of noodles at the end of drinking is hard on your stomach. It will spend entire night to digest, so you feel tired in a morning.
It is meaningless to wake up early in this situation. It’s no use to train your brain, as the brain is too tired. Or sometimes your brain is refreshed but the body is not feeling good. Of course you don’t want to do anything.
So don’t drink too much everyday. I don’t mean you can’t drink.
The first thing to do is to maintain your health, before seeking for good awakening.
2. Get tired
Chronic fatigue is a problem, but “getting little tired on a night before” is effective.
There are a light sleep and a deep sleep, and a deep sleep leads to better awakening. Alcohol can help to sleep deeply, but it has a risk of drinking too much.
Too much alcohol results in the worst awakening, so let’s learn healthy way to awake by “training”.
A heavy exercise in night is not recommended. Your blood flow and body temperature rises, and both your brain and body go into wakefulness, and you can’t go to sleep. Instead, do easy muscle training.
The most effective is abdominal muscle training. You might have experienced before, you feel pain and warmth around stomach after abdominal muscle training. Or maybe feel “the feeling of lactic acid piling up”.
After training, lie on bed and relax at once. You would feel a pain and lactic acid releasing from your body, and feel very comfortable.
By repeating this several times, you will gradually fall asleep. Be careful not to make scores of repetition even if you don’t get sleepy. It will only leads to muscle pain and heavy exercise won’t last.
Training is aiming “to lead you to comfortable sleep and awakening”. It helps your brain to awake and to make a good condition to train brain in morning.
Therefore, muscle training itself is not the purpose, and getting muscular pain is pointless.
Try to feel sleepy with a little fatigue, fall asleep comfortably, and awake refreshingly.
3. Warm up your brain by reading
Less people read newspapers in a morning, but I do. Moreover, I start reading soon after I get up.
I first drink water, then go to toilet. Wash my face, shave, do some stretching, and check some news on my computer while making coffee. That takes me about 15 minutes.
Do reading first thing in the morning is said to be very good for brain. Staying absentminded means your brain is not working. You feel you want to go back to bed because your brain is still sleepy.
Therefore, “giving your brain an opportunity to wake up” is effective, such as reading news on Internet or newspaper. Reading is “an order” to tell your brain that a day has begun.
As your read, your brain recognizes the morning and starts working, and scent and bitterness of coffee will help to make your body and brain refreshing (except when you get up with a hangover).
Not only newspapers, but TV, radio or your favorite music would do the same. A song that matches the morning atmosphere is great. One of my friends prefers to listening classical music in the morning. He feels “morning” by listening it and feels refreshed. Together with newspaper and a cup of coffee, you will be eager to start working.
Reading news, listening to music or radio, or watching TV is a sign for your brain to start a new day. It is recommended for those who have bad awakening.
4. Count back to decide the time to go to bed
It is the ordinary way, but “to sleep well” is very important to have brain active in the morning. 7 hours of sleep is enough for an adult to wake up smoothly in the next day.
With enough sleep, both body and brain are ready to start working from the morning.
It is of course good to go to bed early, but too early is not recommended. There is no problem if you can sleep naturally, but most of you would feel “it is too early, and cannot fall asleep.”
So decide when you go to bed by counting 7 hours back from your time you get up. There are many ways to lead you to sleep, like doing light exercise or to drink a glass of mulled wine.
If you are to get up at 6:30 in the morning, go to bed at 11:30 at night. Finish taking a bath by 11:00 and prepare to go to bed in 30 minutes.
As you get enough sleep, you can awake refreshingly. Your body and brain are well rested, and ready to start training your brain.
Some people would find this difficult in the beginning. Those who had irregular hours will struggle to change their habits. But don’t worry. Try for a week and you’ll get used to it. You can accomplish both natural sleeping and refreshing awakening.
5. Sleep in a multiple of 3
When we sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep comes first. It is a rest for body, and the brain is close to awakening. 90 minutes later, non-REM sleep comes, which is a rest for the brain.
As 90 minutes of REM and non-REM sleep is repeated, there is a 3 hours cycle of a light and a deep sleep.
To wake up smoothly, it is good to wake up “when the brain is awake.” Therefore try to wake up during REM sleep.
You may feel a little drowsy, but you are ready to start working since your brain is already awake.
Of course you can efficiently study, suitable for morning activity.
That’s why “sleep in a multiple of 3”. 6 hours is appropriate for most people. If it takes 30 minutes to fall asleep, save 6.5 hours for sleep. Children should sleep more, but 6 hours is enough for adults (sleep longer if you are tired).
Thinking of “when the brain is awake”, 6 hours is appropriate. Long enough, and you can wake up while brain is awake, it is a proper way to sleep for morning activity.
How was it?
5 tips I explained above are not for “to sleep soundly”. They are for “good awakening and to be active in the morning”. To sleep soundly is just a tool for good awakening.
Let’s have a delightful awakening and aim at working in the morning. It will lead to your success.
Conclusion
5ways for good awakening to be intelligent
1. Avoid heavy drinking
2. Get tired
3. Warm up your brain by reading
4. Count back to decide the time to go to bed
5. Sleep in a multiple of 3