How you wake up is important, because it sets the tone for the rest of your day. Most Nigerians wake up the the annoying “EEEE EEEE EEEE” sound of a loud, high pitched buzzer, which jolts them out of their sleep, and sometimes causes a little panic attack. In fact, some studies have shown that waking up in such a matter is bad for your heart, and there have been instances of people having heart attacks right after their alarm has gone off.
When you wake up in such a way, it provokes a few involuntary physical responses.
First, there is the adrenaline that is quickly pumped through your veins, because your body is scared and is expecting danger. It’s first thought is to get up, run and get away from the thing that is making that horrid sound. If you are used to waking up to a buzzer, than this way of waking up may have become the norm to you, and you may not even recognize that it is happening.
Second, this adrenaline rush causes your heart to speed up and increases your blood flow, because your body is preparing to fight or to run. It’s survival depends on it.
Third, most people wake up this way not once, twice, but three times each morning because they hit the snooze button. Once they are jolted out of bed, they realize that there is no danger. They also realize that they want more sleep. So they quickly lay their head back onto the pillow and give their body the signal to stop pumping out adrenaline and to slow down the heart. Then, 5 minutes later, they wake up in that same head pounding, heart racing manner.
Waking up by alarm clock is completely unnatural. Our ancestors didn’t do it and our great grandparents didn’t do it either. Of course, times were different then. They worked the land whereas many of us work in buildings and offices.
Because of this, it’s not conducive to throw out our alarm clocks…or is it?
There are other ways to wake up on time that are much more gentle and good for your health.
Get an alarm clock that doesn’t have an alarm, but sounds of nature. Waking up to the sound of the rain, a steady stream of water, birds chirping or wind chimes dancing is a nice way to ease you out of your sleep. It gently wakes you up without those feelings of being of rushed and does not send that signal that you need to run out of bed because your life depends on it.
Simply tell your body what time you need to get up. This may sound strange but it works for many people. We each have an innate clock inside of us, and while our subconscious mind uses it well, our conscious mind does not. However, if you tell your mind and body that you need to get up at 6 AM, it will most likely wake you up at 6AM, or maybe even 5 minutes earlier.
Ask someone to wake you up nicely. It does no good to have someone storm into your room and yell “WAKE UP!!!!” You might as well wake up to a siren if that’s the case. Instead, ask someone to wake you up gently. They can touch you lightly on your arm, or softly coo your name. You can wake up your partner by gently scratching their head or back and saying “Sweetie, it’s time to get up.”
While we have discussed the physical reasons to wake up nicely, let’s discuss the emotional part as well.
Waking up nicely puts you in a better mood. It also allows you to feel more rested so that you have more energy throughout the day. This doesn’t mean that you won’t hit the vending machine at 3 PM, but it does mean that you won’t feel as if you’ve missed out on a few hours of sleep.
When you wake up nicely, you just feel good. You feel content and peaceful and it’s easier to get up. Putting out this vibe first thing in the morning is so important because it really does have the power to pave the rest of your day.
Have you ever woken up in a bad mood only to have the rest of your day be as terrible as the mood you woke up in? That’s because you attracted those events to you. But when you wake up feeling fresh, recharged, happy and peaceful, you’re sending out a signal to the universe that says that you are willing and ready to accept good things today. It raises your vibration and you may even find that you have happier thoughts and more spiritual insights through out the day. You’ll also find that the issues you’ve been trying to work on will begin to work themselves out.