Many of us deal with feelings of stress that feel overpowering, overwhelming, and keep us from completing necessary tasks each and every day. There are many things that can contribute to our stress levels, such as worrying about a big event, not planning properly for all your tasks, or just having too much on your plate. But another major component in contributing to your stress levels comes from your sleeping habits.
We know that sleeping is important to our overall heath, but waking up earlier can actually help us to feel less stressed. If you’re constantly pressing the snooze button in the morning, here are a few things you should consider in how sleeping in may be causing you to stress out.
1. You’ll Feel Less Rushed
Consider the days you roll out of bed minutes before you’re supposed to be at your office desk. You throw on some clothes, grab a quick cup of coffee, and head out the door, all the while worried that you may have forgotten something important, you don’t look your best, or your boss is going to scold you for being late–again. That feeling doesn’t tend to go away as you go throughout your day.
Instead, you spend the rest of the day feeling like you’re one step behind. There always seems to be something you don’t feel prepared for or you don’t have time to really slow down and pull yourself together. When you sleep in too late, you set yourself up to feel jumbled and disoriented for the rest of the day.
Waking up earlier can help you start your day in a calmer, more prepared manner. You’ll have time to get ready, eat a full breakfast, and go over everything you need to do in the day ahead. You can spend time focusing on looking your best for work, take a shower, and sip your coffee while reading the paper or watching the news.
Having time in the morning to prepare yourself for everything that is coming in the day ahead will allow you to put your best foot forward with each and every task. You’ll be ready when new obstacles come your way and you won’t have to feel like you need to catch up with the rest of the world.
2. Make Your Mornings Productive
The morning hours are a great time to get things done and out of the way, freeing up the rest of your day for other activities or tasks that may pop up. When you sleep through the morning, giving yourself only enough time to get ready and get to work, you’re pushing other activities such as going to the gym or running errands until late at night.
But even if you have a pretty consistent schedule, things can appear that prevent you from completing these necessary tasks after work. Maybe you need to stay late in the office or an unexpected errand comes up. Your car could break down, it could take you longer to get home from work, or you just might be too tired to get up and go.
Going for a run in the morning or getting some necessary tasks out of the way before your day begins removes the stressful feeling that you have a long list of tasks to complete when you’re finally freed from the office. This can give you the opportunity to come home, make dinner, relax, and unwind – reducing your levels of stress.
3. You’ll Have Less Distractions
The early mornings while everyone is asleep is a great time to get some tasks and activities done without any distractions. If your office is particularly loud or your phone is often ringing off the hook, it can be difficult to find some quiet time to get work done uninterrupted.
Waking up a few hours early gives you the opportunity to get things done before the work day starts. You don’t need to worry about getting called into a meeting, having your kids tugging at your arm for attention, or other distractions arising before you can finish your task.
When you have the opportunity to give your to-do list the full attention that it needs, you can quickly begin checking things off. Things that may have taken hours to complete during the busy day only take a few minutes in the morning and you’ll have more time to focus on other items throughout the rest of your day.
Getting the majority of your to-do list out of the way in the morning when you are distraction free can prevent you from attempting to multitask when you get to work. When you don’t need to finish projects, answer emails, and sit in meetings all at the same time, you can give each item your complete devotion and see higher levels of productivity – and less stress.
Snoozing is Stressing
Stress can be incredibly damaging to our health. It can make us sick, make it difficult to focus, and make our days harder. Our sleep is worse when we get less sleep and we go through our days feeling groggy and only half “with it.” But when we learn to better manage our stress, we start seeing higher levels of productivity, we feel happier, and we are healthier.
Waking up early is a great way to start to see your stress levels decrease. When you stop hitting the snooze button, you prepare yourself to tackle each day and whatever tasks, errands, hurdles, or demands may appear. With a few extra hours in the morning, we can feel less overwhelmed, more focused, and like we can achieve so much more with the hours we are given.
If you’re feeling overly stressed, start setting your alarm clock back a little bit at a time. Even just half an hour to start can give you some extra time to eat breakfast or read through your emails. As you get the hang of waking up earlier, you’ll find that you feel less stressed with your day.