What Wakes You Up?

This is a picture of my bedside table. While the books might give you insight into what I am curiously and ambitiously learning about 2 pages at a time each night before I fall asleep (lol!), and it is true that I use a purple eye mask every night, what I want you to focus on is something else in this picture…

The daylight savings time switch is upon us, which can throw us all for a bit of a loop… mornings will be noticeably lighter for a bit, and evenings will fall dark earlier, as we inch our way towards the Winter Solstice in December.

If you read last week's newsletter about Autumn sleep, you may recall my encouragement to keep tech out of your bedroom.

In an age when many people use their cell phones as alarm clocks it's all too easy to get drawn into looking at our phones late into the night or early in the morning. Among other things, the blue light disturbs the circadian rhythm. It undermines the our wellbeing by disrupting the mind, our overall energy, and sleep. We forget that alarm clocks, as a singular device, still exist and are super helpful.

I love the alarm clock that I have, as it doesn’t have any lights that shine during the night, and it wakes me up by gradually making the room light and playing peaceful nature noises (even if it does look like a plastic mushroom on my bedside table).

How we wake up in the morning can make a big difference in how we feel. Jolting and jarring noises (or looking at the news upon waking, for that matter) put our body into fight/flight mode, leading to a flood of cortisol and adrenaline first thing in the morning. This truly is not an ideal way to begin each day. 

What is your morning experience like these days?

If waking up is challenging for you, I encourage you to look at your relationship with screens, get tech out of the bedroom, go to sleep by 10pm on most nights, and get an alarm clock that supports a gentle arrival into each day. I promise you will thank yourself for these simple self-care tools that ultimately have large impacts on how you feel. 

These tips, and so many others that I give you on a weekly basis, will support your health and happiness. Cheers!

With love and light,

Hannah