For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wondered how to become a morning person. Not necessarily in a “5 a.m. club” sort of way; I simply wished to start my day with enough time to eat a well-rounded breakfast, work out, and do my makeup before heading to work. But for reasons that felt somewhat out of my control, I would find myself hitting snooze for 10 extra minutes of sleep again and again.
One morning, I came into the office groaning about how difficult I was finding it to get up in the morning, when a colleague found that I had, in fact, written a piece in 2019 titled “How To Become A Morning Person When You’re Not.” As we laughed away at the irony of it all, I decided it was high time I took action to turn things around once and for all.
Though I’m admittedly still a night owl at heart, there have been a number of things that have made waking up in the morning significantly easier and, at times, a delight. First, I read this story about changes I could make in my sleep hygiene for some advice.
Here’s everything I’ve done over the past few months that has actually helped me become more of a morning person.
- Being a night owl isn’t all bad. But if you want to become more of a morning person, you have to be strategic with light and dark exposure and keep a fixed wake-up time.
- You can reset your body clock by shifting your mindset, transforming your bedroom, sleeping before midnight with a consistent bedtime, moving your body, and staying positive.
Benefits of being a morning person
Being a night person isn’t inherently bad. According to Chris Winter, MD, neurologist and Pluto sleep specialist, there is no significant health benefit to being a morning person, and instead, it’s all about making sure your chronotype (this is your body’s natural inclination, which determines whether you’re an early bird or night owl) matches your sleep schedule. “In other words, if you are a morning person working a night shift, you are in a far more unhealthy situation than a night-oriented person working the same shift. These are simply genetic tendencies, just like eye and hair color.”
Christine Won, MD, medical director of the Yale Centers for Sleep Medicine and director of the Yale Women’s Sleep Health program, agrees and says that our genetics largely determine whether we have morning or evening chronotypes and that any health benefits we get from getting enough sleep has more to do with how much we sync up with our chronotype. “In general…circadian biology is optimized when synchronized with light and dark. So morning larks [morning people] may have the advantage of rising with the sun and sleeping with the dark,” she says.
There are studies that show that those who consider themselves morning people may be less likely to have depression or deal with obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, but she says that sleeping and waking up early doesn’t automatically mean you’ll gain these health benefits. “Studies so far are merely correlation,” she says. “People who are genetically wired to be morning people seem to also be genetically or otherwise less at risk for obesity, metabolic disease, or depression.” As for any psychological benefits, she says that enjoying extra time before starting your day may make you feel more productive.
Can you train yourself to be a morning person?
Though there are some who are more genetically wired to be a morning person than others, experts say that it is still possible to train yourself and adopt those early riser habits. But you’ll have to be diligent with your routine. “For someone who has a very delayed circadian clock or tends to naturally be a very late-night person, it is important to stick strictly to your schedule—especially our wake time,” says Dr. Won. “Just a couple of nights sleeping in may derail your rhythm, forcing you to start over to advance your circadian clock.”
