You can have more energy in the morning by:
1. Lowering sleep debt
2. Living in sync with your circadian rhythm
3. Shortening sleep inertia
4. Planning your day with sleep inertia in mind
5. Waking up to the right alarm
6. Getting natural light
7. Drinking a cup of coffee
8. Getting some exercise
9. Taking a cold shower
10. Having a morning routine you look forward to
11. Speaking to a doctor.
The RISE app can help you with all of these to have more energy in the morning once and for all.
Nothing feels worse than your alarm clock going off when you’re not ready for it. You hit the snooze button once, twice, or quite a few times, only to keep waking up feeling tired.
And even when you do drag yourself out of bed, you go about your morning routine with fatigue that lingers long into the day and the urge to grab the strongest energy drinks out there.
If this is you, we’ve got the answer. Below, we’ll explain the two biggest things that make a difference to your energy levels in the morning: sleep debt and circadian alignment. Then, we’ll cover how you can get these two things right and other ways you can battle morning grogginess. Plus, we’ll show you how the RISE app can help you have more energy in the morning once and for all.
Sleep inertia, sleep debt, and not living in sync with your circadian rhythm are the most common reasons you're tired when you wake up. Additional lifestyle factors including poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress, plus a sleep disorder or a medical condition could be at play as well.
Here are 11 science-backed ways to reclaim your mornings.
If you’ve got sleep debt, the first step to getting more energy in general and lessening sleep inertia in the morning is to pay some of this back.
Sleep debt is the measure of how much sleep you owe your body. It’s compared against your sleep need — the genetically determined amount of sleep you need. In the RISE app we tally it over 14 nights.
Getting eight hours of sleep may not be enough — despite what the common recommendation says. That’s because everyone’s sleep need is different. One study revealed an average sleep need of , plus or minus 10 minutes or so, but of the population may need 9 hours or more sleep a night.
For a quick and accurate way of working out your sleep need, turn to the RISE app. RISE uses your phone use behavior and proprietary sleep-science-based models to work out your individual sleep need and give you a number to aim for in hours and minutes.
RISE can also work out how much sleep debt you’re carrying. While having zero sleep debt is great, it’s also an unrealistic goal. We recommend keeping sleep debt below five hours to maximize your energy levels.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to view their sleep need and to view their sleep debt.
While the jury’s still out on whether it’s possible to pay back chronic sleep debt — the kind that’s built up over many months and years — shows you can pay back acute sleep debt, the short-term kind you’ve built up over the last 14 nights.
You can catch up on sleep by:
Sleep hygiene can also help you meet your sleep need night after night. The behaviors include things like avoiding caffeine and large meals too close to bedtime; getting natural light in the morning and avoiding light come evening; and keeping your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet.
You can learn more about sleep hygiene here and RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits to help you stay on top of them all.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to set up their 20+ in-app habit notifications.
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Even if you’re getting enough sleep, being out of sync with your circadian rhythm can zap you of energy in the morning. And being in sync has health benefits, too, as shows circadian misalignment increases your risk of everything from heart disease to obesity to cancer.
You might be out of sync if:
Your energy levels naturally fluctuate throughout the day as part of this circadian rhythm, so if you wake up during a , you’ll feel more tired than usual.
Plus, if you wake up at an odd time that your body isn’t used to getting up at, you could be waking up halfway through a sleep cycle in a deep sleep phase. This makes you feel much groggier compared to waking up during other sleep phases.
What’s more, your body temperature fluctuates throughout the day and night with your circadian rhythm, and shows if you wake up when your body temperature is at its lowest — depending on your bedtime and chronotype — you’ll suffer from more grogginess.
You can stay in sync with your circadian rhythm by:
RISE can predict your circadian rhythm each day and show you when your body wants to wake up and go to sleep. This will help you sync up your daily life with it.
Want more science-backed solutions? We’ve covered how to wake yourself up here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen.
If your sleep debt is low and you’re living in sync with your circadian rhythm, there’s another reason you're waking up tired: sleep inertia.
Sleep inertia happens even when you’ve had enough sleep. You’ll probably feel the effects for about 60 to 90 minutes and may feel disorientated, sleepy, and brain foggy.
Sleep inertia doesn’t just make you feel sleepy, though. You won’t be as well as you usually do, both mentally and physically. A said the performance impairment from sleep inertia is the same as or worse than 40 hours of sleep deprivation.
How long it takes to get over sleep inertia is different for each of us.
suggests night owls may take longer to get over sleep inertia than early birds. One found it took early birds 10 to 20 minutes to show improvements in their cognitive performance after awakening, whereas it took about 30 minutes for night owls to show improvements.
Waking up to the right alarm clock, natural light, coffee, and exercise can all help combat sleep inertia. We’ll dive into each of these shortly.
Sleep inertia is, unfortunately, a fact of life. Even if you get enough sleep each night and line this up nicely with your circadian rhythm, you’ll still feel a little groggy when you first wake up.
You can check RISE to see how long your morning grogginess is expected to last — we call this your “grogginess zone.” This way, you know when you can expect your energy levels and mental performance to pick up.
While you wait, use this grogginess time to do simple tasks — like emails, admin, or writing up your to-do list — get some exercise or natural light, or spend the time doing a relaxing morning routine.
And if you have an important task or event you need to be “on” for, consider waking up 90 minutes before it to give yourself enough time to shake off the grogginess. Just be careful you don’t build up too much sleep debt with the earlier wake-up time. Go to bed a little earlier to make sure you’re still meeting your sleep need.
We cover steps you can take to meet an earlier bedtime here.
More on the best times to go to sleep and wake up for you here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to see their upcoming energy peaks and dips on the Energy screen.
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Sound is a key factor in waking us up but not all sounds are equally effective or beneficial. Abrupt, harsh alarms can be harmful to our health over time, as they may trigger adrenaline surges that can impact our .
Instead, consider gentler alternatives like gradual sounds, lower pitch sounds, melodic sounds, or sounds that make you want to move. These can help you wake more peacefully, improve mood, and . ( shows listening to music generally can boost energy levels, whereas sitting in silence can make you feel more tired.)
Non-auditory alarms can also be effective. Gradual light changes mimic natural sunlight and can gently stimulate awakening, while certain smells, like coffee, can make it easier to get out of bed. Vibrations from smart watches or fitness trackers are also an alternative for a less disruptive wake-up.
The RISE alarm combines these principles. It uses your sleep data to tailor an alarm with melodic sounds or music, and can even activate vibration on your phone or Apple Watch for a wake-up method that considers your individual circadian rhythm and amount of sleep debt to leave you with more morning energy.
Natural light signals to your brain that it’s time to be awake. It suppresses melatonin and resets your circadian rhythm for the day, and suggests it could improve how sleepy you feel when you first wake up.
It also boosts production of the hormone cortisol, which helps you feel more alert, and serotonin, which boosts your mood.
Aim to get at least 10 minutes of natural light as soon as possible after waking up. And if it’s cloudy outside or you’re getting your light exposure through a window, aim for 15-20 minutes.
If you need to wake up when it’s dark outside, consider using a dawn simulator. More research needs to be done into dawn simulators, but suggest they can reduce sleepiness and perhaps even improve performance upon awakening. A 10,000 lux can also help you get light exposure when you can’t get out in sunlight.
Expert tip for more energy: Trying to wake yourself up during a night shift? found red light can help shift workers feel more alert without messing up their melatonin levels and sleep after their shift.
We’ve covered more on the best color light at each time of day here.
Coffee is a quick fix for low energy. Caffeine temporarily blocks in your brain, so it can give you an energy boost and help you overcome .
And the morning is the perfect time to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, as caffeine lasts in your system longer than you’d think and it can easily disrupt your sleep if you drink it too late in the day.
You learn more about how long caffeine lasts here. You can also use RISE to see your unique caffeine cutoff time each day. RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to set up their limit caffeine reminder.
Not a coffee or tea fan? Grab a glass of water, at least. The very act of can help you feel more alert and hydration keeps you feeling your best and can even help you , and therefore more energy each day.
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Exercise isn’t just good for your weight loss, it can help fight morning fatigue, too.
Working out triggers your body into releasing cortisol to make you feel more alert, serotonin to boost your mood, and endorphins, or “feel-good hormones.” It also increases .
A looked at how exercise impacted sleep inertia and compared high-intensity exercise, low-intensity exercise, and no exercise. It found high-intensity exercise reduced sleep inertia the most.
The best part? The participants only exercised for 30 seconds. So, even if you don’t have time to get to the gym before work, you can still use a short burst of physical activity to shake off that post-sleep grogginess.
Plus, regular exercise can improve your energy levels in general throughout the day and even help you sleep better each night. And that’s not even mentioning the general well-being and mental health benefits.
So, start your day with some physical activity, and bonus points if you can work out outside in natural light.
It’s hard to feel sleepy when you’re taking an icy shower. Cold water increases your , metabolism, and blood pressure for an energizing boost. Follow your outdoor exercise with a cold shower for a morning energy triple whammy.
A morning routine doesn’t have to be all about optimizing your health and productivity, though. It should also be something you enjoy.
When you have a morning routine you look forward to, you’ll find it easier to get out of bed and be less likely to hit the snooze button. This is especially helpful if you’re a night owl trying to become a morning person.
So, make time for self-care activities in the mornings. This could include listening to a chapter of an audiobook or your favorite playlist, for example. Or it could mean playing with your kids or taking your dog for a walk.
We show you how the RISE app can help you create your ideal, energizing morning routine here.
Most of the time, a lack of energy in the morning is caused by sleep debt and/or being out of sync with your circadian rhythm. But, if you’ve fixed these and still find yourself feeling tired, it might be worth speaking with your healthcare provider.
They can test you for sleep disorders and medical conditions that could be making you tired, such as:
Your chronotype is your natural tendency to sleep and wake up earlier or later — you may have heard the terms early birds and night owls, although many of us are somewhere in between.
And out of all the people who struggle with energy in the morning, night owls have got to be the ones having the hardest time. They don’t just have a preference for sleeping in, though. Night owls are biologically wired to go to sleep and wake up later than early birds.
Plus, if you’re a night owl who has to get up early, you’re more likely to have sleep debt (perhaps you struggle to fall asleep early enough to meet your sleep need) and social jet lag (perhaps you indulge in a long lay in when the weekend rolls around, messing up your body clock), which only adds to your morning grogginess.
As well as paying down sleep debt and adding exercise and natural light to your morning routine, you can work to shift your circadian rhythm earlier, so you’re not so out of sync with it.
Before you do this, first ask yourself if you have to wake up early. If you have a strict 9 a.m. start time at work or kids to get ready for school, then the answer is obviously yes.
If your wake-up time is more flexible, however, consider honoring your chronotype and waking up later. This doesn’t make you lazy or less productive than morning people, and you should feel more energy by working with, not against, your body clock.
For those night owls who want more energy in the mornings, here’s what to do:
You can learn more about how to reset your circadian rhythm here.
If you’ve got high sleep debt or you’re living out of sync with your circadian rhythm, you’ll inevitably feel tired each morning. But, even when you get a good night’s sleep and this sleep is lined up nicely with your body clock, sleep inertia can still make you feel groggy for up to 90 minutes after getting out of bed.
Make yourself a cup of coffee, get some exercise, and bask in natural light to help overcome grogginess. Use the RISE app to pay down sleep debt and sync up with your circadian rhythm to maximize your energy levels in the morning, and check the app to see how long your morning grogginess will last, so you can make the most of the time.
1. Lower sleep debt, 2. Live in sync with your circadian rhythm, 3. Shorten sleep inertia, 4. Plan your day with sleep inertia in mind, 5. Wake up to the right alarm, 6. Get natural light, 7. Drink a cup of coffee, 8. Get some exercise, 9. Take a cold shower, 10. Have a morning routine you look forward to, 11. Speak to a doctor. The RISE app can help you with all of these to have more energy in the morning once and for all.
You’ll feel tired when you wake up if you’ve got sleep debt or you’re not in sync with your circadian rhythm. Sleep inertia is also at play. This makes you feel groggy after waking up, even when you’ve had enough sleep. Wake up to the right alarm clock, get natural light, drink some coffee, and exercise to help shake this off.
You can boost your energy by lowering your sleep debt and syncing up with your circadian rhythm. Naps, a healthy diet, exercise, and natural light can all help boost energy, too.
You can get more energy naturally by focusing on your sleep. Find out your sleep need, lower your sleep debt, and sync up your sleep-wake times with your circadian rhythm to boost your energy levels. Other natural energy boosters include naps, coffee, exercise, natural light, and cold water showers.
If you feel sleepy in the morning and awake at night, you may be out of sync with your circadian rhythm, or body clock. This happens if you’re a shift worker, you have social jet lag (you go to sleep at different times at the weekend compared to during the week), or you’re not honoring your chronotype (like if you’re a night owl who has to get up early).
If you haven’t had enough sleep, it’s hard to feel energized in the morning. But caffeine, natural light, exercise, and cold showers can help. Work to catch up on sleep when you can through naps or sleeping for longer the next night.
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