In a perfect world, you wake up in the morning naturally. Your circadian rhythm is so refined that you rise with the sun after eight consecutive hours of sleep.
In the real world, you are lucky to get four hours of uninterrupted rest, and you wake up to the ringing of your alarm, your dog jumping on your bed or a vicious Dutch oven from your girlfriend or boyfriend.
Late nights almost always make for early mornings. Whether you are a barista who needs to open shop at 5 a.m., or foolishly registered for a 7 a.m. class, learning how to wake up, stay up and be where you need to be in the morning is a part of becoming a successful college student.
It would be way too responsible of you to get to bed by 10 p.m. and abstain from caffeine or alcohol, should you have an early morning appointment the next day. While most of us will never have the luxury of waking up like Pee-wee Herman in his 1985 seminal hit Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, the following are some measures that you can take to make sure you are up and at ’em bright and early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed — or not.
Wake up…
Put your alarm clock in a place where you will need to get up to turn it off. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book, yet still one of the most effective. The idea being that you will not be able to roll over and hit the snooze button. Perhaps placing your alarm clock in a corner of your room with a can of Red Bull next to it might be enough to kick-start your morning.
Set two or three alarm clocks. This takes the previous idea — putting your alarm clock in a place where you need to get out of bed to turn it off — and kicks it up a notch. Consider placing one alarm clock in a corner of your room and another down the hall. Also, consider staggering the alarms by a minute or two; anything to confuse you out of your zombie-like state.
Set the alarm on your computer to play music. Unless you are rocking a Commodore 64, your computer has an alarm clock. You should also have the option of setting up the alarm to play your favorite show tune, hair band or adult contemporary artist. Who needs coffee when you can wake up to Gwar?
As an added bonus, you are also going to have to get up to turn off the alarm clock on your computer … unless you sleep with your computer.
Stay up…
Set your clothes or stuff out the night before. Just like your mom used to do for you in the first grade, set your clothes or stuff out the night before. Maybe even pack your Peanuts lunch-pail should you be gone until after lunch the next day. All of this is done in an effort to cut down on the number of tasks that you have to complete in the morning, allowing you to sleep a little longer and reduce the reasons to procrastinate getting out of bed.
Program your coffee maker. If you rely on caffeine to wake you up in the morning and cannot go on without your crutch, setup and program your coffee maker for the morning. If you have yet to join the 21st century and have a manual coffee maker, consider programming your girlfriend or boyfriend to make it for you in the morning.
Open a window or go outside into the cool, fresh air. If only to escape the Dutch oven, similar to rolling down your window while driving tired or taking a cold shower; the cool air sends a jolt to your system and fresh air down your lungs. Do not be too shocked though when you take in the morning air and the stench of cow manure overwhelms you. It is all a part of living here in San Luis Obispo.
Exercise, go for a run. Waking up and exercising or going for a run serves a few purposes.
First, of course, it is good for you. It also helps you wake up by getting your blood flowing and raising your core temperature. However, the single most important thing that waking up and exercising or going for a run does is that it gets you away from your bed, couch and toilet, all of which are places that you are likely to fall back asleep if given the chance.