Five reasons you wake up tired in the morning — and how to fix it

The feeling of fatigue in the morning can affect your energy levels, dampen your mood, motivation, and verve, thereby putting productivity in jeopardy.

Some of the causative factors of early-morning tiredness are often as a result of everyday habits.

Here are five reasons you wake up feeling groggy, and what to do about it.

The internet never sleeps

And so you don’t. Whether it’s catching up on that television series, responding to messages, emails, streaming a movie or anything that has to do with a device, the bright lights, according to Mark Rosekind, PhD, keeps you from “both falling asleep and sleeping well”.

How to fix it: Put down that device when it’s nearing sleep time. It’s as simple as that.

Body rhythm 

Most people suffer from advanced sleep phase disorder (ASP) and some from delayed sleep phase disorder (DSP). The former are people who get very sleepy in the early afternoon while the latter are those who are not able to fall asleep at a normal time at night.

How to fix it: According to UCLA Health, evening exposure to bright lights is used to treat ASP while morning exposure to bright light is used to treat DSP.

Caffeine boost

A research by Michigan’s Henry Ford Hospital’s Sleep Disorders & Research Center and Wayne State College of Medicine found that “caffeine consumed even 6 hours before bedtime resulted in significantly diminished sleep quality and sleep quantity”.

How to fix it: Ease off caffeine intake as the day winds down and stick to a cut off time – advisably 2pm. According to Michael J. Breus, PhD, “To avoid sleep disruption, restrict your caffeine consumption primarily to the morning hours”.

Sleeping environment

A poor or inclement sleeping environment can make it hard to sleep easy at night. And when you fail to get sufficient sleep, you can’t expect to be bursting with energy in the morning.

How to fix it: “The suggested bedroom temperature should be between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal sleep,” according to the National Sleep Foundation.

“When lying in bed trying to snooze, your body temperature decreases to initiate sleep and the proposed temperatures above can actually help facilitate this. If your room is cool, rather than warm, it will be much easier to shut your eyes for the night.”

Stress

Feeling tired is a natural body reaction and one that can often be caused by stress and anxiety.

Many with severe stress and anxiety also develop serious sleeping problems. They may even wake up in the middle of the night without realising it.

How to fix it: According to Calm Clinic, “Tiredness is much easier to prevent than it is to stop. That’s why you need to take steps to start controlling your anxiety better. The less intense your anxiety is, the less tired you should feel” — and the easier to sleep easy and wake up full of life.