The slower you build up energy in the morning, the more painful waking up will be. What’s better, spending thirty minutes wrestling with the snooze button followed by an hour ramp up to normal mental functioning or quickly starting the day with energy?

In my recent article on morning rituals, I mentioned how I wake up at 5:30 each morning. A few readers asked how I deal with the initial grogginess that comes with waking up so early. As someone who isn’t a natural early-riser (I could easily sleep in until noon) getting over the early-morning sleepiness wasn’t easy. However, by using some of the tips I’ll describe, you can be more alert in your morning hours without having to inject yourself with a pot of coffee.

Why Go Without Caffeine?

I never drink coffee and I only occasionally drink caffeinated teas. While caffeine can be a temporary chemical solution to your drowsiness, I don’t believe it is the best strategy overall. I’ve found caffeine offers more energy, but it comes with side-effects. A few I’ve noticed:

* Post-caffeine crashes.
* Disrupting normal sleep.
* Withdrawal symptoms and addiction.
* Difficulty focusing. (Although some research suggests otherwise)

Whether caffeine is a miracle drug or junk is hard to say. However, given the side-effects, if you can boost morning alertness without the artificial stimulants, why bother drinking the stuff?

How to Build Energy Into Your Mornings

Here are a few things I’ve found helpful to reduce the transition period from being asleep to becoming fully alert. Not only does speeding up this wake-up process save time, it makes waking up less of a struggle. A few tips:

1. Light.Your body’s natural clock is tuned to the amount of light. Turn on all the lights in your room right after waking up. Getting bright lights can help trick your body into thinking it is time to get out of bed.

2. Exercise.Put something physical right at the start of your morning. In the summer, I did a quick morning run and found it helpful in shaking off any sleepiness. Considering the outside temperature hovers around -30 C, I’ve stuck to doing a few pushups in my room. The exercise gets your heart pumping and snaps you out of a groggy state.

3. The 10-Minute Rule.If you want to stick with a consistent wake-up time, practice the ten-minute rule. This means you commit to staying awake for at least the next ten minutes. Once you get over that initial period, the temptation to go back to bed is usually gone.

4. Active Work.Start your day with work that actively uses your mind. Creative activities like writing, drawing, programming or designing work better than passive activities like reading. By focusing your mind early you can stay focused and brush off any unwanted drowsiness.

5. Don’t Skip Breakfast.Wake up early enough to get something to eat. Skipping meals throw your metabolism out of balance, causing you to gain fat and lose energy. Skipping breakfast also means your blood sugar will be low in the morning and energy levels down.

6. Commit to a Sleep Schedule.The obvious solution to combat sleepiness is to get more rest at night. Carrying a sleep debt throughout the week with the hopes of paying it off on the weekend is a bad strategy. Instead, compress your work into the morning hours so you can get the 6-8 hours you need each night.

7. Turn Up the Volume.I’ve found listening to music or audio books helpful in keeping myself awake during the morning. Best of all, if you put on an audio book from your favorite speaker, you can get some encouragement to start your day.

早晨起床越慢，越會覺得這是一件痛苦的事。 躺著掙扎三十分鐘，然后花上一個小時才能清醒過來，還是神清氣爽的迅速開始新的一天，你會選哪個呢？

在我最近的一篇文章“早晨的習(xí)慣”中，我提到我每天都是5:30起床。一些讀者吃驚的問我起那么早，是怎么對付早上困的東倒西歪的狀況的。作為一個沒有早起習(xí)慣的人（我可是很容易就能一覺睡到大中午），大清早從床上爬起來并且迅速擺脫困倦可不是一件容易的事。下面是我的一些秘訣，它們能更好的幫你在清早保持清醒，而不是去依靠一大壺咖啡。

為什么遠離咖啡因？

我從不喝咖啡并且只是偶爾喝一點茶。這些東西里面的咖啡因雖然能暫時解決你的困倦，但是我從來不認為這是健康的解決方法。我知道咖啡因讓你更有精神，但是它的副作用也不可忽視，比如：

* 效力過后更加困倦
* 影響正常睡眠
* 習(xí)慣以后上癮
* 無法集中注意力（盡管有些研究說沒有這個效應(yīng)）

咖啡因到底是提神的特效藥還是有很多副作用的垃圾還很難說。但是，考慮到這些副作用，如果你能不通過它的刺激就能保持清爽，為啥還要去喝它呢。

清晨怎么做才能提神？

這里是一些能有效地幫你從半睡半醒到神清氣爽的小竅門，我相信它們會對你很有幫助。很快清醒不僅能幫你節(jié)省時間，也能讓你少掙扎一會。下面竅門來了：

1.明亮的燈光：你身體的生物鐘是由光線影響的。所以最好以起床就打開你房間里所有的燈。充足的光線能喚醒你的身體，讓它覺得是時候起床清醒了。

2.運動熱身：早上一起床就做一些運動。夏天的時候我通常會在清晨小跑一會，這可以很有效的幫你甩掉困倦�，F(xiàn)在溫度已經(jīng)降到了零下30度，我轉(zhuǎn)而在房間里做些俯臥撐。運動能讓你心跳加速，幫助身體走出倦怠。

3.10分鐘原則：如果你想養(yǎng)成同一個時間起床的習(xí)慣，可以試試10分鐘原則。這個原則是指你起床時向自己保證在接下來的十分鐘里保持清醒。一旦你度過這10分鐘，想再躺回床上的欲望一般也就隨之而去了。

4.主動的工作：一天剛開始的時候，安排一些主動的使用你的大腦的工作。比如一些創(chuàng)作性的工作像寫作，畫畫，編寫程序，或者一些設(shè)計性的工作。比起被動性的活動如讀書，這些主動工作可以更有效的幫你集中精神，擺脫困倦。

5.吃好早餐：早點起床，然后弄點東西吃。不吃早餐會讓你的新陳代謝失去平衡，造成你長胖或者無精打采。不吃早餐也會造成你在早晨血糖偏低，這會讓你感到困倦。

6.按時睡覺：要避免早晨無精打采，晚上保證睡眠顯然是必須的。工作日欠大量的睡眠債，而企圖在周末一次補齊絕對是個壞主意，不管對精神還是身體。為了避免這樣的情況，把工作壓縮到你精力充足的早上，從而保證每天晚上最少6-8小時的睡眠。

7.把音樂打開：我發(fā)現(xiàn)早晨聽些音樂或者有聲圖書能很有效的幫你保持清醒。特別是如果把你最喜歡的朗誦者的有聲圖書播放上，總能鼓勵你更有精神。