If you are a chronic snooze button hitter in the morning, I want to propose an idea to you about why you keep sleeping in, even though you want to get out of bed at a particular time: It’s because you might have formed a habit of hitting the snooze button multiple times. So now, your body has just developed a particular wake up routine, which is a good thing! Routines when it comes to sleep are important in maintaining quality in said sleep. But if you’re serious about getting up when you say you want to get up, I recently discovered a quick and easy trick that can help your sleepy brain go through the same morning sleep routine, and allow your awake brain to kick in when you need it to.

I am naturally a morning person and if I’m not sick, I’ll wake up around 7am without and alarm clock. But my favourite time of the morning is actually in the pre-sunrise part fo the morning when it feels like the world is still asleep, and I am in a little cocooned head bubble of quiet time. This means that if I need to wake up around 6 am in order to get at least a solid hour of “I feel like I’m the only person in the world right now” time. Unfortunately, my snooze habit usually pushes my actual wakeup time to around 7am. So I just set my clock 15 minutes a head, and shortened the time of my snooze button to 5 minutes.

This trick works in 2 ways. Firstly, setting my actual clock 15 minutes a head, and not my actual alarm 15 minutes a head means that when I wake up and look at my alarm clock, my sleepy brain thinks it’s the same time, so I can still feel like I have the same wake-up time, as opposed to feeling deprived of anything. It’s one of those mind over matter things. Secondly, setting my snooze time to only 5 minutes means I still go through the process of pressing snooze and waking up, and pressing snooze, and waking up, and pressing snooze and waking up. But after a while, I go through the motions enough time that I fulfil the physical acts of the habit, and I feel psychologically fulfilled. And then I get out of bed! On time! And then I get to go to the cafeteria in time for hot breakfast! Yay!

If you’ve been trying to figure out a way to get up when you want to, try this and see if it works. If this doesn’t, try Stefan K.’s tips and see if they help. And if you’re still stuck, e-mail me and tell me about your gripes. I’ve recently become quite fascinated with the idea of changing habits by working with yourself, as opposed to against yourself. We can talk!

On my last post, I wrote about how to use a powernap. It can solve your problems, help you handle big problems. But the question which rises is of course: How to powernap. I’ve been testing this a lot (because I like naps) and I think I’ve found the perfect way.How to powernap Feeling tired? You are going to consider taking Continue Reading…

I’ve never had trouble making friends. I love being around people, and I like to think that I’m fun and interesting enough that people like to be around me. But as my exams came rolling around, I quickly realized that I no longer want to sacrifice my grades for a social life. Don’t get me wrong- I can unequivocally Continue Reading…

Many, many moons ago, I wrote an article here on Gearfire about balance being the key to success as a student. One thing I never really went over though, is how to achieve that balance. I was young, and didn’t really know what to say on the topic. So, I spent many, many hours over the past many, many Continue Reading…

First of all, this post isn’t about HOW TO powernap. It is about how to USE a powernap. You probably all know already how to powernap (or supercharge nap, whatever you call it). Probably not the coffee trick, but I will keep that for later. Do you also know how to USE the powernap? ‘What do you mean, you Continue Reading…

The year is quickly coming to a close. We’re in the very last of the double digits of the number of days left of the year until we’re at 2010. Whew! Say that last sentence 20 times fast! If anything even vageuly related to “get organized with how I use my time” is on your New Year’s resolution list, Continue Reading…

How to wake upWaking up is one of the hardest things to do in life. Nobody likes to wake up early, everybody likes to snooze. Waking up easy is an illusion, you think. I have reviewed a couple of ways to wake up and made a small selection of ways that might work!Put alarm away from your bedAnd old Continue Reading…

Don’t get me wrong- I also enjoy having Lil’ Wayne and Kesha in the background while I study. But let’s all be honest with each other- anything on a top 40 countdown is not conducive to major academic accomplishments. It’s been scientifically proven that the best music to listen to while studying is classical baroque music. I know it’s Continue Reading…