Wake Me Up!

Hello! Ok, so I'm a bit lacking in motivation apparently because I can't get myself to wake up before 11:00am. I'm a waitress and I've been working 5-11pm lately and when I get home I still have some computer work to do and then I collapse in bed. I tried to get up at 10 today but I was chasing a good dream - which didn't get better, becoming restless. I want to get 8hours a night and if I'm not getting to bed until 12-1am that means the earliest I coul get up would be 8-9am. That's fine (I could get my body set on that) but the problem is I don't want to wake up! I love sleep! But I need to get up and walk or do crunches or something! - Go outside! I don't know. Any helpful tips that you all use to get your butts outta bed? Anything is helpful! Thanks!

-Sarah

I have found that I just don't get up for myself either.  Since your work schedule makes you a night owl, if you reason for getting up earlier is for exercise, do it at night after work.  just shift your "awake" hours.  I am much more effective in the afternoons myself when it comes to managing personal stuff.  since you work the late hour, just make sure you schedule in time for things like banking during "normal" work hours.  For me, since I have flexible hours at work I started getting in an hour earlier so I could make time to get things like exercise in.  Now since its expected that I"m at work by 7:30am my motivation in the morning is better.

I would just walk at night but my feet are killing me by the time my shift is over (and I have stupid old lady shoes that are supposed to be really good - and I'm too cheap to buy new ones because I JUST bought those!) I need sleep to get my feet back. My feet literally cringe when I put on my work shoes because they know what's coming!

I remember reading that you could train your body to wake up to your alarm- something like set an alarm for 10 or 15 minutes from now, lay down in your bed, and kind of catnap.  When the alarm goes off, whether you were actually sleeping or not, get up and out of bed.

They said if you repeat this a few times you can train your brain to be more awake and ready to move when you hear your alarm.

Caveat: I myself have been having a heck of a time getting out of bed on time as well, and I have NOT used that method myself...  although I am just about ready to try it out!

Oh, and for those aching feet, maybe try some gel insoles?  They're cheaper than new shoes!

Oh, cool! I'll have to try that on my day off or something! Thanks!

(And they have insoles already... I guess I'm just going to have to suffer - maybe it's my weight that makes my feet hurt so bad?! Just another reason to get back to a healthy weight!)

I LOVE sleep!!  I have the hardest time getting out of bed in the morning.  For me, just keeping my eyes open is the hardest part (that and my husband gets to sleep 2 1/2 hours later than I do!).  However, I have been successfully getting up at 5:00 am to go to the gym before work for 6 weeks now.  I keep a bottle of Refresh Tears eye drops next to the bed.  As soon as the alarm goes off, I put a drop in each eye.  It helps me get my eyes open and the drops don't harm your eyes at all.  My eye doctor said they are the closest thing to real tears on the market. 

I have always found that I'll sleep until I am forced to get up . . . at least until a few years ago.  (I think part of it was I was always exhausted and behind on sleep.  So step 1: get caught up on sleep.)  The key for me is something worth waking up for, something to look forward to.  If my plan for first thing is to work on a fun project, or play my favorite video game, ect. I'll get up no problem. 

I would set my alarm for exactly 8 hours after I went to bed . . . then I would plan to wake up and do something either fun or relaxing or just something you like to do and then exercise later (maybe at 10am). 

I have the same problems with getting up, I try setting my alarm about an hour earlier than I intend to get up but that doesn't always help.  I also try to put my alarm as far away from the bed as possible so that I HAVE to get up to turn it off.

As for your feet aching I am a college student but during the summer for the last three years I've worked in a factory.  Taking on 12 hour shifts and wearing steel toed boots the whole time isn't much fun but I didn't think that insoles would help.  I got the gel insoles and even though some people swear by them they didn't help me.  A friend told me about the Dr. Scholls tri-comfort insoles.  She said they were great (I didn't believe her, lol) but one day while I was at the store I thought "what the heck!" and I bought some.  They actually did work REALLY well.