5 Hacks for Easier Mornings from a Non-Morning Person

I am not a morning person. At all. Like, not even a little bit. That said, I am also the type of person who would rather get up and take care of anything that needs doing in the morning so I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want.

Yes, I realize this is a major personality contradiction. No, I will not be happy about waking up with an alarm so that I can get stuff done. I need at least thirty minutes to not be a grumpy, frazzled, why-can't-I-still-be-sleeping, half-decent person to talk to in the early morning. An hour is better.

There's really nothing I like more than waking up on my own in the morning, making a cup of coffee, and then leisurely drinking it over the course of an hour or two while I piddle around with my blog and other things. Now that school has started back, my slow, lazy mornings have been relegated to weekends only (and the occasional holiday).

Of course, being a teacher means early mornings, and because I work at a school that is a forty-minute drive away (in a different time zone no less), that means even earlier wake ups. As a non-morning person, this was pretty daunting my first year, but I have come to appreciate having the morning commute to help get myself centered before dealing with pre-teens and hormones and drama and noise. I've also got a pretty solid routine in place to help make mornings not quite so terrible.

A lot of these I stumbled onto quite by happenstance or because they just seem like common sense, but most of these 'sleep hacks' are backed up by science. In fact, the Sleep Foundation refers to it as sleep hygiene. Some things they recommend are exercising regularly, avoiding caffeine before bed, and skipping those afternoon/evening naps. They also suggest creating a cool, dark, quiet bedroom environment and establishing a consistent morning and evening routine.

Here are five things things that work for me.

I try to get as much done the night before to prepare for the next day as I possibly can. If I'm taking my lunch, I pack it the night before and stick my entire lunchbox in the refrigerator. If I have to pack it in the morning, it won't get done. Side note: I usually put a note on the back door so I don't forget it the next day. I also try to remember to set up my coffee maker the night before, although I admit that this is the one I forget the most often. Thankfully, coffee isn't something that I have to have every morning because the number of times I forgot the night before and don't have time to make it in the morning is ridiculously high.

This one feels like such an obvious thing, but I pick out my clothes the night before. This gives me plenty of time to style different options, including trying them on to make sure that I like the result,. Sometimes I go through three or four outfits before landing on one I like, which is something that I absolutely do not have time for in the mornings. This might be the most important part: I make myself stick with whatever I've laid out the next morning, even if my mood has shifted, unless I have a legitimate reason.

I think the biggest game changer for me has been to take a shower or bath at night. Most nights, I take a bubble bath using whatever flavor of Dr. Teal's Foaming Bath has caught my fancy at the moment. Not only does bathing/showering help me relax after a long day of teaching middle schoolers, but it also saves me quite a bit of time in the morning and means I can sleep later.

I go to bed at the same time every night. Going to bed on time is honestly the hardest thing for me. I am absolutely a night owl, so there are plenty of nights where my body is simply not ready for bed, even if I'm worn out from the day. Still, I make myself put my book down, turn off the light, and go to bed if for nothing else than to rest. I use a sleep mask almost nightly, and if I'm really struggling I'll take a couple melatonin gummies. My school-night bedtime, in case you're wondering, is no later than 10:00 p.m. (my time). Sometimes, though, I'm still awake well past that.

I give myself a wake-up grace period. The worst part of early mornings, in my opinion, is the alarm. I hate it so much, and I am not the type of person who hears their alarm and immediately springs out of bed. Nope. I have to set my alarm 15 minutes earlier than the time I absolutely have to be up and moving. That's actually improved over the last few years. I used to have to set it 30 minutes early.

I'm still by no means a morning person, and honestly I don't think that's going to change at this point in my life, but they have gotten a bit easier in recent years. I hope my morning hacks are helpful in making your mornings easier, too.