Humans have been rising with the sun since the beginning of time, but it wasn’t until 1905 that the alarm clock with a snooze function was invented and subsequently began ruining our days. These days, the majority of people have replaced their physical alarm clock with a smartphone, leading most people to start their day off with a good ol’ social media scroll. If that sounds like your morning routine, you aren’t doing your mental health, physical health, or sleep health any favors.
Instead of scrolling on social media immediately upon waking, try moving your body gently with yoga in bed instead! Download Yoga Wake Up and experience what a morning is supposed to look like.
Those 9 extra minutes of sleep that we treat ourselves to over and over again set us up to feel less alert and less productive throughout the day. Those 9 minutes of sleep aren’t high quality, and in those 9 minutes, we begin to put ourselves into a sleep cycle that can’t finish, resulting in that groggy feeling you’ve probably felt before. There’s even a term for the grogginess felt after waking up from an interrupted sleep cycle: sleep inertia. According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep inertia is defined as “the feeling of grogginess and disorientation that can come from awakening from a deep sleep”. Sleep inertia can last for a few hours after waking, and can cause impaired cognitive ability, impaired visual attention, impaired spatial memory, and a desire to fall back asleep. Not only do we experience sleep inertia, but waking back up after hitting snooze can also increase your blood pressure and your heart rate. Doesn’t sound like a great way to start your day, right?
So while snoozing might feel good after waking up from a jarring alarm, those small spurts of sleep aren’t doing you any good. Long term, hitting the snooze button can make your body unsure of its true wakeup time, which can affect your ability to fall asleep in the evening. So what’s the key to a proper wakeup? A combination of restful sleep and easing into your morning.
For tips on falling asleep more easily, check out our sleep tips here!
Yoga Wake Up uses gentle, audio-guided yoga and meditation to ease you into your morning, and teaches you how to break up with your snooze button. On June 5, Yoga Wake Up launched two new morning series designed for the two different types of morning people: those that snooze, and those who don’t. For those that hit snooze, Master Your Mornings is for you. In just 5 days, you’ll learn the right way to wake up — with yoga! If you don’t use the snooze button but want to experience a more mindful morning, The Yogi Way is the series for you. You’ll learn how to wake like yogis have been for the last 5,000 years and be on the way to creating a habit of healthier mornings and more productive days. The best part? The first series you take is completely free, no subscription is required! Your mornings don’t have to be filled with dread and a fight against your alarm clock, so let’s get started!
To start your new morning routine with yoga, download Yoga Wake Up, answer one question, and then we’ll suggest one of two of our new morning series for you. Better days are just one morning away.
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