The three ways that help you wake up fresh and alert

The three ways that help you wake up fresh and alert

Want to wake up fresh and alert in the morning?  There are three things you can do to beat that groggy feeling first thing, scientists reckon.

You need to have exercised the day before, or you should sleep in longer and later, or your breakfast needs to be made up of complex carbs, such as oatmeal, berries or wholegrain bread.

Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley came up with three ways to achieve a brighter start after they analysed the lifestyles of 833 people and monitored their sleeping habits, breakfasts and exercise levels for two weeks.

Those who woke up the brightest and who felt the most refreshed from sleep followed at least one of the habits—and some followed all three.  “All of these have a unique and independent effect.  You can see improvements with each and every one of these factors,” said researcher Raphael Vallat.

Each participant had been given different breakfast meals to test.  The worst—in terms of early morning grogginess—was a breakfast that contained large amounts of simple sugars.  After eating the breakfast, participants had problems waking up the next day and maintaining alertness; they also had more trouble sleeping.  A breakfast of complex carbs gave people the best start to the day, and also ensured they woke up alert and fresh the next morning, too.  

Not surprisingly, sleep has a big impact on our alertness in the morning.  Sleeping longer than you usually do or sleeping in later can also help you wake up alert.  We need to have between seven and nine hours of quality sleep every night, the researchers say.  Sleeping this long helps the body rid itself of adenosine, a chemical that accumulates throughout the body during the day and creates feelings of sleepiness by the evening.

People who exercise also tend to sleep better, although the researchers aren’t sure what the correlation is.  Come to that, they’re not sure which of the three lifestyle habits has the biggest impact on morning alertness.  

Nature Communications, 2022; 13: doi: 10/1038/s1467-022-34503-2

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