Do you ever feel like you haven’t even slept when you wake up? Like mornings are the worst part of your day? I once faced struggles in the morning that ruined my day. Nothing sounds positive about waking as early as 6 a.m., so having some support will hopefully turn your mornings around to how they should be: calm and easy.

“I feel like I can’t think straight and I’m not able to do simple tasks,” senior Danny Eckerline said, when asked about his mornings.

Adjusting habits can add to the amount of sleep you get at night. It all boils down to how much time you can save in your mornings and use for extra time to sleep.

The most important step to waking up early is being able to plan exactly how your morning is going to go with extreme detail. For example, before you go to bed, think to yourself, “I am going to wake up at 6:30 and get in the shower at 6:45. After my shower, I am going to eat breakfast at 7:10.” It is important to use specific details so that you can keep track of the amount of time you have in the morning. You also need to meet all those deadlines, so that you’re not falling behind.

A simple and easy way to maximize sleep time is planning out what clothes you’re going to wear the next day. Taking an extra five minutes before you go to bed can remove a whole lot of stress from your mornings. It can also add some pizzazz to your wardrobe because you will have more time to pick what looks good and what doesn’t. An easy switch to your schedule will allow you to gain an extra fifteen minutes in your hectic mornings.

It can be tempting to check social media and text messages before falling asleep. However, those simple actions can lead to chaos in your brain during sleep. A study at Rasmussen University showed that 72% of young adults use their phone prior to falling asleep. Being on your phone before you go to bed tricks your brain into thinking that it need to stay up. Your brain is constantly working with technology throughout the day, so during the night is when it needs its long awaited rest.

“I got an app called Sleep cycle that helps me wake up when I’m not in a deep sleep,” said teacher Ginny Enfield.

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The Sleep cycle app tracks your sleep throughout the night and wakes you up during a period of light sleep. According to the app, a regular sleep consists of a ninety minute period of a sleep cycle which is between your deep and light sleeps. If you are having a tough time sleeping, you may be in a constant deep sleep which is considered irregular according to the app. There are many different alarm set ups and even options that allow you to receive your best sleep possible.

If you have tried all of the ideas mentioned above, I still have a couple more tricks up my sleeve. This should be used as a last resort if nothing else is working for you.

If you use an alarm to wake up, it is not easy to wake up the first time it goes off. So, setting multiple alarms in close increments of each other will do the trick. Many people also rely on coffee for their energy throughout the day. If you can get used to the taste of it, it can be a thing you look forward to every morning. Even drinking water or tea can help you break the threshold.

High school isn’t easy. It becomes even harder when you can’t focus in class and are too lazy to do the extra work it takes to succeed. According to Stanford University, Two consecutive nights of less than six hours of sleep could leave you sluggish for the following six days. Those next six days will impact what goes on in school for the next two weeks!!

If you are not caught up on your sleep, It will be an ever rolling snowball of sleep deprivation and laziness that will keep getting bigger and bigger. If you use these tips correctly, then they will allow you to get the most amount of sleep possible every night and provide you with energy to get through your busy days.