The rare and elusive “morning person” is that individual who wakes ready to enthusiastically attack the day. While these people exist, for many, waking up can be a struggle.
Fortunately, a new study may help those who cannot stop smashing the snooze button each morning. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, discovered three critical areas of focus that can help people become more refreshed: sleep, exercise, and breakfast.
For the finding, 833 people were monitored over two weeks. The participants were given a variety of breakfasts, wore trackable wristwatches, and maintained self-assessments of their diet and alertness levels. To help isolate the impact of genetics, twins were also included in the study.
The authors discovered that vigorous exercise, longer stretches of sleep, and breakfast with little sugar, high protein, and complex carbohydrates, all contributed to reducing grogginess in the morning.
“If you sleep longer or later, you’re going to see an increase in your alertness. If you do more physical activity on the day before, you’re going to see an increase,” said UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow and study author Raphael Vallat.
While the topic of grogginess may seem silly, it has serious consequences. Sleepy people behind the wheel, for example, can cause car accidents. In fact, some of the highest-profile human-made disasters in history have been caused by sleepiness, including the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, the Exxon Valdes oil spill, and even the disaster at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl.
Grogginess is far more than a simple “annoyance,” explained Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology. “[I]t costs developed nations billions of dollars every year through loss of productivity, increased health care utilization, work absenteeism. More impactful, however, is that it costs lives — it is deadly,” he stressed.
Walker said that scientists must strive to understand the phenomenon of grogginess and work to develop helpful solutions.
When it comes to eating habits, the researchers found that the worst type of breakfast to consume was one high in simple sugar. Sugary breakfasts, like children’s cereal, were found to suppress the ability to remain alert.
Complex carbohydrates, however, did not have the same effect and boosted energy more effectively, especially when paired with protein.
According to Walker, “having a spike in blood sugar following any type of breakfast meal markedly blunts your brain’s ability to return to waking consciousness following sleep.”
While it may seem obvious, the authors also found that more sleep is helpful. Sleeping between 7 and 9 hours every evening correlated with faster waking the next day. Most individuals require this amount of sleep to ensure the accumulation of the chemical adenosine is removed. Adenosine proliferates during waking hours, driving sleepiness.
“Considering that the majority of individuals in society are not getting enough sleep during the week, sleeping longer on a given day can help clear some of the adenosine sleepiness debt they are carrying,” Walker suspects.
And it is not just sleeping longer, but later that can help fight grogginess.
“When you wake up later, you are rising at a higher point on the upswing of your 24-hour circadian rhythm, which ramps up throughout the morning and boosts alertness,” explained Walker.
Exercising was also identified as a component of restful sleep, though the mechanism by which it helps is unclear. Substantial physical activity can help you wake easier the next morning, according to the study.
The researchers also said you can stop blaming your parents for your slow morning routine. The role of genetics was found to be minor, accounting for roughly 25% of the differences across individuals.
“How you wake up each day is very much under your own control, based on how you structure your life and your sleep,” said Walker.
