Wake up refreshed every day!

by Lionel Wijesiri

The alarm goes off at 5. 00 a.m. and you immediately get out of bed without a second thought. After doing few simple stretching exercises, you feel totally alert, fully conscious, and eager to start your day. You'll do some rapid walking or jogging, shower, get dressed, eat a healthy breakfast, read the newspaper or listen to the news, all before 7 am.

Maintaining this habit is easy for you. You don't have to force yourself out of bed, and it doesn't seem to require much discipline at all. It feels normal and natural to be alert and active at this time.

If this scenario does not match with your current daily reality, you do not have to worry. Dr Milton DeLucchi, a Houston neurophysiologist who has conducted studies on the sleeping patterns of astronauts and aquanauts, says "Most people can retrain themselves to go through waking up alert more efficiently. What is required is a simple, planned program to synchronize certain living habits and certain subconscious mechanisms more closely with nature's harmony.

Dr. De Lucchi recommends five basic rules:

1. Get just enough sleep.

Although individual sleep needs vary, each person has one best length of sleeping time, and this changes little throughout his adult hood. Tests conducted showthat for nine out of ten people, normal sleeping time lies somewhere between 5 and 9 hours; for the vast majority, it is between 6 and 8 hours. The ideal amount of sleep for you is that which, got most nights, enables you to wake up spontaneously, feeling reasonably cheerful, refreshed and eager to meet the morning.

2. Respect your rhythms.

Even though you routinely log the proper amount of sleep, it may not be totally fulfilling if you get it on erratic schedules. The body is, after all, a wondrously complex affair, thrumming and humming with electrical and mechanical activities of which we are seldom aware, filled with chemical seas of hormones and other body fluids. Normally these interrelated currents ebb and flow like tides, and they follow remarkably persistent patterns-different when you are asleep and when you are awake. When you suddenly alter your sleeping-waking habits, some of your bodily "tides" may be upset.

After a week or two of living on a new schedule, as night-shift workers and jet-age travelers know, some ofyour body's internal cycles adaptfully to the new timing; some maypersist weeks longer-at cross-purposes with the others. The alteredbalance of vital body chemicals, inturn, can disrupt the quality of yoursleep and have you waking up feeling "out of joint."

The way to put Rules 1 and 2 into practice is to adopt a fixed bedtime, starting about eight hours before the time you regularly need to get up.In two weeks you should have a clear idea of your normal sleeping time, and be well on the way to regularizing your internal cycles. After that, you may break routine once in a while, But most nights, get just enough sleep and respect your rhythms.

3. Wiggle yourself awake.

In the moments after consciousness softly begins to make its morning reappearance, you can help it shine through the cobwebs with a series of simple stratagems. Contrary tocommon belief, your brain is notswitched off by sleep; it stays active, like a car engine running but with the clutch disengaged. The trick is to smoothly reconnect your mind to the waiting machinery of your body -which is rested and ready to go- and set it in motion.

As you lie there, halfway between oblivion and wakefulness, begin doing some simple stretching exercises. The secret of all this is not physical exercise but attracting yourmind's attention with a little series of external sensations and rudimentary cerebral action. These exercises could be done while you are lying, sitting up and standing up.

Performing easy flexibility drills starts your bloodstream flowing, your lungs pumping, and your brain synapses snapping with a vitality and vigor you otherwise might not enjoy until noon.

4. Keep the familiar fresh.

You are now awake, but not yet safely into high gear. The secret is to start off with activities simple enough for you to perform successfully, with no great physical exertion Confront yourself with small, non-critical choices such as deciding what to have for breakfast rather than eating exactly the same thing. Indulge in Some unhurried small-talk with family or neighbours. Spend a few minutes organizing your day's schedule.

5. Expect to like it.

Every sleep researcher emphasizesthat one of the most important influences on the way you wake up isyour psychological "set" toward waking itself-the attitude built up by your memories of previous mornings. Anything you can add to make your mornings serene but interesting and cheerful will help you wake up better. In fact, the best morning exercise of all can be the careful flexing of the lower facial muscles- commonly called a smile.

One businessman who felt grouchy every morning decided the reason lay in his unhappiness with his job. He couldn't afford to quit. He decided to wake up one hour earlier, and spend the extra time each morning working on an elaborate bird house for his back yard. Just before going to sleep he would concentrate on this project, planning the small but satisfying progress he would accomplish on it the next morning. When he awoke, he usually felt rested and relaxed.

In my own case, the five rules have helped me learn why the morning world is considered by many to be the sweetest part of day. One's sharpened senses quickly learn to bask in the fresher smell of morning breezes, to notice the subtle pinks and blues painted on the early sky. As the song says, "Oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way."

With some small changes in your habits and routines, rise and shine will take on a new meaning.