Q: How do I wake up in the morning without falling back to sleep?

Q: How do I wake up in the morning without falling back to sleep? I set my alarm 5 times in the morning: 4,5,6,6:30,and 7. I feel so tierd in the morning I use to be able to get up straighten my hair do my makeup very pretty and dress good but now I just wear comfy clothes and i always have my hair up- I look like shit. How can I make my body get up without being so tierd. By the way I do get 9 hours of sleep every night.

A: Well, a major reason you’re having trouble is that alarm schedule. Your brain needs all the REM sleep it can get, and most of that takes place after you’ve been sleeping for a while. If the last three hours of your sleep are interrupted by alarms that are spread out over hours, you’re not waking yourself up…you’re making yourself more tired.

I have my alarm set to go off every ten minutes for an hour. I snooze them over and over until it finally knocks me out of sleep. That’s just one interrupted hour as opposed to three or four.

One other thing to consider is your brain “exercising” during the day. It has been shown that people who have to think about new things a lot (students, scientists, etc.) require more sleep to recover. Your brain isn’t a muscle, but it does get fatigued from overuse. So, if this is the case for you, just try to drink some caffeine and slap yourself a couple times.

Okay, maybe not slap yourself. ;o)