4 Simple Ways to Wake Up Happier Every Day

In this post I’m sharing 4 simple ways to wake up happier every day. Yes it’s possible! No more dragging yourself out of bed, no more hiding under your sheets at the sound of your alarm. You’ve got this, lovely!

Waking up happier every day? Is that even an option?

I hear you, I never really thought it was possible either.

Up until about a year ago, I’d have to drag myself out of bed (while silently crying inside), when the alarm clock would go off in the morning. And all I could think was: Mama mia, here we go again…. *deep sigh*.

Honestly, there was nothing ‘happy’ about waking up for me.

If you’re reading this article, you probably know exactly what it feels like to wake up like that. And perhaps you’ve asked yourself: There must be another way, right?

Well, that’s what I was wondering too. I had enough of waking up unhappy and dreading my mornings. So this past year, I kind of made it my mission to figure out how I could wake up feeling better and happier. My mornings now look (and feel!) a whole lot different.

So today I want to share 4 simple ways with you to wake up happier (even if it’s just a little bit) every day, that will hopefully make your mornings a little bit brighter.

1. Relax before bed

When you go to sleep happy, you’ll wake up happy and a relaxing evening routine is here to help you do that.

By creating a relaxing night time routine, you’re getting yourself in the right mood for a good night of sleep. An evening routine can help you calm down, get the day out of your head and feel relaxed when you go to sleep. You’ll feel good when you lay down in your bed and it’s also easier to fall asleep when you’re relaxed.

So be more mindful about what you do in the evening. A lot of the times we do things that are not helping us to calm down and relax (even though it may feel like that), such as watching Netflix, scrolling through social media or sending out e-mails for work.

There’s a lot that happens during the day and we need to give our mind and body some rest to proces all of it, instead of only giving it more to proces.

Don’t know where to start? Check out this post!

2. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep

I know it might sound obvious to you to make sure that you’re getting enough sleep, but I also know how difficult it can be. You want to go to bed on time, but somehow you always end up in bed later than you wanted to. You got distracted (watching just one more season of your favorite show on Netflix) or there was something you still needed to do…

And suddenly, your bedtime has already passed. Sound familiar?

If you’re not getting enough sleep, waking up is 10x more difficult and feels anything but good. It really affects your mood in the morning (and for the rest of the day, really!).

So making sure you’re getting enough sleep every single night, is the number one most important thing to wake up happier. But how do you do this? My best advice is to go to bed at least half an hour before you want to be asleep, when you’re not that tired yet.

That gives you time to get ready for bed, put on your PJ’s and brush your teeth. When you wait to get ready for bed until you’re tired, you’re too late. That’s when you already want to be in bed (and almost asleep). I made this mistake too often and it can cost you valuable hours of sleep.

If you find this difficult, try setting a timer so that you know when it’s time to get ready for bed. After a while, you won’t need the timer anymore. You’ll get tired when you’d normally start to get ready for bed, so that’ll be your cue.

3. Make a gratitude list before bed

Making a gratitude list is the last thing I do at night before I turn off the lights and rest my head on my pillow. It’s the one thing I never skip. Why, you’re asking?

When you’re writing down what you’re grateful for, you essentially choose to focus your mind on the positive things. That makes it harder for your mind to dwell on the not-so-great things you were confronted with that day (things you saw on the news or on social media, or something mean someone said to you etc.). 

I think we all know what it’s like going to bed thinking about something bad or negative. It only makes you feel sad, stressed and worried. And it doesn’t help you sleep better either.

Practicing gratitude before bed can change that. It makes you appreciative of the small, positive things that happened that day, which makes you feel good and happy.

So, when it’s the last things you do before you go to sleep, you’re taking that happy feeling with you when you go to sleep and it influences how you feel when you wake up as well.

A grateful heart, is a happy heart (and a happy you!).

4. Have something to look forward to in the morning

What do you do after you wake up in the morning and how does it make you feel?

Waking up and knowing that you need to rush to get ready and make it to the office in time, is not a great feeling when you wake up. You’re already trying to catch up, and your day has only just begun. It can instantly put you in a bad mood.

Having something to look forward to in the morning, can change that.

When you wake up in the morning and you know that you first get to do something you enjoy, it’ll do wonders for how you feel when you wake up. It’s a bit like waking up on Christmas Day, feeling all excited and happy, knowing that you finally get to unwrap all those presents that have been waiting for you under the Christmas tree.

Doing something for yourself that you enjoy in the morning, has a similar effect on your mood.

It could be something as simple as slowly getting started in the morning and doing some yoga or being able to enjoy your breakfast and a cup of tea while reading a book. It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s something you enjoy and that you can look forward to when you wake up. Here are some other ideas you can try.

When you take the rush out of your mornings and do something in the morning that makes you feel excited, I promise you that you’ll feel a whole lot better when you wake up.

Just one more thing…

Hopefully, these 4 simple tips will help you to wake up happier and feel better in the mornings. Of course, there’ll still be mornings where you really don’t feel like getting out of bed. Some days are better than others, that’s just the way it is.

Also, don’t be discouraged if these tips don’t work for you right away! Change happens gradually and, as with everything, consistency is key. One day of getting enough sleep and writing a gratitude list might not make a big difference, but if you do it (almost) every day it’ll eventually add up.

I’d love to know: which of these tips are you going to try out first?