Chirping Birds, Sunrise... Nice!

A good night’s sleep + a calm start to the day = more energy, productive training and the feel good factor.

Its Monday morning……..BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. You jump out of bed thinking its World War III, your heart rate's up at 90%; you reach for your alarm in panic only to stub your toe in the process. What a great start to your day.

As amazing as a good night’s sleep is, how you wake up is also very important. Starting your day in the above way will only send your stress levels through the roof from the very moment you wake up and you don’t need me to tell you this isn’t good.

I used to wake up each morning in such a way and to be honest it was F@#$ing annoying, I hated it. It was affecting my work, my training and my mood. So of course I did something about it.

I purchased myself a natural alarm clock.

You what?

It’s an alarm clock that’s wakes you with a light rather than noise. For example I set the alarm for 5.40am (most mornings), at 5.10am the light on the clock gradually gets lighter (this is to mimic sun rise) and will be at its full brightness by the time its 5.40am. The idea being the gradual increase of light prepares your body for waking up as opposed to suddenly jumping out of bed to run for cover when the alarm belts out in pitch black darkness.

If you are not convinced that the light will wake you, 5 mins after it has reached full brightness an alarm will sound. You can choose from the radio, singing birds or a rather pleasant beep.

Now don’t judge me but I went for the singing birds…I said don’t judge me!

I now start my day in a fully lit room to the sound of singing birds. I feel wide awake and ready for the day ahead. The best bit is I can walk to the bathroom, switch the light on and not feel as though someone has just thrown Polish vodka in my eyes.

I only started using this alarm last Thursday and already, I feel energized throughout the whole day, my training feels amazing and I start the day without a single bit of stress. Now bearing in mind I get woken up by the w@nkers sorry, builders who are doing some apparent TfL emergency work at 3am every night I think this is pretty going. I just need a plan to get rid of them now (Any ideas welcome) Once that’s sorted I'm sure I will be having the best sleep ever.

This alarm cost me £85 but it was worth every penny.

I will be in touch again next week with tips on sleep and most importantly quality sleep.

Train smart, sleep well and eat your greens,

Matt Whitmore