Editor’s Note: #SurfHacks is a new series where we’ll be providing helpful tips to improve your overall surf life. We’re not all morning people here, so we’d figure we’d start with getting out of bed.
“Just five more minutes, dude”
I am a sunset guy. There, it’s out in the open, right off the bat. I don’t jump out of bed at 5:45 AM unless there’s a good chance that wake up call is going to get me into a head high wave or twelve. Even then I’m much, much more likely to convince myself I can snag a couple more hours under my warm blanket, let the wetsuit dry out a little longer, blast through the work day and end up rushing to get out as the moon pops up anyway. But my affinity toward night surfing aside, I can also relate to walking into the office already refreshed, skin still a tad salty, hair a smidge frazzled.
There’s something to be said for starting your day off with two waves under your belt rather than rushing to get them before the sun disappears. So I’ve started digging through the internet for surefire ways to start surfing with the early birds:
1. Set your phone or alarm clock on the opposite side of the room. Because science. Physically getting out of bed to shut that alarm off is a game changer.
2. Set multiple alarms all over the room. Think it’s easy to roll over and hit one snooze button? You just crawl back in bed after turning off the first one anyway? How about 5?
3. NO coffee! Wait what? As counter-intuitive as that may seem, a regular caffeine and/or alcohol habit toys with your quality of sleep, therefore making it harder to get up the next morning to begin with. Try lemon water in the AM instead. The hydration will kickstart your body, and the lemon will help balance out your pH, which went all crazy while you were sleeping.
4. Go camping for a week. It turns out your body naturally starts a sleep schedule that moves with the sunrise and sunset when you spend enough time without artificial light.
5. Get some rays ASAP. Sunlight shuts off melatonin production, making you more productive right away.
6. No phone at night. A bright screen mimic’s the brightness of the sun, telling your brain it’s not time to sleep quite yet and holding off a good night’s sleep. It suppresses your melatonin production, which is the hormone that makes you sleepy, among other things… like playing a large role in fighting cancer.
7. Drink a glass of water right away. Replenish the water lost by sweating and exhaling during sleep.
8. Sleep with your blinds open. When the sun pops up, so will you. Just make sure to go to bed early enough that this won’t turn you into a squinting, screaming vampire when the light hits your face.
9. Eat a mint in the morning. Apparently mints can trick your body into thinking it’s chow time.
10. Just get enough sleep. Nothing helps getting up early like not being tired. Go to sleep earlier. Stop doing things at night. Eat your dinner, shut off your phone, read a book, and listen to the night. If you’re used to going to sleep late, it might take a few days, but you’ll figure it out. Within the week you’ll be rising with the sun and scoring empty dawn patrol lineups while everyone else is hitting snooze for the tenth time.
This view is ALWAYS better than the one from your bed.
