Getting up in the morning is, sometimes, the greatest effort What a person does when they leave the warmth and comfort of their bed. Above all, when it was it’s raining and it’s cold. However, the first hour after opening your eyes marks the beginning of a day full of energy if used well.
This natural moment of the body surpasses any rapid stimulus. Cortisol skyrockets, making it the perfect fuel for doing certain things that will make you lazy later. Of course, not waking up in the appropriate way can cause the rest of the day you crawl.
The morning peak that activates the body. As and as he explained Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman on the podcast Modern Wisdom“the peak of cortisol in the morning is essential. If it does not occur, the body responds with more stress later and it is difficult to regain calm in the afternoon.”
OK to the studio carried out by a group of researchers from different universities in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, your body works like a well-tuned clock: from early morning, cortisol begins to rise to reach a certain level that causes you to wake up. Researchers from the US and Mexico discovered that this cortisol peak is maintained for about 45 minutes, in which it draws energy from the sugars stored in the liver and puts the brain in alert mode, ready to face whatever comes without that feeling groggy in the morning.
If you take advantage of this peak to stretch, walk or do any physical activity during that time, it will be much easier for you. create new habitsbecause the mind retains that moment better and assimilates it in a positive way.
Enhance awakening. According to the expert, cortisol levels when you wake up are even higher than those recorded when experiencing stressful situations. However, in this awakening contextis natural behavior and should even be enhanced because that peak is what allows energy to be accumulated for the rest of the day. “The morning routine of natural light and hydration prepares the brain and body for the day,” Huberman said.
One of the neuroscientist’s recommendations is to expose yourself as much as possible in natural light during that first hour. Open the window, go out to the balcony or take a short walk. That exposure sends a signal to the brain and prepares it to leave the state of drowsiness and start your “day mode”.
In addition, the expert recommends drinking a good glass of water to compensate for the hours without drinking and rehydrate the body, and then start some gentle stretches or walk for a few minutes. Huberman recommends delay the first coffee about 90 minutes, since caffeine can interrupt that natural regulation of cortisol levels.
Disrupting sleep routines does not help. A investigation from the University of South Australia studied the impact of changes in circadian cycles in cortisol levels, finding evidence that changes in sleep schedules imbalanced cortisol levels upon awakening. This meant that either the participants they woke up in the middle of the night or ate at odd hours and that, when they had to do so, their cortisol levels were insufficient to bring the brain out of its state of drowsiness, being out of adjustment throughout the day.
Therefore, maintain sleep schedules Regular exercise helps the body know when it is time to raise cortisol levels to begin the awakening phase and prepare the brain to face the rest of the day.
Getting ready to sleep. In the same way that Huberman suggests a certain preparation to have a more efficient awakening, he also recommends taking some measures to face the end of the day. “For the last hours, you should do the opposite: darken the environment, avoid stimulants and limit hydration,” explained the neuroscientist.
In this sense, the expert highlighted that exposure to screens alters that hormonal pattern that means that cortisol levels must be low to allow you to fall asleep and initiate what he called the “maximum reset”: achieving a phase of deep sleep in which the brain eliminates the metabolic waste it generates during the day. through the glymphatic system. “Conscious breathing and visualization, such as mentally walking through a well-known place, are powerful tools for calming the mind before sleep,” Huberman explained in his interview.
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Image | Unsplash (Adrian Swancar)
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