How to Wake Up More Easily When It’s Dark Out

This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

What are your best tips for how to wake up more easily when it's dark out?

I don't know about you, but I have the hardest time waking up when it's dark outside, particularly when it's the result of seasonal changes rather than a New! Improved! Morning! Routine! (perhaps with a pre-bought exercise class or some other “me time” endeavor like NaNoWriMo).

But when the mornings gradually get lighter later, I inevitably find myself thinking “how can it possibly be 7 AM when it's still DARK OUTSIDE?!”

So I am constantly hunting for easier ways to wake up more easily when it's dark out.

The big DST change is upon us soon, which means we'll have a few weeks' reprieve before full winter sets in … but in the meantime, here are some of my best tips for how to wake up more easily when it's dark outside…

{related via CorporetteMoms: larks vs owls: how to deal when you and your partner (or kids) have a different internal clock}

This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

How to Wake Up More Easily When It's Dark Out

1. Sunrise Alarm Clocks

Having an alarm clock that simulates dawn is the obvious choice if you feel like throwing money at the problem — and looking on Amazon now it does seem like not only has the main Philips alarm clock (pictured) price come down, but there are a number of other, more affordable dupes.

I feel like when I last looked at these they were more like $150-$200, but the Philips alarm clock is down to $96 on Amazon today. Because I am currently having trouble with 90% of the Philips things I own, I may check out this cheaper $40 version.

(Oooh, or maybe this $60 “Wake-Up Light with Himalayan Salt, Alarm Clock with Real Sunrise Simulation.” Hmmn.)

2. Use a Smart Lamp in an Adjacent Room

If you a) already have a smart lamp or lightbulb that is not otherwise dedicated, or b) feel like making a smaller purchase, having a smart lamp in an adjacent room that turns on (either gradually or at a warm temperature) is good.

This is what I did successfully all last year — it probably goes against the idea of “waking up gradually with the light” to just have a light in the next room flip on, but to me the most jarring thing about waking up in the dark is that uncertainty — is it 3 AM? is it 7AM? has my phone alarm malfunctioned and woken me up early? So being able to look over and see the light is immensely helpful as a cue.

This $15 option is Amazon's choice and works with both Alexa and Google Home; last year I got a smart light bulb for as little as $5 bundled with a deal on an Amazon Echo.

(In fact you can often get a third-gen Echo Dot for $50 and have options for $5 to add a smart bulb or a smart plug…) 

{related: a smart home: creepy or cool?}

3. SAD Lamps and actual light therapy

Sometimes the problem is not just waking up, but regulating your entire mood during these literally dark mornings — after all, depression can be a reason you have problems waking up.

One way to treat winter depression / seasonal affective disorder is to treat it with light therapy — generally this means looking at or working under a specific bright white SAD light for a prescribed time, possibly throughout the day, so as to mimic actual sunlight exposure.

Here are a few recent threadjacks from commenters discussing how they treat seasonal affective disorder… 

{related: how to investigate when you're exhausted and have no energy}

4. Practice General Good Sleep Hygiene

If getting up in the mornings is hard for you, as always, take a look at your sleep hygiene — do you have good routines for sleep, and are you following them? Personally I've found that I need more sleep as I get older (or at least it feels like it), and having a cold, dark room is essential.

I like to use the app Sleep Cycle to help me wake up at the best possible time in my REM cycles, and as I've written before, I am always amazed by the effect a spoonful of peanut butter at night has on me in the morning.

(The theory, which I first heard from the book The Four Hour Body, is that if mornings are hard for you your blood sugar may be dropping overnight — you basically are getting hangry and it interrupts your sleep. A spoonful of peanut butter is cheap, easy, and has the right proportion of fat and protein to stabilize your blood sugar over the next 7-8 hours.) 

{related: how to optimize your sleep}

Readers, how do you deal with dark mornings — what are your best tips for how to get up more easily when it's dark out?  

Stock photo at top via Scop.io / Aditya Sanjay.