A doctor has revealed how to create a healthier morning routine and it starts with understanding exactly why you want to ‘press the snooze button’ when you wake up.
Dr Jason Culp, a naturopathic physician who works with the iconic Chiva-Som health resorts, says changing habits takes three weeks of consistent behaviour.
Dr Culp also revealed there are three parts to making or breaking a habit, these are known as the ‘cue’, ‘routine’ and ‘reward’.
A doctor has revealed exactly how to create a healthier morning routine and it starts with understanding exactly why you want to press the snooze button
He said bad habits, like sleeping in, can be replaced with good ones, like exercising before work
To help illustrate his point the doctor used an example of someone sleeping through their alarm after waking up tired.
This bad habit can lead to a loss of productivity, especially if the snoozer had plans to head to the gym, or complete another activity before work.
He described each of the three parts of a habit using this example.
The cue, in this instance, is still feeling tired after waking up to your alarm in the morning.
So, instead of getting out of bed and starting your day you make a routine out of clicking the snooze button, and rolling back over to get some more sleep.
That is known as the routine.
The this component is reward. The reward in this scenario is satisfying the necessity to save energy and sleep more, skipping the morning workout.
Dr Jason Culp, a naturopathic physician says understanding the root cause of the bad habit is important
This can quickly become an everyday habit.
The ‘cue’ is set by whatever leads to the tired feeling upon waking. This could be your stressful lifestyle, lack of sleep, poor dietary habits, and nutrient deficiencies. If you are not mindful about the craving to hit the snooze button on the alarm, and thus satisfying the necessity for more sleep, you will mindlessly follow through with the same routine,’ he said.
But Dr Culp explained that it doesn’t have to be the case.
People can address the self-defeating cycle and improve their morning routine.
‘You must identify the underlying cases of the cue,’ he explained.
Correcting some of these energy-draining behaviours could be enough to help some people bounce out of bed in the morning.
‘These simple lifestyle modifications may have additional unintended health benefits as well,’ he said.
But it may take adding some health-promoting routines into the morning to start the ball rolling on the healthier morning habits.
Pressing snooze is a bad habit caused by waking up tired, the doctor explained
‘These routines should be easy to employ whenever the necessity triggers the demand for the routine. In our example, a simple routine change may mean putting the alarm clock across the room so that you must stand up and cross the room to hit the snooze button,’ he said.
Dr Culp said setting the intention to change is a great first step, however being able to identify the cue, routine and reward makes it much more likely to succeed.
‘The pressures of everyday life interfere with the ability to maintain changes,’ he explained.
Dr Culp’s process of getting rid of bad habits in favour of good ones can be used to rework any routine.
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