Do you tumble out of bed and stumble into the kitchen each morning? Does that morning fog feel as familiar as your first cup of coffee each day?
You’re not alone. After all, if it can happen to Dolly, it can happen to anyone.
In fact, a 2022 survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that 21% of men and 32% of women rarely or never wake up feeling refreshed.
That’s a lot of sleepy people trying to feel more alert to get through their days and jobs.
If you’re among the masses, you may be wondering what you can do today to wake up more refreshed tomorrow.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have some ideas. They recently looked at 833 people over a two-week period to unlock which factors helped them wake up feeling sharp instead of sluggish.
They found that how alert you feel in the morning isn’t strongly associated with genetics but, rather, modifiable lifestyle factors such as what you eat for breakfast, how active you are during the day, and how long you sleep at night.
Here are the three top findings for how to sleep better and increase morning alertness.
Carbohydrates at breakfast can help with alertness
You already know that breakfast gives your body needed fuel after a long night’s rest. But paying attention to what you eat may give you extra mileage.
Breakfast was one element of the study, and participants were given meals that differed in their nutritional composition. For example, some breakfasts were high in fat, others high in carbohydrates, and still others were high in protein or fiber.
Subjects had their blood sugar (glucose) levels monitored and kept a record of the other foods they ate throughout the day, while self-reporting their alertness levels periodically.
The breakfast high in carbohydrates and low in sugar was the clear winner for helping participants feel alert in the mornings. The undisputed loser? Those whose breakfast consisted only of an oral glucose tolerance test (a very sugary drink).
“The best breakfast consisted of about 500 calories, with the vast majority of these calories (about 75%) coming from carbohydrates,” explains Raphael Vallat, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and sleep researcher in the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley and the study’s lead author. “By contrast, people felt less alert when they consumed a pure sugar or glucose drink (300 calories, 100% carbohydrates) or a high-protein breakfast (500 calories, 40 grams of protein — the equivalent of seven eggs). Noteworthy,” Vallat continued, “the total caloric amount of the breakfast was not a significant predictor of alertness, suggesting that ‘big breakfasts’ may not necessarily decrease alertness.”
But doesn’t a high-carb meal, thanks to its effects on the chemical serotonin, make us sleepy?
Studies are conflicting. Research from 2013, for example, showed that sleepiness was reduced after workers consumed a high-carb versus a high-protein drink. What’s more, a lot depends on what kind of carbs you’re eating (complex ones, such as whole grains, versus simple ones like those in a doughnut) and the other nutrients you’re pairing them with.
“The ratio of macronutrients is important,” Vallat says. “You want to avoid a poorly nutritious sugar-sweetened breakfast and instead have a macronutrient-varied breakfast with a good amount of carbohydrates.”
Robin Tucker, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University who studies sleep and nutrition (but who was not involved with this study), has seen similar results. She recommends eating a breakfast that combines fat, protein, and carbs, and suggests pairings such as eggs and oatmeal, peanut butter and whole wheat toast, and fruit and cottage cheese.
“The combination of these macronutrients means your blood sugar won’t go up as high as if you were just eating carbs alone, and you won’t come crashing back down because the fat and protein help to slow how quickly the carbs raise your blood sugar,” Tucker explains. “Protein also provides the building blocks for neurotransmitters that promote alertness and positive mood, and carbs help those protein building blocks cross from the bloodstream and into the brain for use. All three working together are key.”
Commit to daily exercise
As you might have suspected, what you do during the day can have a big impact on your sleep at night and, consequently, how awake you feel the next morning.
Study participants had their activity levels monitored — those who had higher levels of physical activity during the day felt more alert the next morning.
While the study didn’t examine how exercise impacts sleep and alertness, sleep specialists suggest a few factors. Exercising outdoors, for example, can expose you to brain-stimulating daylight. Physical activity can also reduce sleep-stealing anxiety, promote weight loss (lowering the risk for sleep issues like sleep apnea), and help tire you out. Physical activity can also improve mood: The researchers found a high correlation between participants’ mood and alertness levels.
“Exercise is known to promote better sleep quality, more sleep, and deeper sleep,” notes Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist, Sleep.com advisor, and author of “The Sleep Solution.” “I don't think there are many things that improve sleep quality more.”
The researchers didn’t study what kind or how much exercise is ideal, but many sleep specialists recommend choosing an activity you enjoy and committing to doing it for about 30 minutes most days of the week. This can be aerobic exercise, strength training, or a combination of both. While findings are conflicting, the researchers in this case found that exercising during the day was less likely to produce disrupted sleep than exercising at night.
Sleep longer and later
Last but not least, the researchers found that sleeping longer at night and later into the morning also increased morning alertness, probably because it provided study participants with more restorative REM sleep and enabled them to wake when their natural sleep/wake cycle (or circadian rhythm) was on the upswing.
Doesn’t sleeping later and longer than usual contradict what we’ve always been told about getting good-quality sleep?
It does, concedes Vallat. “I think what these findings are saying is that some people (or many) would benefit from shifting their sleep schedule a bit forward in time. For the average person, extending sleep by as little as 20 minutes will certainly provide benefits in terms of alertness and overall health.”
What to know about how to feel more alert in the morning
The UC Berkeley researchers note there are limitations to their study, including that feelings of alertness were self-reported, rather than objectively captured data.
Additionally, there was nothing in place to control for exposure to early-morning daylight, which can increase alertness levels. Even though the breakfasts used in the study had a predetermined nutritional profile, each (excluding the sugar drink) contained some degree of several major macronutrients, meaning they contained value, and should not be discarded in favor of an all-carb diet.
If you’re tired of being tired in the morning, committing to some lifestyle and dietary changes, including regular exercise, a balanced breakfast, and a bit more sleep may spell the difference between waking up feeling wiped out — or revved up and ready.
