Photo by Lilishia Gounder on Unsplash

The autumn equinox has been and gone, and you can feel it. The alarm goes off and the room is still dark, the kettle boils under the kitchen light, and the walk to the station or the school gate happens in a sort of half-dawn. With the clocks going back on 25 October, it's a good moment to think about how to wake up feeling refreshed when the mornings stop helping.

The short answer is that a fresh morning is mostly made the night before. A steady wake-up time, a calmer evening and a bit of light and movement soon after you get up will do more than any clever alarm. The dark makes waking harder, but it doesn't have to make you groggy all morning.

Why is it so hard to wake up on dark mornings?

Part of it is simply biology. Our bodies make a hormone called melatonin when it's dark, which helps us feel sleepy, and light is one of the main signals that tells the body to ease off and get going. As a doctor explained to Stylist, when you wake before the sun is up your body can still be in night mode, which is why getting out of bed in October feels so different from June.

There's also the groggy, foggy stretch that most of us know well. Sleep researchers call it sleep inertia, and it's the slow, heavy feeling of the brain still catching up with the fact that you're awake. In one study, some effects on alertness and thinking were still showing more than two hours after waking. So if you feel slow until mid-morning, you're not imagining it.

Does what you do in the evening change how you wake up?

I've come to think it changes almost everything. We tend to judge a night by how the morning feels, but by the time the alarm goes off, most of the work has already been done or not done. A late night on the phone, a busy head, a last coffee in the afternoon: they all turn up the next day.

The NHS points to a few simple basics in its Every Mind Matters guide to sleeping better. Going to bed and getting up at similar times each day helps your body know when it's time to sleep. Tea, coffee and some soft drinks contain caffeine, which can make you feel more awake, and a calm routine before bed helps you get ready for sleep. None of it is new, but in the darker months it matters more, because the morning light isn't there to rescue you.

Photo by Josh Sorenson on Unsplash

How to wake up feeling refreshed, starting the night before

Here's what I try to do once autumn sets in. None of it is strict, and you don't need all of it. Pick the one or two that feel easiest and start there.

1. Keep your wake-up time steady

It's tempting to lie in on Saturday to make up for a long week, but a big swing at the weekend can leave Monday feeling like jet lag. Try to get up within an hour or so of your usual time, even on days off. It's dull advice, I know, but it's the one that makes the rest work.

2. Let the evening get darker as it goes on

Turn the big light off after dinner and use lamps instead. Low, warm light tells your body the day is winding down, and it makes the room feel calmer too. It's a small change that sets the tone for the whole night.

3. Put the phone away earlier than feels natural

The NHS suggests avoiding screens for about an hour before bed. If an hour feels like a lot, start with twenty minutes and build from there. I wrote about some easy ways to do this in how to stop doomscrolling in bed.

4. Give your evening a starting point

I like having one small act that marks the end of the day and the start of the night. For me, that's opening a can of Sleep Toniq once the working day is done. It's made with chamomile, honey, apple cider vinegar and orange to promote sleep and reduce morning grogginess, and I made it to be opened at the start of the evening rather than right before bed. It sits alongside the other things I do, like reading or a few slow stretches, and it helps the evening feel like it belongs to me.

5. Get to bed a little earlier as the nights draw in

When it's dark at six, there's no harm in following the season a bit. Even fifteen or twenty minutes earlier adds up over a week. If early nights tend to slip away from you, I've written about how to get an early night in a way that feels like a treat rather than a rule.

6. Find light and movement soon after you wake

When the alarm goes, turn on a bright light, open the curtains even if it's grey outside, and get moving. A short walk, a few stretches or just pottering about the kitchen helps tell your body that the night is over. If you can get outside in daylight sometime in the morning, even better.

Is it worth tracking your sleep to feel fresher?

There's been a lot of talk lately about squeezing every last bit out of sleep with rings, apps and scores. Some people find that useful. But I'd gently say that you don't need a gadget to know how you feel, and checking a number first thing can make a groggy morning feel worse. A steady routine and a calmer evening are free, and they tend to show up in how you feel long before they show up on a chart. For more on building those habits, these ways to improve your nighttime routine are a good next step.

The mornings will stay dark for a while

We can't make the sun come up earlier, and after 25 October the evenings will draw in even faster. What we can do is look after the night, so the morning has a better chance. If you'd like something to start your evenings with this autumn, you can try Sleep Toniq here. Open it when the day is done, turn the lights down, and let tomorrow morning take care of itself.

Sources

• When do the clocks go back? Royal Museums Greenwich
• Fall asleep faster and sleep better, Every Mind Matters, NHS
• Santhi et al., Morning sleep inertia in alertness and performance: effect of cognitive domain and white light conditions, PLOS ONE (2013)
• Why is it so hard to wake up when it's dark outside? Stylist

Timothy Spinks is the founder of Sleep Toniq, a canned evening drink made with chamomile, honey, apple cider vinegar and orange, and the person behind nightcare, the idea that a good night starts with how you spend your evening.