How To Wake Up Feeling Refreshed

As daylight savings time approaches, the extra hour of sleep can seem like a gift. Yet, many still wake up feeling groggy, as this shift can disrupt your internal clock. In this article, we’ll explore practical strategies to help you maximize this time change and wake up genuinely rested during the transition and throughout the year.

Why do I Always Wake Up Tired and Groggy?

So, you’re clocking in seven to nine hours of sleep each night but still waking up tired. What’s the deal? Chances are, your sleep quality isn’t as optimal as it could be. 

It’s totally possible to get the sleep quantity without the needed quality or restorativeness that sleep should give you. You were obviously unconscious in bed for 7 – 9 hours but never feel like you slept enough. 

Wearables like the Oura ring offer deeper insights into your sleep, including HRV (Heart Rate Variability), which measures your body’s ability to recover from stress. These tools can also help you identify factors that ruin your sleep quality. For example, our CEO Matt Gallant found that eating too close to bedtime spikes his heart rate, lowers his HRV, and leaves him feeling less refreshed in the morning.

Let’s look at what can leave you tired and groggy when the alarm goes off (although, ideally, if you’re getting the sleep you need, you shouldn’t need an alarm).

For a refresher on the sleep stages and their roles, check out this article on sleep stages.

Not Reaching Enough Deep Sleep

Of the ideal seven to eight hours you spend asleep each night, deep sleep typically makes up about 25%—around 105 to 120 minutes. Individuals awakened during this phase often feel groggy and experience impaired mental performance for at least an hour afterward.

This stage is critical for your body’s repair and recovery. During deep sleep, your body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, consolidates memories, and strengthens the immune system. Over 90% of melatonin and growth hormones are secreted during this time, enhancing your immune function and helping you recover from injuries.

As you age, the time spent in deep sleep tends to decrease, making it harder to wake up feeling refreshed. 

Additionally, the glymphatic system—your brain’s detoxification system—activates during this stage, playing an essential role in brain health. Research shows that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow becomes stronger and more pulsating during this stage, helping to clear waste from the brain and deliver more oxygen to brain cells. This increased CSF flow is vital for brain function and maintenance, keeping your mind sharp and healthy.

If you’re not getting enough deep sleep, you miss out on these vital processes, leaving you tired, groggy, and not functioning at your best.

Too Much REM or Waking Up In The Middle of Your REM Cycle

Like deep sleep, REM accounts for about 25% of your total sleep and plays a key role in memory consolidation, brain restoration, and preparing your mind for wakefulness.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is when your body is highly active despite laying still. Your eyes move rapidly from side to side, your brain is revving, and your breathing rate becomes irregular. 

Most REM sleep occurs in the latter part of the night, making it more likely to be interrupted as morning approaches. For example, when your alarm interrupts REM sleep, it shortens your brain’s natural transition into wakefulness, leading to disorientation and increased daytime fatigue.

Waking up during REM sleep can leave you feeling groggy and unrefreshed, even with sufficient sleep. Also, getting too much REM sleep, such as by sleeping in or when your body compensates after sleep deprivation, can make you wake up more groggy than if you got just the right amount. 

A study explored the effects of sleep fragmentation on REM sleep and fatigue in 16 participants. Over three nights, researchers compared restful, uninterrupted sleep with fragmented sleep caused by quiet sounds that disrupted sleep without fully waking the participants. Researchers closely monitored sleep patterns, especially REM, and tested cognitive performance after each night.

The results showed that despite similar total sleep time, fragmented sleep led to less time spent in REM and disrupted the overall structure of the sleep cycle. This resulted in higher fatigue and impaired cognitive performance the next day.

Even though REM sleep increased slightly throughout the study, the disruptions outweighed these benefits. The research confirmed that sleep fragmentation, especially during REM, diminishes sleep quality more than reducing total sleep time.

Not Getting Enough Sleep

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep. While some people may not experience adverse effects from sleeping a shorter time, they don’t recommend consistently insufficient sleep.

Sleep researchers all agree that insufficient sleep will leave you tired and groggy the next day. A review of studies explored the effects on cognition. Here are some things that happen when you don’t hit the seven-hour mark – no wonder you feel so groggy!:

Cognitive Impairment: Sleep deprivation slows response times and increases performance variability, particularly impairing alertness, attention, and vigilance.

Emotional Dysregulation: It contributes to mood instability, increased irritability, and emotional volatility, resulting in negative emotional biases and lower frustration tolerance.

Memory and Learning: Sleep loss disrupts normal hippocampal function, making it harder to form new memories, especially positive or neutral ones.

Decision Making: Lack of sleep impairs the ability to process emotional cues, leading to riskier and often poorer choices.

Neuroimaging Findings: Sleep deprivation reduces activity in brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and thalamus, impacting attention, executive control, and higher-level decision-making.

To be fair, this doesn’t apply to everyone. A select few exceptional individuals thrive on less than seven hours of sleep each night, but they are rare.

Poor Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene encompasses a wide range of factors. Scientists haven’t exactly agreed on a clear definition of what sleep hygiene should include. Here, however, are some of the most commonly included factors:

Behavioral factors: 

• Caffeine and alcohol intake  
• Exercise and physical activity  
• Sleep timing and regularity  
• Napping habits  
• Smoking  
• Wind-down routines before bed  
• Stimulus control (limiting activities like TV in bed)  
• Food intake before bed  
• Sleep restriction (limiting time in bed to improve sleep quality)  
• Use of sleep medication or other substances  

Environmental factors:

• Light exposure  
• Noise levels  
• Room temperature  
• Comfortable bedding  
• Presence of a bed partner  

Psychological factors:

• Stress management  
• Emotional or mental states that affect sleep

A review of studies on sleep hygiene emphasized the need for an individualized approach to better sleep management, as numerous factors can influence sleep. What may cause stress and disrupt my sleep might not impact yours, highlighting that sleep needs and triggers vary from person to person.

Yes, it’s a lot to consider and may feel overwhelming. You don’t need to perfect all of these factors at once. Later in this article, we’ll focus on some of the most important ones, but for now, keep these aspects in mind as they all contribute to quality sleep.

Poor Circadian Rhythm

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s 24-hour internal clock, responsible for regulating various functions, with one of the most important being your sleep-wake cycle. Even brief disruptions—such as shifting your sleep schedule between the workweek and the weekend—can lead to several negative effects, including:

• Increased sleepiness
• Memory problems
• Heightened response to stress
• Emotional distress
• Physical discomfort
• Increased appetite
• Reduced enjoyment of activities due to diminished physical, cognitive, and social abilities

To maintain a healthy circadian rhythm, it’s important to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day—like clockwork (see what I did there). Consistency helps align your body’s internal clock with your environment and daily schedule.

When your circadian rhythm is off, your internal clock becomes misaligned, leading to difficulty falling asleep, waking up too early or late, and experiencing poor-quality sleep. Over time, these disruptions can have a significant impact on both your physical and mental well-being.

Learn more about your circadian rhythm and how to reset it. 

Other Factors Increasing Histamine Or Glutamate In Your Brain

Some major players in how our bodies regulate sleep and alertness are neurotransmitters. While GABA promotes sleep, other neurotransmitters like histamine and glutamate encourage wakefulness.

Histamine, known for its role in immune responses, is also a crucial modulator in the brain, promoting alertness and cognitive function. If you’ve taken certain antihistamines, you’re probably familiar with their ability to make you quite sleepy – and this is because they block or reduce histamines in your body. However, they’re not a great option for getting quality sleep because they disrupt your natural sleep cycle and reduce time spent in REM.

Glutamate is the brain’s main chemical that excites neurons, helping to boost brain activity and communication between nerve cells. High glutamate levels can disrupt sleep by overstimulating neurons, especially during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, when lower glutamate activity is needed to help relax muscles.

Most people can consume high-histamine or high-glutamate food and sleep just fine. However, a small minority cannot break down these substances in foods well and absorb them into the blood and brain. This is not a disease, but a mild reaction to some foods. 

When levels of histamine and glutamate increase, they activate specific pathways in the brain that enhance arousal and reduce the ability to fall asleep. If you have the sensitivity and can sleep, your sleep quality tends to go down.

While not exhaustive, here are some common foods that are high in histamine, glutamate, or both:

• Meat and Fish: Smoked and cured varieties (e.g., bacon, sausages, deli meats), mackerel, tuna, sardines, anchovies
• Dairy and Eggs: Aged cheeses (e.g., Parmesan, Roquefort, cheddar), fermented dairy, egg whites
• Certain fruits and Vegetables: Avocado, banana, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, peas, fermented vegetables (e.g., sauerkraut), moldy or spoiled produce
• Legumes: Lentils, chickpeas
• Nuts: Walnuts, peanuts
• Condiments: Soy sauce, miso, and other fermented condiments
• Seaweed: Kombu, nori
• Beverages: Alcohol, especially wine, caffeinated drinks
• Processed Foods: Snacks, canned soups, flavored chips (especially those with added MSG), soup powder or cubes

Consuming foods high in histamine or glutamate can lead to sleep-disrupting levels of these neurotransmitters, especially if you have issues like leaky gut or leaky brain. When the intestinal lining becomes compromised, larger molecules like histamine and glutamate can enter the bloodstream more easily, potentially causing symptoms like tension, restlessness, and disrupted sleep patterns.

Similarly, if the blood-brain barrier weakens, excess histamine and glutamate can enter the brain, increasing neural excitability that can temporarily keep you awake and make it hard to sleep.

Some individuals may lack or not produce enough of the necessary enzymes, such as diamine oxidase (for histamine) or glutamate decarboxylase and glutaminase (for glutamate), making it difficult for their bodies to process these neurotransmitters effectively.

If some foods tend to be dropping your sleep quality, you want to avoid them, especially at night. 

If you struggle with sleep and consume foods high in histamine or glutamate, assessing your gut health and making dietary adjustments could help restore balance and improve your sleep quality.

How To Wake Up Feeling Refreshed

Alright, we’ve covered a lot of factors that could leave you feeling tired, so now let’s get to the good stuff. Here are some ways to get you feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. 

Rule Out Sleep Disordered Breathing and Dental Issues

Before diving into specific strategies, it’s crucial to rule out any underlying issues that prevent you from getting a restorative night’s sleep. Consider seeing a sleep specialist doctor and dentist to rule out any serious sleep disorders. If you’ve got a medical sleep condition, the following tips won’t likely make much of a difference in your sleep quality. 

A sleep specialist medical doctor can identify conditions and determine if your sleep issues relate to medical, mental health, or lifestyle factors. Using diagnostic tools like sleep studies, they assess sleep quality, patterns, and disruptions in breathing or movement. They also evaluate the impact of sleep problems on your overall health and offer personalized treatment options.

Sleep dentists focus on diagnosing and treating sleep-related disorders that involve the mouth, tongue, and airway, particularly obstructed breathing. They assess patients for sleep-disordered breathing through clinical evaluations and may refer them for sleep studies. 

Multiple oral health factors can impact sleep quality, including:

• Oral Malformations: Conditions like ankyloglossia (tongue-tie), enlarged tonsils, malocclusion, and a high, narrow palate can lead to airway obstruction and poor sleep posture.
• Open Mouth Breathing: This habit is associated with poor sleep quality and oral health issues.
• Tongue and Tonsil Size: An enlarged tongue or tonsils can obstruct the airway, contributing to disordered breathing.
• Missing Teeth: Missing teeth can cause the tongue to fall back into the airway, negatively affecting sleep quality.

Sleep dentists are not all created equal–they have diverse preferences and approaches as dentistry can be. They may use various treatments, such as:

• Orthodontics or oral surgeries to move teeth or expand your palate, which can improve your airway
• Myofunctional therapy, which involves tongue and mouth exercises to correct dysfunctional movements and expand the palate
• Designing custom oral appliances to align the jaws or keep the airway open during sleep
• Collaborating with osteopaths, chiropractors, or craniosacral therapists to address structural and postural issues that affect your jaw alignments or breathing
• Collaborating with sleep specialists for comprehensive care, educating patients about their condition and lifestyle changes, and providing follow-up care to ensure the effectiveness and comfort of oral appliances.

Only 1 in 10 people with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea are correctly diagnosed, and even fewer are treated. 

A lesser-known milder sleep disorder often ignored in sleep analyses but still leaves you feeling sleepy during the day is Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS). UARS is a sleep disorder marked by brief awakenings due to increased resistance in the upper airway. These short arousals, often missed in sleep studies, disrupt sleep quality significantly.

In a study of 15 subjects with UARS, awakenings were linked to increased breathing effort. Arousals typically occurred within one to three breaths after airflow restriction, helping restore normal breathing..

While snoring can accompany these awakenings, it is not necessary for diagnosis. UARS affects men and women equally, and individuals often have mildly abnormal upper airway structures. Addressing UARS with your doctor and dentist is important for improving overall sleep quality and health.

No sleep supplement or pills can address these conditions, as they need medical attention. Once you’ve eliminated the possibility that your sleep isn’t due to disordered breathing or dental issues, you can move on to implementing the following tips. 

Eliminate Sleep Disruptors

Sleep disruptors like bright light, heat, stimulating activities, and eating too close to bedtime can destroy your sleep quality. 

Check out our in-depth article on sleep disruptors to identify and eliminate them.

Optimize Your Circadian Rhythm

Circadian rhythm or body clock ties everything in your body with the day-light cycle. To get the most restorative sleep, your body needs to perceive that it’s nighttime. 

Many modern lifestyle factors can confuse your body clock, such as:

• Unnatural light exposure at night from house lights, electronics, and screens that have white, blue, and green lights
• Lack of natural light exposure in the morning
• Taking late afternoon naps
• Staying up late at night
• Staying up late and sleeping in on the weekends, and subsequently suffering social jet lags on Mondays
• Eating, drinking, partying, and exercising late into the night

To optimize your circadian rhythm, you want to mimic your natural light exposure by getting light in the morning and minimizing light at night. To learn more about how to reoptimize your circadian rhythm, check out this circadian rhythm article. 

Exercise Every day

Physical activity is a powerful ally for better sleep. It boosts melatonin production, helping you fall asleep faster and sleep better. Additionally, exercise is a natural stress-buster, tackling the tension that often keeps us awake at night. As your mood lifts with regular activity, you enter a positive feedback loop—feeling more energetic and motivated to stay active.

Additionally, exercise helps regulate body temperature. As your body temperature rises during activity and drops 30-90 minutes afterward, it makes it easier to fall asleep.

Getting at least a 20-minute walk in every day can help improve your sleep quality. A review of studies exploring the relationship between exercise and sleep came up with these recommendations for exercise:

Intensity Matters: Moderate-intensity exercise improves sleep, while high-intensity, especially close to bedtime, worsens sleep.

Timing is Key: Morning or afternoon exercise is better for sleep than evening workouts. Endurance athletes may tolerate evening high-intensity exercise better. 

Duration: Short, light morning exercises improve sleep, while long evening workouts can disrupt it. You want to finish working out at least 5 hours away from your bedtime.

Consistency: Regular exercise (150-300 minutes weekly) is crucial for better sleep, with 3-7 days of moderate exercise improving sleep quality.

Consider These Sleep Gears

Now, let’s turn to how you can use sleep gear to enhance your sleep and boost your chances of waking up refreshed. 

Weighted Blanket

Weighted blankets may help you sleep by providing a deep pressure touch, a recognized mechanism that helps improve sleep by promoting relaxation and reducing stress.

A review of studies explored how weighted blankets’ ability to provide deep pressure touch improves sleep. Researchers determined that deep-pressure touch:

• Activates sensory nerve endings  
• Stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system  
• Promotes relaxation  
• Enhances the body’s “rest and digest” functions

This activation releases endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin, reducing heart rate, alleviating anxious feelings, and supporting restful sleep.

Additionally, weighted blankets increased melatonin levels in young adults, further aiding sleep and reducing anxiety. The deep pressure may activate sensory pathways that ultimately influence melatonin release from the pineal gland, reinforcing the sleep-promoting effects of weighted blankets.

Chilipad

Maintaining a stable body temperature is essential for achieving optimal sleep. A cooling mattress pad, such as the Chilipad, may help regulate your body temperature throughout the night, promoting more restful and comfortable sleep. 

A study with 54 participants tested a temperature-controlled mattress cover for a week. Researchers found that cooler temperatures improved deep and REM sleep, while warmer temperatures enhanced light sleep. Overall, heart rate and heart rate variability improved with the mattress cover.

This may be especially helpful for those of you dealing with the symptoms of menopause. A pilot study of 15 women explored the effects of a cooling mattress pad on hot flashes, night sweats, and sleep quality in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Participants used the cooling pad nightly for eight weeks.

Participants reported an average 52% reduction in hot flashes and night sweats, and their sleep quality scores improved by an average of four points.

A High-Quality Eye Mask

Want to ensure you get all the darkness you need while sleeping to support a healthy circadian rhythm? Try wearing an eye mask to bed. 

A two-part study examined how wearing an eye mask during sleep influences memory and alertness. In the first experiment, 94 participants aged 18–35 slept with an eye mask for a week, then without it for another week. When participants wore the sleep mask, cognitive tests showed improved memory and alertness.

The second experiment, involving 35 participants, reinforced these memory benefits and linked them to increased time spent in deep sleep. Therefore, wearing an eye mask may boost memory and alertness.

If you want to try out a sleep mask, get a high-quality one that comfortably blocks out all light, and fits snugly without pressing too tightly on your face. Also, use breathable, soft, and non-synthetic materials to avoid irritation or off-gassing during the night.

Consider These Sleep Supplements

If you’ve been struggling to get quality sleep despite making changes to your environment or routine, sleep supplements could provide the extra support you need. Here are some effective sleep supplements that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up feeling refreshed.

Magnesium Breakthrough

Magnesium is essential for supporting healthy sleep by participating in the sleep-wake cycle, supporting a healthy stress response, healthy cortisol levels, and enhancing deep, restorative sleep. Studies show magnesium supplementation improves sleep quality, especially in those with deficiencies.

Magnesium Breakthrough offers a unique formula containing seven forms of magnesium, maximizing absorption and effectiveness. This blend promotes relaxation to help you achieve more restful sleep. For optimal results, take 1-2 capsules in the morning and 3 capsules an hour before bed, either with or without food, depending on your preference.

We offer Magnesium Breakthrough in capsule and drink forms, giving you flexibility based on your preference. Both options deliver the same powerful blend of seven magnesium types to support optimal absorption and relaxation. 

Learn more about taking magnesium for sleep in this article and why you should take multiple forms of magnesium. 

Sleep Breakthrough

Sleep Breakthrough is a powerful supplement designed to enhance sleep quality by utilizing the calming effects of amino acids like taurine, glycine, L-theanine, and GABA. These ingredients bind to specific receptors in the brain to promote relaxation, making it easier to fall asleep and achieve deep, restorative sleep.

• GABA promotes relaxation for better sleep.
• L-theanine increases alpha brain waves, calming the mind and promoting relaxation without drowsiness. 
• Glycine is also an inhibitory neurotransmitter. In addition, it lowers core body temperature, helping you fall asleep faster and stay in deep, restorative sleep.

This supplement now comes in three convenient formulas. The Sleep Breakthrough drink is available in two delicious flavors: 

Blue Berry Dreams, the original formula, includes enhanced levels of potassium and Magnolia Bark Extract, helping you fall asleep quickly and achieve deep, high-quality sleep. 

Tropical Dreams promotes sleep efficiency without relying on melatonin, making both options ideal for restful, uninterrupted sleep.

For those who prefer capsules, our newest Sleep Breakthrough capsules offer a convenient option that is easy to travel with. We reduced the price by removing the flavoring and some of the glycine while still providing effective sleep support.

Check out this article for even more vitamins and supplements to help with deep sleep. 

Conclusion

Despite getting enough sleep, waking up groggy and tired can be frustrating. Addressing the underlying factors contributing to your sleep issues is essential to improving your sleep quality and waking up refreshed. Make sure to prioritize sleep hygiene, optimize your circadian rhythm, and consider using supplements like Magnesium Breakthrough and Sleep Breakthrough to fall asleep faster and wake up refreshed.