Waking up on the wrong side of the bed - it's actually a thing!
So the jury are back and the verdict is just as we expected: waking up on the wrong side of the bed isn’t just a myth. Dating back to the Ancient Romans, getting up on the correct side of the bed ensured good luck would follow for the day ahead. Waking up ‘left foot forward’, or as we would say ‘the wrong side of the bed’, begot bad luck. Fast forward to today we now regard someone in a grouchy mood with this age-old adage. In saying that though, the Roman’s weren’t far off the money when it came to choosing how they started their day and there’s some science to back it up.
If you hadn’t tweaked, the first thing to note about the saying today, is that it is purely metaphorical. Unlike the Roman’s, who based their day on how they physically exited their bed, we attach a more emotional sense to the phrase. If you woke up this morning feeling tired, unhappy, uncomfortable or grumpy, there’s a good chance you woke up ‘on the wrong side of the bed’.
So, after a morning muddle too many, we put our investigative hats on to get to the bottom of why shaking the sullen AM mood is so darn difficult.
Naturally, it’s all about mindset. The research says the emotional haze that comes with waking up on the wrong side of the bed can actually stick around all day and that’s because forecasting a stressful day, is just as bad as experiencing a stressful day. The saying ‘energy goes where attention flows’ certainly rings true for this theory. By adjusting our emotional perspective straight out of the gate, we can lay the foundations for how the rest of our day will run. A bad mindset = a bad day. A good mindset = a good day. So how do we put this into practice?
Now, we are no psychologists, but here’s what works for us! We want to divulge a few tips we have been using to set ourselves up for a good day ahead and if this helps just one person wake up feeling more energised, we will be happy campers! It’s a work in progress, but here’s what we are finding helps us to not wake up on the wrong side of the bed:
Don’t overwhelm yourself.
Set your tasks the night before and avoid over scheduling. Sometimes a bad day is inevitable when you wake up thinking about all the things you need to tick off on your to-do list.
Gratitude.
Set your alarm 5 minutes earlier and give yourself a chance to think about 3 things you are grateful for. Building a routine around practicing gratitude in the morning is proven to set a positive tone for the day ahead.
Aim for 8.
This one is the hardest but easily the most essential. We all know the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. It’s when our body does it’s recovering, resting and resetting and all of this is critical for putting you in a good mood. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you can almost guarantee you won’t be waking up feeling like tackling the day ahead. Try to stick to a regular sleep cycle and use that to do list we mentioned earlier. Writing your tasks mean they will still be there tomorrow so get some shut eye and tackle the next day head on.
