Rich LaFountain is a science writer with a passion for exploring metabolic health and athletic performance. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biology at the College at Brockport and received his master’s and doctorate degrees in Kinesiology from the Ohio State University. Rich is fascinated by human longevity research and the science behind building diverse habits for lifelong health and wellness.

If you take a while to get moving in the morning, you’re not alone. But you don’t have to roll over and give up — you might be struggling with “sleep inertia,” which can be overcome with a good morning routine.

By definition, sleep inertia is “a transitional period of decreased performance and/or reduced alertness occurring immediately after sleep.” It feels almost as if a sleepy version of yourself climbed aboard for a piggy-back-ride as you got out of bed. For most people, that feeling lasts 15 to 60 minutes. 

If you struggle with sleep inertia, it probably has to do with the quality of your sleep. But rather than stress over what’s going on during those late-night hours, you’re better off focusing on your waking hours, particularly the early ones. It seems that the things we do while we are awake, even early in the day, set the stage for better sleep. 

It is estimated that 82% of people have a specific morning routine, whether they realize it or not. The most common morning routine is, of course, coffee (caffeine). That will get you going, but there are other methods you can use to wake up that do more to help align your biology and ultimately improve your sleep quality. (And better-quality sleep can mean less sleep inertia. So the cycle builds on itself!)

Physical activity, particularly within the first hour of being awake, is a great element to add to your morning routine — it can reduce sleep inertia by over 35%. Simple dynamic stretching or some planned meditation and mindfulness can also help focus you for the day. 

If you can do these activities outside or in front of a window facing the horizon, all the better. Light works as a signal to your body to increase alertness, and just as evidence suggests that light exposure close to bed can hinder sleep, we can (and should) leverage the power of light to enhance waking. Therefore, getting exposure to bright, ideally, natural light is a great addition to your morning routine.

Your morning routine also impacts other routines that occur later in the day and can contribute to getting good (or poor) sleep. According to research, late-night snacking hurts your sleep quality. Likewise, consuming food within 2 hours of bedtime does not allow your body to fully enter a fasted state overnight, especially if you get fewer than 6 hours of sleep. 

Therefore, when you start eating in the morning matters. If your eating window will last 8 hours and you want to be asleep by 10 p.m., you need to work backwards: you should stop eating 2-3 hours before bed (7-8 p.m.), which means you should break your fast 8 hours before that, or between 11 a.m. and noon. It takes a little planning at the outset, but once you’ve established the routine, it should become automatic. 

Benefits of Establishing a Morning Routine

Automaticity is just one of several benefits of establishing a morning routine. Here are five great ones:

Automatic habits. The more you can integrate familiar activities into a routine, the less energy you’ll spend thinking about and planning them.


More energy for pursuing goals. Routines help to impose order on (potential) chaos, which helps you save energy you can then use to chase higher-order goals and aspirations.


Stress reduction. Researchers have found that healthy routines help reduce stress and protect you from illness. 


Biological rhythm. Following a daily routine can help your body to regulate daytime changes in body temperature and important hormones that can all help to improve sleep quality.


Cumulative victories. Routines, by definition, provide structure and consistency to the start of your day. Your morning routine can help you achieve regular “wins” as soon as you wake, which helps you feel positive and in control and orients your day towards success.

Understandably, you’re not going to jump out of bed every single morning, ready to crush the day ahead; some mornings you simply find yourself forever pouring coffee. Yet before you insist “I’m just not a morning person,” know that there are concrete actions you can take to get back into a groove. Adopting a morning routine can help you to launch into the day, and it can feed forward into better sleep and improved health. 

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A Good Sleep Routine Begins in the Morning — Here's Why

A Good Sleep Routine Begins in the Morning — Here's Why

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