Slow DaysA 4-minute read
A rushed morning usually starts the night before. If you go to bed late, wake up to an alarm you snooze three times and leave the house with a coffee in one hand and your phone in the other, the day is set to a fast tempo before it begins. A slow morning is less about waking up at dawn and more about removing the reasons to rush.
The anchor: a fixed wake-up time
The single most useful habit is also the least exciting. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, and keeping the weeknight and weekend schedule within about an hour of each other. Staying up late and sleeping in on weekends, it says, can disrupt your body clock’s sleep-wake rhythm. A wake-up time you keep is the frame every calm morning hangs on.
Enough sleep to wake up properly
The CDC recommends 7 or more hours of sleep a night for adults aged 18 to 60, 7 to 9 hours from 61 to 64, and 7 to 8 hours from 65. Quantity is only half of it. The CDC lists feeling sleepy or tired even after getting enough sleep as a sign of poor sleep quality, along with trouble falling asleep and repeatedly waking up during the night. If mornings always feel like wading through fog despite a full night in bed, that is worth raising with a health care provider. The NHLBI adds a simple motivation: with enough sleep each night, you may find that you’re happier and more productive during the day.
Tip: Work backward. If you need to be up at 6:30, a 7-hour night means lights out by 11:30 at the latest, and earlier if you take a while to fall asleep. Set an evening reminder, not just a morning alarm.
Coffee, timed with tomorrow in mind
A slow morning often includes a slow cup of coffee, and that is fine. The timing of the rest of your caffeine matters more. The NHLBI notes that caffeine, found in coffee, tea, caffeinated soda and chocolate, is a stimulant that can interfere with sleep, and that its effects can last up to 8 hours. A cup in the late afternoon can make it hard to fall asleep that night, which makes the next morning harder. The CDC likewise suggests avoiding caffeine in the afternoon or evening.
A few minutes for the body
Mornings are a good time for the small doses of calm and movement that public health guidance supports.
- Breathe slowly for a few minutes before you look at a screen. NCCIH describes slow, deep breathing, also called diaphragmatic breathing, as a relaxation technique; how to do it is in Breathing Exercises for Stress: What They Are, How to Do Them and What the Research Shows.
- Take a short walk. The CDC says activity can be broken into smaller chunks across the week, and brisk walking counts as moderate activity.
- Stretch or do a little strength work. The CDC also recommends muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week.
Fewer decisions before 9am
Much of the morning rush comes from deciding things at the last minute. Psychologists who study task switching, as summarized by the American Psychological Association, find that people lose time every time they switch between tasks, and that even small switch costs add up when people switch repeatedly. A morning spent hopping between packing a bag, answering messages and hunting for keys is full of those switches. Do the deciding the night before.
| Night before | Morning |
|---|---|
| Lay out clothes and pack the bag | Get dressed without choosing |
| Put keys, wallet and phone in one basket by the door | Leave without searching |
| Set the table or the coffee | Sit down for breakfast |
| Write tomorrow’s first task on paper | Start it before opening email |
Leave the phone for later
A simple rule, such as no messages until after breakfast, protects the first part of the day. If the phone is also what keeps you up at night, the CDC recommends turning off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime; more ideas are in Taking a Phone Break: Simple Rules for the Car, the Bedroom and the Workday.
What a slow morning can look like
- Wake at the same time as yesterday.
- Open the curtains and drink a glass of water.
- Two or three minutes of slow breathing.
- Breakfast sitting down, without a screen.
- A 10-minute walk, or a stretch if the weather is bad.
- One planned task before the inbox.
None of these steps takes long. Together, they turn the first hour from a sprint into a start. For the other end of the day, see A Simpler Evening Routine: Winding Down the Way Sleep Experts Suggest, and for the bigger picture, How to Slow Down in a Busy Life: Small Changes Backed by Public Health Guidance.