Morning hacks to balance your hormones.

1. Do not snooze the alarm 

Snoozing your alarm is actually doing you more harm than good. When you fall back to sleep after snoozing your alarm, your body commences a new sleep cycle all over again. You might be thinking…well that’s the whole point right?! The issue is that sleep cycles last about 90 minutes whilst your snooze may only be for 15-20 minutes. That means you will be interrupting your sleep cycle. Waking your body during a sleep cycle confuses the body's internal clock and circadian rhythm. Your body thinks it has been woken up in the night and thus cortisol and testosterone will not be at the optimal levels for rising and getting you through the morning. This is why you feel more tired and groggy for the first few hours of the day after snoozing the alarm.

1. Rise slowly

Avoid frantic rushing around first thing in the morning. Our bodies were meant to rise calmly and slowly to meet the day. Rising quickly and frantically triggers our bodies stress response. This causes us to be in the sympathetic nervous system, or fight or flight response triggering our stress hormones. The increase in stress hormones here can take over an hour to dissipate. This can increase your likelihood for sugar cravings and coffee dependance throughout the day and can also lead you feeling wired later on in the evening.

1. Get natural sunlight on your face

Walk outside and face the sky without sunglasses. You do not need to stare right at the sun but the light in the sky will help promote wakefulness and reset your circadian rhythm. It also has benefits hours later when your body begins to produce melatonin to prepare for a restful sleep. Getting natural sunlight on your face in the morning boosts serotonin levels which is important for mood so try this for 5-10 minutes (without sunscreen or sunglasses) to experience the range of health benefits. 

1. Move your body

Make better use of the cortisol boost you experience in the morning and get stuck into some exercise whether that be a run, yoga, pilates, walking or whatever you enjoy. Exercise will get the blood flowing to your muscles and increase joint mobility which helps your body feel more awake and energised. Morning exercise also promotes deeper sleep in the evening which has a flow and effect for feeling fresher the following morning. Studies on morning exercise versus evening exercise found that women who consistently exercised in the AM lost more abdominal fat and also had a marked improvement in blood pressure. 

1. Practice grounding 

Grounding is the physical practice of connecting the human body to the natural earth, this is often practised by barefoot walking. If you have a grass yard near your home, spend some time walking barefoot on it. Grounding improves sleep by supporting the day to night cortisol rhythm. Grounding has also proved to reduce stress, anxiety and pain as well as shift the autonomic nervous system toward parasympathetic activation. You can even integrate grounding with your morning exercise by doing yoga barefoot on the grass or walking on the earth for a portion of your morning walk.  

1. Eat a protein rich breakfast 

Opt for an organic egg omelette or poached eggs and salmon or even a protein smoothie with chia seeds. Protein packed meals will keep you satiated for longer. Studies on protein consumption for breakfast revealed that candidates had long lasting improvements in their bodies regulation of leptin and ghrelin (hunger and satiety hormones) which helped promote a healthy appetite and less incidents of over eating throughout the day. Increased protein intake at breakfast may also lessen the sugar craving people may experience after dinner so this hack can help the waistline as well as hormone healthy hormone regulation.