Turns Out, Your Alertness Level In The Morning Isn't Genetic (It's Within Your Control)

This new study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, flips what many of us thought we knew on its head. Apparently, being a morning person might not have anything to do with your genes; instead, this research shows that three individual lifestyle factors are what actually affect your morning state of mind. 

The researchers analyzed data from 833 adults over a period of two weeks. During the study period, the participants wore a sleep- and activity-tracking watch and a device that continuously measured their blood sugar levels throughout the day. Every morning, the study participants ate the same breakfast, but the nutritional breakdown of their meals changed throughout the two weeks.

The results revealed a lot about what might really be at play when it comes to morning grogginess and lethargy. Three factors positively affected morning alertness more than any others: sleeping longer and later into the morning, eating a breakfast high in complex carbohydrates but low in sugar, and getting exercise the day before. 

"Considering that the majority of individuals in society are not getting enough sleep during the week, sleeping longer on a given day can help clear some of the adenosine sleepiness debt they are carrying," senior author Matthew Walker, Ph.D., a Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology, said in a statement. If you want to wake up and hit the ground running, waking up earlier than usual may not be the best strategy for productivity first thing in the morning. A better strategy may be to sleep in a little later and maximize productivity then.

It seems like exercise benefits nearly all aspects of our health and wellness, and morning alertness is no exception. As Raphael Vallat, Ph.D., another author of the study, explains in a statement: "It may be that exercise-induced better sleep is part of the reason that exercise the day before, by helping sleep that night, leads to superior alertness throughout the next day."

This study showed that out of all the breakfasts tested, a breakfast rich in complex carbohydrates and moderate protein led to the best morning alertness and sustained alertness throughout the day. "A breakfast rich in carbohydrates can increase alertness, so long as your body is healthy and capable of efficiently disposing of the glucose from that meal, preventing a sustained spike in blood sugar that otherwise blunts your brain's alertness," Vallat said.