This is an iHeart Podcast, guaranteed human.
Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose.
Today is about how to reprogram your mind before 8 a.m.
I want to share with you the most practical, science-backed morning routine that I could find, and I actually tried myself.
Here's something nobody tells you about your morning.
The first 60 to 90 minutes after you open your eyes is, neurologically speaking, the most programmable window of your entire day.
Your brain is literally in a different state.
It's transitioning out of theta and alpha brainwave patterns the same frequencies used in hypnotherapy into the waking beta state.
You'll spend the rest of your day in.
And what do most of us do with that window?
We hand it over.
We pick up our phone, we scroll through someone else's priorities, someone else's outrage, someone else's curated highlight reel.
And we wonder why we feel behind before the day has even started.
Today, I want to share the most practical, simple, genuinely achievable morning routine I've found.
One that I tried myself.
One built entirely on neuroscience and peer-reviewed research.
And I promise you there's no ice baths at 4 am, no two-hour rituals that require monastic training, just six small surprising, science-backed steps that take about 45 minutes total and that anyone, night owls included, can start tomorrow.
And here's what I love about each one.
There's a clear reason why it works at a biological level.
When you understand the mechanism you're not relying on motivation.
You're working with your brain not against it.
Let's get into it.
I know mornings are something we all struggle with and I want to be honest, I've struggled with them as well.
It's not easy for me to wake up energized and early.
Sometimes I want to stay in bed.
Sometimes I want to scroll too and end up doing that as well.
And so I've worked really hard on developing some of these habits that have changed the way I feel.
I want you to go through your day feeling ready, energized, and prepared.
And I found that when we do certain things, we actually end up doing the opposite.
So let's start with the most controversial thing I'm going to say today.
Hitting the snooze button is one of the worst things you can do for your brain in the morning.
Here's why.
When your alarm goes off, your brain is finishing its final sleep cycle, usually REM sleep, the phase critical for memory consolidation and emotional processing.
When you hit snooze and drift off for another nine minutes or nine times, your brain starts a brand new sleep cycle that it cannot possibly finish.
You're essentially fragmenting your sleep into useless chunks.
Research on sleep inertia that's the scientific term for that groggy, disoriented fog you feel after waking shows that fragmented sleep from snoozing actually worsens cognitive function.
We're talking about slower reaction times, impaired memory and reduced executive function.
You're not getting rest in those extra minutes.
You're creating neurological confusion.
The internal clock, controlled by a tiny brain region, gets conflicting signals and the grogginess can linger for hours.
So what do you do instead?
I'm going to share something with you.
It's a little weird, but I want you to try it.
I want you to try something called the future you is calling alarm.
Now I've never loved the word alarm because we think about alarms as a fire alarm.
When there's an alert, when there's some danger.
Imagine you actually shocking yourself to wake up out of danger.
But try the future you is calling.
Before bed, record a 10 to 15 second voice memo pretending you're you from six months in the future.
It could even be that morning.
Not motivational fluff, make it oddly specific and slightly dramatic.
For example, hey, it's you.
I'm literally standing in the kitchen of the life you wanted.
Don't hit snooze.
Today is one of the days that got me here.
Also, you still hate rushed mornings, right?
That's just an example.
Set that recording as your alarm.
And here's why this works.
Your brain doesn't expect your own voice.
It breaks the autopilot.
For Future you creates curiosity instead of dread.
It reframes waking up as time travel, not obligation.
And you can put your phone outside your bedroom and only allow yourself to hear the ending of the message if you stand up and walk to it.
What I find fascinating about this example is that we're completely tricking the brain, right?
Usually you think we have to force ourselves out of bed.
Usually we have to find a way to get that energy.
When you hear your own voice in the morning that says it would mean so much for us to wake up right now.
Because if we wake up right now, we'll actually be really happy.
Because guess what?
There's a voice in your head telling you, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.
And we're not strong enough to fight it in our head.
And that's why the alarm does that for you, right?
Having an alarm.
That's your voice telling you the reasons you want to wake up, the amazing day you want to have, the life you want to build.
To encourage you specifically is actually allowing you to externalize that powerful voice, that motivated voice, that conscious voice, before the subconscious takes over.
The subconscious is saying, just lie in, hit the snooze button, sleep in more.
It doesn't matter.
It won't make a difference.
And your conscious mind at that time is switched off.
It doesn't have the ability to fight back.
So use your conscious mind to create a conscious alarm.
I also want you to seriously consider moving your alarm across the room if you need to.
The physical act of standing upright triggers a blood pressure change that signals wakefulness to your brain.
But the voice note alarm is key.
It's a micro decision that becomes a macro habit.
Step number two, now you want sunlight in your eyes, the free drug.
This might be the single most impactful thing on the entire list, and it costs you absolutely nothing.
Within the first 30 to 60 minutes of waking up, get outside and expose your eyes to natural sunlight for 10 to 20 minutes.
Now, I know that sounds like a long time.
You could have your morning coffee.
You could do a small workout outside.
You could pace and take a phone call if you wanted to.
Not through a window, ideally.
Not through sunglasses.
Outside with the light hitting your retinas.
Here's the science, and it's genuinely fascinating.
Your eyes contain specialized cells called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells or IPRGCs, if that makes it any easier.
That have almost nothing to do with vision.
Their job is to detect ambient light and send timing signals directly to the part of the brain that's the master clock I mentioned earlier.
That signal does several things simultaneously.
First, it triggers a healthy pulse of cortisol.
Now, before you panic, cortisol gets a bad reputation as the stress hormone.
But the morning cortisol awakening response is not the same thing as chronic stress cortisol.
Research published in multiple peer-reviewed journals shows that this natural morning surge, which peaks about 30 to 45 minutes after waking, promotes alertness, supports immune function and sets the emotional baseline for your entire day.
About 77 of healthy people experience this response, and light exposure amplifies it in the right direction.
Second, that same light signal tells your pineal gland to start the 14-hour countdown to melatonin production.
That means morning sunlight doesn't just help you wake up, it directly.
Programs better sleep tonight.
It's a 24-hour investment disguised as a 15-minute walk.
Third, and this one surprised me research on office workers found that those who got significantly more bright light exposure before noon scored substantially higher on cognitive performance tests after just five days.
Five days.
And separate work from Northwestern University found that people who got the majority of their light exposure earlier in the day had lower body weight compared to those who got light later.
So here's the practical step.
Walk outside for 10 to 20 minutes after waking.
Combine it with your coffee, your dog walk, or just standing on your porch.
On overcast days, you're still getting significantly more lux.
That's the unit of light intensity than any indoor light provides.
If it's pitch dark when you wake up, use a 10000 lux light therapy lamp positioned at eye level for 20 to 30 minutes and skip the sunglasses during the window.
Regular glasses and contacts are fine, but your eyes need that full spectrum light input.
Obviously, don't stare directly at the sun, just to point it out.
But light exposure is huge.
It's helping you sleep better.
It's helping you wake better.
It's helping you have better energy.
And here, I know what you're saying.
Jay, how do I get 10 to 20 minutes?
I get it.
Even if you can start with one or two.
If you can start with one or two minutes, it will make a huge difference in your life.
And I hope you'll give it a go.
Step number three, the 90-second cold shock.
I promise you no 4 a.m. ice baths, but stay with me.
Before you skip ahead, I'm not going to tell you to take a 20-minute ice bath.
I'm going to tell you to do something much simpler and honestly, much more interesting from a neuroscience perspective.
At the end of your normal shower, turn the water to cold for 60 to 90 seconds.
That's it.
Here's what happens in your body during those 60 to 90 seconds.
Cold water activates your sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight response, which triggers a rapid release of norepinephrine and adrenaline.
These are the same neurotransmitters responsible for alertness, attention, and mood elevation.
It's essentially a natural stimulant.
But the more interesting research is about what happens after the cold exposure.
A study looking at cold water immersion found that cortisol levels and negative mood ratings were both measurably lower three hours after just 15 minutes of cold exposure.
So the initial shock wakes you up, but the downstream effect is actually a calmer, more resilient baseline for the rest of your morning.
And here's the really compelling finding.
Research on people who did regular cold exposure just two to three times per week for 12 weeks showed that their cortisol response to the cold dropped significantly after only four weeks.
The body's adapted.
But critically, researchers believe this adaptation generalizes, meaning your body may also become better at managing cortisol responses to other stresses work stress, relational stress, the daily chaos of life.
You're essentially training your nervous system to be less reactive.
There's also a neurological angle that fascinates me.
Your skin has a significantly higher density of cold receptors than warm receptors, especially on your face, where you might have 10 or more cold sensing spots per square centimeter for every two warm sensing ones.
Cold water on your face activates the vagus nerve through what's called the dive reflex, which shifts your nervous system toward the parasympathetic, the rest and digest mode.
It's a reset button.
Here's the practical step.
At the end of your regular warm shower, turn the dial to cold and stay in for just 60 to 90 seconds.
Focus on breathing slowly and steadily through the discomfort.
If a cold shower feels too extreme, start with just splashing cold water on your face and the back of your neck for 30 seconds.
Even that partial exposure activates the vagus nerve and triggers a norepinephrine response.
Build up from there, the goal isn't to suffer.
The goal is controlled, brief discomfort that rewires your stress tolerance.
Now I've been trying all of these out.
The voice alarm in the morning worked incredibly well for me.
To sunlight, I haven't been able to do 10 to 20 minutes.
But even just doing the one to two minutes, I did 10 to 20 minutes when I first tested this out, for like 30 days, but my schedules got busier.
So I'm trying to do one to two minutes at least of direct sun exposure.
And this one, the 60 to 90 seconds is an absolute game changer.
These are all free.
You don't have to download an app.
You don't have to learn anything new.
Step number four, move for seven minutes, not 60.
One of the biggest myths about morning routines is that you need a full gym session to get the neurochemical benefits of exercise.
You don't, and the research proves it.
A study published by the American College of Sports Medicine validated what's now known as the seven minute workout, a high intensity circuit of 12 body weight exercises, 30 seconds each, with brief rest intervals.
The findings showed that this short burst of activity was sufficient to trigger meaningful cardiovascular and metabolic benefits, comparable in several measures to much longer moderate intensity sessions.
But here's what I want you to focus on from a brain perspective.
When you move your body in the morning, you're not just burning calories.
You're doing four things neurologically.
One.
You're increasing blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, the seat of decision-making, planning and impulse control.
This is the part of your brain that's slowest to come fully online after sleep, and movement accelerates that process.
Two, you're triggering the release of BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is essentially fertilizer for your neurons.
BDNF promotes the growth of new neural connections and strengthens existing ones.
It's one of the most important molecules for learning, memory, and cognitive flexibility.
Three you're flooding your brain with endorphins, serotonin and dopamine, the trifecta of mood-regulating transmitters.
This isn't just feeling good.
These chemicals directly affect your capacity for focus, motivation and emotional regulation for hours afterward.
And four.
Physical movement, especially if done outside, creates a state that neuroscientists call optic flow.
When you walk or run and the visual world streams past you, it activates circuits in your brain that reduce activity in the amygdala, your threat detection center.
It's one of the reasons walking feels so calming.
It's not just the exercise, it's the visual processing.
Here's the practical step.
Do seven minutes of body weight movement pushups squats lunges, jumping jacks anything that elevates your heart rate.
If you want structure, search for the scientific seven minute workout and it's free and widely available.
If seven minutes feels like too much, start with three.
Do it in your pajamas if you want.
The barrier to entry should be almost zero.
You're not training for a marathon.
You're telling your brain that the day has begun.
I think for so long, we've just put so much pressure on needing an entire workout.
And I know what you're thinking, Jay, what's seven minutes going to do?
Here's what it's going to do.
It's going to give you the energy and the motivation to do 14 minutes, to do 30 minutes, to try and invest more time.
I think as humans, we get into this perfectionist mentality.
It's either or.
I'm either going to do an amazing workout or nothing at all.
And I've realized that showing up and doing a simple workout is what gives us energy to do even more.
Step number five, the brain dump journal.
This is the step that changed the most for me personally.
And it's the one I think most people underestimate.
Journaling.
But not in the way you probably think.
I'm not talking about keeping a diary.
I'm not talking about writing three pages of stream of consciousness every morning, although that's amazing.
I'm talking about a specific structured five to ten minute practice that has decades of peer-reviewed research behind it.
The foundational work comes from psychologist James Penbaker at the University of Texas at Austin.
His research on what he called expressive writing demonstrated that writing about your thoughts and emotions, particularly stressful ones, for as little as 15 to 20 minutes produces measurable improvements in both mental and physical health.
We're talking about reduced blood pressure, improved liver function, stronger immune response and fewer doctor visits.
From writing.
Neuroimaging research from UCLA helps explain why.
Expressive writing activates the prefrontal cortex, your executive control center, while simultaneously dampening activity in the amygdala.
So the act of translating chaotic emotional experiences into structured language literally rebalances the relationship between your thinking brain and your fear brain.
And it gets better.
Research has shown that regular journaling practice can reduce cortisol levels by up to 23 in consistent practitioners.
A study on people with major depressive disorder found significant improvements in depression scores after just five days of expressive writing.
And a meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials confirmed that journaling is an effective adjunct intervention for anxiety and PTSD.
Here's what I also find fascinating.
A study published in the journal Mindfulness found that people who practice mindful journaling for just 10 minutes each morning showed greater self-control and were less likely to abandon their other habits throughout the day.
So journaling doesn't just help you process emotions.
It strengthens the neural infrastructure for discipline itself.
And I know what you're thinking, Jay, what do I write about?
Maybe I won't have anything to say.
Maybe I'll get lost or stuck.
I found that even just trying to remember my dreams was an incredible place to start.
I remember just writing about how I felt in the morning, whether I was tired upset, worried about something was just useful.
It didn't have to be perfect.
It didn't have to be something that I'd have to hand in for an exam.
And it's weird, isn't it?
How we've all programmed ourselves to think like when you're writing, it's like, it's a test.
It's an exam.
It's going to be amazing.
No one's ever going to read this.
It's for you.
Here's the practical step.
Every morning, spend five to ten minutes writing by hand.
And yes, by hand matters, because handwriting engages different motor and cognitive circuits than typing.
Answer three simple prompts.
One, what am I genuinely grateful for today?
Gratitude journaling has its own body of evidence for boosting positive effect and counteracting depressive thought patterns.
Two, what's the single most important thing I need to accomplish today?
This forces prioritization and activates your prefrontal cortex for planning.
And three, what's one thought or worry I need to get out of my head?
This is the expressive writing piece.
You're externalizing intrusive thoughts so they stop consuming working memory.
You're literally freeing up cognitive bandwidth.
Three questions, five minutes, the reset says it works.
Step six, delay the scroll.
Protect your first hour.
This last step might be the simplest to understand and the hardest to actually do.
And it might also be the most important.
Do not check your phone.
No email, no social media, no news for the first 60 minutes after waking up.
Here's why this matters so much from a neuroscience perspective.
Remember that I mentioned.
Your brain is in a highly programmable state in the first hour after waking.
The transition from sleep to full wakefulness involves a shift from theta and alpha brainwaves to beta.
During that transition, your brain is exceptionally receptive to external input.
It's forming the emotional and cognitive framework for the entire day.
When you immediately check your phone, you're doing something very specific to your neurochemistry.
Every notification, every email, every social media post triggers micro doses of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with reward seeking behavior.
But it's not the satisfied content dopamine of accomplishment.
It's the restless, craving dopamine of novelty-seeking.
You're training your brain in its most impressionable window to be reactive rather than intentional.
Research has shown that checking email and social media first thing in the morning increases stress levels and fragments attention, reducing your ability to enter deep, focused work later.
You're essentially letting other people's agendas, their emails, their posts, their news cycles set the emotional tone of your day before you've had a chance to set your own.
And there's a compounding effect.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has talked extensively about the importance of staying within your own mental frame during the first hours of the day.
When you pick up your phone, you're stepping out of your frame and into everyone else's.
The cognitive cost of switching back is real.
It's called attention residue, and research shows it can impair your focus for the next task, even after you've put the phone down.
There's also a lesser known benefit to delaying caffeine. which pairs well with this step.
If you drink coffee too early, you interfere with that natural clearance process and you're more likely to crash later.
Delaying your first cup by 60 to 90 minutes means the caffeine hits when your body actually needs it and the effect lasts longer without a harsh drop off.
Here's the practical step.
Put your phone in another room before bed or, a minimum, keep it face down with notifications silenced until you've completed steps one through five.
Use a cheap alarm clock instead of your phone alarm.
If you need to ease into this, start by delaying your phone check by just 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and build from there.
Replace the scrolling with your sunlight walk, your movement, your journaling.
Fill the space with intention rather than reaction.
And if you're a coffee drinker, experiment with waiting 60 to 90 minutes after waking before your first cup.
I promise your afternoon self will thank you.
Thank you so much for listening.
I know that you might not be able to do all six of these steps starting tomorrow.
I don't want you to.
Choose one that makes a difference and add one every week after you feel comfortable with the one you've implemented.
I hope this transforms your morning.
I hope it lets you retake back your time and your energy.
And I can't wait to see what you go on to create with this new found resilience.
Thank you for listening.
I'll see you soon.
Thank you so much for listening to this conversation.
If you enjoyed it, you'll love my chat with Adam Grant on why discomfort is the key to growth and the strategies for unlocking your hidden potential.
If you know you want to be more and achieve more this year, go check it out right now.
You set a goal today, you achieve it in six months, and then, by the time it happens, it's almost a relief.
There's no sense of meaning and purpose.
You sort of expected it and you would have been disappointed if it didn't happen.
Guaranteed human.
