Morning Diet and Exercise

There are plenty of reasons why Mondays are our least favorite days of the week. But the extra tiredness you're feeling today? You don't have to feel it tomorrow. We asked sleep experts the best ways to make sure the rest of our week gets off to a more restful start.

• Eat a small snack like a scoop of light ice cream with berries or a rice cake with a teaspoon of peanut butter one to two hours before going to bed. New York City nutritionist Joy Bauer says this will trigger your brain to produce the calming neurotransmitter serotonin.


• Kill the lights—including digital clocks, blackberries, computers, and televisions, says Sara Mednick, author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life (Workman Publishing). Binking light can disturb slumber, and a clock will remind you of how much time you're tossing and turning. "Even a little light can decrease melatonin levels, making it difficult to fall back to sleep," says Mednick.
• Replace your regular loud alarm clock with one that will wake you up gradually, either with light or sound. "The loud sound that wakes you up from deep sleep is too much of a transition for the brain and body," Mednick says. "Your brain is still moving very slowly and can't adjust to the fast, bright waking world. It can take 30 minutes to an hour to fully clear your head."


• Fight the urge to hit the snooze button; fragmented sleep will make you feel groggier than if you had set the alarm for the time you really needed to get out of bed.


• Start the morning with two eight-ounce glasses of water and food with omega-3 fatty acids. Dietitian Susan Kleiner, who sometimes adds omega-3-rich salmon to an omelet, says every biochemical reaction—from thinking to moving your muscles—depends on having enough water. And omega-3s are "critically important in improving brain function, energy, and mood."

Morning, sunshine!