I am not a morning person.

When my alarm goes off, I am the kind of person who could snooze until her heart’s content. And I’ve struggled with this all my life.

To give you a visual, I would describe my situation like the scene in Freaky Friday, when Lindsey Lohan has to be physically carried out of bed. This sums up how I used to feel every morning.

Growing up, my parents would even try different morning tactics. My dad would say, “Let me hear your feet on the floor.” Isn’t that so weird? He would call that as loud as he could from the bottom of the stairs, and I would just stomp repeatedly. I was a dramatic kid.

So I am really not a morning person. I am a night person who likes to stay up late reading a good book or laughing with my friends. But we will get to that later.

You can imagine the shock of despair when I filled out my schedule and got FOUR 8:30 CLASSES. That’s right, not two, but four. I needed to take these classes, so there was no way around this dreaded reality.

But because of this experience, I have learned a thing or two about waking up early for college classes. And I want to share those realities with you.

So without further ado, here’s how to survive 8:30s.

1. Get the Sleep Cycle App

This is crucial to you getting through 8:30 classes. Before this app, I would just snooze and snooze and it would be really darn frustrating (for my roommates as well). So I definitely knew I had to change something.

This app is actually rooted in psychology. Basically all you do is plug in an interval of what time you’d want to wake up, and then you place your phone on your bed so it can measure your sleep rhythms. The great thing about this app is that it wakes you up at the time that you are most “awake” in your sleep cycle, so when you wake up, not all hell breaks loose.

I have been snoozing certainly less nowadays, and actually been getting out of bed on my own. Can you believe that? It also helps that the alarm they provide is called “Morning Mist”, which is equivalent to the sound of an angel greeting me.

2. Have roommates with early classes

So you might laugh at this one, but I firmly believe that having roommates will make getting up so much easier. My three roommates have made this reality a lot more bearable (yes, I live in a quad, and yes, I know that’s crazy).

On Tuesday’s and Thursday’s we all have 8:30s, and the first brave soul to get up and out of bed sets the pace for the rest of us. I am going to admit right off the bat that I am not that person usually. Maybe I’ve been that person once or twice, but I like to think that I have different strengths.

Last year for my 8:30s, my sweet roommate Lindsey would wake me up sometimes. I’d be sleeping without the help of my handy dandy sleep cycle app, and I’d hear the faint sound of:

“Ashley? Ashley? It’s 8:29.”

And I’d shoot up like there was a fire alarm or something and jumped around and probably said some words I shouldn’t. And then run out the door and be 15 minutes late, but HEY it was Geology and there had to be about 200 students in that class. Me stumbling in at 8:45 was most certainly not noticed.

3. Go to bed before 12/12:30

This one is a biggie, you guys. I know you’re in college. I know you want to have fun and stay up late every night, or laugh with friends every night, or go to your boyfriend’s till the crack of dawn. But if you have 8:30s, I would highly advise against these things.

Sure, last night I was dancing to High School Musical (don’t ask, but it was the All For One dance that we all learned in elementary school, and our muscle memory was really coming into play), and I realized it was 12:15. So that probably wasn’t the best idea, but we are all human and this stuff happens. His mercies are new every morning, am I right??

I had to pass out around 12:30, because I knew any later I would be a groggy mess. I usually wake up around 7:55, meaning I’m out of bed at 8:05. But that’s around 7 hours of sleep at night, if I am sleeping by 12:30. And that’s all you really need in college, in my opinion. But 6 hours ain’t gonna cut it, unless you want to snap at people all day. I know you want more for you life.

4. Don’t try to look cute

This is a big one. If you like a 30 minute makeup routine, and wear a dress to class, that’s awesome. But you really don’t need to. A natural makeup routine will really save you a lot of time. It takes me about 5 minutes to throw on makeup in the morning, with foundation powder, concealer, eyebrows, sometimes bronzer, and blush. But granted, throwing this all on in 5 minutes comes with some practice.

Now I understand if you really love makeup, and you feel insecure without it. I’m not telling you to change your routine, because I am an advocate for look good, feel good mentality. But for those of you that are all craving for more sleep in the morning, you should focus more on rest than getting ready in the morning.

I also think hats are your friend, morning class students. That way if you don’t have a full face of makeup or your hair isn’t looking up to par, the hat can make that all disappear. How cool is that? #grateful

I focus on sleep because of Ben Franklin’s infamous quote:

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

Ben was right. Our boy had some serious insight. While all your friends are sleeping until their 1pms, you will be following good ole’ Ben’s advice and becoming healthy, wealthy and wise. Who wouldn’t want that?

Good luck everyone. I’m rooting for you.

What helps you wake up for early classes? Mention in the comments below!

Shop My Makeup