🌅 How the First Hour of Your Day Shapes How You Feel All Day
Isn’t it amazing that what you do in the first hour after waking can influence how calm, steady, and resilient you feel for the rest of the day?
This isn’t mindset — it’s biology.
🧠 The science
When you wake up, your body naturally releases a hormone called cortisol.
This is normal and healthy — cortisol helps you feel awake and alert.
What’s important is what happens next.
Research shows that:
Cortisol is highest in the first 30–60 minutes after waking
During this time, your nervous system is especially sensitive to input
Early stress or stimulation can keep cortisol elevated all day
Calm, predictable mornings help cortisol rise and then fall naturally
In other words:
The first hour of your day helps set your “stress baseline” for the whole day.
How cool is that?
It means small, gentle changes can make a real difference — even if your nights aren’t perfect yet.
🌱 What you can do (and why it helps)
These are options, not rules. Pick one or two that feel doable.
☕ 1. Coffee timing matters as much as coffee itself
Many of us reach for coffee immediately — often on an empty stomach.
What happens biologically:
Caffeine raises cortisol
Cortisol is already high in the early morning
Together, this can lead to jitters, anxiety, or an afternoon crash
A gentler alternative:
Start the day with decaf or half-caff
Have your first “real” coffee after food, a little later (around 8:30–9:30am)
Parents often notice:
Smoother energy
Less shakiness
Fewer crashes later in the day3. Keep a Consistent Wake Time (Even After a Bad Night)
📵 2. Make the first hour phone-free (even if the content isn’t stressful)
This one is hard at first — and very powerful.
Even calm scrolling:
Brings your brain “online” very quickly
Increases alertness and vigilance
Keeps the nervous system in a mild stress state
Why this matters for parents:
Multitasking early can feel low-level stressful
Presence matters more than productivity
What this could look like:
With a newborn: cosy cuddles, first feed, a warm drink
With older babies: feeding, chatting, eye contact
With toddlers: breakfast together, gentle play, slow mornings
This isn’t about being strict — it’s about letting your nervous system wake up gently.
🚶♀️ 3. Go for an early morning walk (even a short one)
Movement + daylight is one of the most powerful regulators of stress hormones.
Why it helps:
Lowers cortisol
Calms the nervous system
Improves mood and focus
Supports circadian rhythm (which helps sleep later)
Parent-friendly options:
Baby’s first nap in the pram
15–20 minutes around the block
No phone, no podcast — just walking
Many parents say this one habit alone changes how the rest of the day feels.
🍳 4. Aim for a savoury or protein-based breakfast
Blood sugar swings can mimic anxiety and exhaustion.
High-sugar breakfasts can:
Spike blood glucose
Lead to brain fog and crashes later
A savoury or protein-rich breakfast helps:
Keep blood sugar stable
Reduce mid-morning fatigue
Improve emotional steadiness
Simple ideas:
Eggs, avocado, yoghurt, leftovers, smoothies with protein
It doesn’t have to be perfect — just not all sugar - check out The Glucose Goddess for more info on this
💛 A personal note
When I started making these changes, I noticed a huge shift in how I felt across the day — calmer mornings, more patience, and far less of that wired-but-tired feeling by mid-afternoon.
That said, I want to be really honest: some of these changes took a week or two to settle in.
The phone one especially.
For the first few days, I felt such a strong urge to check my phone first thing — almost like an itch. That didn’t mean it was the “wrong” thing to do; it just meant my nervous system was used to being online immediately and needed a little time to adjust.
What helped was remembering:
the urge passes
nothing urgent is actually being missed
and the calm that comes after is worth it
If you’re sleep-deprived or in the thick of early parenting, be kind to yourself. You don’t need to do everything at once. Even one small change in the first hour of your day can gently shift how the rest of the day feels.
It’s amazing how much support our bodies can take from small, intentional moments — especially when nights are hard.