Learning to love mornings: The ADHD morning routine that’s helping me become a morning person in 2026

Traditionally, I have not considered myself a morning person. Like most ADHDers, my brain prefers to switch on in the afternoon before providing all my best ideas and motivation around 11pm. 

As you can imagine, that’s not entirely conducive to a productive morning…or a 9-5 job.

In fact, it’s fair to say that an ADHD morning routine might sound like an oxymoron. And until recently, I would have agreed with you.

If you’re ready to stop dreading mornings and start taking control of them, then welcome along—you’re in the right place.

Side note: No brand of ADHD is exactly the same, and what works for one person might not work for another. I’m not an expert and am sharing what has personally helped me.

Why are mornings so hard for ADHDers?

Essentially, our brains are biologically and neurologically out of sync with neurotypical morning demands.

ADHD brains often have delayed, or disrupted, circadian rhythms—meaning our internal sleep-wake clock runs later than average. Hello late night bursts of inspiration and early morning grogginess when the alarm goes off. ADHD is also a common co-morbidity with sleep disorders, leading to further poor quality sleep.

(Dr Russell Barkley has a great YouTube video here on ADHD and sleep disorders— he says while most people have peak alertness mid-morning, ADHD people have peak alertness in the afternoon or early evening).

Then you take into account all the executive function difficulties, where planning, task initiation, time awareness and decision-making are challenging at the best of time, let alone when we’re already fighting to wake up.

While some neurotypical people might thrive off the motivation of getting their to-do list completed in the morning, an ADHD brain might be more inclined to crumble under the pressure of the mere thought.

To sum it up, we’re not lazy—our brains are literally wired differently.

My journey to becoming a morning person

I spent years hoping, wishing, trying and forcing myself to become a morning person. Before I got my ADHD diagnosis (at 32 years old), I had tried all the tips and tricks that influencers SWEAR made them morning person and unsurprisingly, none of them stuck.

Things that didn’t help

Sign up to an early morning gym class

“You won’t want to pay a cancellation fee so you’ll force yourself to get up and go to the gym. Once you’re there the memory of the endorphins will get you hooked on coming back!“

Result: I signed up to an unlimited BFT membership so cancellation fees didn’t apply. Sure I loved it when I actually went. But the memory of those endorphins simply wasn’t enough to get out of bed, get dressed in my freezing bedroom and then drive to the gym on a cold, dark winter’s morning. I ended up booking classes, late cancelling and wasting a ridiculous amount of money per month on membership fees. 

Move your alarm across the room

“You’ll have to get out of bed to turn it off and then you just keep moving.“

Result: Sure, this one got me out of bed on time. However I was so blurry eyed and half-asleep that I’d end up just sitting down in a scroll-hole stupor until I was late and running out the door as usual. 

Don’t hit snooze.

“Just get up and go.“

Result: This one makes me laugh because you try and tell an ADHD brain to just go ahead and do the damn thing. The only way I could stop myself hitting snooze was to immediately pick up my cellphone on full brightness and wake myself up with a (not-so)healthy dose of blue light. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t make me any more inclined to get out of bed.

Wake up at the right point in your sleep schedule

Great in theory, slightly harder in practice. I tried an app for a while where you could set your latest preferred alarm time, and the app would then monitor your sleep movement or cycles, theoretically using that information to wake you up at an ideal point in the half hour lead up to your set time. It did help a little, but since it was an external app I had to manually set it every night and it became too much of a chore. 

Things that did help

Wake up with natural light

Waking up naturally to the sun streaming through my bedroom window with the sounds of birds chirping will always be my preferred way to wake up. But since I unfortunately don’t live in a permanently sunny climate, my schedule doesn’t exactly thrive with waking up with an 8:30am London winter sunrise, and as I also happened to marry a man that insists on sleeping with black out curtains, I’ve had to make some adjustments. 

One of the best purchases I made during our first London winter was a sunrise alarm clock. 

If you live somewhere that lacks daylight hours in winter, I highly recommend getting one. You don’t have to blow your monthly budget on a Hatch or whatever other brand is currently going viral on TikTok. We got ours for about 30GBP on Amazon and it’s working just fine.

The clock works by mimicking a natural sunrise, but unlike the natural sunrise, you can control the time, days, and even the brightness and sounds that accompany it.

The user sets a wake-up time, and the clock gradually brightens in the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm time. It stays lit for a period of time before automatically switching off.

Improving my quality of sleep

I (really) regret to inform you that having a regular night time routine really does make mornings easier.

This year I’m making a dedicated effort to have less unintentional screen time in general, but specifically to avoid blue light after 9:30pm. I noticed a huge difference when I tried this last year, but unfortunately I fell back into old habits in December.

I have a reminder on my phone set for 9:30pm on weeknights to start my wind down routine. Currently this looks something like:

• 9:30pm: Fascia release (foam rolling + reflexology tool)
• 9:50pm: Evening skincare, brush teeth + PJs on
• 10:00pm: Legs up against the wall while reading on my kindle
• 10:10pm: Shakti mat + reading or meditation
• 10:30pm: Lights out (and visualisation while I fall asleep!)

This is super flexible – I always try to prioritise sleep by 10:30 so sometimes I’ll need to shorten or skip the shakti and fascia release in order to keep my bedtime schedule.  

Having a morning routine I enjoy

This one works off the concept of having something to look forward to. You know how you can wake up full of energy and excitement for an early-morning flight? Or how as a child you bounced out of bed for a school trip?

Have you ever wished there was a way you could recreate that magic wake up enthusiasm on a daily basis?

Let me introduce you to…

The morning magic hour

This idea was inspired by a Katie Clarke’s YouTube video. Full disclosure: I am usually VERY skeptical about following advice from YouTubers and I fully expected to roll my eyes at some generic advice.

But my husband requested I watch the video with him, and I was honestly intrigued, so we decided to give it a go.

Let me remind you that I’ve never been a morning person. I can go to bed with the grandest of ambitions, but the second my alarm goes off I am an entirely different person and not in a good way.

My mornings have always been rushed, stressful, and any morning routine usually involved me skipping breakfast in favour of a coffee on an empty stomach (I know, I know). This was also usually after I’d spent a ridiculous amount of time doomscrolling on my phone to wake myself up with blue-light.

Again unsurprisingly, my days were full of anxiety, exhaustion, and a pretty negative mindset, and the cycle would continue day after day. So believe me when I tell you that on Day ONE of trying this concept, I noticed a massive difference in my mood and energy.

Katie refers to this concept as a ‘Container of Peace’. I like to call mine my ‘Morning Magic Hour’.

It has been a while since I watched it so I may not be totally accurately paraphrasing her, but the basic idea is that for the first hour of every day, before you allow the outside world access to your energy (that includes mobile phones), you sit in solitude and focus on solo activities that recharge you.

I’ve taken Katie’s concept and adjusted it slightly to make it ADHD friendly for my morning routine. While an hour is great if you can manage it, I believe something is better than nothing so you should work with the time you have. If you’re able to wake up an hour earlier than necessary, great! If not, try for 30 minutes. If that’s too much, start with 10 minutes. I usually manage 45 minutes, but this can be shorter or longer depending on the day.

I am not perfect at this and on cold winter days, I still sometimes end up scrolling in bed but when I make a dedicated effort to stay off my phone? Life changing.

I feel more grounded, energised, focused AND I feel like I can regulate my emotions better. It gives me all the dopamine and endorphins that I crave in an ADHD friendly way. Because I’m able to take the morning at my own speed, and be flexible with what I’m doing, my brain doesn’t feel forced or pressured, and I’m less likely to fall into the classic ADHD paralysis.

In my opinion, it’s less about how long you’re spending on it, and more about what you’re doing and how it makes you feel.

How to make your morning routine ADHD friendly

Create a menu, not a schedule

When it comes to an ADHD morning routine, nothing kills dopamine faster than a strict structured routine. ADHD brains love variety so to keep my brain interested, I created a ‘morning menu’ of activities that I can pick and choose from depending on the day.

My morning menu currently includes

• Matcha
• Journaling
• Gratitude practice
• Gentle stretching / somatic exercises
• Guided Meditation
• Visualisation
• Mirror affirmations
• Intention setting for the day ahead
• Pilates / Yoga

I usually start with a quick visualisation in bed as soon as my alarm goes off where I picture the day ahead and how I want it to go. If I’m feeling super sleepy and feel like I might fall back asleep, I’ll stand up and do some gentle stretching and heel bounces first.

From there I pick and choose based on what I’m in the mood for, and how awake I feel.

Need ideas? Check out these 5 minute morning habits to set you up for a successful day.

Choose your non-negotiable actions

You won’t be able to get through your entire menu every morning, and nor should you try. There will be days when get home late, your neighbours throw a party until 4am, and days when you’re just feeling really low-energy.

Instead of trying to fight through those days, learn to work with them. Have 1-3 non-negotiable items on your morning menu that you can commit to doing every single day.

For me, it’s a quick round of EFT tapping and drinking a glass of water before coffee/matcha (as well as not skipping my evening skincare when I’m tired).

This way when mornings feel overwhelming, or you’re short on time, you can still get the dopamine from keeping those habits going.

Make it enjoyable + slow

I cannot stress this enough. ADHD brains do not like boring things. If your morning routine is boring, rushed, or not enjoyable to you, it will feel more like an obligation than a treat and then we’ve lost the entire point.

Your ADHD morning routine should be slow and easy on your brain. Slow mornings help reduce stress on an already taxed brain, and help regulate dopamine and executive function.

Jumping straight into high-demand choices or rushing through tasks will drain your dopamine, including your motivation and focus, before you’ve even really started.

When you start your day gently—think low-stimulus activities, minimal decision-making, and grounding rituals—you’re allowing your nervous system time to regulate before it’s hit with more external demands from the outside world.

Protect your dopamine in the morning like a dragon protects their egg, and watch how your focus and emotional stability stabilises as the day goes on.

Reduce decisions

If you’re anything like me, making simple decisions first thing in the morning can feel like being asked to solve world hunger before breakfast. Make it easier on your brain by making decisions in advance. For example, decide on breakfast the night before, or even prepare it in advance (overnight oats are my fave!).

This can also apply to choosing your outfit the night before, or writing your to-do list the day before and highlighting your first action item.

Eat the tadpole first

All that generic ADHD productivity advice about doing the most difficult task first aka eating the frog? Ignore it.

ADHD brains need quick wins in order to generate momentum for more tasks, so eat the tadpole first. Example in point: I love starting my day with a quick pilates session. My brain knows that I love the endorphins I feel afterwards and I love the benefits of it, but despite having this knowledge, each morning my brain says no we can’t be bothered.

Instead of trying to fight against my brain to jump straight into activewear and get started immediately, I slowly wake up with other items on my menu first, like journaling while I drink matcha, or a guided meditation while I’m wrapped in a cosy blanket.

Follow your flow + practice self-compassion

The beauty of ADHD is that some days your momentum is on fire, while on other days you feel like you’re on fire.

ADHDers exist in a world largely designed for neurotypical people, and the more you fight to fit into their mould, the more energy you’re wasting fighting against your own brain.

ADHD brains aren’t wired for perfect consistency, and when we subscribe to an ‘all or nothing’ mindset, or the neurotypical belief that success and consistency is just about discipline, we’re not only making life harder than it needs to be, but we’re signing up to run a race where we’re chained to a boulder.

Mornings with ADHD can be hard, but we also have the power to make them bearable, or dare I say even enjoyable.

Create an ADHD morning routine that fits into your life, not the other way around, and see how it changes your approach to mornings.

Be kind to your body, be kind to your mind and remember that you are amazing.