With term papers, reading, homework and midterms piling up, who has time to go to bed early anymore? If only there were a way to be programmed like the bottlenose dolphin, that sleeps with only half of its brain at a time.

Unfortunately, evolution has not caught on, and humans aren't wired this way. With 8:30 a.m. classes, many students are unable to switch in their owl feathers for larks'.

But luckily, there are things you can do to make yourself a little more open-eyed in the morning.

Sleep Psychology

Your circadian rhythm is daily rhythmical changes in behavior and physiological processes, including sleep. For most people, the cycle runs to be about 25 hours, without any external cues.

"What regulates your rhythm is not necessarily exercise patterns or diet patterns, but rather modulations of zeitgeber, ... temporal cues that train [your] biological clock," said Jaime Olavarria, an associate professor of psychology.

Since your circadian rhythm tends to run a little slow, the morning sun serves as a zeitgeber, or a stimulus, to reset your clock. Zeitgeber translates into "time giver" in German and is responsible for circadian rhythms.

Seeing the light and using melatonin

One method for getting up is using bright light in the morning to help speed up your cycle, Olavarria said.

To help with this, turning on bright lights in the morning will act as a zeitgeber and wake you up. Conversely, having dim light at night will help you fall asleep.

Since the autumnal equinox brings shorter days, mornings can seem especially dreary.

"When we go into these very dark [mornings, it] could make it more difficult to get up," Olavarria said.

However, seasonal changes should not make a good night's sleep impossible.

"One common misconception is we lose our cycles [in the winter]. This is not necessarily true," Olavarria said. "The frequency of the rhythm is the same. [You are] still receiving stimuli that keep you on track."

Melatonin is a hormone secreted during the night by the pineal body (a gland in the brain) and plays an important role in regulating your sleep patterns. Melatonin is also an over-the-counter supplement that has been shown to help modulate blind people's sleep cycles since they are unaffected by light as a zeitgeber.

"If you are really sleepy in the morning and you haven't partied the night before, [you] may try some light therapy or melatonin — it might shift your cycle a little bit and [you'll] feel a little fresher," Olavarria said. "Or drag [yourself] out of bed to the gym."

Music, snacks and caffeine

Some people try sneaking in a quick workout before class to wake themselves up.

"I put on funk music or popping music," senior Nathan Ma said. "This makes me start to [pop], which makes me more alert because I have to think about repeatedly flexing my muscles, which in turn wakes me up."

Some studies in hamsters suggest that a vigorous workout in the morning may help wake you up, but this is controversial because exercise doesn't change melatonin levels, Olavarria said.

A person's body temperature may also dictate whether he or she is a morning lark or night owl. People who are warmer in the morning tend to want to sleep in, while people who are colder are more ready to face the day, Olavarria said.

Certain diets may also help you wake up on cold mornings. Caffeine is definitely a favorite for many.

"Whenever I need to get up early, I drink three shots of espresso over ice, ... usually with white mocha syrup to take the edge off the strong espresso flavor," said senior Sean Knight, who works at Starbucks. "It's kind of a shock to your system. ... I'm not really a morning person — I stay up late; I get up late. But when I do need to get up early, that's what I do."

Eating something in the morning, even just an energy bar or bagel, will help you wake up along with coffee and a walk in the cold air, senior Reese Parrett said.

"Don't wear PJs and a huge baggy sweater to your morning class, because it will just make you want to sleep more," Parrett said.

A morning routine can also help you feel more wide-eyed in the early hours of the day.

"You should always wake up early to not be tired for class. ... I only need about 45 minutes to wake up fully — with caffeine," Parrett said. "Every morning, I read; it kind of wakes up my brain."

It is also important to find motivation to get up, because going to lecture sometimes just isn't enough.

"[I] make myself think of something I really want to do or someone I want to see to make myself get up faster," Ma said.

What you do the night before is also important, like going to bed early and not drinking caffeine.

"Whenever I have to switch my schedule between morning person and night owl, I spend one night where I either sleep too much or not at all, to force myself to immediately get on the new schedule," Parrett said.

Ma also sets multiple alarms the night before to help him get up in the morning.

While all this may help wake you up, they won't necessarily change your internal clock.

"Engaging in activities will be like splashing your face with water," Olavarria said. "All that will make you wake up, ... but will only act at that moment. It will not reset your clock. [It's] all personal preference ... but does not directly modulate your sleep cycles. Things that go to the heart of this matter is light treatment and the hormone melatonin."

Parrett warns that melatonin, depending on the dosage, may make you drowsy the next day, so if you're only going to get very little sleep that night already, then you should not take it.

However, everyone is different, and it is just a matter of finding what suits you. Whether it is reading or exercise, funk or rock, everyone has his or her own way of waking up.

"It's a matter of habits," Olavarria said. "The thing about sleep is it is a habit that is hard to avoid. ... We are destined to follow it because it is in our genes."

[Reach reporter Doris Wu at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]