Your alarm went off and you got out of bed, but your brain just won’t get going.
“I’m awake, but it still feels like I’m half asleep.”
“I can’t focus on my first task of the day.”
“It takes a while before my head starts working.”
Does that sound familiar?
In fact, that foggy feeling right after waking up may be related to a phenomenon called “sleep inertia.”
And in 2026, some interesting research was published on ways to shake off sleep inertia a little faster.
Eyes Open Does Not Mean Brain Fully Awake
Sleep inertia is a temporary drop in cognitive performance, such as attention and reaction speed, with sleepiness and grogginess lingering right after waking.
In other words, even if you open your eyes and get out of bed, your brain does not instantly switch to a fully alert state.
A study published in Communications Biology in March 2026 also examined how brain activity related to wakefulness recovers gradually after people wake from sleep.
Feeling that your brain “isn’t working yet” first thing in the morning is not necessarily a matter of low motivation.
A 2026 Study Focused on Getting Up and Moving
So what can we do to shake off sleep inertia a little sooner?
In August 2026, a research team from Université Paris Cité, the French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA), Airbus and others published an interesting study in Frontiers in Physiology.
The study involved 42 healthy adults and compared what they did during the first five minutes after waking, broadly divided into these conditions:
- • Doing nothing in particular
- • Working on a cognitive task
- • Doing an exercise that combined breathing and physical movement
These three conditions were then compared.
As a result, particularly in the group that combined breathing and physical movement, the drop in reaction speed and attention after waking was reduced, and subjective sleepiness also improved.
What is interesting is that this did not involve an intense morning workout.
What the study used was a program of about five minutes combining breathing with exercises that move the muscles.
To Wake Up Your Mind, Start with Your Body?
When they feel groggy in the morning, many people may try to “wake up by stimulating the brain”:
Drinking coffee.
Watching the news.
Checking email.
Picking up their phone.
and so on.
In this study, however, while the cognitive-task approach showed some benefits, the approach of moving the body produced more consistent results.
In other words,
“Using your brain first because you want to wake it up”
is not the only option.
“Moving your body first to help the switch to wakefulness”
is another way to think about it.
That said, this was a relatively small experiment involving 42 people.
We cannot yet say for certain that “five minutes of exercise in the morning will always clear your head,” and more research is needed.
Even so, it is an interesting result that points to a simple way to deal with morning sleep inertia.
What Should You Do in the Morning?
Research results cannot be applied directly to daily life, but as a morning habit, you might try something like this:
Get out of bed
→ Stretch your body
→ Gently move your shoulders, arms and legs
→ Walk around the room
→ Start getting ready
A flow like this is easy to fit into your day.
What matters is not intense exercise, but moving your body once, rather than sitting and looking at your phone as soon as you wake up.
Strategies using caffeine or bright light have also long been studied for sleep inertia.
However, caffeine does not take effect the moment you drink it, and results for light also vary depending on the study conditions.
There is no established method that will instantly wake up anyone.
Be Careful with Important Decisions First Thing in the Morning
Knowing about sleep inertia is also useful for work.
Right after waking up, you might be:
Replying to important emails.
Deciding on a big purchase.
Making work decisions.
Reviewing complex documents.
Some of you may do things like these.
However, right after waking, your cognitive function may not be as fully recovered as you think.
So if you have time to spare, following the order
Wake up → Move your body → Get ready → Important work once your mind is awake
is one way to approach it.
At La HEAD, in a calm, fully private room, you step away from your computer and phone, close your eyes, and receive slow, unhurried care not only for your head but also for your neck, shoulders and arms.
When thinking about how you feel during the day, look not only at how long you sleep at night, but also at “how you wake up in the morning”as well.
If you find it hard to get going in the morning, why not try moving your body for about five minutes first, before reaching for your phone the moment you wake up?