If getting straight up out of bed every morning at the first ring of the alarm was easy, everyone would do it.

It's common to find yourself wanting to hit the snooze button once, twice, or even more times before pulling yourself out of bed.

But here's the good news: there's actually a trick to combat that tempting snooze button.

A wellness expert has taken to USA's Medical TikTok page to reveal how to get out of bed right as you wake up - no matter how tired you may be feeling.

The expert, Jake Crossman, claims the trick can be used for anything in life you need willpower for and takes just five seconds, calling the trick your "five seconds of power."

Crossman says that as soon as your alarm goes off, you have exactly five seconds to decide whether or not you're going to get up right away.

What's more, he also said you have this much time to make all the decisions in your life. "After five seconds have passed, your subconscious has already made its choice on any decision," he says in the video.

In order to get yourself up in the morning, he said: "The moment you hear your alarm, count to five and believe in your heart on the fifth second, you will get out of bed."

"No matter how tired or groggy you are, if you make that decision, you will get out of bed," he continues. "For all of life's simple decisions, decide what you want, then count to five.

In the comment section, he wrote that he learned this hack from a college coach, but several users pointed out that this concept originated from motivational speaker Mel Robbins and her book The Five-Second Rule.

Robbins' book provides a unique approach to eliminating procrastination by counting down to hold you accountable. She often credits her discovery of the method to watching a commercial about launching a rocket ship.

"The moment your instincts fire up but you feel yourself hesitate, that's when you use the '5 Second Rule.' You have five seconds. Start counting backward to yourself from five to one, then move," writes Robbins.

"If you don't move within five seconds, your brain will kill the idea and you'll talk yourself out of doing it."

Robbins makes it clear that the intent will lead to taking action. "Thinking about change won't change you," she says. "To change, you have to take action."

She describes that counting backward from five will awaken the prefrontal cortex and allow you to move forward: "Five seconds at a time, your life will change."

Featured image credit: Christian Delbert / Alamy

We all have a sleepless night from time to time. It can literally be a night without sleep, one in which you wake up multiple times, or even a long sleep that doesn't leave you feeling rested. However, some undoubtedly have it worse than others, with a variety of factors having an effect - from physical pain and discomfort to mental health issues to a stressful work life.

There are plenty of reasons to get a good night's sleep, but you can add a new one to that list: it might help you avoid Alzheimer's Disease.

A recent study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, assessed twenty participants after depriving them of sleep. The group, aged between 22 and 72, were allowed to sleep from 10pm to 7am on one night, while they were kept up all night on the second. After the second, their brain scans showed a "significant increase" in beta-amyloid,  a potentially harmful protein.

Buildups of this protein can affect the hippocampus, which plays a key role in memory, and the thalamus - which acts as a relay point for motor and sensory nerve signals. Both these regions of the brain are often damaged in Alzheimer's patients. According to the study, sleep is part of a natural "waste disposal" system that clears any material that may be harmful out of the brain - including the amyloid-beta protein.

Those with mild memory loss have 21 percent more beta-amyloid in their brains than others, while those with Alzheimer's have 43 percent more. After this sleepless night, the protein saw a five percent increase in the subjects' brains, which could block important pathways. However, it is unclear whether the effects of a sleepless night have effects beyond the day afterwards.

Dr Ehsan Shokri-Kojori, from the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, was the study's lead author. "The increase in beta-amyloid we saw in the brains of people who were sleep-deprived is likely to be a harmful process," he said. "A reasonable prediction based on these results would be that poorer sleep habits create a risk for Alzheimer's disease."

It's not just this study that has brought up the link between sleep and memory before, as researchers into Alzheimer's have questioned this connection before. There have been other studies that have shown similar changes in mice, but this is the first to do so in the human brain. Dr. David Reynolds, a chief scientific officer at Alzheimer's Research UK, said:

"There is growing evidence of a link between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer's disease, but it is difficult to tease apart cause and effect to determine whether sleep problems might cause Alzheimer's brain changes or vice-versa.

"This very small study suggests that one night of sleep deprivation can raise levels of the hallmark Alzheimer's protein amyloid, strengthening suggestions that sleep is important for limiting the build-up of this protein in the brain."

If the link between this is true, it means there is even more reason to get some rest at the end of a hard day's work. If the connection isn't as strong as this research team believes, it's still worth getting a full night of sleep for your own physical and mental health.

Everyone has their own type of morning routine they like to stick to. Some of us like to get up early in order to have a refreshing shower, others hit snooze five times before rolling out of bed only a few minutes before they're due to leave the house; most of us have breakfast in the AM, some folks like to wait until lunchtime before chowing down on their first meal of the day; and the most committed amongst us will hit the gym before going to work, meanwhile everyone else is still half asleep during their commute.

Very few people, however, can claim to start the day in the same way as Kayleigh Oakley... because she likes to kick things off with a glass of her own urine.

Not long ago, Oakley was struggling with a variety of health problems. Her immune system was weak, she was easily exhausted, and she suffered from Hashimoto's disease since she was around 15 years old. Two years after that, she was told she had chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

"I was ill a lot of the time and life felt like really hard work," she explains. "If someone became unwell around me, my immune system would be so weak that I would get sick, too.

"It was so draining. If I did any strenuous activity I would be in bed for week, and life became pretty miserable."

After starting to drink her own urine, however, the 33-year-old claims that her health has vastly improved, and that the change she saw in herself was "almost instant".

"Drinking urine can’t harm you and I view it as a medicine," she says. "We don’t think twice about taking drugs bought over the counter, with side-effects, yet urine has no side-effects and it works really well. A lot of expensive skin brands contain urea, which is excreted in urine, so I have also got a really expensive product for free."

Oakley discovered the controversial health treatment two years ago while researching alternative treatments for medical ailments.

"I was studying natural healing and medicine and was fascinated by the success stories other people shared about it," she says.

"I had been on a long journey, trying to improve my health. I changed my diet and lifestyle, trying to introduce more holistic things and not taking any pharmaceutical medicines. I heard that urine can reset the immune system, promote general good health, and is good for the skin. It is also an ancient yogic technique, so thought I would give it a go."

And, by her account at least, it seems to have worked a charm.

However, there is no real proof that urine is especially beneficial to the human body. In fact, it could be harmful.

As Aisling Pigott, a dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, explains: "There is no evidence or advice which would encourage anybody to drink their own urine. The body, in particular the kidneys, does an effective job at removing toxins and excretes urine. Therefore, drinking this again is not beneficial, could potentially be harmful and could cause infection."

Still, Oakley is confident in her routine, and says that her life has improved greatly because of it.

"We have an epidemic of treating the symptoms, not the cause," she says. "I have tried to look at my body as a whole, see what’s missing and lacking due to nutrient deficiencies. This means I can then start treating it a bit more holistically."

She continued: "If I hadn’t gone down the path of healing myself with different therapies, I would be on more medication. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, but you won’t know if drinking urine will help until you try it."

Oakley also took up veganism and yoga in order to combat her chronic health problems, so if you're tempted to follow in her footsteps, you might want to start with the processes that don't involve drinking your own urine.

A doctor has taken to social media this week to tell members of the public that they should be brushing their teeth before eating breakfast and not after.

The advice in question was delivered by Dr. Karan Raj, who currently boasts more than 2.7 million followers on TikTok, and was shared in a video that has since been viewed more than 840,000 times (as of this writing).

In the video, Dr. Raj states:

"You've got to brush your teeth before breakfast, not after. Brushing before breakfast coats your enamel with a protective barrier against acid in your food - all that orange juice you're guzzling down.

"It also helps you jump-start saliva production which helps you break down food and naturally kills harmful bacteria in your mouth.

"Brushing your teeth after breakfast can actually cover your teeth in the remnants of acidic food, and this can actually weaken your enamel."

As you can see, a number of TikTok users took to the comments to react to the doctor's advice, with many agreeing that brushing before is a good idea, while many others expressed shock that this wasn't common practice.

For instance, one person wrote: "I've been doing this my whole life and people think I'm crazy," while someone else added: "I can't believe people brush after breakfast it just doesn't make sense to me."

However, one commenter appeared to disagree with Dr. Raj, taking to the comments to state: "Sorry I disagree (Dental nurse of 16years) best time to brush is 30mins after eating then you don't have plaque sitting on your teeth until your next meal."

Indeed, Dr. Raj later took to the comments himself to clarify his prior statements, adding: "If you do brush after breakfast don't do it straight away! Brushing after is better than not brushing at all I guess!"

So there you have it! If you want to keep your teeth as clean as possible then please take Dr. Raj's advice and brush before, not after. Believe me: your dentist will thank you.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who can easily wake up before 8 am with a positive attitude, and normal human beings. Sorry, early birds - but that's just the truth of the matter.

However, as weird as these early-risers may be, they do have a distinct advantage over the rest of us. They're able to prepare themselves for the day ahead better than us night owls, be more productive without having to wait for that first hit of caffeine to kick in, and they have an overall better mood in the morning - something that may seem alien to anyone who dreads their alarm going off each day.

But being able to kickstart the day with a positive attitude isn't some innate quality that we either do or do not have. In fact, anybody can train themselves to be a morning person; you just have to follow a few simple rules...

1. Don't use the 'snooze' function

As someone who deliberately sets their first alarm for 30 minutes before they actually have to get up, I feel this one. And yes, it's easy to convince yourself that you're somehow winning at life by hitting snooze and catching some extra Zs, but going back to sleep and then waking up multiple times will do nothing to help you actually get out of bed, and can actually make you tired for the rest of the day.

2. Refrain from using technology right before bed

Before I hit the hay each night, I tend to do one final check of Twitter, Instagram, and Whatsapp before putting on a podcast to fall asleep to - and I know I'm not alone in doing so. While a lot of us find this to be a good wind-down, however, it's actually a very unhealthy habit to have. This is because the blue light emitted from phone and computer screens can interfere with the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, essentially making it harder for your body to be fully at rest.

3. Get up and moving ASAP

Ok, let's say you already abide by the first two tips on this list: you wake at your first alarm, and you don't spend hours on Facebook before going to sleep. That's all very well and good - but it won't help much if you don't actually shift your butt as soon as you wake up. Even if that just means going to the bathroom or walking over to open your curtains, getting yourself moving will wake up the rest of your body and prepare you for the day ahead.

4. Go outside

This obviously isn't possible for everyone, but if you have a garden, it can help to step outside and breathe in some fresh air in order to let your body know that it's daytime. Even opening your window or letting a lot of daylight into your room can help, as you want to do whatever you can to stop your body believing that it is still night.

5. Avoid dehydration

Even if you are someone who is able to wake at the crack of dawn without a problem, this tip will come in handy. Dehydration can cause us to become sleepy and sluggish at any time of the day, but we are especially dehydrated in the morning after we've gone 6-8 hours without drinking anything. In order to combat this, try to drink water before bed (but not so much that you'll need to wake in the night to use the bathroom), and keep a bottle on your nightstand to take a swig from when you wake up.

6. Meditate

This tip won't be for everyone, but many people swear by meditation as a method for dealing with tiredness. Rather than stressing about the day ahead from the moment your alarm goes off, try taking some time to clear your mind and relax your body. There are a number of apps or YouTube videos you can use to assist you in this, but it's also totally fine to do it in silence.

7. Establish a set routine

Human beings are creatures of habit. Each of us has a preference on what time we like to eat, how long we spend watching Netflix each evening, and even which side of the bed we prefer to sleep on. And, when something gets in the way of that routine, we tend to feel the effects in a negative way. It stands to reason then, that we should stick to the same routine when it comes to getting up each day - even on the weekend, if possible. The more you are able to do the same tasks at the same time each morning, the less they will feel like a chore.

8. Be positive 

Let's be real for a second: this is the hardest tip on the list. It's all very well and good saying "be positive", but if you struggle with that in general, you're going to have a tough time doing it at 7 am when it's still cold and dark outside. However, you can make it slightly easier for yourself in a few ways. Maybe you could put a photo near your bed that makes you happy, or alternate some of your favourite songs to play as your alarm each day. Just making this one tiny change can literally influence your mood for the entire day, so it's worth a shot.

So, to my fellow night-owls, I wish you the best of luck in trying out these life hacks, and to the early birds, I leave you with this: please be patient with us while we change our routines. We're trying our hardest.