Good sleep is rare these days. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in Greece, data is insufficient), more than 1/3 of adults routinely fail to get adequate sleep at night, which is defined as at least seven hours of sleep each night.

Many people believe that they are naturally night owls and that they are "meant" to sleep late at night. However, in studies that have been conducted, researchers have found this interesting fact: when you take a night owl out of their house and put them in nature, away from their smartphone and Netflix, they end up falling asleep up to 2 hours earlier than they would if they were at home.

So, a major reason - but not the only one - that many of us stay up late at night is our electronic devices and modern distractions.

If you tend to stay up late at night and don't get enough rest, we have good news. There are some steps you can take to learn to go to bed early and become a little more of a morning person.

But first, let's see what determines whether you are a morning person or an evening person.

Genes determine whether you are a morning person or not

The first thing to keep in mind is that the time you usually go to bed at night is, to some extent, influenced by your genes.

Each person has a personal biological rhythm, or chronotype, that determines the optimal time to go to sleep and wake up. Studies show that genes are what drive us to either be morning people, to go to bed and wake up late, or to be somewhere in between.

For example, a study published in the journal Nature Communications analyzed the sleep habits of 700,000 people and identified a large number of genes that play a role in whether someone is a morning person or not. On average, people who carried a higher number of morning-waking genes tended to go to bed and wake up about half an hour earlier than people who carried fewer.

"In reality, the trend of our circadian rhythm (the biological 'clock' in our bodies that determines when we wake up and sleep) is genetically programmed and cannot be changed," says Dr. Rosen, a sleep physician and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "The good news is that we can give our clocks some cues that can influence them to some extent."

[Read: What is circadian rhythm and how do you regulate it? ]

Why don't you wake up early?

The fact that you essentially function like a night owl doesn't mean you're destined to sleep late all your life. It's more likely that you function this way because of certain distractions in your life.

And you're right, I'll say it.

For example, many people who might normally be in bed by 10:00 PM end up staying up until midnight to work, surf the internet, binge-watch their Netflix show, or because of a very interesting phenomenon, the revenge of procrastination . (If you don't know why you stay up late at night even though you're falling apart from fatigue, I recommend reading the article in the previous link).

All of this makes waking up in the morning more difficult. However, you can learn to wake up earlier by simply focusing on optimizing your morning routine.

But who should she be?

The morning routine

First, decide what time you want to wake up in the morning and stick to that commitment. Wake up at exactly that time, every day, no matter how tired you feel.

Then go outside and get some sunlight. Sunlight signals your brain that it's time to be awake. Studies have shown that morning light can regulate your circadian rhythm, which will help your body adjust to your morning wake-up schedule.

As your body gets used to starting the day earlier, you'll naturally start going to bed earlier in the evening. The ideal thing to do in your morning routine is to get outside and exercise. A brisk walk, according to Dr. Rosen, is a great way to tell your internal clock that it's time to get into a state of alertness and start your day with a bang.

So waking up and immediately getting out into the sun is crucial to resetting your body clock and learning to wake up earlier naturally. But that's not all. To get your clock moving in the right direction, it's important to get plenty of sunlight during the day as well.

The evening sleep routine

On the other hand, to properly set your clock and give it all the cues that will help you wake up early in the morning, you should minimize your exposure to artificial light at night.

It is good to improve your environment by using low lighting, candles, and lamps that emit a warm color, ideally orange or red - which refers to the light of the setting sun.

[Read: 10 ways to become a morning person ]

Try to avoid exposure to electronic devices that emit blue light—computers, fluorescent lights, TV screens, smartphones—for at least two hours before you want to go to bed. Studies have shown that exposure to blue light at night can disrupt sleep and suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps us feel sleepy. Researchers have found that blue light can disrupt the circadian clock, making it harder to achieve your goal of becoming a morning person.

Another thing that can help to relax the nervous system and increase melatonin levels in your body is the use of a weighted blanket . These blankets weigh from 7 to 14 pounds and are scientifically proven as a complementary tool to help you relax from stress before bed, fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night. Utilizing the power of Deep Touch Pressure Stimulation, the pressure applied to the body promotes an increase in serotonin and melatonin, while reducing cortisol levels in the body - the stress hormone.

[Free ebook: 9 Effective Steps to Instantly Improve Your Sleep Quality ]

Another sleep aid that can help you get a good night's sleep is taking a very low-dose melatonin supplement, which you can find at drugstores. Dr. Sabra Abbott, assistant professor of neurology in sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, recommends taking no more than half a milligram of melatonin about an hour before bed. It's important to keep the dose low so it clears your system quickly. " This is trying to send a little message that it's the beginning of the night," says Dr. Abbott . " But we want to get it out of your system by the end of the night because late-night melatonin can push your clock later and make the problem worse."

Epilogue

If you follow these steps, you'll start to feel more and more sleepy early in the evening, allowing you to fall asleep easily and wake up earlier in the morning. But whatever you do, make sure to stick to your new routine—even on the weekends. Consistency is key. "If you're waking up early for work and going to bed early, then you need to keep doing the things that helped you achieve that," Dr. Rosen said. "If you party all night on the weekend or start watching Netflix late at night, then you'll undo everything you just did and have to start over."

Tackle stress and insomnia with a gravity blanket

Gravity blankets are the most effective way to deal with insomnia and stress without medication, as they have been used for many decades to help people suffering from anxiety disorders, autism, and other sensory disorders.

How do they work?

They are designed to apply gentle, steady pressure to the entire body, which occupational therapists call “ Deep Tactile Pressure .” This steady pressure relaxes the nervous system and helps the body naturally increase levels of serotonin and melatonin (the hormones of happiness and sleep) while reducing levels of cortisol, which is responsible for stress.

As a result, the mind stops "racing", the heart rate drops, the mood improves and the body enters a state of complete relaxation.

Choose the one that weighs closest to 10% of your body weight and upgrade your sleep from the very first night.