How I became a morning person • Hacker News Board

Re: How I became a morning person

#81

Post by labster » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 2:28 AM UTC

santaclaus wrote: post #65

kelnos wrote: post #62

I always roll my eyes a little bit when people say they get extra "free hours" by waking up earlier. In this case it works for the OP, because he has another motive, which is syncing his schedule with his wife so he can spend more time with her. But the extra hours don't come from nowhere... you need to compensate by losing a comparable amount of time at night. My waking hours are usually 10-11am until 2-5am. It's no…

I'm in a similar boat, and I've never understood the patronizing attitude lobbed at night owls by morning people.

I assume you need to stay up pretty late to get all of the presents delivered, Mr. Claus.

I keep similar hours as the GP, which I can do because I'm remote in a group with other programmers around the world. Actually, the late hours have been useful at work, because we get 24-hour coverage without waking people up when lp0 is on fire. Not to mention that the wee hours are much quieter and generally distraction-free.

However, my mood has been better by phasing a little earlier this winter. I think getting under 7 hours a day of sunlight starts up a bit of SAD for me, which is entirely avoidable at California latitudes.

Re: How I became a morning person

#82

Post by amadeusw » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 2:32 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #62

I always roll my eyes a little bit when people say they get extra "free hours" by waking up earlier. In this case it works for the OP, because he has another motive, which is syncing his schedule with his wife so he can spend more time with her. But the extra hours don't come from nowhere... you need to compensate by losing a comparable amount of time at night. My waking hours are usually 10-11am until 2-5am. It's no…

I relate to OP's notion of "free hours". Simple programming tasks took me twice the usual time late at night, and after 1am I just couldn't come up with anything creative. That's great that you work well in the evening, but not everyone works this way. When I shifted to morning schedule, I didn't waste time on doing tasks slowly at night, so these are my free hours.

Re: How I became a morning person

#83

Post by danieltillett » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 2:33 AM UTC

wslh wrote: post #70

How I became a morning person? I had kids! They completely resynced my whole day. I don't know if this works for everybody but It worked for me and I can't belive now how I could take lunch at 5pm before.

Your kids must have been rather different to mine - I didn't become a morning person - just a perpetually tired person.

Re: How I became a morning person

#84

Post by Symbiote » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 2:47 AM UTC

nlh wrote: post #72

I successfully transitioned from a night owl (bed at 2-3am, up at 8-9am) to a morning person VERY easily -- but I cheated: I moved from NYC to SF, but I didn't change my natural sleep schedule when I did ;) I just didn't let myself slip -- so the first week, I woke up at 5-6am every day and started to get tired around 11, and 3 years later, I'm on the same routine.

How do you deal with late night events?

I could get used to early mornings, but right now is 3:45 and I'm on the train home after a concert and nightclub. I can't wake up at 5 with only 1 hour of sleep, and I doubt I could do it on Monday, even if I was used to it.

Re: How I became a morning person

#85

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 2:59 AM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #31

sergiotapia wrote: post #8

In all my years as a software developer the morning hours were just absolutely perfect for me to get the hard stuff out of the way. I reserve afternoons for the drudge work, but in the morning I have much better cognitive ability. Better yet, if you work from home you can wake up at 6am, start your workload early and you have the entire afternoon off for whatever you need, it's a sweet system!

Exact opposite here - more or less severe brain fog until the sun sets. Then I can start getting things done.

[deleted]

Re: How I became a morning person

#86

Post by smilefreak » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:00 AM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #31

sergiotapia wrote: post #8

In all my years as a software developer the morning hours were just absolutely perfect for me to get the hard stuff out of the way. I reserve afternoons for the drudge work, but in the morning I have much better cognitive ability. Better yet, if you work from home you can wake up at 6am, start your workload early and you have the entire afternoon off for whatever you need, it's a sweet system!

Exact opposite here - more or less severe brain fog until the sun sets. Then I can start getting things done.

This is exactly my experience, recently I have sometimes worked 9-5 got nothing done and gone home feeling like shit for being so unproductive. Then, to make up for it, I would find myself working some late nights and always made up for the lack of outputs. I now just start late and work late, which actually means I get more free time because I don't need to make up for anything.

As in interesting point, when I was working 9-5, I noticed that most people at work were incredibly unproductive all day so maybe it is somewhat a social construct also. When alone at night without distractions, without the context of people slacking off, I find it far easier to get focused and I don't just talk nonsense to anyone nearby.

Re: How I became a morning person

#87

Post by lobster_johnson » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:07 AM UTC

I have considered myself a night owl all my life, ever since I was a kid. I typically stayed awake until 4am or later. Weekends, always sleeping super late -- 2pm, often later. Having a 10-6 job has always been hell (and 9-5 impossible), with frequent oversleeping. The last few years I have been going to bed around 1am, but still struggling to get up early.

About 4 weeks ago I started limiting my caffeine intake. I only drink a bit of espresso in the morning, then nothing after that. The impact was immediate: I suddenly found myself waking up before my alarm clock, every day. In the weekends I am generally up at 8am, which for me is highly unusual. I'm weirded out by it, actually. Caffeine seems to really mess up one's circadian rhythm.

(I don't think the OP is a night owl; an evening person, maybe, but going to bed by midnight is laughably normal.)

Re: How I became a morning person

#88

Post by tilt_error » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:13 AM UTC

outlace wrote: post #73

kelnos wrote: post #62

I always roll my eyes a little bit when people say they get extra "free hours" by waking up earlier. In this case it works for the OP, because he has another motive, which is syncing his schedule with his wife so he can spend more time with her. But the extra hours don't come from nowhere... you need to compensate by losing a comparable amount of time at night. My waking hours are usually 10-11am until 2-5am. It's no…

We're products of evolution and thus we have physiologic reasons to have our sleep/wake cycles tuned to the sun. There's a decent amount of scientific evidence in favor of "sun-conscious" sleep patterns. e.g. this review article http://www.nature.com/nrendo/journal/v12/n1/full/nrendo.2015...

Where I live, the sun sets in November and returns in February at this time of the year. Sync to that ;)

Likewise it does not set for weeks in summer.

Re: How I became a morning person

#89

Post by brandonmenc » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:13 AM UTC

usaphp wrote: post #39

iolothebard wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was referring to time with his spouse, so he was reclaiming time in that regard. Some time is more valuable than other time.

His wife is at work in the morning anyway, not sure how waking up early makes up for that?

Because they can both stop working around the same time.

Re: How I became a morning person

#90

Post by pacomerh » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:21 AM UTC

I can't even imagine going to bed at around 9:45pm. It's ingrained in my body that around that time is still early and the world is quiet so I can work peacefully. I usually go to bed around 2am and wake up around 9am. I understand the freshness of working on a new body (morning), but I think the best I can do is 12am. Idk, I think its up to you how you manage your hours and how productive you are. 5am's aren't for everybody.