Shorter answer: go to bed 7 hours before you need to wake up.
How I became a morning person
121–130 of 151 posts
Re: How I became a morning person
#122To him a night owl is up till midnight. To me, midnight is super duper early. I struggle to sleep before 5am. At midnight I wake up and have been known to gut clean the entire house then. Even if i've been awake for over 24 hours i wake up at night. I cycle around my sleeping pattern often, i'll get up at 3am. I'll try and get it slowly to 5am wake up, then 7am - normal time. I can usually keep it there for about a w…
I have a similar sleeping pattern. Over time it tends to shift a couple hours. For instance, I slept from 9am until about 330PM today. By Tuesday it will likely be closer to 11am until 5 or 6pm. It will occasionally adjust itself to something more "normal" but never for more than a week before it starts rolling again. I work remotely and my wife is a bartender, so it's never much of a problem for me. When I interact…
So, my sleep cycle was about like what yours sounds like, I'd often slip back half an hour from one day to the next... But rarely if ever had a sleep cycle under 24 hours. Tried out f.lux a month back, and... Well I'm still on a strange sleep cycle, but a different one. lol. Slept from 8pm yesterday to 3am today, snoozed until 4am. Often I've slept a bit less than normal, but starting far earlier, and waking up early. Maybe that's just a result of only using it for a month, so far.
Probably helps too that I have beige walls and a small desk lamp beside me. Using the desk lamp instead of the full room light / a completely black room helps limit eyestrain.
Re: How I became a morning person
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.…
I've had to get up very early to deal with production issues at work (sometimes between 2-3 a.m.), and I actually find those hours very peaceful - just the hum of the heating/AC and my dogs' snoring.
Re: How I became a morning person
#124To him a night owl is up till midnight. To me, midnight is super duper early. I struggle to sleep before 5am. At midnight I wake up and have been known to gut clean the entire house then. Even if i've been awake for over 24 hours i wake up at night. I cycle around my sleeping pattern often, i'll get up at 3am. I'll try and get it slowly to 5am wake up, then 7am - normal time. I can usually keep it there for about a w…
I have a similar sleeping pattern. Over time it tends to shift a couple hours. For instance, I slept from 9am until about 330PM today. By Tuesday it will likely be closer to 11am until 5 or 6pm. It will occasionally adjust itself to something more "normal" but never for more than a week before it starts rolling again. I work remotely and my wife is a bartender, so it's never much of a problem for me. When I interact…
Have you tried melatonin? Again doesn't solve the problem for me and still makes waking up difficult, but it means I can generally get to sleep by 1am with good sleep hygiene and keep it there a bit longer than a week.
But yea one night out and it all messes up.
I also use a sunrise alarm clock, that helps with morning waking especially in winter.
Again, none of these all solve the problem,but combined I'm having my first manageable year and not needed to take any time of work.
Re: How I became a morning person
#125I agree on the point about coffee being a wake-up process. I do a pour-over as well, and the process of preparing and attending to it for 5-10 minutes helps me wake up and appreciate the coffee more -- not to mention it tastes better!
Right now I couldn't even imagine doing pour-over every morning. I struggle even just using my aeropress in the morning.
Re: How I became a morning person
#126I 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 think there are a lot of people for whom "becoming a morning person" actually means "overcoming this depression".
Maybe so. I guess it's one of the symptoms of depression.
There is also research that indicates that school results improve, and the students report that they feel better if the school starts later in the day, in sync with what appears to be their natural clock. So maybe there is a correlation, but the causation might be just the opposite unless we are talking about clinically depressed people (that I don't want to trivialize in any way.)
I doubt that there is anything natural at all about the standard office-hours, and I also doubt that we are a exclusively day-active species. There are many accounts of alternative sleeping patterns or segmented-sleep.
Re: How I became a morning person
#127Re: How I became a morning person
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there are a lot of people for whom "becoming a morning person" actually means "overcoming this depression".
Maybe so. I guess it's one of the symptoms of depression. There is also research that indicates that school results improve, and the students report that they feel better if the school starts later in the day, in sync with what appears to be their natural clock. So maybe there is a correlation, but the causation might be just the opposite unless we are talking about clinically depressed people (that I don't want to t…
I wish we could implement the siesta. I find I'm most productive from about 6 am to 11 am, and then again from 5 pm to midnight. The middle part of the day is kind of a waste, but I have to be on the clock then.
Re: How I became a morning person
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there are a lot of people for whom "becoming a morning person" actually means "overcoming this depression".
Maybe so. I guess it's one of the symptoms of depression. There is also research that indicates that school results improve, and the students report that they feel better if the school starts later in the day, in sync with what appears to be their natural clock. So maybe there is a correlation, but the causation might be just the opposite unless we are talking about clinically depressed people (that I don't want to t…
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Re: How I became a morning person
#130Give up coffee, work out regularly, go to bed at the same time every night, get tested for sleep apnea. Changed my life.
Sleep apnea is a big thing. I haven't got there yet, but getting tested and starting to use a CPAP machine has been a huge improvement for my Dad.