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How I became a morning person

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Re: How I became a morning person

#131

Post by enobrev »

LifeQuestioner wrote: post #124
enobrev wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have not. Generally I truly appreciate my schedule. It works very well for both focusing on work and enjoying my late-night social life, although I usually have no idea what day of the week or month it is. I spent two years in Seattle where I had an apartment way up on a hill with huge plate glass windows and an inescapable amount of sunlight. My schedule regulated a bit more while I was there, although when I was really into a project it would start shifting again.

I try not to fight it much without having a valid reason - like a tight deadline. And in those instances, coffee will generally put me to sleep within an hour. And if I fight it for longer than, say, a couple weeks, I end up sleep deprived. The only time coffee "works" for me is when I'm not stressed, which is to say not when I "need" it.

That wasn't the case in my twenties, though. I could work on something for 36 hours, sleep for 4-6 and do it all over again for a couple months at a time before I'd start losing my way. I was also drinking a LOT more alcohol back then.

Re: How I became a morning person

#132

Post by enobrev »

Solarsail wrote: post #122
enobrev wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have a cheap lamp pointed at the wall behind my monitors that helps immensely with the eyestrain[1]. I like f.lux, but when my schedule gets into full-on night mode, I end up turning it off - especially when working with video[2] or graphics - and forgetting to turn it on it by the time I get back to something more "normal".

1: blinking is a big deal, and I tend not to blink much when tired but focused. Eye drops help.

2: spent a few years working with a company where video is everything.

Re: How I became a morning person

#133

Post by enobrev »

Scottn1 wrote: post #115
LifeQuestioner wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should add that even as a baby, I was awake all night and slept during the day.

+1 I'm in my early 40's and have been a NO for as long as I can remember. To at least 5th-6th grade, and my mom (she too is a NO to some extent) tells me even before then I was up later than rest of house. Reading books/mags, a little late TV, etc. Needless to say, school was not easy for me.. ever. Elementary school wasn't so bad as I still got enough sleep, but junior high - HS was basically a half day for me as I…

My biggest issue with an off-schedule is trying to maintain a routine. So many dietary, exercise, or prescription recommendations are based upon a time-of-day routine. Intermediate Fasting seems to be based upon skipping breakfast, which doesn't jive well with sleeping twice a day. A "morning run" doesn't make as much sense at 3am, depending on where you live. Same goes for prescriptions.

I've had a few relationship troubles in the past - in-part because my hours were too weird to cope with over time. Fortunately I've married someone who not only understands, but appreciates my schedule. I'm definitely worried about what it'll be like when we finally get a family started.

Re: How I became a morning person

#135

Post by enobrev »

smhinsey wrote: post #22

After years and years of trying anything that came my way and seemed credible, the only thing that ever worked to change me into a morning person was living in an apartment that was so bright in the morning that even drawn blinds and an eye mask wasn't enough to keep the light from getting to your eyes. A few exhausted weeks after moving in, I was getting up with the sun naturally and feeling great about it. Since mo…

I had a similar experience when I moved from my cave of an apartment in Brooklyn to an apartment high up on a hill in Seattle comprised mostly of windows overlooking the the city. That didn't "fix" my schedule, but it regulated it quite a bit when I wasn't entirely focused on a project. If I were in-need of something more predictable, I'd try to find something similar here in Chicago. But personally, I prefer having a weird schedule.

For better or worse, there are no hills in Chicago

Re: How I became a morning person

#136

Post by LifeQuestioner »

enobrev wrote: post #131
LifeQuestioner wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have not. Generally I truly appreciate my schedule. It works very well for both focusing on work and enjoying my late-night social life, although I usually have no idea what day of the week or month it is. I spent two years in Seattle where I had an apartment way up on a hill with huge plate glass windows and an inescapable amount of sunlight. My schedule regulated a bit more while I was there, although when I was…

I love the quiet of the night :). I will spend some time every few months reverting to an entirely nocturnal pattern, just to be able to enjoy the peace of the night and not have to fight against myself at all :).

Melatonin has helped me to keep a bit of a balance though (not that you need one, it depends on your life :)), living half in this real world and half in mine has helped me order life a bit and i'm no longer constantly cycling around my sleeping. It's well recommended for circadium disorders.

But I'm lucky to have a job I can start at 11am, even if that's tricky. But with the use of melatonin and loads of other things I don't have to fight myself as much as I used to and can generally get to sleep before 2am(sorry not 1am as above, that would be a miracle). Acceptance definitely helps :).

Haha, I used to do the same with working! I remember once after about 2 weeks straight working 24-40 hour stints I turned to my friend and said "I think i've forgotten how to sleep.". I realised then that sleep takes concentration and if I was overtired I don't have the concentration to get to sleep.

Re: How I became a morning person

#137

Post by enobrev »

LifeQuestioner wrote: post #136
enobrev wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not. Generally I truly appreciate my schedule. It works very well for both focusing on work and enjoying my late-night social life, although I usually have no idea what day of the week or month it is. I spent two years in Seattle where I had an apartment way up on a hill with huge plate glass windows and an inescapable amount of sunlight. My schedule regulated a bit more while I was there, although when I was…

I love the quiet of the night :). I will spend some time every few months reverting to an entirely nocturnal pattern, just to be able to enjoy the peace of the night and not have to fight against myself at all :). Melatonin has helped me to keep a bit of a balance though (not that you need one, it depends on your life :)), living half in this real world and half in mine has helped me order life a bit and i'm no longe…

Being overtired can definitely be a problem as well. I'm on a bit of a stretch right now, as a matter of fact, but I'm planning to avoid my office until late tomorrow to balance it out.

On the other side of the same coin, I've learned not to bother trying if I'm not ready to sleep, and so when I do go to bed, it's because it's time. My wife gets annoyed with my ability to fall asleep about around the moment my head hits the pillow, as it takes her at least 30 minutes.

As for the job schedule, I recently rejoined the freelance world and I'm elated by the idea of going back to MY normal schedule. The company I was working with gave me plenty of [relative] slack because I was productive, but there were still a few too many meetings that kept me on a schedule that didn't really jive. I think that very schedule inadvertently contributed a great deal to my reasons for leaving.

Re: How I became a morning person

#138

Post by superuser2 »

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...

A sun-conscious sleep pattern in Wisconsin implies a 9-hour waking day for a good chunk of the year. No thanks.

Re: How I became a morning person

#139

Post by liamconnell »

mrharrison wrote: post #24
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!

I do exactly the same thing. I get half of my work done before anyone shows up, and just cruise the rest of day or leave early. I don't play the game of staying late to make it look like I'm working hard. I let my work speak for itself, which is easy because I feel great in the morning and there is no one to bother me, so the quality speaks for itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprezzatura

Re: How I became a morning person

#140

Post by collyw »

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…

"But the extra hours don't come from nowhere... you need to compensate by losing a comparable amount of time at night."

I agree, but personally I find I am in the mood for being productive but in the evenings I tend to surf crap websits and not do anything useful.

Curious if others feel the same on this?

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