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Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

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Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#11

Post by npongratz »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #4
bilekas wrote: post #2

I am very much a night owl and I have a really hard time getting into a routine of getting up early in the morning, even if I do manage to get my hours of sleep. It took a long time to find a balance of forcing to sleep and forcing to get up. But now I have to be very concious, if I have a late weekend I am out of sync for the rest of the week. People say its a lazy thing, but its really not.

Maybe it’s just the small subset of software engineers who frequent HN, but I swear 99.9% of the people on here are night owls, and they very much let their opinions be known on every thread about sleep.

Perhaps because this is one place where kindred spirits feel comfortable sharing without fear of the denigration we've experienced our entire lives -- the overt and the subtle, conscious and inadvertent, the malicious and the good-intentioned.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#12

Post by phero_cnstrcts »

cadence- wrote: post #7
bilekas wrote: post #2

I am very much a night owl and I have a really hard time getting into a routine of getting up early in the morning, even if I do manage to get my hours of sleep. It took a long time to find a balance of forcing to sleep and forcing to get up. But now I have to be very concious, if I have a late weekend I am out of sync for the rest of the week. People say its a lazy thing, but its really not.

I’m in the same boat. It’s very hard for me to operate on a schedule compatible with the rest of society. I can force myself into it, but I never really feel well rested. What makes matters worse is if I don’t keep my sleeping schedule for two or three days, everything gets messed up again and I see myself reverting back to falling asleep at 3am. It’s really hard and it limits greatly my employment options. I’m sure…

Which is why I hate Scrum.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#13

Post by iamkroot »

thrower123 wrote: post #8

I'm a night owl, primarily because it's the easiest way to steal a couple extra hours to do things I actually enjoy out of the four-hour-life slog. Trying to take those hours from the morning doesn't really work, because there is the hard-stop deadline of having to get ready to go to work, and the chances of somebody else interrupting me and fucking up what I'm trying to do is almost certain, whereas once the world i…

See, that's exactly how I feel about being up in the early morning! The rest of the world is still asleep and I get it all to myself.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#14

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

iamkroot wrote: post #13
thrower123 wrote: post #8

I'm a night owl, primarily because it's the easiest way to steal a couple extra hours to do things I actually enjoy out of the four-hour-life slog. Trying to take those hours from the morning doesn't really work, because there is the hard-stop deadline of having to get ready to go to work, and the chances of somebody else interrupting me and fucking up what I'm trying to do is almost certain, whereas once the world i…

See, that's exactly how I feel about being up in the early morning! The rest of the world is still asleep and I get it all to myself.

Me too. I'd much rather get to work early and steal an extra hour or two of very high quality work than try to do that extra effort after a day of distractions and people.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#16

Post by zozbot234 »

bilekas wrote: post #2

I am very much a night owl and I have a really hard time getting into a routine of getting up early in the morning, even if I do manage to get my hours of sleep. It took a long time to find a balance of forcing to sleep and forcing to get up. But now I have to be very concious, if I have a late weekend I am out of sync for the rest of the week. People say its a lazy thing, but its really not.

Early risers have to "force" themselves to stay up late, since they got up so early in the morning. Really, changing one's "chronotype" is mostly just a matter of what you're used to, and what kinds of "stressors" you incur during the day. If you don't want to be a "night owl", don't do stressful stuff late in the afternoon or at night.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#17

Post by sqs »

I used to be a night owl but switched to being an early riser in the last 3 months. I didn't intend to switch and am not sure why it happened, but here's what happened that probably contributed to it:

- Started working out 1-2 hours per day (trail hiking/running)

- Stopped reading my iPhone in bed at night, now I just read my backlit Kindle

- Company switched to all-remote (used to commute to SF)

- Had a daughter (~9 months old now, so not coincident with the sleep switch)

- Almost all of my job responsibilities are management now (previously I was still doing more IC-like work)

- Cut down on sugar intake

If you asked me 3 months ago, I would have sworn I'd be a night owl for the rest of my life. So, this is quite a (pleasant) shock to me. Posting this in case it's helpful to anyone who's a night owl and thinks it's impossible for anyone to switch.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#18

Post by airstrike »

milofeynman wrote: post #9
giancarlostoro wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to have nasty insomnia, now I've sorta forced myself to sleep earlier cause I know if not I will not function at work. However, my wife's a night nurse so when she has days off and on weekends, it screws with my sleep schedule. I wish I could just function on less sleep honestly, but I can't anymore. One thing I read from a fellow insomniac though was that sometimes when you just can't sleep, laying down on your…

You definitely don't want bright lights in your eyes (computer) if you're trying to sleep. I've heard getting up and doing a menial task (dishes, knitting, etc) for a few minutes can help if you've laid in bed for a long time with no luck.

My personal tactic is to eat any simple carb and proceed to do something incredibly boring like reading https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/tpavone/fi...

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#19

Post by wenc »

sqs wrote: post #17

I used to be a night owl but switched to being an early riser in the last 3 months. I didn't intend to switch and am not sure why it happened, but here's what happened that probably contributed to it: - Started working out 1-2 hours per day (trail hiking/running) - Stopped reading my iPhone in bed at night, now I just read my backlit Kindle - Company switched to all-remote (used to commute to SF) - Had a daughter (~9…

> - Had a daughter

Not coincident, but helps a lot. Anecdotally, in my circles, the switch happened when folks had children or when they joined the military.

Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference

#20

Post by zozbot234 »

saagarjha wrote: post #3

There's early risers, night owls, and those who are still awake an hour after sunrise and should really get off of Hacker News…

If you're 'still' awake an hour after sunrise, does that mean you're technically an early riser?
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