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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

#111

Post by shawabawa3 »

dijit wrote: post #39

I've been a night owl my whole life, with the exception of that period during secondary school where I was so depressed in the evenings I went to bed early and as a consequence woke up super early. I have followed every advice, meditation (1yr), excercise (3*1.5hrs per week for 18 months), staving off screens after 18:00 (8mo), no caffiene, no sugar, no food of any kind, I also tried: too much food, cooling my body d…

Wait, is waking up at nearly 9am late?

I wake up between 8 and 10 daily (I have very flexible working hours atm)

I optimised my home for a short commute and have never had a job where arriving before 10am was required

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

#112

Post by mahalol »

yumraj wrote: post #81
dijit wrote: post #39

I've been a night owl my whole life, with the exception of that period during secondary school where I was so depressed in the evenings I went to bed early and as a consequence woke up super early. I have followed every advice, meditation (1yr), excercise (3*1.5hrs per week for 18 months), staving off screens after 18:00 (8mo), no caffiene, no sugar, no food of any kind, I also tried: too much food, cooling my body d…

> Based on the comments here, I just need to have a kid. Personal anecdote, that won't help much. You'll still sleep at midnight, except that instead of waking at 9:00am, you'll have to wake up at 6:00am.

Midnight to 5.30 for me. It's considerably better than when he used to wake up several times a night. Never going through that again.

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

#113

Post by fluuuhi »

arcturus17 wrote: post #91
dijit wrote: post #39

I've been a night owl my whole life, with the exception of that period during secondary school where I was so depressed in the evenings I went to bed early and as a consequence woke up super early. I have followed every advice, meditation (1yr), excercise (3*1.5hrs per week for 18 months), staving off screens after 18:00 (8mo), no caffiene, no sugar, no food of any kind, I also tried: too much food, cooling my body d…

I've done everything too, and the only thing that works for me is sleeping pills. I think it's a very unpopular view nowadays (esp. after Why We Sleep), but a small dose of a benzodiazepine changes my life completely. I'm in the midst of a full diagnostic course including cerebral scans, a sleep study and blood analysis, but my neurologist told me there's a good chance that nothing actionable will be revealed and tha…

I have thought about Benzos but to be honest, all the stories of addiction and old people becoming hazi/stupid (temporarily) frightens me.

I try to sleep through weed (indica). I'm not to happy about it but that works more or less.

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

#114

Post by bArray »

Huh, I always woundered why I live a 28-30 hour day. My sleep schedule continuously drifts as a result - luckily I live a lifestyle where it's possible to get away with this.

I did used to do a 9-to-5, but what ended up happening was that I slept less and struggled to keep in control over the weekends. Luckily the people I live with would wake me up (just by carrying out their own routines).

These days I typically sleep ~4 hours a night to keep some osrt of schedule. As others have mentioned, diet, exercise, etc, etc, no change seems to break this habit. To the surprise of many, I am also able to remain productive for all but a few of the last hours - some days I have commit streaks spanning something like 18 hours.

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

#115

Post by jniedrauer »

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…

I had a similar experience, and starting to run was what did it. These days I wake up at 5am and run for 1-2 hours. I've been on this schedule for over a year now, and it's completely changed my life. I don't know how I used to function waking up 15 minutes before work.

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

#116

Post by frosted-flakes »

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…

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

I think you mean your front-lit Kindle. The iPhone has a back-lit screen.

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

#117

Post by zarmin »

bArray wrote: post #114

Huh, I always woundered why I live a 28-30 hour day. My sleep schedule continuously drifts as a result - luckily I live a lifestyle where it's possible to get away with this. I did used to do a 9-to-5, but what ended up happening was that I slept less and struggled to keep in control over the weekends. Luckily the people I live with would wake me up (just by carrying out their own routines). These days I typically sl…

Out of curiosity, do you have ADHD?

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

#118

Post by dot1x »

For those interested, Internal Time [1] does a good job at explaining chronotypes.

People that say they "changed from night owl to early riser" (or vice-versa) have never been night owls in the first place, but something else was the cause (diet, screen time, etc).

Chronotypes are genetics-based so no amount of wishful thinking will make you a night owl or an early riser (though obviously you can try and force this with alarm clocks / melatonin... to your own risk).

Another book worth mentioning is Why we sleep by Walker. It has it's flaws but overall does a good job at explaining the importance of sleep.

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Yo...

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

#119

Post by eitland »

dijit wrote: post #39

I've been a night owl my whole life, with the exception of that period during secondary school where I was so depressed in the evenings I went to bed early and as a consequence woke up super early. I have followed every advice, meditation (1yr), excercise (3*1.5hrs per week for 18 months), staving off screens after 18:00 (8mo), no caffiene, no sugar, no food of any kind, I also tried: too much food, cooling my body d…

I'm extremely different. I was tired in the morning and tired in the night until I started getting up much earlier.

I now wake up at around 0355 every weekday. I'm still as tired in the night but at least my day feels a whole lot better and while I'm still tired at night like before it hasn't gotten worse, it might even have improved a bit.

I'm wondering if - with todays technology for remoting and asynchronous teamwork - if some companies will test if they get better results if they let certain people work at night?

(Been living like this for 4+ years now so the novelty should be gone by now and I still enjoy it.)

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

#120

Post by athenot »

seer wrote: post #48

This may be very anecdotal but might help someone in a similar predicament. After reading Why We Sleep I think I got some explanation what happened to me, but at least for my case it seems it wasn't really on the money. I _was_ able to make the switch from night owl to an early bird myself so it's certainly possible, though requires some effort and dedication. I naturally woke up at 10 am and didn't really like morni…

This is interesting. I wonder if a memorable experience like the one you describe is what creates a desire within our brain to recreate more of the same. Whether it's the fresh air/sun/awesomeness of communal enjoyment of the sunrise or the chill afterhours at night when all is quiet and there is that feeling that we could code for hours with no fear of disruption.
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