A good read on sleep (not just Early Riser or Night Owl) - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams / Matthew Walker PhD
Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
171–180 of 358 posts
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#172I'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…
Exact same. Although I did have a kid - three of them. No change. Still most productive between midnight at 4am.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#173If you were able to "no longer be a night owl" after changing diet, through exercise or by other changes in your behavior, you were in fact never an actual night owl but simply someone with bad sleeping habits. You read the same thing whenever there's a discussion on clinical depression. People push their anecdotes about mindset changes but fail to acknowledge they were never clinically depressed in the first place.
I have a very hard time believing that this stuff has to do with anything other than having the discipline to have a proper sleep schedule. It's possible to adjust your sleep schedule. People do it all the time when they change timezones. I didn't read the article, I'll go read it and update if I change my mind..
Yes, people can adapt to different timezone. However what's interesting is that night owls will adapt based on their own circadian rhythm. If you are someone with delayed circadian rhythm, you would end up synchronizing to the local timezone but still fall asleep after midnight.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#174I'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 feel this.
I'm a naturally night owl. I've had years of being more productive at the office between 5 PM and 8 PM than the entire time between 9 AM and 5 PM. For a while, a sudden burst of productivity was the thing that let me know I was at the office late.
Conversely, I also have a tendency to wake up with the sun, full of energy, when there's sun (and, living in Vancouver, that's about 50% of the time on average).
Then... I had a kid.
This morning, I was awake at 5 AM. Got up to go to the bathroom, went back to bed, started drifting off, and then what felt like a herd of elephants came storming into the bedroom, climbed into bed, went for some cuddles, and then just started thrashing around from being bored. Guess I'm awake now, then.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#175I'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…
Exercise everyday as soon as you wake up for 30 minutes may help reset your brain (treadmill or similar would work or a brisk walk before you shower). Your brain will naturally anticipate the exercise and wake up faster because it has to do so. It would take 3 weeks to become a habit.
Also sometimes this can be an early sign of sleep apnea if you fall into the other risk factors. CPAP + room air filter + blackout curtains + exercise changed my life. I can't sleep later than 6:30 AM if I wanted to now. Used to be a very hardcore night owl and now brain shuts down at a reasonable time at night with no pills.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rising body temperature is correlated with tiredness, that's why you feel exhausted after you've been home for 5 minutes. Meditation itself was 'mindfulness', some of it was guided, most of it was not, guided meditation was once a week (I'm not counting the yoga, which was also meditative), I spent 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at lunch, 15 minutes when I got home and 5 minutes before bed. (and I'm pretty well…
The only thing I can recommend that's helped me significantly in a rigorous way is tracking HRV overnight (heart rate variability). This is an objective indirect measure of HPA axis activity (parasympathetic vs sympathetic nervous systems). Having that data to form a feedback loop is priceless in helping you determine what things you're doing in the day that is actually having an effect on your stress levels one way…
> Having that data to form a feedback loop is priceless
I'm surprised to hear this, although I'm glad it works for you.
I wear an Apple Watch Series 3 night and day, which reports HRV. I've found it to be pretty difficult to draw conclusions from since the measurement stays pretty much the same even when significantly changing lifestyle/habits. Over the past year I have went pure vegan (went down 15% body weight), went from exercising 0 days a week to 6x 1 hour high intensity, went from chronically sleep deprived to 7-8 hours / night, and HRV has been exactly the same.
Perhaps the accuracy of the apple watch isn't so great compared to what you're using. My measurement tends to fluctuate between 25ms - 40ms throughout the month with an average of 30ms over the entire month for the past year, despite the dramatic lifestyle changes mentioned above.
I've noticed Apple Watch's VO2 max measurements are also -very- unreliable. Mine has decreased 25% in the past year despite being at a dramatically higher cardio fitness level.
Curious if anyone else with an Apple Watch has had a similar experience with these measurements. I really like the idea of using them as a feedback loop, which is partly why I wear an apple watch to begin with, but hasn't quite panned out.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#177So my natural rhythm is working 10-2 and then a lull until 4-6, and then a lull until midnight, I wouldn't get tired until 2am. Not ideal for a 9-5 job with kids. I'd also need a nap around 5:30-7 or so, also not wife-compatible to fall asleep at 5:30pm for an hour. I started using a SAD lamp and it makes a huge difference, 30 minutes in the morning, I just browse my phone in front of it. It feels like a cup of coffe…
At the risk of you being accused of shilling (a risk I'm happy to take ;) ), would you mind sharing the model of the lamp you have found to work well?
I picked up this one on craigslist, Northern Light Technology Boxelite, Light Therapy Box. The effect is enough that I bought a smaller Verilux touch model for work, but it's a third of the size (but much slimmer so it'll fit on my desk in the office). Haven't remembered to bring the smaller one to work, but I'd imagine I'd need more time in front of it.
The big one I have is the 4th one on this page. https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-sad-lamps.html
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#178This might get lost in the flood of comments, but I'm still very much a night owl. However, I don't find it difficult getting to work at 9AM and making it through the day anymore. Really the largest change for me was just not doing as much after work.
I used to work on projects where I'd be up anywhere from 1AM - 4AM. I really hated to do it, but I started a new job with new responsibilities so I had to be on top of my game during the day. It REALLY makes me yearn for a 32 hour work week because now I'm missing out on the side stuff I used to do.
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I made the switch. Not intentionally; it just kind of happened. I think there were a lot of things that made it work, like taking up running (in the mornings), avoiding stimulants, and good sleep hygiene. But the one that finally made the difference surprised me: it's that I'm not a responsible lightswitch user. I built an automated lighting system such that dawn in my house comes at 6 am and gets gradually brighter.…
I don't have an elaborate setup as yours but I have found the most dramatic improvement by getting one of these: https://www.philips.ca/c-p/HF3670_60/smartsleep-connected-sl... It's a sunrise and sunset alarm clock. I wake up at 5:15 AM on a daily basis and 20 minutes before, the light starts with increasing brightness. At 5:08 AM, I have selected ocean waves for the sound and at 5:15 the loud alarm comes on. It's be…
I also have an older model of that. What I found however is that if my back is turned to it when it starts brightening up its effect is greatly diminished. It simply doesn't have enough power to brighten the whole room.
Does the newer model mitigate this issue?
Re: Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference
#180I'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…
Exercise everyday as soon as you wake up for 30 minutes may help reset your brain (treadmill or similar would work or a brisk walk before you shower). Your brain will naturally anticipate the exercise and wake up faster because it has to do so. It would take 3 weeks to become a habit. Also sometimes this can be an early sign of sleep apnea if you fall into the other risk factors. CPAP + room air filter + blackout cur…
> Your brain will naturally anticipate the exercise and wake up faster because it has to do so.
It's amazing how true this is. My first day in the military they woke us up early with an air horn and we immediately started running and doing pushups. Like everybody else, I was disoriented for a few minutes.
After doing that for weeks it was fine though.