Ask HN: how to become a morning person? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#81

Post by kbutler » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 7:54 PM UTC

gte910h wrote: post #14

I had issues with sleeping when others do for a long while. I do not anymore (although get out of sync again about 2x a year). 1. Caffeine and you: You have a certain sensitivity to this drug. You may also be misusing it. Generally speaking, it's a late morning, early afternoon only drug. Late morning is the only place it starts working as its an adenosine antagonist, and you don't start getting adenosine in any real…

Re: #2 "read in a different room"

Inapplicable for me - I often lie in bed for a long period of time with my mind buzzing about work/responsibilities/projects/news/... But if I read a few pages of a novel in bed, it shifts my brain right out of "active" mode into "sleep" mode, and I can fall asleep easily. Reading in another room involves climbing the stairs and puts me right back into active mode.

The important part is that in-bed activities prepare you for sleep, rather than encouraging wakefulness. (e.g., my wife will read to the end of the novel rather than going to sleep...)

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#82

Post by gte910h » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 11:13 PM UTC

gbog wrote: post #73

gte910h wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These aren't my tips. Sleep doctors say don't read in bed over and over: http://www.sleepassociation.org/index.php?p=sleephygienetips I know it's nice to read in bed, but it's bad for sleep. It's not like you have to do everything in the list up there to get sleep, but the sacrosanct "Bed is for sleeping, only" is the #1 thing for many people. I often read Before bed, but on the couch, not IN bed.

I don't know. Skimming over this page you linked I have again those thought about how the world is filled with so many different customs, people, problems, even sleeping habits. I leave in China right now and these tips look very weird, exotic from here. For example, what do they (ASA) have against a short nap? Here the countryside girls selling vegetables in local markets do nap on their lines of carrots. I bet you…

Naps are fine if you can still sleep at night. These are for people who can't sleep when they want to.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#83

Post by terlisimo » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 11:19 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #3

Getting lots of exercise makes it easier to fall asleep at night. The ultimate solution, however, is to have a small child.

YES! Wearing yourself out does wonders for your sleep. I'd bet that 99% of people with sleeping problems have sitting jobs.

Only exhausting your brain without exhausting your body will just make you weary without making you feel sleepy. Your mind needs rest but your body is restless because it wants action :)

I remember when I had to do a mandatory 6-month army service period after college and during that time it took me about 2 minutes after lights-out to fall asleep. Actually, I was sooo sleepy all of the time that I learned how to take short naps whenever and whenever I could (especially after lunch).

The experience made me realize that, for most of the people who have it, insomnia was not a health problem that should be treated with drugs but just an imbalance between body and spirit, if I may say so :)

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#84

Post by scotty79 » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 12:44 AM UTC

Take a 5 mg of melatonine at 21:30 and after thirty minutes turn off the lights and the computer, lay down in bed and close your eyes.

After few days of such treatment you'll be more morning person than you've ever been.

Don't try to stop taking melatonine unless you are very strong willed (which you are probably not).

You may want to reduce the dose to 1 mg and 3 mg if you notice it's enough.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#85

Post by russjhammond » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 1:39 AM UTC

I have been fighting the same issue myself and finally just asked myself, why do I care about being a morning person? The honest answer was that I thought I should be one.

Since that revelation I have stopped fighting it and just accepted that I am not. I don't sleep more than about 7 hours a day so there is no major problem with this approach.

Try just accepting that you don't really want to be a morning person and see if that works for you.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#86

Post by bdclimber14 » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 5:24 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #3

Getting lots of exercise makes it easier to fall asleep at night. The ultimate solution, however, is to have a small child.

Exercise makes or breaks a good night's sleep for me. It's so necessary in fact that I'd equate my need for a good run to my coffee addiction.

Two staph infections this past year that have prohibited me from running, my preferred exercise, causing me to be completely unable to sleep without drugs. Fortunately, a symptom of a staph infection is a prescription for hydrocodone.

As Richard Branson declared, the secret weapon to productivity is exercise.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#87

Post by Jarred » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 5:55 AM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #84

Take a 5 mg of melatonine at 21:30 and after thirty minutes turn off the lights and the computer, lay down in bed and close your eyes. After few days of such treatment you'll be more morning person than you've ever been. Don't try to stop taking melatonine unless you are very strong willed (which you are probably not). You may want to reduce the dose to 1 mg and 3 mg if you notice it's enough.

Melatonin's nice, but I can't sleep any more than 8 hours on it (I need around 9.5), and if you sleep less than 8 hours it makes the individual groggy.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#88

Post by tobylane » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 10:02 AM UTC

Find a reason to. This morning I got out of bed early for the F1 race, even though I was recording it (I watched the whole thing with about a ten second delay plus my own replays a few times).

One thing that is going to work very often is the need for the toilet. Drink a lot before bed, you will wake up well and roughly at the right time. I've only ever once woken up too early for the toilet, and without turning the bathroom light on, went back to sleep easily.

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#89

Post by jtheory » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 1:15 PM UTC

lkozma wrote: post #49

gte910h wrote: post #14

I had issues with sleeping when others do for a long while. I do not anymore (although get out of sync again about 2x a year). 1. Caffeine and you: You have a certain sensitivity to this drug. You may also be misusing it. Generally speaking, it's a late morning, early afternoon only drug. Late morning is the only place it starts working as its an adenosine antagonist, and you don't start getting adenosine in any real…

All great points, I would add one more: forget the alarm clock. If you can afford a variation of 30 mins - 1hour in wake up time, get up when you wake up naturally. Access to natural sunlight in the morning is best. It's amazing how precisely wake-up times synchronize automatically, but I find the alarm clock really really harmful. See this for a strong opinion: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm

There are plenty of alarm clocks available that either fade in ocean noises (or similar), or will play an MP3 that you upload (and you can choose something like that -- slowly fading in white noise).

I actually generally agree with the advice -- my wife and I only use the alarm clock when we have some kind of morning appointment or travel -- but in that case the one we have works well -- it gradually increases the lights and fades in the "alarm" (mostly white noise), and it's gentle enough that when only one of us needs to get up, it's pretty rare that it wakes both of us, just the one who's "primed" to wake up unusually early. And it never wakes the baby (who sleeps in the bed with us).

So yeah, any kind of "jolt" alarm clock is a really bad way to start the day, but they're still useful devices (and waking to an alarm doesn't need to be so painful).

Re: Ask HN: how to become a morning person?

#90

Post by jtheory » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 1:22 PM UTC

gte910h wrote: post #14

I had issues with sleeping when others do for a long while. I do not anymore (although get out of sync again about 2x a year). 1. Caffeine and you: You have a certain sensitivity to this drug. You may also be misusing it. Generally speaking, it's a late morning, early afternoon only drug. Late morning is the only place it starts working as its an adenosine antagonist, and you don't start getting adenosine in any real…

These are good tips; I'd add that it's quite important to reduce the amount of refined sugar you consume during the day (and particularly late in the day).

I've read about this, but also noticed a pretty strong effect personally... when I eat any significant amount of sugar late in the day, it's noticeably less pleasant to get up the next morning (like a kind of mini-hangover).

Going to sleep isn't ever a problem (unfortunately, this is at least partly because I'm normally relatively sleep-deprived...) but of course sending your blood sugar spiking up (and plummeting down) all day is likely to make it harder to settle down at bedtime for most people.

Edit: forgot to add -- I'm interested to notice disagreements with the "no reading" rule. In my personal experience, this is an iron-clad rule. If I read "before" bed, even if the material is fairly dry, my brain kicks into gear, and all sleepiness disappears unless I'm seriously deprived at the time. And I don't generally have much sense of time passing when I'm absorbed, so I've had many experiences of slowly realizing that the room's appearance has changed (and there are new noises) because the sun is up, and the birds are going nuts outside my window. And the 2-hour drive I have to make that day (or whatever it may be) is going to be painful.