If you do not sleep enough, your life will be shorter!
Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
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Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#12have children - you will quickly become an early riser ;)
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#13I'd recommend sleeping in a room that gets sunlight as early as possible. As the room warms up (and gets brighter), you'll naturally wake up less groggily. If your schedule can handle it, try just going to sleep when you are tired and seeing when you wake up (ie. don't use an alarm at all). I tried this for about six months, and the following happened. The first week or two I slept upwards of 10-11 hours a night, and…
I'd recommend this as well - particularly waking with the sun. I've been in some light-deprived places, and then I got a wake-up light (basically it slowly lights up the room, rather than an alarm).
Instead of having an alarm BAM wake up, it's much more natural - you'll find yourself thinking "hey I'm awake". Much, much more pleasant.
I used to wake up to my nokia mobile phone alarm (which are excruciatingly loud). I'd snooze it about 4-5 times... Terrible habit. It would totally wreck me for the morning.
I also tend to exercise in the morning. I find this motivating. Doing this, or taking a walk, or something similar - you hit the day in peak form.
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#14It depends on your biochemistry to a large degree. Some people need hardly any sleep, some do _much_ better work if they sleep a full night's sleep, which can be defined anywhere between 6 and 10 hours. Some people do well on a 24-hour clock, some don't. Minor sleep disorders are common and often not diagnosed.
Don't worry about anyone else (one of the luxuries of a lot of tech jobs), find the schedule that leaves you feeling alert and awake and able to get things done. If you need 8 hours of sleep to be able to code the next day and not walk through the day in a haze - that's you. If you do well keeping a fixed schedule and not deviating, that's great. But if not, don't fight it, listen to your body.
Similarly, some people can code for 10, 12 hour stretches. Some people stop doing useful things after 4 hours without a serious break. Experiment, find what works for you, and _do not_ expect other people to work like you do. Focus on end goals, not processes.
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#15Go to bed earlier at night.
This plus consistency (i.e. Don't try to wake up at 5AM M-F and then sleep til noon every Saturday and Sunday).
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#161. Plan in the evening what exact tasks you are going to do in the morning. Come up with detailed tasks - code this function, debug this issue, write follow-up emails, etc. If the tasks are not defined, then it's hard to push yourself to wake up early in the morning.
Basically you need a reason to wake up in the morning. If we don't have reason, then even if alarm rings, we snooze it and procrastinate waking up at the decided time.
Do all brainstorming, planning, HN/news/blogs reading in the night. And decide a clear action plan for the morning.
2. Sleep early. One of my advisers sleeps at 10-10:30 in the night, and wakes up at 4am. I tried following same pattern, and it worked flawlessly. I used to get solid work done in 4am-8am before I go to my day job.
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#17Go to bed earlier at night.
True words. A connection can be made to the programming. It's generally accepted by programmers that there is no way to "hack" the process of becoming a really great programmer. That's why it's obvious that the whole notion of "[Persons] Teach Yourself [Enterprise Language] in [Unrealistic Time Frame]" is just garbage. Yet I personally had a hard time accepting that a good night's sleep wasn't hackable. I've tried all the methods you can think of: various routines and schedules, etc. When it comes down to it, like programming, it's something you can't hack. Trying to hack a good night's sleep is much like trying to learn a programing language quickly. True success requires effort and consistency, in the case of sleep, going to bed early.
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#18My wife is out the door very early in the morning. I make sure I get out of bed when she comes in to say goodbye for the day.
My alarm clock has proven ineffective. I'll wake up an hour after it should have woken me up and realize I turned it off in my sleep
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#19If you’re able, you should do what comes naturally. Are you a night-owl or a morning person? If you’re asking about how to wake up earlier, I’d guess the former. I’m simply more productive and creative in the AM, so I rise each day at 5:30. For me, knowing when I'm the most please with my own production is my motivation. But, by the time 2 or 3 rolls around in the afternoon I’m all out of juice. And truth be told if…
If you’re able, you should do what comes naturally
Not sure I agree with this - For me, sleeping is just a habit. I get into the habit of staying up late, or the habit of getting up early.
This makes it sound trivial - but it's not - habits take work to form and work to change.
Naturally everyone is different. I'm sure there is research that disagrees with me :-) But that's my experience anyway.
Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?
#20Do it consistently. I just started rising at 9:30 (this is early for me) every day a few weeks ago, and I now wake up naturally without the alarm, and usually by 9. It only took about four or five days with the alarm and going to bed at a reasonably consistent time (between 1AM and 2AM) every day before I was comfortable waking at this time. I even "slept in" this morning after waking naturally at about 7:30...I rolled over and went back to sleep and got up again at 9:15 feeling pretty well rested. I often take a 20 minute nap between 4 and 6 in the afternoon.
I'm a lifetime overachiever in the field of sleep. If I can convert to a 7-8 hour sleep schedule, anybody can. And I've found that consistency is about the only way I can do it without feeling like crap during the day...so no more all-nighters, no matter how awesome whatever I'm working on is.