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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?

#91

Post by FlorinAndrei »

niels_olson wrote: post #55
pg wrote: post #8

Go to bed earlier at night.

To go to bed earlier 1) get up earlier 2) You can only shift your schedule about 1 hour per day. You can try shifting it more, but you're going to have sweater-head, nausea and hot flashes. If you go from getting up at 11 to getting up at 5, expect five days of feeling like crap. 3) The pineal gland is activated by light incident on the retina. So calculate when you need to go to sleep based on when you get up, and s…

white noise? yuk! it's like chewing broken glass.

Pink noise is much more smooth.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#92

Post by ciupicri »

shard wrote: post #44
ciupicri wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I have a problem going to bed earlier? Sometimes, I can stay awake in the bed for at least an hour, if not even a couple of hours. It's like when you suffer from insomnia. By the way, have a look at this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

Try melatonin. They usually come in 3mg pills, and I find that a quarter pill will do me fine, triggering a drowsy phase in about half an hour lasting for about half an hour. If I am in bed with the lights out, I will sleep the rest of the night. I am a night owl. When I'm not working, I naturally phase shift until I go to sleep at 5AM. When my workplace instituted a less flexible flex time so that I had to get there…

I would prefer not to use any kind of pills/drugs.

I have tried drinking some tea made from lime/tilia-tree blossoms and some other plants, but it wasn't quite enough. It makes me sleepy, but just a bit and for a very short time. If I don't go to bed in the next 5 minutes or so, its effect seems to vanish in thin air.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#93

Post by rms »

shard wrote: post #44
ciupicri wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I have a problem going to bed earlier? Sometimes, I can stay awake in the bed for at least an hour, if not even a couple of hours. It's like when you suffer from insomnia. By the way, have a look at this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

Try melatonin. They usually come in 3mg pills, and I find that a quarter pill will do me fine, triggering a drowsy phase in about half an hour lasting for about half an hour. If I am in bed with the lights out, I will sleep the rest of the night. I am a night owl. When I'm not working, I naturally phase shift until I go to sleep at 5AM. When my workplace instituted a less flexible flex time so that I had to get there…

Melatonin is essential if you want to adjust your sleeping schedule quickly and it has a nice side effect of causing vivid dreams.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#94

Post by [deleted] »

jonas_b wrote: post #27
pg wrote: post #8

Go to bed earlier at night.

To expand on PGs comment a little bit. I used to have serious problems with onset insomnia, almost to the point of making me sick. While trying to find a solution, I found that having a few quiet, "boring" hours before I go to bed helps me a lot to fall a sleep earlier and quicker. This means no tv, no internet, loud music etc. At first, this was extremely frustrating for me, I felt that I needed some kind audio/visu…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#97

Post by radu_floricica »

geeko wrote: post #88
radu_floricica wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The starvation study I remember said _don't_ eat 16 hours before you wake up, and then eat well. Then the body will remember the time you got food, and make sure you're awake for it. Also, this is the least useful comment by pg i've seen in a long while. It's not even funny if you happen to be a late sleeper.

This is maybe related to the study which shows you can reprogram your biological clock by not eating? http://www.livescience.com/health/080522-food-clock.html

Yes, this is it.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#98

Post by radu_floricica »

jhancock wrote: post #78
radu_floricica wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The starvation study I remember said _don't_ eat 16 hours before you wake up, and then eat well. Then the body will remember the time you got food, and make sure you're awake for it. Also, this is the least useful comment by pg i've seen in a long while. It's not even funny if you happen to be a late sleeper.

The description by niels_olson is thorough and in large part amounts to "how to get to sleep earlier". The pg comment simple cuts to the point and says "get to sleep earlier" without the medical explanations of "how and why". The are both very useful and correct answers to the OP. I don't think it needs to be funny. Its simply correct. Most of us have far too much to do every day and end up working too late. If you w…

If you are a late sleeper, you've gone through a long time, usually many years, trying to do exactly that. Knowing you need to go to sleep earlier is trivial.. scraping all those pieces of information and making countless adjustments to your schedule in order to actually do it is not.

Somewhat off topic, you realize it's a real disservice to pg to upvote and defend any comment he makes indiscriminately? Or even with less discretion then normal.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#99

Post by shard »

ciupicri wrote: post #92
shard wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try melatonin. They usually come in 3mg pills, and I find that a quarter pill will do me fine, triggering a drowsy phase in about half an hour lasting for about half an hour. If I am in bed with the lights out, I will sleep the rest of the night. I am a night owl. When I'm not working, I naturally phase shift until I go to sleep at 5AM. When my workplace instituted a less flexible flex time so that I had to get there…

I would prefer not to use any kind of pills/drugs. I have tried drinking some tea made from lime/tilia-tree blossoms and some other plants, but it wasn't quite enough. It makes me sleepy, but just a bit and for a very short time. If I don't go to bed in the next 5 minutes or so, its effect seems to vanish in thin air.

5 minutes seems like plenty of time, assuming you place the tea right next to your bed and drink it once you've gotten into bed.

Natural ways to induce drowsiness include sex and turkey. A good workout and a hot shower a couple of hours before bed also makes it easier for me to fall asleep.

Re: Ask HN: How can I get up early in the morning?

#100

Post by swivelmaster »

FlorinAndrei wrote: post #91
niels_olson wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To go to bed earlier 1) get up earlier 2) You can only shift your schedule about 1 hour per day. You can try shifting it more, but you're going to have sweater-head, nausea and hot flashes. If you go from getting up at 11 to getting up at 5, expect five days of feeling like crap. 3) The pineal gland is activated by light incident on the retina. So calculate when you need to go to sleep based on when you get up, and s…

white noise? yuk! it's like chewing broken glass. Pink noise is much more smooth.

I think most people don't know there's a difference. And yeah, you're right.
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