Ask HN: How do you become a morning person?
I've always been a night owl and enjoy being up late. I have a bad habit of not going to bed until I'm tired, so that leads to me not sleeping until late. Any ideas?
16 comments
I finally managed to do this almost a year ago. Really, this comes down to understanding (and accepting) that your body is built for adaptation. The more steadily you feed it regular inputs, the more it will embrace those inputs and come to expect them.
- Force yourself to wake up at the same time every day -- no sleeping in on weekends.
- You should know roughly how much sleep you need in a night, and arrange your life so that you can get in bed X + 1 hours before the time you want to wake up.
If you can't do these two things at least 90% of your days, you won't succeed. Later (2-3 months later), once you've established your pattern and are well adapted to it, you'll have a bit more flexibility with your schedule and still be able to maintain it.
A few things that helped me accomplish these goals:
- Exercise (cardio) first thing in the morning. You will find yourself getting sleepy much earlier in the day. Don't exercise at night, as the endorphins can take several hours to disperse and will keep you awake until then. After about three weeks of morning cardio, your body will begin to adapt the timing of your energy cycles and you will find yourself springing out of bed ready to run. I have used this to my advantage to replace my "night owl" tendencies with "morning person" tendencies on the days off from the gym. I also find it more productive, as my mind is fully rested.
- Melatonin. Presumably, you're staring at a screen of some sort many hours a day like most people on HN. Blue light inhibits natural melatonin production, so to compensate, take a melatonin supplement 1-2 hours before you intend to actually fall asleep. (You should experiment to find out what the lowest dose is for you which still helps you fall asleep.) Also, turn off as many room lights as you can at that time, and dim any screens you're viewing.
Like I said, it can take a few weeks to initially shift your schedule, and a few months to fully adapt to it, but it can be done if you're dedicated. Best of luck.
- Force yourself to wake up at the same time every day -- no sleeping in on weekends.
- You should know roughly how much sleep you need in a night, and arrange your life so that you can get in bed X + 1 hours before the time you want to wake up.
If you can't do these two things at least 90% of your days, you won't succeed. Later (2-3 months later), once you've established your pattern and are well adapted to it, you'll have a bit more flexibility with your schedule and still be able to maintain it.
A few things that helped me accomplish these goals:
- Exercise (cardio) first thing in the morning. You will find yourself getting sleepy much earlier in the day. Don't exercise at night, as the endorphins can take several hours to disperse and will keep you awake until then. After about three weeks of morning cardio, your body will begin to adapt the timing of your energy cycles and you will find yourself springing out of bed ready to run. I have used this to my advantage to replace my "night owl" tendencies with "morning person" tendencies on the days off from the gym. I also find it more productive, as my mind is fully rested.
- Melatonin. Presumably, you're staring at a screen of some sort many hours a day like most people on HN. Blue light inhibits natural melatonin production, so to compensate, take a melatonin supplement 1-2 hours before you intend to actually fall asleep. (You should experiment to find out what the lowest dose is for you which still helps you fall asleep.) Also, turn off as many room lights as you can at that time, and dim any screens you're viewing.
Like I said, it can take a few weeks to initially shift your schedule, and a few months to fully adapt to it, but it can be done if you're dedicated. Best of luck.
[deleted]
Bought this $7 alarm clock [1]. I set it for 7:30, on a stand just outside my bathroom, twenty feet from my bedroom. It's loud, and I'm terrified that my neighbors hate me. I bolt out of bed, run across the kitchen, fumble to turn it off, then stand there and debate with myself on what to do next.
The shower is closer, easier. 80% of the time I get in, then stand under the hot water for 15 minutes until I gain consciousness. After a few months, I start waking up a few minutes before my alarm goes off.
1. http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-SPC800-Quartz-Analog-Silver/dp/B...
The shower is closer, easier. 80% of the time I get in, then stand under the hot water for 15 minutes until I gain consciousness. After a few months, I start waking up a few minutes before my alarm goes off.
1. http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-SPC800-Quartz-Analog-Silver/dp/B...
Take bioforte resveratrol. That's what worked for me. I'd wake up at the time I wanted to wake up and would take it. After a few days I would always wake up at that time. Also, the thing about resveratrol is that it will give you (clean) energy during the day that will be capped off by feeling tired at night when it's time to go to bed. It has a great normalizing/regulatory effect. You can use Melatonin at night in the beginning, but you probably won't need it permanently.
That said, I went right back to being a night owl. There is something about working late at night into the early morning. Something peaceful, something serene, something that causes me to be more productive than ever. Being a morning person didn't even come close.
That said, I went right back to being a night owl. There is something about working late at night into the early morning. Something peaceful, something serene, something that causes me to be more productive than ever. Being a morning person didn't even come close.
I use a trick I learnt from a rotating shift worker. He didn't use the word 'hack' but that's what it is.
If you find it hard to fall asleep in order to wake up at the desired time, then just skip a sleep cycle. That is, stay awake until you are no more than 10 to 9 hours from when you have to wake up next. The extra hour or two compensates for the missed sleep. Make sure the bedroom is dark, cool and quiet. I need an alarm to wake me up, when it goes off, get up.
Same trick also works for me when adjusting for jet lag. Trying to sleep when you don't feel like it is hard. Staying awake an extra couple of hours when you getting groggy is a bit easier. But don't drink coffee, etc.
If you find it hard to fall asleep in order to wake up at the desired time, then just skip a sleep cycle. That is, stay awake until you are no more than 10 to 9 hours from when you have to wake up next. The extra hour or two compensates for the missed sleep. Make sure the bedroom is dark, cool and quiet. I need an alarm to wake me up, when it goes off, get up.
Same trick also works for me when adjusting for jet lag. Trying to sleep when you don't feel like it is hard. Staying awake an extra couple of hours when you getting groggy is a bit easier. But don't drink coffee, etc.
You may be getting too much light at night, which inhibits the amount of melatonin you generate. Try taking melatonin supplements. http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin
Here are a few things that work for me:
- Exercise in the evening. Helps work off the excess energy. - Eat early and light dinner. - Wind down activities early & unplug after dinner so that your body has a chance to relax. - Set an alarm and don't snooze it. Better yet, restrict the number of snooze (most alarms on smartphones allow you to do that). And set a follow up alarm for your next activity that is soon after the first alarm. This will help with getting a schedule going.
All the best.
- Exercise in the evening. Helps work off the excess energy. - Eat early and light dinner. - Wind down activities early & unplug after dinner so that your body has a chance to relax. - Set an alarm and don't snooze it. Better yet, restrict the number of snooze (most alarms on smartphones allow you to do that). And set a follow up alarm for your next activity that is soon after the first alarm. This will help with getting a schedule going.
All the best.
Force yourself to do it a few times, and make sure that you wake up and get straight to doing your tasks. 11AM will come by and you'll have completed an obscene amount of things and realize that you're not even ready for lunch yet. That's a great feeling. Sure, it's possible at night, but I think one of the major things is the lack of distractions in the early morning. News is slow, reddit/hn is slow, it's more difficult to distract yourself when nobody else is awake.
Military routine, no kidding. I am an owl and during my mandatory service I woke up at 6am every morning and was so tired during the day that I usually fell immediately asleep when I entered a troup transport and sat down. Physical exercise and long work days (you are basically on duty from 6am until you go to bed at 11pm) were probably the main reasons for my transformation.
Of course I am writing this at 0.30 am, so it didn't last :)
Of course I am writing this at 0.30 am, so it didn't last :)
I was the same, and I'm not exactly a morning person at the moment, but I am a lot better. The two main things which are mentioned here are exercise and sleep well.
For the first, I went for resistance training as cardio bores me too much. For the sleep, I just started to eat well (more veg, less pizza) and my body seemed to get into a better rhythm. There were possibly more factors involved, but I guess I'll never know.
For the first, I went for resistance training as cardio bores me too much. For the sleep, I just started to eat well (more veg, less pizza) and my body seemed to get into a better rhythm. There were possibly more factors involved, but I guess I'll never know.
Copious amounts of caffeine. I actually bought a very nice espresso machine with high quality coffee as a motivation to get up early, and it worked.
Also, I've been experimenting with f.lux to shift my screen to be more red than blue after sunset. Supposedly the blue tint on screens reminds the body of sunlight and makes you more awake. I don't know if it works yet, though.
Also, I've been experimenting with f.lux to shift my screen to be more red than blue after sunset. Supposedly the blue tint on screens reminds the body of sunlight and makes you more awake. I don't know if it works yet, though.
My night owl status was cured by having children. I no longer have a choice about what time I wake up.
Semi-seriously though, there's nothing like having to fit something immovable into your schedule for sorting things like this out.
Semi-seriously though, there's nothing like having to fit something immovable into your schedule for sorting things like this out.
That was my trick too, except it was moving in with my girlfriend instead of having a kid (knock on wood). She gets up at 6, and after 45 minutes of her stomping around getting ready for work there's no way I'm getting any more sleep. So I've just embraced it, and now I'm getting up at (around) 6 too.
Have a kid.
Set a different time zone for your residence. I set mine -3 hours from local time. For me the experiment failed though :)
When my environment allows me to get quiet time earlier in the evening, I can naturally shift. All the more so if the morning also offers quiet time to myself.
If my evening is noisy, I end up waiting until it quiets down to "unwind"; I find I typically need a couple of hours of peace and quiet. The exception would be when busy and particularly positive circumstances have me quite tired at the end of the day, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
If my morning kicks off immediately into unpleasant circumstances -- work is fine, but attempting to work despite a bunch of crap is not -- then I find myself staying up later perhaps out of avoidance; I'm not entirely ready to wake up and put myself through that.
TL;DR: I love mornings -- when I can face them rested and not full of crap. Work is not crap, but crappy work is crap.
If my evening is noisy, I end up waiting until it quiets down to "unwind"; I find I typically need a couple of hours of peace and quiet. The exception would be when busy and particularly positive circumstances have me quite tired at the end of the day, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
If my morning kicks off immediately into unpleasant circumstances -- work is fine, but attempting to work despite a bunch of crap is not -- then I find myself staying up later perhaps out of avoidance; I'm not entirely ready to wake up and put myself through that.
TL;DR: I love mornings -- when I can face them rested and not full of crap. Work is not crap, but crappy work is crap.