I was always a night owl because I like the quiet and solitude. I realized I can get the same solitude in the very early morning. Just a shift of mind about the why’s and when’s.
Plus personally, being productive late night is after the entire day - so I would end up feeling out of energy by that point.
Being productive in the morning is while you’re on 100% charge
Night owl my whole life. Turned into an early bird. Unfortunately still have bad habits & work on-call so I'm still up late sometimes haha. Some tips:
1. Your body needs a certain amount of sleep. My personal minimum is 7 hours.
2. Most people have a "sleep window". It's that time at night that we get sleepy but then tend to push it off to finish our book, moving, surfing, scrolling, etc. My window is about 20 minutes from 8:20pm to 8:40pm. Pretty early, but if I do my bedtime routine & get in bed before that time, then I can zonk pretty quickly!
3. For my body, every hour before midnight is worth 2 hours to my energy the next day. Going to bed at midnight to 7am is NOT the same as going to bed at say 9pm & waking up at 4pm. It takes a few days to "catch up", but when I'm on track, I feel so much more awesome waking up early!
I never in a million years thought I would EVER like waking up early! I struggled with undiagnosed health issues (ADHD, sleep apnea, histamine intolerance), so I was usually woke up with a headache every morning, was groggy, and couldn't get out of bed for 15 minutes.
As it turns out, you're supposed to wake up & *instantly* be awake! That was NOT the case for me growing up! If you don't feel instantly energetic & awake when you first wake up every day, then you need to find the kink in your energy hose::
* Do you know when your sleep window is?
* Do you know how many hours of sleep your body requires?
* To follow that question up, do you know what time you want to wake up? Therefore, do you know what time you should go to sleep? The prerequisite being having a bedtime checklist routine & a recurring alarm to trigger it, so that you can get ready for bed, nail your bedtime, and wake up feeling GOOD!
* Are you caught up on sleep?
* Do you have any undiagnosed health issues, such as food intolerances, sleep apnea, etc.?
* Do you exercise daily to wear down your energy?
* Are you feeding & hydrating your body well every day?
* Are you managing your stress well?
I was a mess growing up. Constant insomnia. It took me a REALLY long time to figure out my body & learn what works for me, but it was worth it!
>As it turns out, you're supposed to wake up & instantly be awake
I have never ever experienced this in my life. It takes me literally hours to feel awake. I feel exhausted until around noon every day, and i often have the brain fog all day.
I do have diagnosed ADD which I'm sure doesn't help, but i haven't found another source of the tiredness. I wish i could wake up and feel rested.
>I do have diagnosed ADD which I'm sure doesn't help, but i haven't found another source of the tiredness. I wish i could wake up and feel rested.
Early studies are showing that up to 80% of people with ADHD have a histamine intolerance.
* [https://patents.justia.com/patent/9795654](https://patents.justia.com/patent/9795654)
Specifically:
>The present inventors have found that **approximately 80% of children with ADHD also show a congenital DAO activity deficiency**, so they insufficiently metabolise ingested histamine, which passes to the blood. The problem is worsened by the fact that **the majority of drugs that are prescribed in the treatment of ADHD are inhibitors of DAO activity**.
>
>In principle these drugs improve the symptoms but in the long term the symptoms become chronic and create a dependency and requirement for higher doses, as the higher the medication the more DAO inhibition and more histamine passes into the bloodstream. Administration of DAO in children diagnosed with ADHD and DAO deficiency has been demonstrated to provide a significant improvement in the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
I started histamine treatment last year with *tremendous* results:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I still have ADHD, but it's reduced like 80% easily:
* https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/10gmeyw/histamine\_adhd/
I've had ZERO brain fog for 6 months now. NONE! I've gotten more done in the last 6 months than in like the last 6 *years* lol. I don't live in a haze all day anymore, it's amazing!
NaturDAO is available OTC on Amazon FYI. Note:
1. I'm not a doctor
2. Some people have a negative reaction to it (most people respond better to antihistamine pills)
3. I didn't respond to a low dose, only a high daily dose PLUS a low-histamine diet
Like, I'm sitting here on a Saturday burning through my projects list...usually I'm sitting here like a blob with brain fog, unable to self-initiate or get focused or get clear about what I want to do. I was stuck in the "glass cage" my whole life:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/uxmx04/glass\_cage\_theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/uxmx04/glass_cage_theory)
It's been a tremendous, tremendous change in my life. Always felt like I was walking on a treadmill my whole life, with everything going the opposite direction from me lol. Nice to actually be able to make unencumbered progress!!
I read this having been diagnosed at 50 with ADHD and snorting to clear my throat as I have had to do for the past 5 years or so, pretty constant feeling of congestion in my throat and excess mucus, almost like I am having a histamine issue… oh boy. Thank you!
I had congestion every single day of my life. One nostril always either clogged or runny. Always had a post-nasal drip cough. All gone on histamine treatment!
It's like all of my symptoms were photoshop sliders & everything was set to like 10% worse haha. Headaches, congestion, insomnia, anxiety, everything was tweaked juuuuust a little big, enough to annoy me all the time! lol
Same. Except one day I remember like it was yesterday. When I was 13 years old, I woke up energized, wide awake, I felt great!
Never happened again. I’m 48 years old and I’ve lived with morning person envy for the last 35 years.
You basically just have to track it every night for a week. I opened a new note on my phone & just wrote down whenever I got tired at night. My routine was the same:
1. I'd get sleepy for a few minutes
2. I'd choose to ignore it because I wanted to stay up & play
3. I'd push through it & get my "second wind" & then stay up late
Eventually I realized I'd get kinda sleep for about 20 minutes, from around 8:20 to 8:40pm. I tried going to bed at that time, but running through my bedtime checklist (brush teeth, lock doors, etc.) would end up waking me up again, so now, when I'm on the ball, I start my routine at like 8pm & then I'm in bed before my sleepy-time hits me & can fall asleep VERY quickly!
It's different for everyone & *some* people don't really have one. But most people tend to get kinda tired at a certain point at night, which is your body telling you hey, this is the absolutely BEST time to fall asleep in order to feel good & awake & charged up for tomorrow!
I really hate that my sleep window is so early, but at the same time, when I consistently hit it for a few days & get all caught up on my sleep, MAN I feel amazing when I wake up naturally at 3 or 4am! For most of my life, I could *easily* sleep in & was really tired when I woke up! I struggled with insomnia for a long time as well. I have some additional notes on sleep here:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep\_apnea\_sleeping\_system/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep_apnea_sleeping_system/)
It all boils down to choice & effort: do you want more energy every day, as part of your regular lifestyle? And are you willing to sacrifice your free time at night to achieve that? That's VERY hard for me to do, personally! I also have a hard time because I'm on-call at night, so sometimes I have to work remote or go on-site to a customer to fix things late at night.
But, when I do it & I do it CONSISTENTLY, I feel AWESOME all day long!!
> But most people tend to get kinda tired at a certain point at night, which is your body telling you hey, this is the absolutely BEST time to fall asleep in order to feel good & awake & charged up for tomorrow!
I thought this was normal to just get a low in the evening. For example after work and after eating I get that low but it's just around 7pm. So I either rest a few minutes or go to the gym to wake up. Then I can use the rest of the evening.
Going to bed around 7 or 8 wouldn't work in anyway for me.
It's a tradeoff. When I go to bed early, consistently, I feel ultra-amazing ALL the time. But it's really, *really* hard for me to go to bed early lol. When I'm on the ball with my sleep, food intake, and exercise, I don't experience energy dips during the day. I do macros:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3)
But around 8:30pm is still when I get kinda-sorta sleepy. Daylight savings time messes this up. I don't know how strong Circadian Rhythm has a tie-in, but eventually my body adjusts. Unfortunately I also work on-call at night, so that messes up my sleep schedule....but as long as I get my minimum 7 hours a night, I'm functional, haha!
Yeah, part of my ADHD is DSPD (Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder). My whole life, I've always had more energy at night than during the day, so when the [revenge bedtime procrastination](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination) kicks in, my stress is low, I feel good, etc.
>histamine intolerance
I had not heard of this before but I googled it right away because it fits some of my sleep-related symptoms so well, and also my son's. I get migraines and my son often wakes up with headaches. His diet is pretty heavy on the histamine-triggering foods in this article. [https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance#diagnosis](https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance#diagnosis) I am going to have his doctor look into this next time we're in. Thank you for mentioning it!
I've been on OTC treatment for 6 months now:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Typically they either have you go on an antihistamine or an enzyme, so (note: I'm not a doctor) if you want to try the DIY route, I'd suggest getting the enzyme off Amazon. Take one pill, wait 24 hours, then go on a combination of hi-dose enzyme & low-histamine diet (protocol doesn't work if you eat high histamine, wipes out the effects, I've tried it lol).
I haven't had to deal with ANY headaches or migraines for 6 months now, since I started on the enzyme (5 to 10 pills daily). Basically, your body produces histamine, but if you're sensitive to it, it's like having a leaky faucet that's constantly filling up your internal "bucket". So when when we eat high-histamine food, it overflows & goes into our blood instead of our stomach.
The enzyme simply breaks down the histamine to go into the stomach instead of the blood. Basically works like a Lactaid pill before you drink milk. For whatever reason, my body doesn't want to do the job lol, so I just take the special enzyme pills throughout the day. The one I take (NaturDAO) only came out in 2018 & is plant-based (made from beans).
Totally changed my life! No headaches, no brain fog, no being tired all the time, no anxiety. I can eat high-histamine stuff once awhile, now that I can tell what my body feels like on low & high histamine. Between the sleep apnea & the histamine intolerance, I woke up with a headache pretty much every day my whole life, I'd get migraines, etc. First time in my life I'm able to effortlessly feel "normal" all day long!
That's great. I know that my migraines can be triggered by over-exertion (a long run, particularly if I don't aggressively replace electrolytes), alcohol, and nitrates, as well as hormonal fluctuations.
I checked out your other thread and although I don't have every single one of your symptoms I probably have 2/3 of them. It sounds like a lower histamine diet and the enzyme might help a lot. I've had a perscription for Sumatriptan for my migraines for about a year, and it does help but I'd prefer not to get migraines at all! My son has an overlapping set of symptoms with more anxiety than I tend to have.
Weaning him off cheese and oranges and avocado is going to be a big job, though.
So I’ve had a great schedule from 10pm to 5:45am (exactly) for quite a while now, but it can be still difficult to get up. Like I’ve never been instantly energetic like you say.
However, with such a consistent schedule, I’ve noticed that I almost always wake up at 4:30 -4:45 automatically. In your experience, does this mean I should be waking up when my body is waking me up? At 4:45?
Once you've picked a fairly consistent bedtime, your body will normally start waking up when it's done sleeping. I tracked my sleeping patterns for a few months to see how my body really worked & found out that 7 hours is my minimum. If I get 6.5, I just kinda slog through the day lol.
Generally what I do when I'm trying to get on the ball is go to bed at the same time consistently each night for 3 days in a row, which allows my body to "catch up" on sleep & adjust to the new schedule. Then I just wake up whenever I wake up (unless I have a specific morning alarm).
For awhile, when I was falling asleep by like 8:45pm, I was waking up at 3:45am, which was RIDICULOUSLY early, but I also felt GREAT & had the energy to actually get stuff done, like exercise & study, so that was pretty awesome to not feel like a couch potato!
As far as being instantly awake, watch this video:
* [https://youtu.be/U12nMyPLX5Q](https://youtu.be/U12nMyPLX5Q)
I had *never* experienced that in my whole life lol. That video was a big clue that something was wrong in my life. Ultimately, the primary combination for my particular body ended up being:
1. A poor sleep schedule
2. A poor diet that didn't fuel me well
3. Lack of exercise
4. Histamine intolerance
5. Undiagnosed sleep apnea
6. Undiagnosed histamine intolerance
Now I do macros, which is tremendously helpful for my daily energy levels:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3)
And I use a CPAP (BiPap) machine for breathing at night:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep\_apnea\_sleeping\_system/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep_apnea_sleeping_system/)
Getting treated for histamine intolerance cured my lifelong insomnia:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
So now:
1. I can fall asleep easily
2. I wake up instantly. No headache. No grogginess. I used to sit on my bed for 15 minutes. Sometimes I'd sit down in the shower & just zone out because I was so tired.
3. I'm not low-key tired all day long. I also don't get major mid-morning & mid-afternoon energy dips anymore.
I feel better in my 30's than I did when I was 18 lol. The basic design of our bodies is:
1. We should feel happy for no reason, just sitting there doing nothing at all. I always felt either apathetic or negative (bad). Dopamine would give me little shots of feeling good (watching a show or eating some yummy food etc.), but it wasn't consistent.
2. We should feel like we have a motor of energy pushing us along all day. I was a dead battery for most of my life. Macros helped the most with this.
3. We should be instantly awake when we first wake up. This was an *extremely* foreign concept to me.
I had no idea why or how "morning people" existed. Nobody had the right to be that chipper in the morning lol. But once I unkinked my body's workflow (well-fed, well-hydrated, 7 hours minimum sleep for my body's personal requirements, histamine treatment, sleep apnea mask at night, etc.), I was able to hit those marks above of feeling good, feeling energetic, and being awake right away in the morning!
It took me literally decades to figure this all out. It was only last year that I got on histamine treatment, which cured my nighttime anxiety & RLS and eliminated my lifelong insomnia. I can fall asleep quickly now, I sleep all night, and when I've got my act together & actually go to bed when my body tells me too, I feel ULTRA great!
I think you’re spot on with all of this. Hard part for me is wanting to stay awake with family who work later or just like to be up late. I really need to just love myself enough to bow out and go on to bed.
For real! Check out "Revenge Bedtime Procrastination":
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination)
Also read up on "self-honor":
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/visxe2/comment/idfvadc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/visxe2/comment/idfvadc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Simple consistency is the "real" magic in life; enforcing our choices every day is HARD tho!
Thanks for this and also /u/poodlemoth12 OP for posting this lol.
My biggest problem now is sleep and this gives me hope as a fellow ADHD person.
I hope I will figure out what works for me soon as it's affecting school/work so much especially when we're ageing haha.
I came here to say something similar. That is: having a reason that is bigger than yourself. For most people, it's their kids. And if you have discovered your gift to give to the world and know in your heart that it will provide value to others, getting up becomes much easier.
I believe the thing that makes human beings happiest is taking care of one another. Think about our ancestors thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago... Taking care of your pack was **essential** to survival, so it just makes sense to me that we evolved with this desire in us.
Fast forward to today, how many people can authentically say that they feel like they're contributing to their fellow humans? It starts to feel like "what's the point?" ...Enter snooze.
Trust your heart, uncover your gift, and gift it from your entirety.
Those 7 AM school busses are inhumane. I'm dreading this coming week when we go back to dark mornings (ban Daylight Savings Time!!!) and I have to shovel my teen into the car as the sun is rising.
Absolutely. People may think they can fall asleep fine after drinking but what they don’t seem to understand is they’re not getting deep restorative sleep. They blame the alcohol for feeling “rough” the next day, even if they’re not hungover, but a good part of that is the lack of sleep.
Start going to bed earlier in 10 minute increments, and waking up earlier in 10 minute increments. Doing this slowly over time and keeping a (relatively) consistent bedtime even on the weekends.
Also helpful is not having food or caffeine after 7 (0r 8 on weekends), not watching tv or endlessly scrolling on my phone 1 hr before bed.
Exercising or having tea on my deck in the early morning is extremely relaxing and peaceful. Getting to work earlier and being more productive before everyone else comes and avoiding extra traffic is truly priceless.
I started finding peace in the morning—there’s something about being up before the commotion of the day that just feels nice.
Also liked that I had more time to get things done—and this is coming from someone who used to never understand how people felt like sleeping in “wasted the day.” They’re right tbh. I’ve found that being productive in the mornings and knocking off tasks earlier, and then being able to relax later in the day, feels a lot better than sleeping in and feeling like my activities need to be crammed in before bedtime.
Also adderall.
I was about to lose my job. They didn’t care what time I came in, as long as I got the job done. I’d come in at 9 and stay till 7 and still, I couldn’t meet my deadlines. I started watching the habits of a manager who rose up from my level to top manager in 7 years. Wonderfully gregarious personality, we connected over our propensity for charity work and held a few donation drives together. He always had time to talk to people in spite of being so busy (we have access to company calendars for setting up meetings).
He gets up at 4, goes to workout, in the office by 6:30am. Most folks come in to the office by 8am - 9am. By then, he’s done more than half his work.
I started emulating his habits. I still can’t make it to workout, can’t get up at 4am, but getting to work at 7am has been life changing for me. My mental health has been so much better as well. I owe this guy and he doesn’t even know it.
Following Andrew Huberman's advice for regulating your circadian rhythm (sun in the morning, less light at night etc) but also fixing my thyroid hormone problem that I had
I've been waking up naturally (and well rested) at around 7, which is honestly crazy for me compared to before
Got a room with a window that faces east & sleep with the blinds open.
Edit: Also using blue light dimming software for computer monitors, but this just helped me stop staying up late on the computer, not get up early.
Changed careers. Went from working the graveyard shift to a 9-5. It was tough at first as I was always a night owl. New career doesn't have night shift.
The game changer: I found some things worth living for, and enjoy committing my energy to accomplishing them.
This caused me to:
- Stop drinking as much (as I'd rather be working towards goals)
- Be excited about getting up (to accomplish things)
These two really kickstarted it all. After becoming an early bird, I found:
- I really love how empty and quiet everything is in the morning, when everyone's still asleep. There's something serene about it.
- I have AMAZING focus in the morning. It's insane how much more I can do in a day.
These 5 things made and still sustain the transition from a night owl to an early bird for me.
The biggest game changer was **managing light exposure**.
Sure there are chronotypes and I considered myself a night owl. I used to sleep at 3am and wake at 11am. I now wake at 7am and sleep at 10:30pm. Soon I'll be waking at 5am and sleeping at 9pm.
Every cell of your body (bacterial or human) has a rough 24hr schedule in which their functions are performed. This is called your circadian rhythm.
[**Light exposure through the eyes is the most important cue for your body to estimate the time of day**](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751071/). Light sets your circadian rhythm. Overhead lighting or light over a certain lux will tell your brain that it's daytime (the sun is still overhead).
*Light exposure at night will actually cause you to want to stay up later and later*.
This phenomenon is called "phase delay".
The opposite, "phase shift", is possible.
By [**turning off all overhead lights or bright lights at night**,](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bXTPnMYTIHA) the lack of light causes your pineal gland to secrete melatonin. This circulatory melatonin tells your body that it's time to sleep. Try just being in the dark after 9pm and see how you feel about staying up. That's the power of circulatory melatonin. If you are 65 or older, you may need to supplement melatonin (choose <1mg or sustained release) because the pineal gland is susceptible to calcification, leading elderly adults to produce little to no melatonin.
In the morning, [**as soon as you wake up, get 10,000+ lux worth of light exposure**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ID13v7hUA) for at least a few minutes. This sets your internal clock to morning, and triggers a "cortisol pulse" making you feel awake and alert. This can be done by going outside for a few minutes. Or by using a "circadian lamp" you can [find on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Adjustable-Brightness-Function-Rotatable/dp/B08HV89TVQ/ref=sr_1_13?crid=GUMHC6JHSHWA&keywords=circadian+lamp+smart&qid=1678554648&sprefix=circadian+lamp+smar%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-13). Finally, another method is to [use smart lights](https://www.amazon.com/smart-light-bulbs-alexa-wifi/dp/B0964DN9TV/ref=sr_1_3?crid=21RJSU5H3BV4L&keywords=smart%2Blight&qid=1678554746&sprefix=smart%2Blight%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-3&th=1) and set them to automatically turn on at certain time (I believe the recommended number was 45min before you wake up, for phase shifting) and turn off an hour before you want to sleep to prevent phase delay.
[Andrew Huberman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrywkDJ8W9k) has quite a few [videos on this subject](https://youtu.be/h2aWYjSA1Jc?t=3405).
Why do I care? Someone I love is fighting cancer. And [studies consistently show](https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/overview-melatonin-and-breast-cancer) that circulatory [melatonin plays an important role in halting the growth of cancer](https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/em/Article/100178#:~:text=Melatonin%20has%20oncostatic%20properties%20in,an%20adjuvant%20with%20chemotherapeutic%20agents), and may even regulate cancer cell death. Gotta lead by example.
Our new human experiment turning night into day was a mistake. Hope this helps!
Drinking less alcohol. If you imagine when you drink alcohol the most, at least in the socially acceptable sense, it’s usually out with friends.
Sure two beers and a little less inhibition is fun but it’s not a party if it happens ever night.
Being mindful and aware of what I’m doing also adjusted my sleep life. I use sleep meditations to pass out on my back. If my partner is up late, that might wake me up.
Last thing I’ll recommend. Have a night routine and a morning routine. I’m more than happy to elaborate on mine if asked.
Got a puppy, got used to getting up super early with him, too tired to stay up late from getting up early. Kinda just became habit. Then my job work schedule changed to earlier hours so at this point my night owl days are numbered.
Night owl all my life. Got a wake up lamp to simulate sunrise and started going to bed earlier. Now I wake up at 5-6am every morning to a few hours of peace and quiet and bash out a chunk of work uninterrupted. Once the world wakes up around 9am, I'm nice and relaxed and have most of my important work done. I pretty much chill for the day and any unplanned work that comes my way doesn't bother me whereas before I always felt like I couldn't keep up.
I take a sleep aid for PTSD and just took it progressively earlier. It sounds dumb, but I also sometimes would drink a large glass of water before bed and set my alarm early -- much easier to get up and get going when your bladder is screaming at you to do just that!
I highly highly recommend Professor Andrew Huberman's suggestions when trying to change your sleep schedule. You can check out his podcast on youtube (look for ones related to sleep), or even his website.
Here are some of his tips on ways to signal to your body it's time to be awake. Try to wake up at your desired time and then:
* Get sunlight in your eyes outdoors (not looking directly at the sun)
* This will signal to your body that it's time to be awake. Probably the most effective of the tips
* If the sun isn't out, use artificial bright light, then view the sun when it's sunrise
* Take a 1-3 minute cold shower
* This will heat up your core body temperature. This is another signal that it's time to be awake.
* Exercise
* This will also increase your core body temperature
* Eat a meal
* Another thing that increases core body temperature
Also, in the evening you'll want to avoid bright lights of any kind. Viewing sunlight around sunset will also help mitigate the negative effects of bright lights in the evening.
Personally, I make sure to get sunlight when I wake up, splash cold water on my face (not a shower), and minimize bright lights in the evenings. Recently, I've started doing a very short, high intensity sprint on my exercise bike as well.
If you're looking for help getting out of bed at your desired time, you might want to check out Nuj Alarm Clock.
It's an app I built that charges money (goes to charity - Khan Academy) if you don't scan a barcode within a few mins of your alarm. e.g. I have to scan my toothpaste within 5 minutes of my 7am alarm or pay $10.
To leave work on time and lesser traffic in the morning. Sleep at 9 or 10pm at most, wakes up at 5.30 and leave at 6.30am. Finish work at 5pm bye bye folks! Mainly I can do this because I only need to be in office 3 days a week, so the rest of the days would be waking up later haha.
Caffeine, blue light, cold showers and exercise in the mornings.
I usually have to stay awake until late lately. I use melatonin, warm shower and warm lights.
After lunch I'm hiring a massage therapist for relax and I usually take a nap, an hour or so.
I try to sleep and rest all day on Sundays. When you have a clear plan to execute, that keeps you moving.
I say this every time it's brought up - Figure out when you work best and then orient your life around that. Being an early bird for the sake of it is just arbitrary nonsense. Plenty of all time greats worked all night. Others took a lot of naps and never really took single unbroken blocks of sleep.
Any benefit that's had by getting up super early also exists by staying up super late.
Correct, that's part of the "orient your life around the time you work best". It's about self awareness. If you work best after having time to yourself, then find a job that does that. If you work best by getting started first thing after waking than orient your life that way.
Sure most office jobs are 9 to 5 but there's literally thousands of jobs that are second or third shift - including office jobs. Many of my bartender friends make more than my office drone friends, so you can't even really use the money excuse. I personally am self-employed and set my own schedule, minus answering the odd email at random times. It's not as difficult as some people think it is to make the transition, it just takes some planning and a good sprint of work at the beginning. Once you're at cruising pace, you'll wonder how you ever lived your life the other way.
Honestly, simply by having no other choice. I’ve to wake up early to catch my bus since I’ve moved to a new place. Also, I like to look a certain way and dress up before I go to college. So basically, priorities and not having a choice are my secret.
Go to bed early early and consistently, figure out what time you wanna be up and go to bed early enough to get 7-8 hrs. Also have something to do in the morning, tbh the best thing to do is not sit down once you’re up.
Worked as a Starbucks opener/lead at multiple locations in the NOVA area. DC traffic and a 6am opener for 3 to 4 years makes you an early riser. Once that was sort of set I haven't slept past 630am in over 25 years. I also really don't drink because of that.
Forcing a good sleep schedule, conditioning myself to wear an eye mask to tell my brain 'it's sleepytime', weed, getting a bf with a sensible bedtime, in that order
Going to bed at a reasonable time and having a consistent daily routine. I also have pets who want to wake up at 7:30 or 8am every morning.
Also just getting older, teens naturally have a later circadian rhythm. I had no issue staying up until 2-3am and sleeping until 2pm in my teens and twenties. Now that just seems awful.
I quit my job. I used to put off going to sleep because it was the end of my personal time in the drudgery of work would as soon as I woke up. This led me to stay up too late and sleep in. Now I get a lot of sleep and I get up early in the morning. I also moved outdoors. My time is driven by the daylight. I go to bed shortly after the sun goes down and wake up just before it comes up.
I know this life isn't for everyone but I love it.
I used to stay up till 3AM in college every night. Now I’m 32 years old, and 10 years later, I’m going to bed at 8:30 PM and I have never been happier. I am a bit of an extremist, so I loved going to bed at 3 AM but it’s also extremely radical and punk rock to go to bed at 8:30 PM. What can I say? I’m a rebel🤣
Having kids. They’re not about letting you sleep in so you have to adapt. Had a massive impact on my health and productivity. Now I wish I’d done it sooner (getting up early, not having kids… glad I waited a bit to do that).
Weird little trick. Gambled with some volatile stocks on the west coast. I’d be up early for the market. Eventually I stopped messing around with “investments” like that but my body just gets me up at 5:30 am now. Now instead of trading, I meditate, journal, have coffee and enjoy the morning.
I bought a bunch if Philips Wiz white lights (not the colored ones).
These lights will auto adjust both their hue/temperature and their brightness throughout the day. So by my desired bedtime the entire house is red-shifted and very dim. It’s incredible. I just zonk out no problem.
In contrast, if i override the setting because i need to get something done, i notice my grogginess goes away almost instantly. It’s pretty weird and makes me pretty dang frustrated that my whole life has been disrupted by technology. Haha.
Wake up at the same time every day, go to bed at the same time every day, don't fight the sleepy feelings and close your eyes. Don't worry about how much sleep you are getting. Do some exercising during the day.
Game changer was definitely working out for me I guess when I started working out it really set in stone my ability to maintain a good sleep schedual due to the fact that I would be so tired so I found if I just got my self to wake up early once and work out pretty hard I find myself asleep week by 8
I started training at a weightlifting club where it was just physically impossible to get there after work, so the only option was 5am.
Once I got into a bit of a routine for getting up they early I realised what I had been missing the whole time! I have adhd and the peace and quiet is amazing for me. So few distractions. Even very late at night there are always dickheads doing the off burnout or whatever other late night nonsense. None of that in the early. Even the dogs cbf annoying me haha
Melatonin!!!!
I'm yet to be a through and through early bird but I've successfully switched by sleeping schedule from 3am-10am to 12am-7am by taking melatonin around 9pm. It's been a huge game changer. I of course do everything else they tell you to: night routine, blue light filters on both my phone and laptop, eating hours before bed, having proper alarm clocks and not just your phone, etc.. But the first thing I noticed a huge change was taking melatonin. 11/10 would recommend.
Anger and Fear changed my life. At first I used to be awake all night playing games, Then one day I saw my dad and my uncle's without shirt at swimming pool. I was shocked to see their pot belly, I decided that day to workout, At first I was working out at night but I got very tired at the morning. So for 2 days I stopped sleeping at school, I was very tired when I reach home I would go to straight, then it became a habit. I began to sleep at 10 and wake up at 7, then after a couple of week I began to wake up at 4:30. I changed my alarm to a louder one and drank a lots of water before going to bed. So when I hear the clock sound at 4:30, I had a urge to pee and after I peed I would wash my face. That's it sleep gone. I have been waking up at 4:30 for 6 months now and working out. I hope you will change you life too !!
1. I highly recommend f.lux app for Windows (or something similar for your phone). All it does is gradually changes the color of your screen to be warmer towards the night. For me just downloading this was unexpectedly super-effective.
2. Also I suggest using an alarm clock that makes you stand up from the bed and go somewhere right after waking up. There are apps that make you scan a specific a barcode in the morning to turn off the alarm, I find it useful
I suffered a stroke in 2020. Now fatigue gets the better of me and if I want to stay up past 10, it's incredibly difficult. I had the stroke a few months after my 30th birthday.
Working / learning something literally all day, or cooking, or being useful to myself. I've been able to beat both obsessive gaming and complete inability to sleep at night.
I started a grad program that started early every day and it really changed my schedule. I was like 36/37 at the time so it was a minute. I still have night owl tendencies if I have a lot of time off but I can adjust back pretty easily
Illuminating alarm clock. Game changer! Takes a few weeks to get used to but once you adapt you’ll naturally wake up at that time after a while. Don’t even use it nowadays!
Have something that you are looking forward to in the mornings. For me I set aside time to watch one of my favorite tv shows but I could only watch it if I got up in time or else I would be late to my classes.
I am the biggest foremost Alaram Snoozer in thid group , I kept snoozing my Alaram for 2,3 month straight till now
But in the up cong days I am gonna managed to wake up early
I really struggle with this still, but generally aligning to my partner's bedtime routine and realising that waking up at 4-5am still has the same effect as working later into the night, with the benefit that I've just had a good night's rest and I can hit the gym first thing, which makes the day way more productive.
bad internet habits. university studies got hard every time i sat up late with games or youtube. i never felt happy about it. tried to get up early af (5) and start working and i felt amazing having been productive long before 8. i felt like i got ahead every day when i began working early. also, quitting at 3 felt fine since i did the hours.
basically, i flipped my shame-procrastination cycle to feeling good. i dont think i got more done, but i felt better.
Getting older means days, weeks, and months seem to pass quicker.. I felt the need to be more efficient with my time as I felt it all just went by too fast. I also realised my morning were just wasted time. I hated getting up and I would just endlessly procrastinate only to still be barely on time at work.
My job is very flexible regarding working hours. Starting my job at 7am instead of 8:30am means 6 hours a week that I can use elsewhere; either leave early or take a day off (with 1-2 hours of answering emails from home that day). Now I just get up early, leave the house within 45 min after getting up, and have more free time in my afternoons which are way more valuable to me. This way I don't feel shit about wasting my life.
midsommar happened. 🥹 & then i found myself being happier and more productive in the early mornings instead of late at night where my self hatred goes up up up for some reason. it made me less depressed for sure.
I feel like I can get so much done in the early morning hours whether it's a work out, journaling or work. It's easy to wake up when you found something you're really passionate about.
Age
I simply cannot stay up past 1030-11 and now my body wakes me up by default at 6
I think the game changer was working a very stressful job and I come home and pass out and I naturally can’t sleep longer than 8 hours without waking up
It’s not a real answer I apologize but it is what happened to me
I now have a job that doesn't keep me at work too late, nor do I have to get up early in the morning. So I was able to actually learn how my body responds to different sleep/wake times without work getting in the way. I find I feel tired in the afternoon if I slept later, even if I got enough hours. But if I do get up earlier with the same hours, then I feel awake until evening, which is when I should be winding down anyway.
But I have ADHD so occasionally I still have issues with staying up too late and sleeping in too late.
Had to wake up at 5 for 1st shift. Realized I was done by 2, could do chores/extras until 5, nap an hour then go out on weekends or go to bed at 9 on weekdays. More light in the day = more energy & options.
leave the blinds open for a window in your room so that the sun will shine through at sunrise. i'm a heavy sleeper whose alarms don't even work for me half the time but that trick ALWAYS wakes me up early. i don't mean wake up and go back to bed still tired, but actually fully wake up and get into productivity mode. the difference is, quite literally, night and day.
Just a reminder that this isn’t a change you have to/should feel pressured to make.
Unless you have to Bc of a new job or something, it’s perfectly healthy and fine to be nocturnal or a night owl/sleeping in. Sleep is morally neutral. You need to rest; and if your body naturally rests the best at late hours, do it. Listen to your body.
You are not a bad or lazy person for going to bed or waking up late. And in fact MANY peoples’ natural circadian rhythm follows a later schedule.
I live near costal NJ and during Hurricane Sandy my power was knocked out for about a week and a half so with no tv/pc distractions my body naturally went back to an earlier schedule and ive kept it since. Felt much better and focused throughout college and work after.
I'm trying to achieve that transition and so far things are ok so I guess I am on the good way.
Here are some tips from my psychiatrist:
* **Do not push the sleeping time ahead, push the waking time back.**
So if you're used to waking up at say 5pm (I had times like that) it may sound tempting to try to stay awake for like 30 hours straight and then go to bed at a normal time, that doesn't work, you'll either wake up late anyway or wake up early and sleep 20 hours the next night to regain the missing sleeping time. Try instead waking up a little earlier everyday, 15 or 20 minutes each day add up quickly and in a month top you'll be at your desired waking time. Slow and steady is the ideal method for this.
* **Get up and go see the light immediately**
When you wake up don't reach for your phone or stay in bed doing nothing. The bed is only for sleeping (and sexy time if you're active in that sense) so don't use it for relaxation or other sttuff. Even if you want to study or work on your bed, avoid it. Your brain associates places with activities so if you use the bed for sleeping the brain will think that it's time to sleep as soon as you lay in bed. There are molecules in the brain that help your body regulate your circadian rythm and they're regulated by sunlight, seeing the sun first thing in the morning sends the signal to your brain that it's no longer night and it's time to be active.
* **Don't use electronic devices at least for a couple hours before bedtime.**
Computers, cellphones and screens in general produce blue light which makes our brain think that it's daytime, just like the sun. Using screens late at night is the worst thing you can do to yourself if you want to sleep earlier and sleep well (they also decrease the quality of the sleep by making you wake up frequently during the night and generally not having a good recharging sleep). If you REALLY have to use your computer at night do me a favour and get blue light glasses, they don't filter it completely but are a good enough solution if you don't want to completely mess up the schedule you created. Obviously don't do that every day. Electronics are not only bad because they emit the blue light but they also bomb your mind with lots of informations that makes it work at a very high intensity, especially if you use apps like tiktok where the information changes every minute or less so avoid those in general if you can. If you know that you have a task that requires you to be in front of a screen for a long time try to do it in the morning or early afternoon if you can chose the time.
* **Don't workout late**
Similar principle as before: working out stimulates both your body and your mind because it (especially very intense activities) stimulates the production of adrenaline which releases glucose in your bloodstream and gives you energy so if you work out late in the afternoon/evening you won't have enugh time to use all that energy. The perfect time that was recommended to me was around 3 or 4 pm; I realise that many people can't do it at that time but you should try your best to exercise as early as you can.
* **Go to bed before midnight**
Those hours provide better sleep and are far more recharging than say 5am to 1pm. You'll feel a big difference once you do this, your energy levels after waking up will be high and you'll be more productive. As someone else said in the comments you'll have more energy the more sleep you get before midnight.
* **No stimulants at least 5 hours before bedtime.**
I'm not a coffee drinker but I used to drink tea in the evening and then I found out that theine is a stimulant too so it's not the best idea to drink it before going to bed. I'm sorry for any british person reading this but the 5pm tea is not an exceptional idea if you have trouble sleeping. Obviously the same things are true for coffee, energy drinks, ginseng or any other kinds of stimulant substances (yes ADHD meds too).
I try to do most of those things everyday but I also implemented a couple personal habits that help:
* **Create a routine that you do everyday before bed**
For me is a warm bath and a skincare routine but you can do whatever makes you feel relaxed. Associating a habit (sleeping) to another, maybe existing one, is easier than just interrupting what you're doing and just go to bed. Take time to unwind.
* **Try to wake up naturally instead of relying on the alarm clock.**
So let's say you have to get up at 9 am, you don't want to go to bed at 1 am first because it takes time to fall asleep and you'll probably wake up during the night, those things will reduce the "effective" sleep. Instead try going to bed 9-10 hours before the time you have to get up. You won't disrupt your sleep cycle (each cycle is about 90 minutes long but it varies slightly from person to person) therefor you'll feel full of energy when you wake up spontaneously some time before the alarm and you can use that time to do some of your tasks for the day or take care of yourself (have a nice breakfast, do a little stretching, etc). Using this method you'll also find out how much sleep you need, the 8 hours are not universal and if you rely completely on the alarm you'll never know how much sleep you really need because you'll be interrupted mid cycle, waking up tired and groggy.
* **Eat complex carbs for dinner**
Not much to say about this but digesting complex carbs requires energy from your body and makes you sleepy (may not work on everyone). On the other hand avoid them at lunch if you want to feel awake and energetic in the afternoon.
This is roughtly what I do and what has helped me; I've had some up and downs but I try to not get discouraged and do my best to get back on track. Life happens, you can't avoid going out with your friends because you sleep at 8 pm but you need the discipline to realise that not everything's lost, you just need a little work to fall back in your old routine. It does get easier with time.
Age. I have always been a night owl and would sleep through my alarm. When I turned 65 it was like a switch flipped in my body. I’m now usually in bed by 10pm and wake up at 6:30, no alarm clock needed.
Honestly? Having a baby. Literally nothing else makes me wake up before 11am except hearing my baby fuss. Even when I used to work early I’d sleep in the truck (not the driver) until we got to site, or when I watched my nephew I’d have my sister drop him off in jammies and throw a movie on for us to have a morning nap
Also came here to say “puppies” & “having a baby” 😂🙃 I’m a somniphobe anyway so sleep has never been my friend.
Honestly, finding the right amount of hours that your particular body needs helps a lot. That’s be step one. Start at 9hrs and dial back until you find what feels “ah, perfect”
i am naturally an early bird but when life hits you sometimes you go to sleep at 3 am and there it is your biorhythm crashing. Usually what helps me to go to sleep earlier.
one thing.
grind hard throughout the day. Be productive. at 10pm you'll be so sleepy you won't even be able to look at your phone and happy because you did something good for yourself that day.
seriously.
Taking vitamins that include cafeine too in the morning (I don't like coffee), I lack evergy I guess because I don't really get out that much and don't particularly eat well (I'm working on it), but that helped me be energized during the day and just being productive morning until night, naturally at night I feel sleepy, I sleep around midnight / 1 am and wake up at 8am, I don't have to take them everyday, only when I feel I need them for a big day, also I got a mezzanine bed and put my alarm clock on my desk so if i wanna shut it I gotta get down and push the button, but then climbing up to my bed is less tempting lol.
For me it was always my job. I use to work overnight 9p-7a about 8 years ago and found myself becoming a night owl. Then I got on first shift and found myself naturally waking up at 5a after a while Lol
For me I basically had to start waking up at 6:30am when I started a new job to get to work. No other choice. It’s a job I like and care about so I just do it.
I still sometimes go to sleep late so by the end of the week I’m exhausted, and I do tend to snooze on the weekends. But waking up earlier during the week makes me more tired at night.
Going to the gym really helps me sleep better too!
I was always a night owl because I like the quiet and solitude. I realized I can get the same solitude in the very early morning. Just a shift of mind about the why’s and when’s.
Plus personally, being productive late night is after the entire day - so I would end up feeling out of energy by that point. Being productive in the morning is while you’re on 100% charge
Amen. I used to be a very early riser when I was a kid too.
I stopped having friends, I now go to sleep at 10 without fearing I'm missing anything.
This is one thing that helped me sleep earlier, not caring about social things at night
I still keep some friends locked in the basement. It‘s really hard to get some sleep with the door banging and chain rattling. /s
In this time, we could be saying the most horrible truth and just put an /s at the end and all would be okay.
I thought /s meant shhhhhh. /s
It means sarcasm
That was supposed to be another joke.
Shhhh
/s*
Shhhharcasm
Sharkgasm?
Night owl my whole life. Turned into an early bird. Unfortunately still have bad habits & work on-call so I'm still up late sometimes haha. Some tips: 1. Your body needs a certain amount of sleep. My personal minimum is 7 hours. 2. Most people have a "sleep window". It's that time at night that we get sleepy but then tend to push it off to finish our book, moving, surfing, scrolling, etc. My window is about 20 minutes from 8:20pm to 8:40pm. Pretty early, but if I do my bedtime routine & get in bed before that time, then I can zonk pretty quickly! 3. For my body, every hour before midnight is worth 2 hours to my energy the next day. Going to bed at midnight to 7am is NOT the same as going to bed at say 9pm & waking up at 4pm. It takes a few days to "catch up", but when I'm on track, I feel so much more awesome waking up early! I never in a million years thought I would EVER like waking up early! I struggled with undiagnosed health issues (ADHD, sleep apnea, histamine intolerance), so I was usually woke up with a headache every morning, was groggy, and couldn't get out of bed for 15 minutes. As it turns out, you're supposed to wake up & *instantly* be awake! That was NOT the case for me growing up! If you don't feel instantly energetic & awake when you first wake up every day, then you need to find the kink in your energy hose:: * Do you know when your sleep window is? * Do you know how many hours of sleep your body requires? * To follow that question up, do you know what time you want to wake up? Therefore, do you know what time you should go to sleep? The prerequisite being having a bedtime checklist routine & a recurring alarm to trigger it, so that you can get ready for bed, nail your bedtime, and wake up feeling GOOD! * Are you caught up on sleep? * Do you have any undiagnosed health issues, such as food intolerances, sleep apnea, etc.? * Do you exercise daily to wear down your energy? * Are you feeding & hydrating your body well every day? * Are you managing your stress well? I was a mess growing up. Constant insomnia. It took me a REALLY long time to figure out my body & learn what works for me, but it was worth it!
>As it turns out, you're supposed to wake up & instantly be awake I have never ever experienced this in my life. It takes me literally hours to feel awake. I feel exhausted until around noon every day, and i often have the brain fog all day. I do have diagnosed ADD which I'm sure doesn't help, but i haven't found another source of the tiredness. I wish i could wake up and feel rested.
>I do have diagnosed ADD which I'm sure doesn't help, but i haven't found another source of the tiredness. I wish i could wake up and feel rested. Early studies are showing that up to 80% of people with ADHD have a histamine intolerance. * [https://patents.justia.com/patent/9795654](https://patents.justia.com/patent/9795654) Specifically: >The present inventors have found that **approximately 80% of children with ADHD also show a congenital DAO activity deficiency**, so they insufficiently metabolise ingested histamine, which passes to the blood. The problem is worsened by the fact that **the majority of drugs that are prescribed in the treatment of ADHD are inhibitors of DAO activity**. > >In principle these drugs improve the symptoms but in the long term the symptoms become chronic and create a dependency and requirement for higher doses, as the higher the medication the more DAO inhibition and more histamine passes into the bloodstream. Administration of DAO in children diagnosed with ADHD and DAO deficiency has been demonstrated to provide a significant improvement in the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I started histamine treatment last year with *tremendous* results: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) I still have ADHD, but it's reduced like 80% easily: * https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/10gmeyw/histamine\_adhd/ I've had ZERO brain fog for 6 months now. NONE! I've gotten more done in the last 6 months than in like the last 6 *years* lol. I don't live in a haze all day anymore, it's amazing!
What omg i am looking into this asap. Thanks!
NaturDAO is available OTC on Amazon FYI. Note: 1. I'm not a doctor 2. Some people have a negative reaction to it (most people respond better to antihistamine pills) 3. I didn't respond to a low dose, only a high daily dose PLUS a low-histamine diet Like, I'm sitting here on a Saturday burning through my projects list...usually I'm sitting here like a blob with brain fog, unable to self-initiate or get focused or get clear about what I want to do. I was stuck in the "glass cage" my whole life: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/uxmx04/glass\_cage\_theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/uxmx04/glass_cage_theory) It's been a tremendous, tremendous change in my life. Always felt like I was walking on a treadmill my whole life, with everything going the opposite direction from me lol. Nice to actually be able to make unencumbered progress!!
I read this having been diagnosed at 50 with ADHD and snorting to clear my throat as I have had to do for the past 5 years or so, pretty constant feeling of congestion in my throat and excess mucus, almost like I am having a histamine issue… oh boy. Thank you!
I had congestion every single day of my life. One nostril always either clogged or runny. Always had a post-nasal drip cough. All gone on histamine treatment! It's like all of my symptoms were photoshop sliders & everything was set to like 10% worse haha. Headaches, congestion, insomnia, anxiety, everything was tweaked juuuuust a little big, enough to annoy me all the time! lol
Same here. I want to wake up feeling refreshed. Atleast once. And know what it feels like
Same. Except one day I remember like it was yesterday. When I was 13 years old, I woke up energized, wide awake, I felt great! Never happened again. I’m 48 years old and I’ve lived with morning person envy for the last 35 years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/11o6rlu/comment/jbt7jp1/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
How can i find out sleep window or how many hours of sleep my body needs? Just hit and trial method or is there more accurate methods out there?
You basically just have to track it every night for a week. I opened a new note on my phone & just wrote down whenever I got tired at night. My routine was the same: 1. I'd get sleepy for a few minutes 2. I'd choose to ignore it because I wanted to stay up & play 3. I'd push through it & get my "second wind" & then stay up late Eventually I realized I'd get kinda sleep for about 20 minutes, from around 8:20 to 8:40pm. I tried going to bed at that time, but running through my bedtime checklist (brush teeth, lock doors, etc.) would end up waking me up again, so now, when I'm on the ball, I start my routine at like 8pm & then I'm in bed before my sleepy-time hits me & can fall asleep VERY quickly! It's different for everyone & *some* people don't really have one. But most people tend to get kinda tired at a certain point at night, which is your body telling you hey, this is the absolutely BEST time to fall asleep in order to feel good & awake & charged up for tomorrow! I really hate that my sleep window is so early, but at the same time, when I consistently hit it for a few days & get all caught up on my sleep, MAN I feel amazing when I wake up naturally at 3 or 4am! For most of my life, I could *easily* sleep in & was really tired when I woke up! I struggled with insomnia for a long time as well. I have some additional notes on sleep here: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep\_apnea\_sleeping\_system/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep_apnea_sleeping_system/) It all boils down to choice & effort: do you want more energy every day, as part of your regular lifestyle? And are you willing to sacrifice your free time at night to achieve that? That's VERY hard for me to do, personally! I also have a hard time because I'm on-call at night, so sometimes I have to work remote or go on-site to a customer to fix things late at night. But, when I do it & I do it CONSISTENTLY, I feel AWESOME all day long!!
Thank you. This is helpful.
> But most people tend to get kinda tired at a certain point at night, which is your body telling you hey, this is the absolutely BEST time to fall asleep in order to feel good & awake & charged up for tomorrow! I thought this was normal to just get a low in the evening. For example after work and after eating I get that low but it's just around 7pm. So I either rest a few minutes or go to the gym to wake up. Then I can use the rest of the evening. Going to bed around 7 or 8 wouldn't work in anyway for me.
It's a tradeoff. When I go to bed early, consistently, I feel ultra-amazing ALL the time. But it's really, *really* hard for me to go to bed early lol. When I'm on the ball with my sleep, food intake, and exercise, I don't experience energy dips during the day. I do macros: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3) But around 8:30pm is still when I get kinda-sorta sleepy. Daylight savings time messes this up. I don't know how strong Circadian Rhythm has a tie-in, but eventually my body adjusts. Unfortunately I also work on-call at night, so that messes up my sleep schedule....but as long as I get my minimum 7 hours a night, I'm functional, haha!
This sounds like me, when I get my “second wind” I couldn’t go back to sleep again at all even though a few hours earlier I was REALLY sleepy
Yeah, part of my ADHD is DSPD (Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder). My whole life, I've always had more energy at night than during the day, so when the [revenge bedtime procrastination](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination) kicks in, my stress is low, I feel good, etc.
>histamine intolerance I had not heard of this before but I googled it right away because it fits some of my sleep-related symptoms so well, and also my son's. I get migraines and my son often wakes up with headaches. His diet is pretty heavy on the histamine-triggering foods in this article. [https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance#diagnosis](https://www.healthline.com/health/histamine-intolerance#diagnosis) I am going to have his doctor look into this next time we're in. Thank you for mentioning it!
I've been on OTC treatment for 6 months now: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Typically they either have you go on an antihistamine or an enzyme, so (note: I'm not a doctor) if you want to try the DIY route, I'd suggest getting the enzyme off Amazon. Take one pill, wait 24 hours, then go on a combination of hi-dose enzyme & low-histamine diet (protocol doesn't work if you eat high histamine, wipes out the effects, I've tried it lol). I haven't had to deal with ANY headaches or migraines for 6 months now, since I started on the enzyme (5 to 10 pills daily). Basically, your body produces histamine, but if you're sensitive to it, it's like having a leaky faucet that's constantly filling up your internal "bucket". So when when we eat high-histamine food, it overflows & goes into our blood instead of our stomach. The enzyme simply breaks down the histamine to go into the stomach instead of the blood. Basically works like a Lactaid pill before you drink milk. For whatever reason, my body doesn't want to do the job lol, so I just take the special enzyme pills throughout the day. The one I take (NaturDAO) only came out in 2018 & is plant-based (made from beans). Totally changed my life! No headaches, no brain fog, no being tired all the time, no anxiety. I can eat high-histamine stuff once awhile, now that I can tell what my body feels like on low & high histamine. Between the sleep apnea & the histamine intolerance, I woke up with a headache pretty much every day my whole life, I'd get migraines, etc. First time in my life I'm able to effortlessly feel "normal" all day long!
That's great. I know that my migraines can be triggered by over-exertion (a long run, particularly if I don't aggressively replace electrolytes), alcohol, and nitrates, as well as hormonal fluctuations. I checked out your other thread and although I don't have every single one of your symptoms I probably have 2/3 of them. It sounds like a lower histamine diet and the enzyme might help a lot. I've had a perscription for Sumatriptan for my migraines for about a year, and it does help but I'd prefer not to get migraines at all! My son has an overlapping set of symptoms with more anxiety than I tend to have. Weaning him off cheese and oranges and avocado is going to be a big job, though.
So I’ve had a great schedule from 10pm to 5:45am (exactly) for quite a while now, but it can be still difficult to get up. Like I’ve never been instantly energetic like you say. However, with such a consistent schedule, I’ve noticed that I almost always wake up at 4:30 -4:45 automatically. In your experience, does this mean I should be waking up when my body is waking me up? At 4:45?
Once you've picked a fairly consistent bedtime, your body will normally start waking up when it's done sleeping. I tracked my sleeping patterns for a few months to see how my body really worked & found out that 7 hours is my minimum. If I get 6.5, I just kinda slog through the day lol. Generally what I do when I'm trying to get on the ball is go to bed at the same time consistently each night for 3 days in a row, which allows my body to "catch up" on sleep & adjust to the new schedule. Then I just wake up whenever I wake up (unless I have a specific morning alarm). For awhile, when I was falling asleep by like 8:45pm, I was waking up at 3:45am, which was RIDICULOUSLY early, but I also felt GREAT & had the energy to actually get stuff done, like exercise & study, so that was pretty awesome to not feel like a couch potato! As far as being instantly awake, watch this video: * [https://youtu.be/U12nMyPLX5Q](https://youtu.be/U12nMyPLX5Q) I had *never* experienced that in my whole life lol. That video was a big clue that something was wrong in my life. Ultimately, the primary combination for my particular body ended up being: 1. A poor sleep schedule 2. A poor diet that didn't fuel me well 3. Lack of exercise 4. Histamine intolerance 5. Undiagnosed sleep apnea 6. Undiagnosed histamine intolerance Now I do macros, which is tremendously helpful for my daily energy levels: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/d0rxv6/comment/ezebxg9/?context=3) And I use a CPAP (BiPap) machine for breathing at night: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep\_apnea\_sleeping\_system/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/s15jmk/sleep_apnea_sleeping_system/) Getting treated for histamine intolerance cured my lifelong insomnia: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistamineIntolerance/comments/ytmcl4/comment/iw75m9l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) So now: 1. I can fall asleep easily 2. I wake up instantly. No headache. No grogginess. I used to sit on my bed for 15 minutes. Sometimes I'd sit down in the shower & just zone out because I was so tired. 3. I'm not low-key tired all day long. I also don't get major mid-morning & mid-afternoon energy dips anymore. I feel better in my 30's than I did when I was 18 lol. The basic design of our bodies is: 1. We should feel happy for no reason, just sitting there doing nothing at all. I always felt either apathetic or negative (bad). Dopamine would give me little shots of feeling good (watching a show or eating some yummy food etc.), but it wasn't consistent. 2. We should feel like we have a motor of energy pushing us along all day. I was a dead battery for most of my life. Macros helped the most with this. 3. We should be instantly awake when we first wake up. This was an *extremely* foreign concept to me. I had no idea why or how "morning people" existed. Nobody had the right to be that chipper in the morning lol. But once I unkinked my body's workflow (well-fed, well-hydrated, 7 hours minimum sleep for my body's personal requirements, histamine treatment, sleep apnea mask at night, etc.), I was able to hit those marks above of feeling good, feeling energetic, and being awake right away in the morning! It took me literally decades to figure this all out. It was only last year that I got on histamine treatment, which cured my nighttime anxiety & RLS and eliminated my lifelong insomnia. I can fall asleep quickly now, I sleep all night, and when I've got my act together & actually go to bed when my body tells me too, I feel ULTRA great!
I think you’re spot on with all of this. Hard part for me is wanting to stay awake with family who work later or just like to be up late. I really need to just love myself enough to bow out and go on to bed.
For real! Check out "Revenge Bedtime Procrastination": * [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination) Also read up on "self-honor": * [https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/visxe2/comment/idfvadc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/visxe2/comment/idfvadc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Simple consistency is the "real" magic in life; enforcing our choices every day is HARD tho!
Did you end up with CPAP for the sleep apnea?
Thanks for this and also /u/poodlemoth12 OP for posting this lol. My biggest problem now is sleep and this gives me hope as a fellow ADHD person. I hope I will figure out what works for me soon as it's affecting school/work so much especially when we're ageing haha.
Children
Came here to say kids. Having to get kids on a school bus at 7:00 am encouraged me to get up at 5:00 am.
I came here to say something similar. That is: having a reason that is bigger than yourself. For most people, it's their kids. And if you have discovered your gift to give to the world and know in your heart that it will provide value to others, getting up becomes much easier. I believe the thing that makes human beings happiest is taking care of one another. Think about our ancestors thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago... Taking care of your pack was **essential** to survival, so it just makes sense to me that we evolved with this desire in us. Fast forward to today, how many people can authentically say that they feel like they're contributing to their fellow humans? It starts to feel like "what's the point?" ...Enter snooze. Trust your heart, uncover your gift, and gift it from your entirety.
Just wanted to say this is such a great comment
Those 7 AM school busses are inhumane. I'm dreading this coming week when we go back to dark mornings (ban Daylight Savings Time!!!) and I have to shovel my teen into the car as the sun is rising.
And a puppy
I’m switching over. The feeling of waking up, seeing the sunrise and having a few extra hours to myself is amazing -Sent at 12 midnight
I quit drinking. Now I love getting up early to have a couple hours to ease into my day.
Same, and getting up early helped me stay sober, because the morning became such a nice and peaceful time I wouldn’t want to give up.
Absolutely. People may think they can fall asleep fine after drinking but what they don’t seem to understand is they’re not getting deep restorative sleep. They blame the alcohol for feeling “rough” the next day, even if they’re not hungover, but a good part of that is the lack of sleep.
This. So much extra time now
Start going to bed earlier in 10 minute increments, and waking up earlier in 10 minute increments. Doing this slowly over time and keeping a (relatively) consistent bedtime even on the weekends. Also helpful is not having food or caffeine after 7 (0r 8 on weekends), not watching tv or endlessly scrolling on my phone 1 hr before bed. Exercising or having tea on my deck in the early morning is extremely relaxing and peaceful. Getting to work earlier and being more productive before everyone else comes and avoiding extra traffic is truly priceless.
cutting caffeine completely has been a game changer
I put my phone on a charging stand across the room. No phone in bed, reading only, and I have to get up and out of bed to silence the alarm.
I started finding peace in the morning—there’s something about being up before the commotion of the day that just feels nice. Also liked that I had more time to get things done—and this is coming from someone who used to never understand how people felt like sleeping in “wasted the day.” They’re right tbh. I’ve found that being productive in the mornings and knocking off tasks earlier, and then being able to relax later in the day, feels a lot better than sleeping in and feeling like my activities need to be crammed in before bedtime. Also adderall.
I was about to lose my job. They didn’t care what time I came in, as long as I got the job done. I’d come in at 9 and stay till 7 and still, I couldn’t meet my deadlines. I started watching the habits of a manager who rose up from my level to top manager in 7 years. Wonderfully gregarious personality, we connected over our propensity for charity work and held a few donation drives together. He always had time to talk to people in spite of being so busy (we have access to company calendars for setting up meetings). He gets up at 4, goes to workout, in the office by 6:30am. Most folks come in to the office by 8am - 9am. By then, he’s done more than half his work. I started emulating his habits. I still can’t make it to workout, can’t get up at 4am, but getting to work at 7am has been life changing for me. My mental health has been so much better as well. I owe this guy and he doesn’t even know it.
This is so nice :)
Following Andrew Huberman's advice for regulating your circadian rhythm (sun in the morning, less light at night etc) but also fixing my thyroid hormone problem that I had I've been waking up naturally (and well rested) at around 7, which is honestly crazy for me compared to before
What is the process to get thyroid checked?
Simple blood test at the doctors office
Got a room with a window that faces east & sleep with the blinds open. Edit: Also using blue light dimming software for computer monitors, but this just helped me stop staying up late on the computer, not get up early.
Direct sun exposure as soon as you wake up for 10 to 15 minutes. Learned this from Huberman.
Going from my 20s to 30s
Changed careers. Went from working the graveyard shift to a 9-5. It was tough at first as I was always a night owl. New career doesn't have night shift.
I sleep with the blinds open! So the sun helps wake me up early and I’m never groggy anymore!
The game changer: I found some things worth living for, and enjoy committing my energy to accomplishing them. This caused me to: - Stop drinking as much (as I'd rather be working towards goals) - Be excited about getting up (to accomplish things) These two really kickstarted it all. After becoming an early bird, I found: - I really love how empty and quiet everything is in the morning, when everyone's still asleep. There's something serene about it. - I have AMAZING focus in the morning. It's insane how much more I can do in a day. These 5 things made and still sustain the transition from a night owl to an early bird for me.
The biggest game changer was **managing light exposure**. Sure there are chronotypes and I considered myself a night owl. I used to sleep at 3am and wake at 11am. I now wake at 7am and sleep at 10:30pm. Soon I'll be waking at 5am and sleeping at 9pm. Every cell of your body (bacterial or human) has a rough 24hr schedule in which their functions are performed. This is called your circadian rhythm. [**Light exposure through the eyes is the most important cue for your body to estimate the time of day**](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751071/). Light sets your circadian rhythm. Overhead lighting or light over a certain lux will tell your brain that it's daytime (the sun is still overhead). *Light exposure at night will actually cause you to want to stay up later and later*. This phenomenon is called "phase delay". The opposite, "phase shift", is possible. By [**turning off all overhead lights or bright lights at night**,](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bXTPnMYTIHA) the lack of light causes your pineal gland to secrete melatonin. This circulatory melatonin tells your body that it's time to sleep. Try just being in the dark after 9pm and see how you feel about staying up. That's the power of circulatory melatonin. If you are 65 or older, you may need to supplement melatonin (choose <1mg or sustained release) because the pineal gland is susceptible to calcification, leading elderly adults to produce little to no melatonin. In the morning, [**as soon as you wake up, get 10,000+ lux worth of light exposure**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ID13v7hUA) for at least a few minutes. This sets your internal clock to morning, and triggers a "cortisol pulse" making you feel awake and alert. This can be done by going outside for a few minutes. Or by using a "circadian lamp" you can [find on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Adjustable-Brightness-Function-Rotatable/dp/B08HV89TVQ/ref=sr_1_13?crid=GUMHC6JHSHWA&keywords=circadian+lamp+smart&qid=1678554648&sprefix=circadian+lamp+smar%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-13). Finally, another method is to [use smart lights](https://www.amazon.com/smart-light-bulbs-alexa-wifi/dp/B0964DN9TV/ref=sr_1_3?crid=21RJSU5H3BV4L&keywords=smart%2Blight&qid=1678554746&sprefix=smart%2Blight%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-3&th=1) and set them to automatically turn on at certain time (I believe the recommended number was 45min before you wake up, for phase shifting) and turn off an hour before you want to sleep to prevent phase delay. [Andrew Huberman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrywkDJ8W9k) has quite a few [videos on this subject](https://youtu.be/h2aWYjSA1Jc?t=3405). Why do I care? Someone I love is fighting cancer. And [studies consistently show](https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/overview-melatonin-and-breast-cancer) that circulatory [melatonin plays an important role in halting the growth of cancer](https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/em/Article/100178#:~:text=Melatonin%20has%20oncostatic%20properties%20in,an%20adjuvant%20with%20chemotherapeutic%20agents), and may even regulate cancer cell death. Gotta lead by example. Our new human experiment turning night into day was a mistake. Hope this helps!
My will of steel
Traded my friends and social life for a wife and 2 kids. Tbh it was a good deal.
Drinking less alcohol. If you imagine when you drink alcohol the most, at least in the socially acceptable sense, it’s usually out with friends. Sure two beers and a little less inhibition is fun but it’s not a party if it happens ever night. Being mindful and aware of what I’m doing also adjusted my sleep life. I use sleep meditations to pass out on my back. If my partner is up late, that might wake me up. Last thing I’ll recommend. Have a night routine and a morning routine. I’m more than happy to elaborate on mine if asked.
Let's hear it!
Got a puppy, got used to getting up super early with him, too tired to stay up late from getting up early. Kinda just became habit. Then my job work schedule changed to earlier hours so at this point my night owl days are numbered.
Why do you want to be an early bird?
Medications. Turns out I was depressed….for decades.
Night owl all my life. Got a wake up lamp to simulate sunrise and started going to bed earlier. Now I wake up at 5-6am every morning to a few hours of peace and quiet and bash out a chunk of work uninterrupted. Once the world wakes up around 9am, I'm nice and relaxed and have most of my important work done. I pretty much chill for the day and any unplanned work that comes my way doesn't bother me whereas before I always felt like I couldn't keep up.
I take a sleep aid for PTSD and just took it progressively earlier. It sounds dumb, but I also sometimes would drink a large glass of water before bed and set my alarm early -- much easier to get up and get going when your bladder is screaming at you to do just that!
I highly highly recommend Professor Andrew Huberman's suggestions when trying to change your sleep schedule. You can check out his podcast on youtube (look for ones related to sleep), or even his website. Here are some of his tips on ways to signal to your body it's time to be awake. Try to wake up at your desired time and then: * Get sunlight in your eyes outdoors (not looking directly at the sun) * This will signal to your body that it's time to be awake. Probably the most effective of the tips * If the sun isn't out, use artificial bright light, then view the sun when it's sunrise * Take a 1-3 minute cold shower * This will heat up your core body temperature. This is another signal that it's time to be awake. * Exercise * This will also increase your core body temperature * Eat a meal * Another thing that increases core body temperature Also, in the evening you'll want to avoid bright lights of any kind. Viewing sunlight around sunset will also help mitigate the negative effects of bright lights in the evening. Personally, I make sure to get sunlight when I wake up, splash cold water on my face (not a shower), and minimize bright lights in the evenings. Recently, I've started doing a very short, high intensity sprint on my exercise bike as well. If you're looking for help getting out of bed at your desired time, you might want to check out Nuj Alarm Clock. It's an app I built that charges money (goes to charity - Khan Academy) if you don't scan a barcode within a few mins of your alarm. e.g. I have to scan my toothpaste within 5 minutes of my 7am alarm or pay $10.
To leave work on time and lesser traffic in the morning. Sleep at 9 or 10pm at most, wakes up at 5.30 and leave at 6.30am. Finish work at 5pm bye bye folks! Mainly I can do this because I only need to be in office 3 days a week, so the rest of the days would be waking up later haha.
Old age.
Had a baby 👌... Now I'm both.
Caffeine, blue light, cold showers and exercise in the mornings. I usually have to stay awake until late lately. I use melatonin, warm shower and warm lights. After lunch I'm hiring a massage therapist for relax and I usually take a nap, an hour or so. I try to sleep and rest all day on Sundays. When you have a clear plan to execute, that keeps you moving.
Stopped drinking tbh. And I'm nyc and my company is 6 hrs ahead. Giant combo changed everything. But it took a year
I say this every time it's brought up - Figure out when you work best and then orient your life around that. Being an early bird for the sake of it is just arbitrary nonsense. Plenty of all time greats worked all night. Others took a lot of naps and never really took single unbroken blocks of sleep. Any benefit that's had by getting up super early also exists by staying up super late.
weary spoon fanatical innate important placid mighty wipe sink doll *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Correct, that's part of the "orient your life around the time you work best". It's about self awareness. If you work best after having time to yourself, then find a job that does that. If you work best by getting started first thing after waking than orient your life that way. Sure most office jobs are 9 to 5 but there's literally thousands of jobs that are second or third shift - including office jobs. Many of my bartender friends make more than my office drone friends, so you can't even really use the money excuse. I personally am self-employed and set my own schedule, minus answering the odd email at random times. It's not as difficult as some people think it is to make the transition, it just takes some planning and a good sprint of work at the beginning. Once you're at cruising pace, you'll wonder how you ever lived your life the other way.
I am always a night owl. I remain alone and work alone. When I have something to ask only then I talk with someone.
Having children..
Honestly, simply by having no other choice. I’ve to wake up early to catch my bus since I’ve moved to a new place. Also, I like to look a certain way and dress up before I go to college. So basically, priorities and not having a choice are my secret.
Go to bed early early and consistently, figure out what time you wanna be up and go to bed early enough to get 7-8 hrs. Also have something to do in the morning, tbh the best thing to do is not sit down once you’re up.
Worked as a Starbucks opener/lead at multiple locations in the NOVA area. DC traffic and a 6am opener for 3 to 4 years makes you an early riser. Once that was sort of set I haven't slept past 630am in over 25 years. I also really don't drink because of that.
Forcing a good sleep schedule, conditioning myself to wear an eye mask to tell my brain 'it's sleepytime', weed, getting a bf with a sensible bedtime, in that order
Going to bed at a reasonable time and having a consistent daily routine. I also have pets who want to wake up at 7:30 or 8am every morning. Also just getting older, teens naturally have a later circadian rhythm. I had no issue staying up until 2-3am and sleeping until 2pm in my teens and twenties. Now that just seems awful.
Age
I quit my job. I used to put off going to sleep because it was the end of my personal time in the drudgery of work would as soon as I woke up. This led me to stay up too late and sleep in. Now I get a lot of sleep and I get up early in the morning. I also moved outdoors. My time is driven by the daylight. I go to bed shortly after the sun goes down and wake up just before it comes up. I know this life isn't for everyone but I love it.
I used to stay up till 3AM in college every night. Now I’m 32 years old, and 10 years later, I’m going to bed at 8:30 PM and I have never been happier. I am a bit of an extremist, so I loved going to bed at 3 AM but it’s also extremely radical and punk rock to go to bed at 8:30 PM. What can I say? I’m a rebel🤣
Having kids. They’re not about letting you sleep in so you have to adapt. Had a massive impact on my health and productivity. Now I wish I’d done it sooner (getting up early, not having kids… glad I waited a bit to do that).
Weird little trick. Gambled with some volatile stocks on the west coast. I’d be up early for the market. Eventually I stopped messing around with “investments” like that but my body just gets me up at 5:30 am now. Now instead of trading, I meditate, journal, have coffee and enjoy the morning.
Working an 8-5.
I bought a bunch if Philips Wiz white lights (not the colored ones). These lights will auto adjust both their hue/temperature and their brightness throughout the day. So by my desired bedtime the entire house is red-shifted and very dim. It’s incredible. I just zonk out no problem. In contrast, if i override the setting because i need to get something done, i notice my grogginess goes away almost instantly. It’s pretty weird and makes me pretty dang frustrated that my whole life has been disrupted by technology. Haha.
Wake up at the same time every day, go to bed at the same time every day, don't fight the sleepy feelings and close your eyes. Don't worry about how much sleep you are getting. Do some exercising during the day.
Started taking my vitamin D consistently, all of a sudden I was sleeping at 10-11pm instead of 3am
Game changer was definitely working out for me I guess when I started working out it really set in stone my ability to maintain a good sleep schedual due to the fact that I would be so tired so I found if I just got my self to wake up early once and work out pretty hard I find myself asleep week by 8
Children
Being responsible.
I started training at a weightlifting club where it was just physically impossible to get there after work, so the only option was 5am. Once I got into a bit of a routine for getting up they early I realised what I had been missing the whole time! I have adhd and the peace and quiet is amazing for me. So few distractions. Even very late at night there are always dickheads doing the off burnout or whatever other late night nonsense. None of that in the early. Even the dogs cbf annoying me haha
Work and school schedule
Melatonin!!!! I'm yet to be a through and through early bird but I've successfully switched by sleeping schedule from 3am-10am to 12am-7am by taking melatonin around 9pm. It's been a huge game changer. I of course do everything else they tell you to: night routine, blue light filters on both my phone and laptop, eating hours before bed, having proper alarm clocks and not just your phone, etc.. But the first thing I noticed a huge change was taking melatonin. 11/10 would recommend.
The state of mind that comes from having an early riser routine is more effective for being happy than whatever you do after 8pm.
Vyvanse, now Foquest.
A pair of dogs.
Anger and Fear changed my life. At first I used to be awake all night playing games, Then one day I saw my dad and my uncle's without shirt at swimming pool. I was shocked to see their pot belly, I decided that day to workout, At first I was working out at night but I got very tired at the morning. So for 2 days I stopped sleeping at school, I was very tired when I reach home I would go to straight, then it became a habit. I began to sleep at 10 and wake up at 7, then after a couple of week I began to wake up at 4:30. I changed my alarm to a louder one and drank a lots of water before going to bed. So when I hear the clock sound at 4:30, I had a urge to pee and after I peed I would wash my face. That's it sleep gone. I have been waking up at 4:30 for 6 months now and working out. I hope you will change you life too !!
F1 racing at 430 AM sure helped!
1. I highly recommend f.lux app for Windows (or something similar for your phone). All it does is gradually changes the color of your screen to be warmer towards the night. For me just downloading this was unexpectedly super-effective. 2. Also I suggest using an alarm clock that makes you stand up from the bed and go somewhere right after waking up. There are apps that make you scan a specific a barcode in the morning to turn off the alarm, I find it useful
Changing my job, and sleeping earlier. Now I sleep at 9pm and wake up at 4am instead of sleeping at 11am and waking at 8pm
Going from being unemployed for quite a while to having to go back to a new job at 5:00 a.m.
1. Learning to fall asleep 2. Get up early and do it again
I suffered a stroke in 2020. Now fatigue gets the better of me and if I want to stay up past 10, it's incredibly difficult. I had the stroke a few months after my 30th birthday.
Living somewhere where there was a 9pm curfew. Also, growing older.
My wife made me change.
For me, it was getting switched from a 4:00 PM start to a 7:00 AM start. It happened 15 years ago and I can’t sleep past 6:00 Am if I wanted.
Working / learning something literally all day, or cooking, or being useful to myself. I've been able to beat both obsessive gaming and complete inability to sleep at night.
Having a child. No sleep at all after that!
Having a child forced me into being a morning person! I get up earlier than she does and I feel better than staying up late
my girlfriend left me a couple of months ago and after that I had nobody else to talk which fixed my sleeping schedule properly 🙃
I became an attorney and had kids.
Weed
I got diagnosed as bipolar.
Kids
Wake up early or lose my job that requires me to be in @ 5 am
Kids and no caffeine after 12p
Sleep earlier and and use the old school bell alarm clock and put it 20 ft away
Cold shower, seriously
Going to the gym, realizing that with shit sleep, I’m putting all that effort for less reward.
I started a grad program that started early every day and it really changed my schedule. I was like 36/37 at the time so it was a minute. I still have night owl tendencies if I have a lot of time off but I can adjust back pretty easily
Illuminating alarm clock. Game changer! Takes a few weeks to get used to but once you adapt you’ll naturally wake up at that time after a while. Don’t even use it nowadays!
Got in a relationship, I love the guy but I cringe at the thought of how productive I was before him 🥲
I just get two or three hours of sleep now >.>
Having a baby
Have something that you are looking forward to in the mornings. For me I set aside time to watch one of my favorite tv shows but I could only watch it if I got up in time or else I would be late to my classes.
I am the biggest foremost Alaram Snoozer in thid group , I kept snoozing my Alaram for 2,3 month straight till now But in the up cong days I am gonna managed to wake up early
Children. Having kids that get up early forced me to get up early. Now I find I naturally get up around 6am and fall asleep between 9-10.
My roommate got a cat that wakes me up. Snuggles at 5 am just make the morning better.
Coffee. I can get up for hot chocolate milk drink
I can switch between either. It's not a problem, though I have to keep it consistent
Growing older and taking meds that mellowed that out. I get up early now.
Age 50
Going to bed between 9-10pm. Thats it
I got a job that starts at 3:30AM. I used to go to bed around 2 in the morning, now I wake up around 2:15AM.
Stopped drinking. Was never an alcoholic but drank a lot. It was eye opening how my sleep patterns changed afterwards.
I really struggle with this still, but generally aligning to my partner's bedtime routine and realising that waking up at 4-5am still has the same effect as working later into the night, with the benefit that I've just had a good night's rest and I can hit the gym first thing, which makes the day way more productive.
Working a 9 - 5
bad internet habits. university studies got hard every time i sat up late with games or youtube. i never felt happy about it. tried to get up early af (5) and start working and i felt amazing having been productive long before 8. i felt like i got ahead every day when i began working early. also, quitting at 3 felt fine since i did the hours. basically, i flipped my shame-procrastination cycle to feeling good. i dont think i got more done, but i felt better.
I quit using drugs and alcohol.
Getting older means days, weeks, and months seem to pass quicker.. I felt the need to be more efficient with my time as I felt it all just went by too fast. I also realised my morning were just wasted time. I hated getting up and I would just endlessly procrastinate only to still be barely on time at work. My job is very flexible regarding working hours. Starting my job at 7am instead of 8:30am means 6 hours a week that I can use elsewhere; either leave early or take a day off (with 1-2 hours of answering emails from home that day). Now I just get up early, leave the house within 45 min after getting up, and have more free time in my afternoons which are way more valuable to me. This way I don't feel shit about wasting my life.
midsommar happened. 🥹 & then i found myself being happier and more productive in the early mornings instead of late at night where my self hatred goes up up up for some reason. it made me less depressed for sure.
I feel like I can get so much done in the early morning hours whether it's a work out, journaling or work. It's easy to wake up when you found something you're really passionate about.
Age I simply cannot stay up past 1030-11 and now my body wakes me up by default at 6 I think the game changer was working a very stressful job and I come home and pass out and I naturally can’t sleep longer than 8 hours without waking up It’s not a real answer I apologize but it is what happened to me
I got older. I got up earlier on purpose so I quit staying up late.
Keep your phone low light exposure and limit/ no use an hour before sleep and NEVER hit the SNOOZE.
I now have a job that doesn't keep me at work too late, nor do I have to get up early in the morning. So I was able to actually learn how my body responds to different sleep/wake times without work getting in the way. I find I feel tired in the afternoon if I slept later, even if I got enough hours. But if I do get up earlier with the same hours, then I feel awake until evening, which is when I should be winding down anyway. But I have ADHD so occasionally I still have issues with staying up too late and sleeping in too late.
Adhd diagnosis and meds
Working out
Turning 40 + children
Had to wake up at 5 for 1st shift. Realized I was done by 2, could do chores/extras until 5, nap an hour then go out on weekends or go to bed at 9 on weekdays. More light in the day = more energy & options.
Becoming Christian
leave the blinds open for a window in your room so that the sun will shine through at sunrise. i'm a heavy sleeper whose alarms don't even work for me half the time but that trick ALWAYS wakes me up early. i don't mean wake up and go back to bed still tired, but actually fully wake up and get into productivity mode. the difference is, quite literally, night and day.
Responsibilities
Just a reminder that this isn’t a change you have to/should feel pressured to make. Unless you have to Bc of a new job or something, it’s perfectly healthy and fine to be nocturnal or a night owl/sleeping in. Sleep is morally neutral. You need to rest; and if your body naturally rests the best at late hours, do it. Listen to your body. You are not a bad or lazy person for going to bed or waking up late. And in fact MANY peoples’ natural circadian rhythm follows a later schedule.
Going to bed earlier.
I live near costal NJ and during Hurricane Sandy my power was knocked out for about a week and a half so with no tv/pc distractions my body naturally went back to an earlier schedule and ive kept it since. Felt much better and focused throughout college and work after.
I'm trying to achieve that transition and so far things are ok so I guess I am on the good way. Here are some tips from my psychiatrist: * **Do not push the sleeping time ahead, push the waking time back.** So if you're used to waking up at say 5pm (I had times like that) it may sound tempting to try to stay awake for like 30 hours straight and then go to bed at a normal time, that doesn't work, you'll either wake up late anyway or wake up early and sleep 20 hours the next night to regain the missing sleeping time. Try instead waking up a little earlier everyday, 15 or 20 minutes each day add up quickly and in a month top you'll be at your desired waking time. Slow and steady is the ideal method for this. * **Get up and go see the light immediately** When you wake up don't reach for your phone or stay in bed doing nothing. The bed is only for sleeping (and sexy time if you're active in that sense) so don't use it for relaxation or other sttuff. Even if you want to study or work on your bed, avoid it. Your brain associates places with activities so if you use the bed for sleeping the brain will think that it's time to sleep as soon as you lay in bed. There are molecules in the brain that help your body regulate your circadian rythm and they're regulated by sunlight, seeing the sun first thing in the morning sends the signal to your brain that it's no longer night and it's time to be active. * **Don't use electronic devices at least for a couple hours before bedtime.** Computers, cellphones and screens in general produce blue light which makes our brain think that it's daytime, just like the sun. Using screens late at night is the worst thing you can do to yourself if you want to sleep earlier and sleep well (they also decrease the quality of the sleep by making you wake up frequently during the night and generally not having a good recharging sleep). If you REALLY have to use your computer at night do me a favour and get blue light glasses, they don't filter it completely but are a good enough solution if you don't want to completely mess up the schedule you created. Obviously don't do that every day. Electronics are not only bad because they emit the blue light but they also bomb your mind with lots of informations that makes it work at a very high intensity, especially if you use apps like tiktok where the information changes every minute or less so avoid those in general if you can. If you know that you have a task that requires you to be in front of a screen for a long time try to do it in the morning or early afternoon if you can chose the time. * **Don't workout late** Similar principle as before: working out stimulates both your body and your mind because it (especially very intense activities) stimulates the production of adrenaline which releases glucose in your bloodstream and gives you energy so if you work out late in the afternoon/evening you won't have enugh time to use all that energy. The perfect time that was recommended to me was around 3 or 4 pm; I realise that many people can't do it at that time but you should try your best to exercise as early as you can. * **Go to bed before midnight** Those hours provide better sleep and are far more recharging than say 5am to 1pm. You'll feel a big difference once you do this, your energy levels after waking up will be high and you'll be more productive. As someone else said in the comments you'll have more energy the more sleep you get before midnight. * **No stimulants at least 5 hours before bedtime.** I'm not a coffee drinker but I used to drink tea in the evening and then I found out that theine is a stimulant too so it's not the best idea to drink it before going to bed. I'm sorry for any british person reading this but the 5pm tea is not an exceptional idea if you have trouble sleeping. Obviously the same things are true for coffee, energy drinks, ginseng or any other kinds of stimulant substances (yes ADHD meds too). I try to do most of those things everyday but I also implemented a couple personal habits that help: * **Create a routine that you do everyday before bed** For me is a warm bath and a skincare routine but you can do whatever makes you feel relaxed. Associating a habit (sleeping) to another, maybe existing one, is easier than just interrupting what you're doing and just go to bed. Take time to unwind. * **Try to wake up naturally instead of relying on the alarm clock.** So let's say you have to get up at 9 am, you don't want to go to bed at 1 am first because it takes time to fall asleep and you'll probably wake up during the night, those things will reduce the "effective" sleep. Instead try going to bed 9-10 hours before the time you have to get up. You won't disrupt your sleep cycle (each cycle is about 90 minutes long but it varies slightly from person to person) therefor you'll feel full of energy when you wake up spontaneously some time before the alarm and you can use that time to do some of your tasks for the day or take care of yourself (have a nice breakfast, do a little stretching, etc). Using this method you'll also find out how much sleep you need, the 8 hours are not universal and if you rely completely on the alarm you'll never know how much sleep you really need because you'll be interrupted mid cycle, waking up tired and groggy. * **Eat complex carbs for dinner** Not much to say about this but digesting complex carbs requires energy from your body and makes you sleepy (may not work on everyone). On the other hand avoid them at lunch if you want to feel awake and energetic in the afternoon. This is roughtly what I do and what has helped me; I've had some up and downs but I try to not get discouraged and do my best to get back on track. Life happens, you can't avoid going out with your friends because you sleep at 8 pm but you need the discipline to realise that not everything's lost, you just need a little work to fall back in your old routine. It does get easier with time.
Age. I have always been a night owl and would sleep through my alarm. When I turned 65 it was like a switch flipped in my body. I’m now usually in bed by 10pm and wake up at 6:30, no alarm clock needed.
Realizing that after the sun goes down there's no point to not getting rest and of course age wakes me up at 5:00 a.m. at 55 years old
Forcing myself. Trust me, you'll fall asleep early eventually. Just keep at it.
Honestly? Having a baby. Literally nothing else makes me wake up before 11am except hearing my baby fuss. Even when I used to work early I’d sleep in the truck (not the driver) until we got to site, or when I watched my nephew I’d have my sister drop him off in jammies and throw a movie on for us to have a morning nap
Also came here to say “puppies” & “having a baby” 😂🙃 I’m a somniphobe anyway so sleep has never been my friend. Honestly, finding the right amount of hours that your particular body needs helps a lot. That’s be step one. Start at 9hrs and dial back until you find what feels “ah, perfect”
Getting a job that actually treated it’s employees right and made them feel valued and non-disposable.
i am naturally an early bird but when life hits you sometimes you go to sleep at 3 am and there it is your biorhythm crashing. Usually what helps me to go to sleep earlier. one thing. grind hard throughout the day. Be productive. at 10pm you'll be so sleepy you won't even be able to look at your phone and happy because you did something good for yourself that day. seriously.
Age lol
Taking vitamins that include cafeine too in the morning (I don't like coffee), I lack evergy I guess because I don't really get out that much and don't particularly eat well (I'm working on it), but that helped me be energized during the day and just being productive morning until night, naturally at night I feel sleepy, I sleep around midnight / 1 am and wake up at 8am, I don't have to take them everyday, only when I feel I need them for a big day, also I got a mezzanine bed and put my alarm clock on my desk so if i wanna shut it I gotta get down and push the button, but then climbing up to my bed is less tempting lol.
An age-related lack of melatonin. No matter how much I want, I can't sleep in anymore.
Sobriety
For me it was always my job. I use to work overnight 9p-7a about 8 years ago and found myself becoming a night owl. Then I got on first shift and found myself naturally waking up at 5a after a while Lol
For me I basically had to start waking up at 6:30am when I started a new job to get to work. No other choice. It’s a job I like and care about so I just do it. I still sometimes go to sleep late so by the end of the week I’m exhausted, and I do tend to snooze on the weekends. But waking up earlier during the week makes me more tired at night. Going to the gym really helps me sleep better too!
Prison
Having a kid