
Ask HN: Has anyone switched from being a night owl to being a morning person? - cncrnd
My most productive hours are 12AM-6AM. I find myself falling into this schedule despite trying to change it multiple times.<p>Before I throw in the towel and accept my fate as a nocturnal creature, has anyone successfully switched from being a night owl to a being on a regular schedule or (gasp) even being a morning person?
======
asgraham
I began making the change in January and was fully morning-person by mid-
February. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and would highly, highly recommend it.

The key for me was having both a reason to wake up, and a reason to go to
sleep. To have a shot of waking up on time in the morning, you unsurprisingly
need to go to sleep about 8 hours before you want to wake up. Part of the kick
for me was the realization that the later it gets, the more likely I am to do
mindless things I don't actually want to do (e.g. Facebook). So, I thought,
why not sleep instead?

If you're productive that late, maybe there's no need to change. But I will
say I used to be productive that late (read: every college problem set was
completed between midnight and 6am), and I still think becoming a morning
person was a great decision. More than morning productivity, I just feel
better in general.

To actually wake up on the other end, I find I need a particular reason, i.e.
something that I'm going to do the moment I wake up. For me, that's running to
the gym. I'm sure the fact that it's exercise has some extra effect, but I
really think it's mostly just the fact that every morning, by rote, I roll out
of bed, put on running clothes, and walk out the door. No thinking involved. I
suspect it would work about as well to roll out of bed, put on clothes, and
fry an egg.

To address particulars of other comments: I'm 25, I don't have a physically
intensive job, I often (usually) eat as late as 7 or 8pm, I never drink
caffeine after 4pm (I've found that makes it harder to fall asleep). I go to
bed at 9:30pm and wake up ~5:45am.

~~~
thisisit
> The key for me was having both a reason to wake up, and a reason to go to
> sleep.

This cannot be stressed enough. Nowadays, I have started going to the gym. I
need to wake up by 6.30am to ensure that I can get enough exercise before
office.

------
whb07
Have you ever spent a full day in the outdoors? The moment you lay your stuff
for sleep before sunset you’re out like a baby till sunrise. That’s because
you’ve been walking and being active all day. There’s also less distractions.

Having said that, I do believe that if you were to wake up at 6 am, go to the
gym and work daily, you would be ready to sleep like a baby at 9-10 pm.

Most of the time when I become a night owl it is because I’ve been physically
lazy and eating like Fat Bastard. I’ll just sit by my computer till 3-4 am
wasting away. Change the activity level and eating habits and you’re back to a
normal routine.

~~~
bluedino
Do heavy deadlifts or squats and you will sleep like a baby that night.

~~~
lotsofpulp
That's how I shifted my schedule, and maybe my age has kicked in too. But I do
25 min of cardio at 5:45am and then weights for 40 min, and I do another 30 of
cardio after work and I'm ready to sleep around 9:30pm to 10pm and wake up
again at 5:30am.

------
Flimm
Yes, I have. In a desire to change some bad habits, I stopped using alarms to
wake up, and I configured my router to stop providing me Internet access from
11pm every day. I also put a sign on my bedroom door, saying "this is a phone-
free zone". The sunshine wakes me up. I kept this up at least for a couple of
years. I genuinely feel like a morning person now, instead of a night owl that
I used to be.

~~~
taborj
I don't live in an area where the sun can wake me up regularly, and I have a
spouse to boot, but I do wake up without alarms. It took a bit of doing, but
after shifting my schedule so as to be a morning person about 18 years ago,
after a couple years of waking up to an alarm, I found I was waking up 1-2
minutes before my alarm. So one day I stopped setting it, and for the last 15+
years I've found my body naturally wakes me up at the same 5:30am (+/\- 5
minutes) every day.

~~~
wmboy
What time do you usually go to sleep?

~~~
taborj
Between 10 - 10:30pm, though sometimes as late as 11:30pm.

------
bloudermilk
I have multiple times. I came to believe that night owls and morning people
both want to achieve the same thing; a few hours of uninterrupted work. I had
success with both. The difference is that morning routines take more
discipline, while being a night owl just takes a bit of willpower and
stimulants. Ultimately I found that I preferred being up early and watching
the natural world waking up, beating everyone else to the start of the day,
and feeling ready to sleep at a reasonable hour. Learning how to go to sleep
was the hardest part and probably varies a lot per person. For me the trick
was getting in bed and reading with bedtime tea for a while before I wanted to
sleep.

P.S watching the sunrise is a secret reward morning people get, and it’s
beautiful.

------
bgdurrett
I think my first question would be "why do you want to switch to being a
morning person?" I suspect there is a deeper underlying objective, and
becoming a morning person may or may not be the best path to success.

That said, I made the switch from night owl to morning person. Like many
lifestyle changes, I think the biggest part is establishing the habit, after
which it becomes your standard existence. Create a regular pattern.

Take a moment to understand what behaviors keep you up at night and change the
time you engage in those habits. I used to drink coffee even in the evenings,
now I don't have caffeine after noon. Eliminating screens, both because of the
engagement and the light, can help. I haven't used it, but many people I know
swear by melatonin for correcting sleep schedules when traveling, and it may
help you through an adjustment period.

Regular exercise, in addition to being a generally good thing for you, can
also help ensure your body wants rest at the end of the day. There were some
great tips in the replies, camping / backpacking does tend to force the issue
of being a morning person. I also don't use an alarm clock for a few reasons,
but I think alarm clocks enable staying-up too late... you're less inclined to
worry about when you get to sleep if you know something will wake you up.

Finally, I sometimes have a problem getting to sleep when too many thoughts
are racing through my head. I find listening to podcasts is a huge help, but
it has to be a topic that is interesting enough for me to ignore everything I
was thinking, but not so interesting that I am engaged enough to stay awake.

~~~
nmcfarl
I agree with the establishing the habit. And I think all of the steps are
important - exercise, caffeine, screen time. And alarm clocks! I personally
found giving up the alarm clock was the biggest thing. (Also it giving it up
gave me the feeling that my quality of life improved. For the curious I wake
up at 6am, when it's plenty dark, but the habit alone is enough to get me up
on time.)

After the switch I found (for me) caffeine wasn't much of a problem, I can
drink an after dinner espresso. And it wasn't so much the screens - with flux
installed, and all the lights in the house off, I can code till about ½ an
hour before bedtime.

So although the transition can be rough - you are not necessarily giving
everything up permanently, just doing so to make the habit. And once the habit
has stuck, you can try adding things back in.

------
dimitar
I have, and I also have done a lot of shift work too and easily switched
regimes many times.

The trick is very simple - if you want to wake up and have breakfast in 6 am,
your last meal must be 14 hours before that - which is 4 pm on the previous
date. No snacks, no dinner not anything like this. You will be hungry but you
will find yourself falling asleep at about 10 pm. If you don't stay in front
of a screen you can go to sleep easily. You will then wake up at 6 am - fresh,
but hungry. Its important to have a quick breakfast or you will fall asleep
again. Try to keep this eating/sleeping schedule, you can relax it a bit (i.e.
have dinner at 6) after the first week.

People are of course different, so while 14 hours work for me, some people do
it with 12 or 16 hours, but the idea is the same.

This tip/lifehack also works for jetlag: [https://hbr.org/2009/05/a-fast-
solution-to-jet-lag](https://hbr.org/2009/05/a-fast-solution-to-jet-lag)

~~~
Hnrobert42
A study in mice showed such a consumption schedule contributed to weight loss.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/timin...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/timing-your-meals-may-help-with-weight-loss-thats-what-it-seems-to-do-
in-mice/2018/03/23/14672fc0-f718-11e7-a9e3-ab18ce41436a_story.html)

------
brazzledazzle
Changing it requires discipline. Someone else pointed out being active but
that requires discipline too.

You also have to be honest with yourself because discipline requires it. A lot
of people make excuses for themselves. They measure their productivity and
cite the news blurbs about sleep studies that confirm their bias. They tell
themselves and others they can’t. But the reality is that if you’re not
sedentary and actually go to sleep with lights and devices off instead of
procrastinating you will adjust.

You also have to actually want it enough to deal with annoyance or discomfort.
If you convince yourself that you’ll fail you will lay there in the dark for
hours until you give in and pull out your phone or laptop. Without motivation
you’ll read this and think “I’ve tried all of this, I need some trick or way
to solve this that doesn’t require hard work.”

------
blakesterz
Yes, I was forced to in my late 30s, and seems like it's just natural now in
my late 40s.

Looking back, it would've been easier if I cut way back on the caffeine,
stopped work way earlier (rather than working at 8pm), and just worked on
converting slowly by slowly changing my habits. Alcohol also impacts my sleep.
I also found my eating and exercise both had huge impacts on my sleep. All
these things should've been obvious, but I only noticed after they had to
change for other reasons.

I took a job in my mid 30s that required me to get up around 6am. It took my 2
years to adjust, it was brutal. Then I had kids, this ruined sleep for nearly
a decade. Then, just as they started sleeping in, I wake up with the sun, no
matter what. Luckily I seem to need less sleep now.

------
olddad
Have a child, you'll change.

~~~
hikarudo
This happened to me too. I used to think I was natural night owl, but since
having a child there's nothing I welcome more than going to bed early. Falling
asleep has become easier too.

------
tobiasSoftware
While I have not, I have made an interesting realization. I used to like being
a night person and hate being a morning person. My like of being a night
person comes from rare nights where I feel alive working on projects and it's
amazing, but rare. However, I've realized my hate of being a morning person is
incorrect. It all stems from a single thing - the alarm. When I wake up from
an alarm, I feel a bit blah all day. I feel way better in the weekends when I
sleep in.

So my advice would be not to try to make the transition by setting your alarm
super early, because then you'll feel miserable and give up. Instead, focus on
going to bed as early as possible. Leave the computer at a certain point (or
at least use Flux), and pick up a book and read or something else relaxing.

If you can't avoid using an alarm, you could also try changing it. One thing
that's helped me in general is a light alarm - 30 minutes before the alarm, it
gradually starts turning a light on. Sometimes I wake up naturally to turn it
off, and I feel better than waking to a blaring noise. The light alarm also
doesn't use a standard alarm noise, it uses a noise like a flock of birds to
wake me up. Another thing I've tried that's helped is a CD alarm, so that the
blaring noise you wake up to is at least a pleasant song of your choice
instead of annoying beeping.

~~~
gregmac
A total human sleep cycle is about 90 to 110 minutes. Most important is that
you'll feel most groggy if you wake up during the deep sleep parts of a cycle.

I've found trying to set my alarm in about 90 minute increments (from when I
think I'll fall asleep) helps a lot. For me, that means basically either 6 or
7.5 hours of sleep on weekdays.

I also agree on the alarm. I use my phone, and have it set to gradually
increase volume with a gentle noise - I change it occasionally, but typically
choose something like birds chirping or piano music.. so long as it doesn't
have abrupt loud sounds.

These two things have helped me significantly with feeling decent when I first
wake up. I'm still not a "morning person" but I'm at my, let's say, "average"
level of productive by the time I'm at work in the morning.

------
bsuh
Some of the advice amounts to "just do it" or "insert inconvenient forcing
function" like spending a week backpacking, which would be difficult if your
sleep schedule is affecting your energy and mood.

I've tried forcing myself, but it tends to be fragile. Go to sleep late just 1
night, have trouble forcing yourself to sleep the next day, sleep schedule
gets worse again, get frustrated, give up.

What I've been having success with is a full spectrum LED light, which I use
for an hour in the morning, and a blue light filtering goggles, which I wear
from sunset. I can literally feel the goggles working as my eyes grow heavier
a few hours from sunset, resulting in my falling asleep around 11-12 and
waking up around 6-7.

Admittedly I've only done this for the past 3 weeks after reading about the
full spectrum LED light from
[https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity](https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity).
But it doesn't get easier than turn on light, put on goggles.

------
pixl97
Question: Are you still young?

Up until my mid 30's I was a night owl. Over the last few years that's started
to transition to more morning hours.

------
bmay
In college, I went to bed around 2-3:30am every weeknight because that's what
the people around me were doing. Also, I was regularly staying out at least
that late on weekends.

In the last few years, I've been forced to get to work by 9:45am due to team
standups. Also, my girlfriend-at-the-time was waking up around 6:30-7am to
exercise almost every weekday. And I don't really go out partying at night
anymore so waking up at 7:30am and not feeling miserable is doable.

Keeping the consistent weekend schedule is the key. I've been pretty driven to
continue my CS education and self-teaching and so having more time in the day
to continue that goal motivates me to get up early.

------
BrandoElFollito
When doing my PhD I used to work from ~13:00 to 5:00 de next day (the rest was
sleep). I now wake up at 6:45 after 8h or so of sleep.

The surprising thing is that I cannot tell you how this affected me because it
did not. I did the switch a few times easily. Now that I think of it, I have
never been bothered by time zones either (I used to constantly travel
worldwide east and west bound for a few years).

I never had problems to sleep (neither in time nor quality)

This maybe means that some people are not impacted to much by dlrrp cycles and
that just giving a try to something else may be a great experience (I loved my
owl cycle, though I had obviously zero social interactions at that time)

------
bigwheeler
I found some helpful information in here that may apply:

[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180424-what-i-learnt-by-
li...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180424-what-i-learnt-by-living-
without-artificial-light)

Also, I second “hiking the AT”. You don’t even need to hike the AT, just find
a 5 day/night backpacking trip. It’s like a reboot for your circadian rhythms.
A slightly costlier reset is to fly east 6 or 7 time zones and spend a week
there! But no matter what, after you do a reset, you need a good plan for
holding on to your new schedule. That’s where the morning daylight comes in...

~~~
SpaceInvader
+1 to that. I'm an night owl myself, and I was REALLY surprised what happend
when I had power outage while living in Czech Republic. I spent evening with
candle lights and went to sleep earlier than usual, next day I woke up before
my alarm rang and I was rested much more than usual.

------
thebigspacefuck
I used to drink a cup of coffee at 7PM every day and regularly stay up until
2AM - 4AM. Now, my partner is a huge night owl and I work regular daytime
hours, so the morning is the time I enjoy to myself. I also drink
significantly less caffeine (2 cups of black tea max vs 6+ cups of coffee). I
feel less crazy in general these days and like the time I have to myself in
the mornings. I still don't like having to be someplace really early and
usually get to work around 9:30AM. Even if I wake up early I usually do a
little house work and take my time getting ready.

------
lkrubner
Every time I come home from Europe. I'm joking, but I'm not joking too. I live
in New York City. Last year I got into a long stretch where I would fall
asleep at 4 AM and wake up at noon. Then I spent a week at the Web Summit:

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/some-photos-from-
the-...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/some-photos-from-the-web-
summit)

When I came home, it seemed normal to wake up at 5 AM. And I stuck with that
pattern for several months, before I started to shift to a later schedule
again.

------
markpapadakis
I used to stay up as long as I can. I appreciate darkness and quiet, and this
was naturally when I could get that. Nowadays though I sleep at around 10am,
and I wake up at 06am. It’s almost as quiet, and almost as dark and I get to
read, and shower and maybe have breakfast before rest of the family is awake
at around 07:30. This turned out to work better for me all things considered.
I am also 42 now so this may be in part because I am not that young anymore
and the shifted priorities, habits, and needs are better served by this new
schedule.

( I never drink coffee )

------
jmcasebier
Many times. First, you need to force yourself to get out of bed at your target
time. Do this for a couple days, have some coffee, find a routine. Eventually
your body will adjust the its internal clock to make you feel tired earlier.
It is also important, I have found, to ensure that you get dressed and groomed
and ready soon after waking in the morning (even if you're not planning to
leave the house) as this helps promote productivity. For some people this is
easier than others, but it is certainly possible for all. Baby steps, my
friend.

------
pasbesoin
For me, it seems to be largely a matter of environment.

In my current environment, I find more peace and quiet and escape from worry
in the evening/night.

Also, I currently have some health issues that often mitigate somewhat --
slowly -- through the day. (My current environment seems to exacerbate them.)

Countering this is a tiredness that hits with sunset.

When I'm somewhere else -- and also with other activities at hand -- being a
morning person is not a problem.

So, my suggestion: Don't just look at yourself and/or your psychology.
Evaluate what other factors may be influencing this.

------
soneca
I made this switch, although it ocurred slowly through the last 20 years.

My nickname is Sleepy (the brazilian version _Soneca "_) due to sleeping
almost every class at highschool, which was from 7h30am to 12h30.

Later I would work much beetter later in the afternoon and sleep until after
noon on weekends.

Then I noticed after my 30s that I was becoming a morning person.

Today I wake up with the sunlight (something unimagible for my younger self).
And I am very productive in the mornings, working on my own project from 6am
to 8am everyday before going to my day job

------
kethinov
I just switched to being a morning person for the past few weeks. It was
driven largely by a temporary shift in my work schedule and I'm pretty certain
I will revert back to crashing at 4am eventually. Not because the morning
schedule negatively impacts the quality or quantity of my sleep or anything,
but because when I don't have a bunch of morning meetings, my sleep/wake
cycles naturally start drifting 30 minutes to an hour forward each day until
it settles on sleeping from 4am to noon.

------
j4c0bs
I was in the same situation as you for the majority of life. After removing
all caffeine consumption in January, I consistently sleep from 10PM-6AM
without the use of an alarm. No other significant changes were made to my
daily habits (same exercise / nutritional regiment as always).

The quality of my sleep has improved greatly and I actually feel rested /
awake in the morning. 8AM-12PM is now my most productive time and I am still
in disbelief that I have switched over.

------
rubyB
I tried to change into a morning person several times and failed each time.
Eventually, I gave up. A few months ago I moved out of the city into a small
village surrounded by lake and woods. Without even knowing, let alone trying
or even wanting, I turned into a morning person. I tend to wake up a few
minutes before 6am every morning. No alarm needed. Awake and clear in a
minute. Must be the countrylife or what.

------
st26
Control your light exposure. Open the blinds during the day, invite in the
daylight or get outside as soon as the sun is up. At night, ruthlessly purge
lights inside your house. Shut off devices, tape over blinky lights. Cut way
back on your screen time after the sun has gone down. (screen time during the
day is kosher) Use only dim "mood" lighting around the house at night, except
maybe if you're reading or cooking.

The rest will basically take care of itself.

------
source99
I have been on a low carb / ketosis diet for a while and I find that this
gives me better control of when I go to sleep and when I wake up. Might be
worth a shot.

------
hluska
Go camping for a week. I'm not talking about taking a fifth wheel into some RV
park, rather I'm talking about real camping in a tent.

Camping has a few things going for it. First, if you do it right, you won't
use your devices much. Second, you might be surprised how quickly your body
will adapt to defining your days by natural light. Third, I can't think of
anything more relaxing than sitting around a campfire at night.

------
mrarjen
Yes, I used to also work optimally during the night. Then I started to
actively go to the Gym at 7AM, this took about 6 months to fully get used to,
but now I go to bed around 10/11PM and feel much more active during the day.
Even in the weekends.

Depending where you are located, I can recommend some weed oil to kind of
force yourself to sleep, take it one hour before you want to sleep and you
will have a hard time staying awake.

------
briants5
Absolutely, I used to stay up until 4 or 5 AM all the time. I did have the
advantage of never being a late sleeper. If I fell asleep around 4, I would be
up no later than 9 on average.

The way to transition is to pick time for bed, and for waking up. It will
probably suck at first. You'll have a hard time falling asleep and/or a hard
time waking up. If you wake up consistently at the same time your body will
adjust.

------
everdev
Yes, but it's a result of age and having kids. After a few years, my routine
is now in sync with my kids where I go to bed early and get up early.

------
seanalltogether
I made the change by forcing myself to wake up and go to the gym every weekday
at 8 am, and then drink/eat a breakfast afterward. My entire body shifted
after a month to the point where I easily went to bed at midnight, and woke up
just before my alarm in the morning. I had a good amount of energy during the
work day and generally just felt good

------
Clubber
I have not. I've been working for 20 years and I still need the weekends to
catch up on sleep. I'll try to get to bed on time (10p) but sometimes (at
least once a week) I just can't sleep, or dread work, or whatever. I'll be
tired all day, then when it comes time to go to sleep again, I'll be wide
awake.

~~~
MikkoFinell
On the problematic nights, try melatonin pills. It's over-the-counter, seems
side-effect free as far as I can tell, and will put you out within an hour.

~~~
Clubber
I've tried those and Tylenol PMs too. I took PMs for years (and still do) just
to get to sleep for work.

------
quantumofmalice
Yes. A light alarm is what let me do it, in particular the twighlight
simulation, which allowed me to fall asleep consistently:

[https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/HF3531_60/wake-up-
light](https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/HF3531_60/wake-up-light)

It also dramatically improved my depression.

------
CocaKoala
Yes.

In college, I worked a third shift job, from 8pm to 430am one or two times a
week. Staying up late was pretty much the way I did stuff.

Immediately after college, I started a job as a baker; work began at 7am
Tuesday through Friday, and 4am on Saturday. I quit baking after two years,
but I still wake up around 6am every day, even with no alarm set.

------
ck3g
I do it from time time. it does not take much effort. I think it's the
question of self-discipline

------
dolzenko
Yes, all it took me was intense 4 days ski trip where everyone gets up at 6AM
and rides until 4PM, wasn't easy but I was surprised I was staying on this
schedule effortlessly after coming home for a week or so (I had to switch back
due to the work schedule).

------
qwer
Just slowly go to bed earlier every day. Set your alarm for your go-to-bed
time. Read a book if you can't sleep, but not on a bright-screened device.

I used to be such a nighthawk that I'd be waking up daily at 7 pm. Getting old
naturally fixes that too.

------
heathjohns
Yep. Got a dog. That furry little bastard is an unrelenting alarm clock.

~~~
krallja
Ha, depends on the dog, I guess. Mine will happily sleep until 11.

~~~
tonyarkles
Yup, I've got one who will get up with me no matter how early I get up. The
other two will stay in bed with my wife, no matter how late she sleeps in. The
only guaranteed way to get all three up is to start pouring food into their
bowls... the tell-tale clink-clink of the kibble landing in the bowls catches
everyone's attention!

People elsewhere in this discussion have mentioned exercise. I've definitely
found that having these guys helps force me to get out and move. Especially
the sheltie; if we haven't gone for a walk for a day or two, I'll be working
at home and she'll come up and jam her nose into my kidney, over and over.
Motivation!

------
dominotw
I used to think I am biologically wired to be a nightowl but i am a morning
person now.

I got a cat that wakes me up every morning at 6:30 am. I used to hate it but
now i don't mind it :D.

------
ulisesrmzroche
You didn’t mention if you’re getting regular exercise so I’d start there. If
it’s because you can’t stop thinking I find writing a diary entry in your
journal helps.

------
joshuaellinger
Yes, I had a kid.

------
zenzonomy
Having kids makes this a necessity. You get used to it based on repetition.

------
fleitmate
i can use any sleep schedule it all depends on when you need to do things.
it's mostly habit and can be hard to change because you need to either stay up
or sleep but can be done incrementally.

------
gordaco
I have. Kind of. My solution might not work for you, or it might be
unacceptable for other reasons.

I've always been a night owl, and by always I mean that I remember anecdotes
about getting up in the middle of the night of a Saturday to read or to do
something, going back to when I was like 8 years old. Like you, I've realized
that my mind just works better at night (but my mood is better during the day.
YMMV).

When I was studying my first degree, and during my first job after that, I had
a horrible sleep schedule. More like I didn't have a real sleep schedule. I
would sleep an indefinite amount of time, between 4 and 7 hours, and then have
a mini-crash each weekend, sleeping until 1 or 2 pm. During my first (part-
time, mornings) job, for a few months I slept twice from 4 to 8: once at 4-8
am, then again at 4-8 pm. It was way worse than it sounds.

About 6 years ago I decided that I had to take care of my sleep, and I devised
my life hack: _I would sleep just after work, instead of just before work_.
I've been successfully doing this since then. So, the guidelines are:

1) go to sleep _as soon as possible_. This means going to sleep at an
apparently insane time. Lately I'm going to the bed at about 6 pm.

2) sleep as much as you want without looking at any clock. Sometimes I get up
at 1am, sometimes I get up at 3:30. Get up only when you are confident that
you don't need more sleep. Don't worry, you will still have a few hours with
three juicy bonuses to mental activity (completely rested + night time +
silence). If you're anything like me, your productivity be tremendous.

3) Most chores can be done during this night time. Most notably, it's a great
time to cook; just be careful about noise (avoid blenders, and if you're
cleaning, avoid the vacuum cleaner). Other chores, like buying groceries or
anything noisy, will have to wait until the weekend.

4) For obvious reasons, social life will also have to wait until weekends. You
might not get a lot, with this schedule; I've never had much and I'm
accustomed to that, so this is not a problem for me. But this is probably the
greatest deal breaker for most people.

5) Follow the same sleep schedule every day, including Saturdays and Sundays.
This is very important, and it requires discipline.

6) Ideally you should also have a job with sane hours (and finishing at the
same time every day), which again is not available to everyone. Plan your
meals accordingly. I have two meals a day, one just before work and another
one, lighter, just after work and before going to bed. You might have a
different plan, like eating once when you get up and then have lunch halfway
during your work.

The key is: regardless of whether you are a lark or an owl, go to the bed at
the same time every day, try to sleep 8 hours, and try to make them
continuous. There is this myth about people having a noncontinuous schedule
during the middle ages. I'm a little sceptical; but above that, I've realized
that, for me, the only thing that really works is a continuous sleep.

Other tips:

1) Avoid caffeine. If you follow this schedule, getting up and needing coffee
immediately will be a thing of the past. In fact, if you are still tired after
8 hours, you can just sleep 1 or 2 more, since work is still a few hours away.
I've found that an excess of sugar also works against this schedule, but
again, YMMV.

2) No alarm clocks either. You will wake up naturally when you are fully
rested. Also, turn off your phone just as you arrive home.

3) Melatonin is your friend. You might notice that some days your body is not
ready to sleep. If this happens to you, start taking melatonin about 1h before
going to bed.

4) As much as I dislike it, exercise helps a lot. Something as simple as
walking around your house with the blinds closed might be good enough; the
ideal condition would be to do something during the day that tires you a
little, like an 1h walk or a short visit to the gym.

The biggest problem is setting up the schedule. In order to do this, go to bed
two or three hours _later_ each day, until you are going to sleep at the
desired time. I usually reserve the latest 4 or 5 days of each vacation period
to do this, but of course this might not work if you don't have many days off
during the year. I live in Europe, so I can afford three 10-15 periods during
the year (mind your bank holidays and weekends and plan accordingly, of
course).

I always say that the cons of this schedule are obvious, but the pros, while
not obvious, are also there and they are great. No alarm clock; sleep as much
as you want every day; the best hours of the day are for myself and not for
the job (but you will still be very productive at work since you will be well
rested); and I get easy access to some underrated pleasures like going to the
beach just before dawn.

------
akeck
Listen to whb07. Through hike something like the Appalachian Trail. ;-)

------
franze
get a child / become a mother / father ... see you life turn around in 9
months.

------
doctorlpf
I have switched my hours around multiple times. Through high school, I was, of
necessity, a morning person. In college, I became a night owl, often seeing
the sunrise after all-nighters. A few years of working, I was a morning person
again, getting up at 4am to go swimming before work. In grad school,
particularly in the crunch to finish my dissertation, I was typically working
from 11pm to 8am, and sleeping during the day. I'm old now, and can't seem to
get away from waking up at 6am, and there I'm stuck. But when I was young,
flipping around hours was not a big deal. From my current perspective, you
can't just try to change your sleep schedule, you have to tweak everything
else in support. When do you consume caffeine? When do you exercise? What do
you eat and when? When do you stop looking at glowing screens? What kind of
lighting do you have in your environment, and when? You may need to experiment
with all these variables to find what allows you to shift your sleep schedule.

