
Benefits of getting up early even if you don't want to code - sbansal
http://zenhabits.net/10-benefits-of-rising-early-and-how-to-do-it/
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mhartl
_Take advantage of all that extra time._

Um, no. Getting up early might minimize distraction, but it doesn't give you
extra time. The amount of sleep you need is, to very good approximation, a
conserved quantity. And to get up at 4:30 or 5, most people would need to go
to bed between 7:30 and 9. Hello, sunrise; goodbye, social life.

~~~
amalcon
While it doesn't give you extra time, it may make time-management easier. If
so, that has an effect much _like_ giving you extra time.

Disclaimer: I'm not an early riser. At all. This is really just a guess.

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thoughtsimple
I've tried being a morning person. I spent 9 months getting up at 6 am to get
to work before 8 am. I made it every day. As soon as that gig ended I
immediately, literally the next day, started getting up after 9am again. I
can't make myself a morning person.

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lee
"But I'm a night owl!"

I'm glad the author of the post recognized that it is possible to switch from
being a night owl to an early riser. Anecdotally, I am a night owl... if it
were not for work and kids, I would sleep late and wake early. That feels
natural for me.

But, when my daughter was born, I was forced to switch and it has been fairly
painless. If you're a night owl, it's worthwhile to at least experiment with
waking early for a period of time to experience the productivity increase that
occurs from waking early.

I find that on a night owl schedule, my creative side was heightened, whereas
waking early allowed me more energy to "get things done".

~~~
gwern
> I'm glad the author of the post recognized that it is possible to switch
> from being a night owl to an early riser. Anecdotally, I am a night owl...
> if it were not for work and kids, I would sleep late and wake early. That
> feels natural for me. But, when my daughter was born, I was forced to switch
> and it has been fairly painless.

I am skeptical it is possible. Kids and teenagers spend years being yanked
awake against their circadian rhythms, and they _don't_ switch but instead
their grades suffer as does their health ([http://www.gwern.net/education-is-
not-about-learning#school-...](http://www.gwern.net/education-is-not-about-
learning#school-hours)). As well, people _suck_ at self-assessment - 'what do
you think you know and why?'

Sleep debt takes up to a month to pay off
(<http://preview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15892922>); people don't realize
this. People sleep in 23 minutes a day on the weekend
(<http://blog.myzeo.com/sleep-by-night-of-the-week/>); people think they sleep
longer. People restricted to 4 or 6 hours of sleep may claim they have adapted
to it; they haven't and their mental performance still suffers
([http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html)).

Why do you and the OP think you can switch, and have? (What do you think you
know, and why?) Because you didn't notice anything bad. I see...

~~~
lee
Well yea, I didn't notice anything "bad". It took some adjustment initially to
move my clock, but I pretty much get up at 5:30-6:00 AM and can get out of bed
alert and refreshed.

I am still getting 8 hours of sleep a day. I can only assume that night owls
who fail to switch, who wake up groggy and tired, are actually sleep deprived.

------
molbioguy
This is one of those things that can kill itself if widely adopted. Several
recent articles have touted the benefits of early rising. Being able to start
your day in peace and quite is truly a benefit of waking up early. But if
everyone adopted the strategy, if everyone was there with you to watch the
sunrise, the gift of temporary solitude would be gone. I tend to like to work
alone, whether early in the morning or late at night. The asynchrony with the
rest of my immediate world is the key.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
From the blog post:

> _Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no
> television noise._ //

Um, yeah, if you live in the countryside and don't have children or
neighbours.

The quietest time is actually about 2am-4am IME. Provided your kids aren't up
yet ...

Not that anyone cares but I'm not productive in the mornings, also commuting
later is easier too.

~~~
mahyarm
The suburbs are pretty quiet at this time too.

------
henrikschroder
All the advice and benefits listed basically boil down to the fact that
starting work a few hours after you wake up is a good thing, it removes
morning stress and the bad habits that follow that, and it allows you to be
productive at a time when few other people are about.

But you can achieve that by simply moving your workday later instead of moving
your sleep schedule back. That also has the added benefit of making you avoid
rush hour if you commute to work.

~~~
gxs
You know, one of the things I realized as I get older is that somethings we
are yet to figure out.

I don't know why, but the old adage that hard work soothes the soul is so
true. If you're feeling down, or out of energy, for some reason, if you can
manage to get yourself working hard on something, anything, you feel better.
The task can range in difficulty from fleshing out that new start up concept,
to cleaning your room. For reasons beyond me, this makes you feel better -
even when you are dead tired, or super depressed. Sometimes this goes against
what you would think follows rationally: if you are tired, a good work out and
some rest should suffice. But it doesn't.

Similarly, I cannot come up with a good reason why waking up early works. For
the past few weeks, I've adopted a new routine. I recently started a 9-5 after
shying away from them for years. I wake up at 7, run for 45 minutes (about 4
miles), shower, and go to work. It is unbelievable how good this feels. I'm so
addicted to it, that I look forward to my morning run all evening the day
before. This is coming from someone who used to feel like shooting himself in
the head whenever he had to get up before 9 and who has always suffered from
serious sleep issues. (I should clarify that the benefit is not from
exercising alone, I used to work out in the evenings when my day was shifted
4-5 hours)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should give it a shot. The benefits
go beyond what one can see written on a sheet of paper (i.e., x amount of
productivity gained, y amount of sleep gained, etc. etc.) I eagerly await for
science to help us understand our complex brains better to understand why
these things are so.

------
grannyg00se
Aside from catching the sunrise, none of this has anything to do with rising
early as in early in the day.

It's mostly about rising early meaning with ample time so that you are not
rushed and have time to start the day in a mentally and physically healthy
way.

I think that starting the day in a positive way is very important regardless
of what time you wake up. You don't need to go to sleep at sundown and wake at
sunrise.

------
esonderegger
About five and a half years ago, I accepted a position with the US Marine
Band. It has been wonderful in many ways, but one way I thought it would
change my life never came to fruition: I thought it would make me a morning
person.

I'm still at my desk at 0730 every morning and I'm able to be effective during
my working hours, but that happens in spite of the hour of day, not of because
of it. Instead, I've become a coffee drinker and have learned to value the
nights when I can really focus on something into the early morning hours
because the alarm clock won't ring the next morning.

I think transitioning from a night person into a morning person or vice versa
is possible, but I've learned that change can't be brought along by external
factors. I think it's important that we remain aware of the social norms that
influence when we choose to sleep when we embark on trying to make such a
transition. For example, starting a job requiring a 0600 alarm was difficult
when I was 24 because my social circle regularly stayed out past midnight.
Changing my routine required changing my social circle. Now that I'm 30, that
part of going to bed early is easier. The wanting to stay up late because I'm
being productive - that part I still haven't figured out.

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roopeshv
I am not talking specifically about the article here, but bear with me

I read in some psychology article(I can't cite it now, I don't remember where
it is), that being a night owl is an adaptation in hunter gatherer society for
guardians of night. So, being a night owl is not that idiotic, it is a proper
adaptation.

Also, if it is quiet enough for you to get to sleep at 9 or 10 or 11 in night
(assuming you would get 7-9 hour sleep), then it is quiet enough to get the
work done without distraction.

PS: That guardians of the night made me tingly when I read it, and SMUG.
Didn't it to you? But also probably added to a selection bias to that research
article.

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Void_
So when do you go to bed? How about social activities, you just leave at 8p.m?

~~~
ancymon
That's the thing I miss in all these guides. For me it might be possible to
switch for weekdays, but the next weekend would desynchronize everything.
Starting over by getting up on next Monday at 5 AM after few hours of sleep
would make me give up. Knowing that I won't even give it a try.

~~~
replax
I have been doing what the author describes for some time now (although I dont
get up as early) and I find, that it works well to go to bed at any time on
friday & saturday evenings as long as you give yourself enough time to sleep
in as long as you want on the following day. On Sunday however, I will go to
bed just as "early" as on e.g. Monday.

------
dugmartin
What I like about rising early (4am) to work on my own projects is that unlike
staying up late I have both a hard stopping time (7am to help get the kids up
and breakfast started) and I don't have to transition from thinking about
programming to sleeping. I also do feel strangely morally superior to you late
sleepers.

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sbansal
Personally I find working in the morning way better than working in the night.
I used to work till about midnight and then get up at 7 AM to go to work.
However in case I got stuck on some issue that I could not resolve, it would
ruin my sleep. I would keep thinking about the fix. But now that I have
started working in the mornings, I don't have that problem anymore. I can take
some time out during the day and figure out the problem.

------
chillyconker
I've read reports that messing with the body's circadian rhythm is bad for the
health of the aging brain. Presumably this is to do with the secretion of the
hormone melatonin, which I understand is affected by light.

Whether natural light exposure can be simulated adequately by the computer
monitor during waking hours and a blindfold during sleeping hours, or whether
getting up at dawn is required, I would like to know -- anyone?

~~~
gwern
> Whether natural light exposure can be simulated adequately by the computer
> monitor during waking hours and a blindfold during sleeping hours, or
> whether getting up at dawn is required, I would like to know -- anyone?

Computer and electronics have been shown to damage melatonin secretion in the
evening (all the blue light they emit), so it stands to reason that they could
act like a light box in the morning.

------
nwenzel
"Never hit snooze." I love it! I don't understand snooze. If you're going to
snooze, just set your alarm 5 minutes later. Otherwise, just get up.

~~~
knarf_navillus
There's a desperate, wishful-thinking part of my brain that thinks, "Just 10
more minutes is all I need to eradicate this unpleasant sleep inertia!", and
it overwhelms all reason.

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jakejake
I find some early risers to be holier-than-thou about their sleeping habits.
They can easily be thwarted using the technique introduced on an episode of
Seinfeld - just call very late meetings and watch how grumpy and tired they
get.

There is nothing about being an early riser that is any better than being a
night owl except possibly the sunrise (depending on how extreme of a night owl
you are).

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ryan_f
The best advice he had for getting up earlier is not to rationalize. If I give
myself the chance to sleep a little more it turns into another hour worth of
snooze. Jumping straight out of bed works every time.

------
denzil_correa
I recently read a quote, don't remember the citation :

 _If early to bed and early to rise would make you successful, the most
successful people in the world would be : Newspaper men and Milk men._

------
jakejake
He missed another great thing about being an early riser - you can finish up
work in time to get the early senior citizens discount at many diners.

------
SomeOtherGuy
>Take advantage of all that extra time

There is no extra time. You just moved time at night to time in the morning.
You can take advantage of that time regardless of whether it is in the morning
or the evening.

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paulhauggis
The problem is that it requires you to go to bed at 7pm. This will most likely
never work for me.

I've also tried it and no matter how much I prepare, I'm always really tired
during the day and I end up taking a mid-afternoon nap.

I think it might be because I'm a night person.

~~~
Karellen
The author suggests waking up at 05:30. Going to bed at 7pm implies you
require 10 hours sleep/night (allowing 30mins to fall asleep) which is _way_
off at one end of the bell curve. For many people, who require 7-8
hours/night, you should be able to go to bed between 9-10pm. Realistically,
what do most people do between 9pm and their normal "going to bed" time on
most nights? Something productive? Or watch TV?

~~~
paulhauggis
I get around 8 hours. I go to bed at 1am and wake up at 9am.

I work for myself now so I can be on any schedule, but this one seems to be
perfect for me. I'm never tired throughout the day and I feel like I can still
satisfy the night owl in me. If I go to bed early, I feel like I'm somehow
wasting the night.

I cancelled cable 6 months ago and I don't really watch that much TV anymore.
I might watch an hour before I go to bed.

