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Okay so hear me out here. You can change. It’s not hard. I am the owliest of owls. All my life, I’ve been up till 2am and struggled to get out of bed, snooze t

Okay so hear me out here. You can change. It’s not hard. I am the owliest of owls. All my life, I’ve been up till 2am and struggled to get out of bed, snooze the alarm, last minute, dash through the shower, hurry to work, no time to think, sit down guiltily at 9:01am. I hated that morning rush but whatever, “that’s just who I am”. Now, I’m 42, so maybe age makes this easier. But my girlfriend is an early riser, and she sometimes gets up at 5am. FIVE A.M. What? Mental. Except when you do it a bunch of days in a row, and you see the benefits. You know who else is up at 5am? Nobody, because they’re not idiots. So it’s an amazing time of day. It’s calm, it’s peaceful. Nobody bothers you. The best part by far is right about now. It’s 9:30am here in Australia and I’ve been up for 3.5 hours already (only did 6am this morning). It feels like midday, yet I have the whole day left. It’s amazing. The trade-off? You have to go to bed early, of course. But when you do this regularly, your body just sorts that out for you. You will be tired at 9pm. Just you try not to be, buddy. No amount of telling yourself that you’re an owl will change that. And, help yourself. Put the screen away, read a book, you know all of this. Also, help yourself in the morning. My advice: don’t be a hero. Don’t try and get up and run a marathon. Just get up and put the kettle on. Slouch downstairs. Rub your eyes. It’s okay to be sleepy, it’s 5am and probably dark [0]. Have a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Read HN or Twitter or the paper or a book or whatever. DON’T BE A HERO. Now, it’s 5:45am, maybe 6am. Seriously, don’t rush. But now it’s 6am and you are thoroughly awake and you are ready to go. Enjoy the day. Just try not to be too smug about it, us morning people can be a bit like that. :-) [0]: Added bonus. You get to see sunrise!

travisjungroth 8y ago
I really like the "don't be a hero" advice. I think people often try to do two really hard things at the same time. Wake up earlier and start running. Log all of my eating and eat less. You need to pick the easier one and go with that first, even if it doesn't get results right away.
lostdog 8y ago
Like a lot of well-meaning advice, this did not work for me. Getting up at 5am or 6am for a few weeks just means I feel tired all the time for a few weeks, and it just takes me a couple days to (gratefully) revert back to the night-owl schedule my body wants to keep. The scientific evidence keeps showing that there are many people who are more alert at night, but of course morning people and morning converts seem to think that since waking up early works fine for them it must work fine for everyone.
- jen729w 8y ago
  No, I get it. It took me 40 years and like I say, maybe getting older itself has something to do with it. Also I 100% would not have done it without my partner, I needed someone to drag me along. I do agree that the prevailing "earlier === better" mindset is harmful and should go away.
- scns 8y ago
  The body needs 2 Werks to adjust to a New schedule
moltar 8y ago
I don’t think everyone can do this. I’m generally an early riser (~ 7). I tried shifting to 5 am but was unsuccessful. I went to bed earlier. But the mornings were miserable. I did it for a month without change.
zwayhowder 8y ago
Had to check this wasn't an alt account I didn't remember creating. This is me. Everyone complains I turn up to standup at 10am eating. For me I've been awake for 5.5 hours and had breakfast 5 hours ago, I'm hungry alright. It took me a long time to get in the rhythm for this, the first few weeks I slept in more than I like to admit, and mostly it was because I couldn't admit I needed to go to bed closer to 9pm than midnight. Once I got into that habit the rest falls into place. Now it's not unusual for me to roll into bed after a night out at 3am and at 4.30 or 5am I'm awake and having an argument with my body about what time I'm getting out of bed.
- jen729w 8y ago
  Yeah we have two breakfasts. One when we wake up, then “second breakfast” somewhere around 10am.

travisjungroth 8y ago

I really like the "don't be a hero" advice. I think people often try to do two really hard things at the same time. Wake up earlier and start running. Log all of my eating and eat less. You need to pick the easier one and go with that first, even if it doesn't get results right away.

lostdog 8y ago

Like a lot of well-meaning advice, this did not work for me. Getting up at 5am or 6am for a few weeks just means I feel tired all the time for a few weeks, and it just takes me a couple days to (gratefully) revert back to the night-owl schedule my body wants to keep. The scientific evidence keeps showing that there are many people who are more alert at night, but of course morning people and morning converts seem to think that since waking up early works fine for them it must work fine for everyone.

jen729w 8y ago
No, I get it. It took me 40 years and like I say, maybe getting older itself has something to do with it. Also I 100% would not have done it without my partner, I needed someone to drag me along. I do agree that the prevailing "earlier === better" mindset is harmful and should go away.
scns 8y ago
The body needs 2 Werks to adjust to a New schedule

moltar 8y ago

I don’t think everyone can do this. I’m generally an early riser (~ 7). I tried shifting to 5 am but was unsuccessful. I went to bed earlier. But the mornings were miserable. I did it for a month without change.

zwayhowder 8y ago

Had to check this wasn't an alt account I didn't remember creating. This is me. Everyone complains I turn up to standup at 10am eating. For me I've been awake for 5.5 hours and had breakfast 5 hours ago, I'm hungry alright. It took me a long time to get in the rhythm for this, the first few weeks I slept in more than I like to admit, and mostly it was because I couldn't admit I needed to go to bed closer to 9pm than midnight. Once I got into that habit the rest falls into place. Now it's not unusual for me to roll into bed after a night out at 3am and at 4.30 or 5am I'm awake and having an argument with my body about what time I'm getting out of bed.

jen729w 8y ago
Yeah we have two breakfasts. One when we wake up, then “second breakfast” somewhere around 10am.