5 ms·

Waking up at exactly the same time every day, so zero sleeping in on holidays And Eating a large protein/fat based breakfast with as few carbs as possible as

by bloqs 5y ago

Waking up at exactly the same time every day, so zero sleeping in on holidays And Eating a large protein/fat based breakfast with as few carbs as possible as soon as you get up regardless of being a "breakfast person" or not Have, together, completely transformed my capabilities as a human being.

bennysomething 5y ago
Not eating breakfast all, I've found this really helps me be alert. If I avoid lunch too I'm also less tired
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
"Eating a large protein/fat based breakfast with as few carbs as possible as soon as you get up regardless of being a "breakfast person" or not" As much as this might have helped you, this advice isn't going to work for everyone. Breakfast being the most important meal of the day was an advertising slogan, after all, and it isn't like dieticians are going to try to convince someone to eat breakfast if they are generally healthy. For me, your advice means that I eat more during the day. I'm most hungry in the evening, so that's when I eat more.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
- Flankk 5y ago
  I have the exact same experience with a rigid sleep schedule and large breakfast. It's a big deal. I don't even need coffee anymore.
- globular-toast 5y ago
  There might have been some truth to the importance of breakfast, but it's completely outdated advice for most people. People are sitting down for 90% of their lives, with the occasional slow walk to the coffee machine or car, but eating like they're working in the fields for 10 hours every day.
  - mirker 5y ago
    I think this is more of a “reset jetlag” observation than one about nutrition. Food timings can affect circadian rhythms. For example, this article discusses fasting to reset jet lag https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian...
- pydry 5y ago
  I dont think nutrition-wise breakfast really makes any difference and I'm likewise extra triple skeptical of corporate "advice" but it has helped greatly to modulate my sleeping patterns. It helps my body get attuned to falling asleep and waking up when I schedule it. First few times it feels horrible but it's worth fighting through that knot in my stomach.
mypastself 5y ago
I’ve been doing the former for over a decade, and something similar to the latter for half that time. Despite that, any time I turn the alarm clock off on holidays, my sleep cycle tends to shift a few hours forward. My energy levels seem to correlate with the hours when I sleep as much as they do with their number. I’ve concluded that I’m (a bit of) a night owl living in an early bird world. I’m fine with it, because a couple of hours is not an enormous difference, but it means I’m rarely at my fullest focus or energy levels, especially early in the day. And the experience has convinced me (n=1) that the early bird/night owl dychotomy is primarily biological.
- maccard 5y ago
  i agree - i do the same (although i do take 30 minutes extra on the weekends if im being honest). > but it means I’m rarely at my fullest focus or energy levels, especially early in the day. At the moment I'm trying to lean into this. I have the brain power and focus to work late at night, so I use that to do the mental work of planning/organising the evening before (clothes laid out for the mornings task, breakfast/lunch made in advance, gym bag packed, etc etc) and decide what I'm doing the following morning. I've found that it's the perfect time to go to the gym, do the "long" dog walk, scrub the bathroom tiles with a toothbrush etc; anything that can be somewhat autopiloted but requires physical effort. I've been doing it for about 6 months now to great effect (so far)
  - mypastself 5y ago
    That’s eerily similar to what I’ve been doing for years now. After the first year of very difficult morning workouts, I moved gym time to after work, and it became significantly easier. I do as much preparation as possible the evening before. After a while, all those minor things became deeply embedded into my routine. As long as you keep it up at the start (and other responsibilities don’t intrude), it gets easier and easier. One of the good things about growing older is knowing yourself better, and learning how to use that knowledge to your advantage.
zeta0134 5y ago
For whatever reason I cannot do this. Every time I think I have my sleep schedule stabilized, and I'm falling asleep at night and waking up 7.5 hours later with perfect mental clarity, inevitably I can only hold onto it for a few days in a row. Then it slips; the bedtime drowsiness arrives later, and later, and later in the evening. Eventually I end up shorting my big sleep at night to make it to work on time, and shortly after that I crash, the schedule goes to hell for a few days during which I am biphasic or worse, and then it stabilizes at a new earlier time again. Lather rinse repeat for my entire adult life. So far I haven't found a magic solution to this. Monitoring my diet certainly helps, and so does regular exercise, and so did greatly restricting my caffeine intake, but nothing seems to stop the slow, steady drift of the sleep clock into the future. It's like my body just ignores the daylight cycle and does whatever it wants. What I did instead was talk to my manager, explain the situation, and gain an OK to essentially work for one big block of time in a day wherever it falls. That didn't solve the sleep drift, but it did relieve most of the associated social pressure and stigma. But I'd like to solve this properly, since it's a massive pain even when mitigated in this way, and I might not be so lucky to have a support network at my workplace in the future.
- puzzlingcaptcha 5y ago
  > It's like my body just ignores the daylight cycle and does whatever it wants. How about artificial light cycle? I found that cutting light to just a yellow reading lamp after 9 p.m has really helped me sleep regularly.
- globular-toast 5y ago
  > but nothing seems to stop the slow, steady drift of the sleep clock into the future. I've always struggled with this. When I was still in school (pre-university) was the most extreme. I would stay up late on Friday nights (01:00-02:00) then sleep until at least midday on Saturday. By Sunday night I couldn't sleep until 03:00-04:00 so got a very short sleep before Monday. There was a reason for it back then: night time was when I could use the internet. Because there was no pressure to get up early the next day, I would spend as long as I could online. I wonder if this caused my later problems or if they were innate. Later in uni it was normal for me to be completely nocturnal. I overslept my alarm every single morning, which just became more and more of a joke as it would go off a mere hour or two into my "night". I remember well the first time I "lost" a day. Woke up and made a cup of tea and it was already dark. I hated it. I hated that other people had actually done stuff that day and all I'd done was slept. Now I'm older I find it much easier to stay on top of. At some point something in me switched and now I can't stand it if I'm not ready to do something by 09:00. I remember my brother expressing a similar sentiment when he was 12 (me being 15 and in the aforementioned weekend routine). I wonder why it took me until my late 20s to feel the same way.
SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
For me it's just the scheduled wake-up. Having pets has helped me, they let me know it's 5 am regardless of the day of the week. I don't eat breakfast but I do have a coffee and that'll tide me over until I have a piece of fruit at 9 or 10 then an early-ish lunch at 11:30.

by bloqs 5y ago

bennysomething 5y ago

Not eating breakfast all, I've found this really helps me be alert. If I avoid lunch too I'm also less tired

Broken_Hippo 5y ago

"Eating a large protein/fat based breakfast with as few carbs as possible as soon as you get up regardless of being a "breakfast person" or not" As much as this might have helped you, this advice isn't going to work for everyone. Breakfast being the most important meal of the day was an advertising slogan, after all, and it isn't like dieticians are going to try to convince someone to eat breakfast if they are generally healthy. For me, your advice means that I eat more during the day. I'm most hungry in the evening, so that's when I eat more.

alisonkisk 5y ago
Flankk 5y ago
I have the exact same experience with a rigid sleep schedule and large breakfast. It's a big deal. I don't even need coffee anymore.
globular-toast 5y ago
There might have been some truth to the importance of breakfast, but it's completely outdated advice for most people. People are sitting down for 90% of their lives, with the occasional slow walk to the coffee machine or car, but eating like they're working in the fields for 10 hours every day.
- mirker 5y ago
  I think this is more of a “reset jetlag” observation than one about nutrition. Food timings can affect circadian rhythms. For example, this article discusses fasting to reset jet lag https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian...
pydry 5y ago
I dont think nutrition-wise breakfast really makes any difference and I'm likewise extra triple skeptical of corporate "advice" but it has helped greatly to modulate my sleeping patterns. It helps my body get attuned to falling asleep and waking up when I schedule it. First few times it feels horrible but it's worth fighting through that knot in my stomach.

mypastself 5y ago

I’ve been doing the former for over a decade, and something similar to the latter for half that time. Despite that, any time I turn the alarm clock off on holidays, my sleep cycle tends to shift a few hours forward. My energy levels seem to correlate with the hours when I sleep as much as they do with their number. I’ve concluded that I’m (a bit of) a night owl living in an early bird world. I’m fine with it, because a couple of hours is not an enormous difference, but it means I’m rarely at my fullest focus or energy levels, especially early in the day. And the experience has convinced me (n=1) that the early bird/night owl dychotomy is primarily biological.

maccard 5y ago
i agree - i do the same (although i do take 30 minutes extra on the weekends if im being honest). > but it means I’m rarely at my fullest focus or energy levels, especially early in the day. At the moment I'm trying to lean into this. I have the brain power and focus to work late at night, so I use that to do the mental work of planning/organising the evening before (clothes laid out for the mornings task, breakfast/lunch made in advance, gym bag packed, etc etc) and decide what I'm doing the following morning. I've found that it's the perfect time to go to the gym, do the "long" dog walk, scrub the bathroom tiles with a toothbrush etc; anything that can be somewhat autopiloted but requires physical effort. I've been doing it for about 6 months now to great effect (so far)
- mypastself 5y ago
  That’s eerily similar to what I’ve been doing for years now. After the first year of very difficult morning workouts, I moved gym time to after work, and it became significantly easier. I do as much preparation as possible the evening before. After a while, all those minor things became deeply embedded into my routine. As long as you keep it up at the start (and other responsibilities don’t intrude), it gets easier and easier. One of the good things about growing older is knowing yourself better, and learning how to use that knowledge to your advantage.

zeta0134 5y ago

For whatever reason I cannot do this. Every time I think I have my sleep schedule stabilized, and I'm falling asleep at night and waking up 7.5 hours later with perfect mental clarity, inevitably I can only hold onto it for a few days in a row. Then it slips; the bedtime drowsiness arrives later, and later, and later in the evening. Eventually I end up shorting my big sleep at night to make it to work on time, and shortly after that I crash, the schedule goes to hell for a few days during which I am biphasic or worse, and then it stabilizes at a new earlier time again. Lather rinse repeat for my entire adult life. So far I haven't found a magic solution to this. Monitoring my diet certainly helps, and so does regular exercise, and so did greatly restricting my caffeine intake, but nothing seems to stop the slow, steady drift of the sleep clock into the future. It's like my body just ignores the daylight cycle and does whatever it wants. What I did instead was talk to my manager, explain the situation, and gain an OK to essentially work for one big block of time in a day wherever it falls. That didn't solve the sleep drift, but it did relieve most of the associated social pressure and stigma. But I'd like to solve this properly, since it's a massive pain even when mitigated in this way, and I might not be so lucky to have a support network at my workplace in the future.

puzzlingcaptcha 5y ago
> It's like my body just ignores the daylight cycle and does whatever it wants. How about artificial light cycle? I found that cutting light to just a yellow reading lamp after 9 p.m has really helped me sleep regularly.
globular-toast 5y ago
> but nothing seems to stop the slow, steady drift of the sleep clock into the future. I've always struggled with this. When I was still in school (pre-university) was the most extreme. I would stay up late on Friday nights (01:00-02:00) then sleep until at least midday on Saturday. By Sunday night I couldn't sleep until 03:00-04:00 so got a very short sleep before Monday. There was a reason for it back then: night time was when I could use the internet. Because there was no pressure to get up early the next day, I would spend as long as I could online. I wonder if this caused my later problems or if they were innate. Later in uni it was normal for me to be completely nocturnal. I overslept my alarm every single morning, which just became more and more of a joke as it would go off a mere hour or two into my "night". I remember well the first time I "lost" a day. Woke up and made a cup of tea and it was already dark. I hated it. I hated that other people had actually done stuff that day and all I'd done was slept. Now I'm older I find it much easier to stay on top of. At some point something in me switched and now I can't stand it if I'm not ready to do something by 09:00. I remember my brother expressing a similar sentiment when he was 12 (me being 15 and in the aforementioned weekend routine). I wonder why it took me until my late 20s to feel the same way.

SketchySeaBeast 5y ago

For me it's just the scheduled wake-up. Having pets has helped me, they let me know it's 5 am regardless of the day of the week. I don't eat breakfast but I do have a coffee and that'll tide me over until I have a piece of fruit at 9 or 10 then an early-ish lunch at 11:30.