How I became a morning person

Re:How I became a morning person by LifeQuestioner on Sunday December 13, 2015 @08:06AM (#10726238)

Have you tried melatonin? Again doesn't solve the problem for me and still makes waking up difficult, but it means I can generally get to sleep by 1am with good sleep hygiene and keep it there a bit longer than a week. But yea one night out and it all messes up. I also use a sunrise alarm clock, that helps with morning waking especially in winter. Again, none of these all solve the problem,but combined I'm having my first manageable year and not needed to take any time of work.

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Re:How I became a morning person by enobrev on Sunday December 13, 2015 @01:44PM (#10727316)

I have not. Generally I truly appreciate my schedule. It works very well for both focusing on work and enjoying my late-night social life, although I usually have no idea what day of the week or month it is. I spent two years in Seattle where I had an apartment way up on a hill with huge plate glass windows and an inescapable amount of sunlight. My schedule regulated a bit more while I was there, although when I was really into a project it would start shifting again.

I try not to fight it much without having a valid reason - like a tight deadline. And in those instances, coffee will generally put me to sleep within an hour. And if I fight it for longer than, say, a couple weeks, I end up sleep deprived. The only time coffee "works" for me is when I'm not stressed, which is to say not when I "need" it.

That wasn't the case in my twenties, though. I could work on something for 36 hours, sleep for 4-6 and do it all over again for a couple months at a time before I'd start losing my way. I was also drinking a LOT more alcohol back then.

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Re:How I became a morning person by LifeQuestioner on Sunday December 13, 2015 @02:40PM (#10727584)

I love the quiet of the night :). I will spend some time every few months reverting to an entirely nocturnal pattern, just to be able to enjoy the peace of the night and not have to fight against myself at all :).

Melatonin has helped me to keep a bit of a balance though (not that you need one, it depends on your life :)), living half in this real world and half in mine has helped me order life a bit and i'm no longer constantly cycling around my sleeping. It's well recommended for circadium disorders.

But I'm lucky to have a job I can start at 11am, even if that's tricky. But with the use of melatonin and loads of other things I don't have to fight myself as much as I used to and can generally get to sleep before 2am(sorry not 1am as above, that would be a miracle). Acceptance definitely helps :).

Haha, I used to do the same with working! I remember once after about 2 weeks straight working 24-40 hour stints I turned to my friend and said "I think i've forgotten how to sleep.". I realised then that sleep takes concentration and if I was overtired I don't have the concentration to get to sleep.

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Re:How I became a morning person by enobrev on Sunday December 13, 2015 @03:08PM (#10727701)

Being overtired can definitely be a problem as well. I'm on a bit of a stretch right now, as a matter of fact, but I'm planning to avoid my office until late tomorrow to balance it out.

On the other side of the same coin, I've learned not to bother trying if I'm not ready to sleep, and so when I do go to bed, it's because it's time. My wife gets annoyed with my ability to fall asleep about around the moment my head hits the pillow, as it takes her at least 30 minutes.

As for the job schedule, I recently rejoined the freelance world and I'm elated by the idea of going back to MY normal schedule. The company I was working with gave me plenty of [relative] slack because I was productive, but there were still a few too many meetings that kept me on a schedule that didn't really jive. I think that very schedule inadvertently contributed a great deal to my reasons for leaving.

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