Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser

Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by corin_ on Friday February 04, 2011 @06:54AM (#2179144)

  If it’s taking you more than five minutes to fall asleep each night, you aren’t sleepy enough.

Some of us aren't fortunate enough for that to be true.

  If you simply go to bed when you’re sleepy and then get up at a fixed time, you’ll cure your insomnia.

Possibly true for some people, but it's an incorrect generalisation - certainly isn't the case for me.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by bryanlarsen on Friday February 04, 2011 @09:19AM (#2179450)

One of the signs of a sleep disorder or significant sleep deprivation is if it takes you less than ten minutes to fall asleep most nights.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by anorwell on Friday February 04, 2011 @11:23AM (#2179953)

I think you're affirming the consequent. Being able to fall asleep quickly does not imply a sleep disorder.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by bryanlarsen on Friday February 04, 2011 @02:49PM (#2180861)

I said it's a sign, that there's a correlation, not that one causes the other. It's one of the questions that doctors will ask when diagnosing a sleep disorder, there are others. By itself, it's meaningless. It might just mean you've been in the military.

If you want to impress people by pulling out big words, at least pull them out in appropriate situations.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by anorwell on Friday February 04, 2011 @06:57PM (#2181907)

No need to be condescending. I prefixed my post with "I think" because I was thought, but wasn't sure, that you were implying causation. Specifically, you used the word "if", whereas other wordings would have been more neutral.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by mhd on Friday February 04, 2011 @07:18AM (#2179166)

Have to second that. I don't think I suffer from "classic" insomnia, as I don't really miss out on sleep too much, and if I'm awake in the middle of the night (or, well, morning) I can fall asleep pretty immediately. But on a usual day, not so much. Melatonin or meditation didn't help much either, it still takes about half an hour to power down completely.

To get completely exhausted, my cycles would look really, really strange. Or would have to include alcohol on a daily basis.

Never mind that I never have gotten a really good explanation why I should become a consistent early riser. Most people just cite external social effects that are mostly true if you stay up late, too. Or just don't apply at all (wife, company culture, deadlines, meetings etc.). Quite the contrary, if you're in Europe and have to communicate with people in the US, working late has advantages of its own.

So generally I'm not losing any sleep about not being an early riser.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by corin_ on Friday February 04, 2011 @07:20AM (#2179169)

I actually am a (reasonably) early riser, if I'm up at 7am most weekdays, 8am on occasion, despite the fact that I'm rarely asleep before 2am and often not until after 4am.

It's possible to have insomnia while still being someone who needs a sleeping pattern than a large part of the business world adheres to.

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by jules on Friday February 04, 2011 @08:34AM (#2179331)

Exactly. Once I didn't sleep for 3 days, and it still took me an hour to fall asleep :(

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Re:Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser by dalore on Saturday February 05, 2011 @10:11AM (#2183200)

My motto is if it's taking you more then five minutes to fall asleep each night, then your not working hard enough.

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