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Thread: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

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    How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Ever since I was a child, I struggled with waking up early in the morning for things such as school. There have been countless times when I was on the school bus, I was sleeping. Sometimes even during class I would sleep. Samething happened in my 20s. Id wake up 6:00am being all woozy. Takes about 3 alarm snoozes to wake me up, and most of the morning, I was a walking zombie until I had my cup of coffee. Now Im 37 and still struggling with this. Only difference is now I wake up later since my job is from 11am to 10pm with a couple hour break in between. And I mainly want to train myself to be a morning person. This in effect will give me time to utilize my day and do things like go to the gym, read a book, program some apps, and basically stretch out my day to better myself. I tried everything. Changing my diet, going to bed early, eliminating caffeine, detox methods such as apple cider vinegar, and so far nothing has worked. I still wake up feeling extremely drowsy with my eyes heavy. However, sometimes if I get just the right amount of sleep (which could range between just anything really not just 8 hours), and wake up a certain time of day, I wake up fully energized. I could never find the right pattern really. Any bright ideas?

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    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Working an ELEVEN Hour shift is funky. What time do you normally go to bed?

    I have just the opposite problem. I used to get out of bed at 3am when I was working. Now that I'm retired I can sleep till 4 or 5. AND I love it... BUT, I still kind of feel like I'm missing out on the best part of the day.

    My real problem is being near death by 10pm. I'm always the first person to go home/leave a gathering.

    In the mornings, even though I'm rather cheerful - I fill up the coffee pot before feeding the cat & dog.

    However, sometimes if I get just the right amount of sleep (which could range between just anything really not just 8 hours), and wake up a certain time of day, I wake up fully energized.
    You need to try and find that sweet spot.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I believe the recommended approach is not to go to bed early, but rather go to bed later each day until you shift your sleep around. If you short yourself on sleep for a few days by going to bed later each day, then you should be ready to fall into bed as soon as you get home from work, and hopefully get as much sleep as you can, and wake up and have plenty of time to get yourself together, and do chores, before heading to work. You end up going to bed early in the end, but not by trying to go to bed early when you're not tired.

    When I was in the Navy, they ran the schools 24 hours a day, in three shifts, to allow more students access to the limited amount of equipment being taught. So, my schooling ran during the midnight to 8am period for six months. I actually like it myself. I'm normally dragging a bit after work/school regardless of when it is, so if I can just fall into bed (usually listened to some easy to sleep by music) as soon as I got home, I was fairly primed to do so. Others were headed off to school in the morning (after dragging themselves out of bed), so I didn't miss any socialization at that point. And since I didn't have to wake up at a set time, I could just sleep until I felt like getting up. And If I got up at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I could run errands if I wanted. Then in the evening could do the normal socialization type things, perhaps watch some TV, and then when it was time, just had to class fully awake, without having to drag myself out of bed since I had already been awake for hours. It was a very flexible, easy to take schedule, I thought. The only issue was weekends, when people my expect you to be available during the morning and early afternoon hours to do things. I always tried to stick to the sleep schedule even on weekends to not drag myself down weekly.
    Last edited by passel; Mar 12th, 2019 at 02:38 PM.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve R Jones View Post
    You need to try and find that sweet spot.
    Yeah, Ive been trying to find that sweet spot for years. I tend to either go to bed as soon as I get home, or stay up programming my DX11 C++ apps till about 2am. Most of the time is the same outcome of me waking up a literal zombie. When I do sleep, I tend to be a really quiet sleeper. I dont snore or anything. But I do end up having intense lucid dreams, so I must really be a deep sleeper.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    You may not be a deep sleeper. I remember one study that suggested that we have far more dreams, and the only way you remember a dream is if you come at least partially awake. Otherwise, it is lost. So, having dreams may not be so spectacular, but remembering them may be a sign that you aren't as deep a sleeper as you think. Not sure if that is true, though.

    I go to bed around 7:30, read for half an hour or so, and try to get up at 4:30 without using an alarm clock. I've always been pretty good about saying when I wanted to wake up, and waking up at that time. Frankly, that may be bad, too. I only set an alarm if I have a very early flight to catch, in which case oversleeping would be bad, though even then I tend to wake up about 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. I haven't been awoken by an alarm in years.

    However, I've also noticed a different quality of wakefulness on different days. Some days I get up an hit the gym for a couple hours. Other days I wake up...and realize I'm just too sleepy, and skip the gym. It seems to almost alternate days. I tend to get to the gym on Mondays, and tend to skip Tuesdays. After that, it could be anything.

    From this I conclude that I have some kind of rhythm to my sleep. If that rhythm is on an upswing at 4:30, then I'm good to go for the day. If it's on a down swing at that time, then I may sleep an extra hour, and shorten the workout, and occasionally I skip it entirely.

    I'm also immune to caffeine, so coffee is wasted on me.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    or stay up programming my DX11 C++ apps till about 2am
    ALL the experts say to STOP looking at any type of screen two hours before bedtime. You need to unwind the brain before bed.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I find having two cats helps. I've woken up at 5am for the last two mornings and had very little choice in the matter.
    Last edited by FunkyDexter; Mar 13th, 2019 at 08:31 AM.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I find having two cats helps. I've woken up at 5am for the last two mornings and had very little choice in the matter.
    I second this, i also have 2 cats and one of them the male when he wants you to get up he comes into the room and starts clawing at stuff and knocking things over and eventually he jumps on you so you cant ignore him.

    More seriously though i dont think anything can just change you into a morning person if you are not one, but there are a few things that if you follow can help;

    - Exercise when you get home from work, go for a run or the gym or something that gets your heart racing.
    - Eat at roughly the same time and stop eating a couple of hours before you go to bed
    - Go to bed at roughly the same time
    - Don't take your phone or tablet to bed

    Much of it is about consistently doing the same thing and after a week or 2 you start to feel more alert in the mornings or at least it worked for me.

    Oh and all you people that wake up at 4 - 4.30 your all nuts !!!!!
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I'm with NeedSomeAnswers, you can adapt if you change your lifestyle.
    Otherwise it would be impossible to move to a different time zone and adapt in few days/weeks.
    Maybe something like a Philips Wake Up Light can help you to get in the right "state" when you need to wake up.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Looks like Im gonna need two cats then O.O

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    i also have 2 cats and one of them the male when he wants you to get up he comes into the room and starts clawing at stuff and knocking things over and eventually he jumps on you so you cant ignore him
    One of mine will actually lick my eyelids open
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I have 5 cats... they do nothing to wake me up in the morning.
    Based on the anecdotal information in this thread, the idea number of cats needed to wake up in the morning is at least 2, and less than 5.

    I used to have a dog that would stick his cold wet nose in the middle of my back to wake me up, or if that didn't work, he'd nudge me, or get in my face and lick me. I miss him. He's been gone nearly three years now.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I used to have a dog that would stick his cold wet nose in the middle of my back to wake me up, or if that didn't work, he'd nudge me, or get in my face and lick me. I miss him. He's been gone nearly three years now.
    Reminds me of EX #2...may she rest in peace. The cutting off of the tongue and nose didn't help so I took more drastic measures.

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    PowerPoster Arnoutdv's Avatar
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Pets in your bedroom

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Quote Originally Posted by techgnome View Post
    I have 5 cats... they do nothing to wake me up in the morning.
    Based on the anecdotal information in this thread, the idea number of cats needed to wake up in the morning is at least 2, and less than 5.
    -tg
    I was going to point out that the number of cats has to be a whole number. Fractional cats really don't help you wake up, and they're pretty gross.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I used to have a fractal cat. I was taking way too many drugs back then, though.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    No one mentioned a pharmacological approach
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Drugs I dont mind one bit. Ill pop them like they are ludes like on Wolf of Wallstreet. As long as I wake up early finally.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I had a friend in college who would snort a line of powdered no-doze to get up for class. He didn't get up for class quite often enough, though.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Is No-Doze snorting still a thing? I thought that Columbian heaven stuff was making a comeback

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I have always been a deep/heavy sleeper. I believe its in your dna. My wife is a light sleeper and a morning person, I am not. For me its been years of being physically sleepy for hours in the morning. Caffeine doesnt affect me at all. I could drink serveral cups of coffee in the morning and from lunch forward drink 3 big cans of monster one of which would be at 7pm after getting home and I could fall asleep before hitting the bed.

    I think over the years I have realized that getting the right number of hours of sleep is key but also getting it during the proper/needed time range is key. If you are a night owl and want to be a morning person best you can do is change your sleep schedule, be consistent and over time it will change BUT you are not in your natural state so if you dont keep up with it you will easily fall back.

    I used to have such trouble staying awake at my desk in the mornings so much that I would start to fall asleep at flinch when starting to fall asleep and move my mouse or click something Im not supposed to lol. What changed was not staying up til 2am. I think our bodies need to be at sleep during a particular window. Some cant do this like for a job or school.

    I have always been a deep sleeper and will continue to have trouble waking up but I can only reduce the amount of effort and trouble getting up by getting a good 7 or so hours of sleep on a consistent basis.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Robdog, do you believe if you frequently hit up the gym, that just maybe, it could affect how you wake up in the morning? My problem is that the only time I could truely go to the gym is by actually getting up early in the morning. So I would have to suffer for about a week to actually climb my way to becoming a morning person.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    to wake up early is not big problem for me, because I am morning person

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Caffeine binds to receptors in the Brain, and the more you fight sleepiness, the more receptors your body builds. After about 7 to 10 days, your body would have built enough receptors that no matter how much Caffeine you drink, you fall asleep immediately after. If you quit Caffeine, it takes perhaps up to a week for these receptors to return to normal count. In my experience, it took 5 days to get the full benefit.

    The solution is not to fight sleepiness with Caffeine, but by dosing off for 10 to 15 minutes. The next time you feel sleepy, don't reach for Coffee as usual, but try to close your eyes, daydream, or even take a nap if you can. By doing that, you let natural hormones bind to these receptors instead of Caffeine. After about 15 Minutes, you notice that the sleepiness has worn off. That's because the hormones have done their job and the receptors are now free to bind to something else, like Caffeine. After the sleepiness wears off, it's the best time to drink Coffee, and you only need one cup to last you through the day.

    If you don't take a nap, and fight it, the sleepiness might wear off after 15 Minutes or more, but comes back later on, until it gets what it wants.

    I used to drink 7 to 8 cups of Coffee per day, and with the trick above(wait until sleepiness wears off automatically after 15 minutes, then drink Coffee), I managed to reduce that to just one or two cups per day. Later on, I quit Caffeine altogether.

    So remember, when sleepiness kicks in, wait 15 minutes(or until sleepiness wears off), then drink one cup. Have Decaf option around just in case you like the taste of Coffee and not necessarily the Caffeine.

    Also, research shows that blue light is main reason some people stay up all night. I use DVR to record TV shows that I like, so I don't have to stay up more than I want to. To bore myself to sleep, I watch reruns of my favorite TV shows back to back, which puts me to sleep within 20 to 45 minutes, or read a book, like a novel, and not technical/college books.

    Hope this helps!

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    By god you are right! Quitting coffee experiment shall commence starting tomorrow O.O

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    I suggest that you slow down gradually rather than quitting cold turkey if you have been drinking Caffeine heavily. The first sleepiness is the hardest, if you don't resist it much, the second time is a weaker sleepiness. Eventually, it would be so week, that adrenaline from excitement would be enough to cancel sleepiness.

    Also, when someone has a restful sleep, the body releases feel-good hormones in the morning, making it easier to tackle the challenges of the day, putting food on the table and so on. The one who doesn't would feel cranky, easily irritated, in a bad mood, because the feel-good hormones weren't released. This leads to bad decisions(including eating bad food to improve the mood), and increased stress. This is why morning people are perceived as joyful, not only because they had a restful sleep, but without the irritability and bad mode, they make good decisions that improves their quality of live. So success starts with a restful sleep.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Quitting caffeine cold turkey can be pretty bad. I worked for a guy who had to have a Mountain Dew each morning, or he'd have a terrible headache by 9.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Day 2 of no caffeine and so far its becoming harder for me to wake up in the morning. Hopefully after a week it will change.

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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Quote Originally Posted by qvb6 View Post
    I suggest that you slow down gradually rather than quitting cold turkey if you have been drinking Caffeine heavily. The first sleepiness is the hardest, if you don't resist it much, the second time is a weaker sleepiness. Eventually, it would be so week, that adrenaline from excitement would be enough to cancel sleepiness.

    Also, when someone has a restful sleep, the body releases feel-good hormones in the morning, making it easier to tackle the challenges of the day, putting food on the table and so on. The one who doesn't would feel cranky, easily irritated, in a bad mood, because the feel-good hormones weren't released. This leads to bad decisions(including eating bad food to improve the mood), and increased stress. This is why morning people are perceived as joyful, not only because they had a restful sleep, but without the irritability and bad mode, they make good decisions that improves their quality of live. So success starts with a restful sleep.
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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jacob Roman View Post
    Day 2 of no caffeine and so far its becoming harder for me to wake up in the morning. Hopefully after a week it will change.
    What time are you going to sleep? Also, are you getting away from the computer for an hour or so before going to bed? Most apps on most monitors, unless they are specifically designed to avoid it, put out a fair amount of blue light, which is not conducive to sleep.
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    Re: How Do You Wake Up Early If You're Not a Morning Person?

    Since I leave work at 10pm, 11pm seems about right

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