Practical Advice Any tips on how to stop being a night owl?

PrincessPure

Well-Known Member
#1
That's how I have been since I was very little, I was always struggling to wakeup before 12. I used to wakeup no matter how hard it was during the days of school, but I was being tortured.... However now with classes being online, I just leave my laptop muted and lay in my bed and fall asleep... It's hard to be awake at 8 when you sleep at 4 or 5 usually. There are rare days a year that I sleep sooner but I still fail to wakeup early. It's a pity. Mornings are amazing...they are so calm and peaceful. I always watch morning routine videos from youtubers and dream of being like them but I'm desperate to change as I always have been a pain in the neck when it comes to waking up early.

 
#2
Maybe there's something in the link in my signature that could help.

If you can make yourself wake up at 9am, and then stay up until at least 10pm, you may be able to reset your schedule.

I hope something can help
 

Dante

Git
SF Pro
SF Supporter
#3
These are just the few things I have picked up from experience on how to control my body clock, with tricks like this I have managed to wake up functionally at 6am most mornings.

1) Routine
You need to always wake up early, not just on weekdays or you will begin to slip back into your old ways. If you can keep it up, your sleep cycle will begin to get set as a morning person, because I have to get up so stupidly early for work each morning, even on weekends I usually wake up only an hour or two later than I would for work.

2) Control your bedtime
I find, as a night owl myself, it is easier to shift your sleep cycle later than earlier so staying up late is a big no, or you will easily shift back to night owl.

3) Control light exposure
Have thin curtains so the morning light helps wake you up, and try to keep your lights dimmer and more orange (less blue light) later at night before bed, your body-clock works a lot from light cues from day and night cycle, show it when to be awake and asleep with the light

4) Don't have TOO comfortable a bed
I found in my 3rd year of University I had great trouble waking up in the mornings which shifted me more and more towards night owl, in the end I swapped my mattress for a harder one and I found it much easier to wake up (my old mattress was just TOO comfortable) In fact, if I just want to sleep an hour or so, I sometimes just sleep on the floor with a pillow, after an hour my body just says "Ok, that's enough of that" and wakes me up naturally.

5) Have a purpose to getting up every morning
Dont just get up for the sake of it every morning, have a damned good reason to be up at that time every morning, I find that if I decide "Ok, i want to be awake at xx:xx in the morning", without an alarm, thats just wishful thinking, but if its important like going to work or an important deadline, and I NEED to be up, I will wake up on my own, often before my alarm. If you can come up with a terribly compelling thing you need to be awake for every morning, something vital, this will help you wake up naturally.

6) Bed is for sleep
Dont use your bed for anything but sleep, no playing with phones before sleep, no lay-ins, when in bed, go straight to sleep, when you wake up, GET up as soon as you can, that way your mind will build up a stronger association between bed and sleep, giving you better sleep and helping you control your sleep cycle easier.

Of course I dont follow all of these, but I do pull them out when I need to, and follow several of them religiously, and just as a bonus, one extra:

x) Early Worm is just EXTREME Night Owl.
As a night owl, I find if I just go to sleep when Im tired and wake up when I'm happy, I will drift by an hour or two every day, more than once, I turn fully nocturnal and end up deciding that the easiest way to fix it is just to keep going, waking up as late as possible each day, staying up as late as possible each night, getting later and later until I wake up so late I have cycled right around to being a morning person again.
 

Legate Lanius

Well-Known Member
#4
Sounds like you don't need to wake up in the morning. Never compare yourself to youtubers! Or anyone else for that matter; when I compare myself to literally anyone I instantly get complete anhedoina and strong suicidal ideation. There is literally nothing that I can gain by comparing myself with others, since everyone is kicking my ass at basically everything. Money, happiness, relationships, independence, health, positive thinking, morality - I lose in all categories to literally everyone I have ever known (not an exaggeration). So I HAVE to avoid comparing myself with others, and I HAVE to ignore the religious people saying that I'm going to hell or I will SUFFER IMMENSELY.

Went off-road there, sorry. But, yeah, you have a different set of genes and enviornment (this is crucial and shows how intrapersonal output-comparisons are ridiculous) than other ppl. So don't feel pressured to wake up at 4am, work out, make a healthy breakfast, meal prep, work for charities, start a business, have brunch with your amazing fiancé before lunch.
 

PrincessPure

Well-Known Member
#5
Sounds like you don't need to wake up in the morning. Never compare yourself to youtubers! Or anyone else for that matter; when I compare myself to literally anyone I instantly get complete anhedoina and strong suicidal ideation. There is literally nothing that I can gain by comparing myself with others, since everyone is kicking my ass at basically everything. Money, happiness, relationships, independence, health, positive thinking, morality - I lose in all categories to literally everyone I have ever known (not an exaggeration). So I HAVE to avoid comparing myself with others, and I HAVE to ignore the religious people saying that I'm going to hell or I will SUFFER IMMENSELY.

Went off-road there, sorry. But, yeah, you have a different set of genes and enviornment (this is crucial and shows how intrapersonal output-comparisons are ridiculous) than other ppl. So don't feel pressured to wake up at 4am, work out, make a healthy breakfast, meal prep, work for charities, start a business, have brunch with your amazing fiancé before lunch.
I'm absolutely sorry that you feel that way... I hope everything gets better <3
 

Legate Lanius

Well-Known Member
#6
I'm absolutely sorry that you feel that way... I hope everything gets better <3
No, no. That's nothing that I feel bad about, I'm trying to express that you NEVER have to compare yourself to others, not even if shit turns to fuck and you find yourself in my situation. We can all live without harming ourselves more than everyone is already doing with their remarks.
 

PrincessPure

Well-Known Member
#7
One big problem is my classes... i'm missing on them if I sleep in. I miss on a lot, for example I had trouble going to bank for doing some work for a whole month. I couldn't wakeup on time and banks closed a bit after 12 ...
 

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