Has Anyone Ever Transitioned from Night Owl to Early Bird?

[jive1]

I'm naturally a night owl. Naturally I Go to bed around 2AM, wake in the vicinity of 9-10 AM. Luckily I have a job with flexible hours to let me do this.

I used to work from home, but now I go into the office 4 days a week. I have a baby that gets me up early, and between work and business, I just have a crapload of stuff to do, and some of it has to be done during the day.

I used to catch-up late at night, but it's getting harder to. But, wondering if I can make the transition to catching up in the early AM. Gig nights will be hard, but I think fighting my natural biorhythms will be harder. I've been this way since I was teen.

Anyone make the transition? And If so, how hard was it, and what did you do to ease the transition?

[Relic]

I did. Oddly enough though, it really wasn't a conscious thing. As I got older it just sorta happened on it's own.
If there's anything I can offer though, it's that exercise and backing off on alcohol most definitely seems to help, for me at least. When I do so, I can almost sleep on demand. If I can manage that, I can go to bed early and get up early as needed.

[TJ55]

I have to echo what Relic said. The transition was more made for me than it by me. Exercise was key for me too. Lastly, getting into a pre-bed routine was helpful. I work a staggered schedule so my routine isn't the same every night but it is the same week after week. Shower, read, lights out, sleep works pretty much every time.

[WalterBush]

I'm making the transition now. Mostly because I stay at home during the days while my wife works right now, and my kids need me up and about when they wake up. I need time for a shower, morning prayers, coffee, etc before they get up, so my alarm goes off at 5 am.

The biggest thing that's worked for me is deciding that I'll consistently wake up regardless of the time I go to bed. This sometimes means, especially gig nights, that I'm operating on only a few hours of sleep. Not a big deal, just uncomfortable sometimes.

Not drinking helps. Even a little alcohol can make it significantly harder for me to wake up. I don't eat chili dogs or anything right before bed anymore, either since that seems to, ah, disturb my sleep. Also, getting to bed early (10 at the latest) whenever possible helps to make it easier to get through the days after nights where it's not possible (like tonight, won't get home until 2 am). It took two or three weeks for me to get the hang of it, and train my body to wake up earlier.

Mostly, though, it's just the determination to get up no matter what for me. The thought of toddlers raiding my kitchen while we get that extra few minutes of sleep helps, too I had some interesting messes to clean up before I first decided to become a morning person.

[dmonroe]

I worked for 7+ years on the night shift. 6 of those were from 7PM-7AM. I worked anywhere from 3 nights a week to 6 or 7 in a row. A lot of people I worked with kept the same sleep schedule on their nights off (sleeping in the day and staying up all night). That seemed to work for them. I tried to sleep normally on my off nights. I was terminated in Sept. of 2010 (intentionally) and was amazed at how easy it was to just fall back into a normal sleep/awake cycle. I'm a full-time student so its quiter to study in the mornings so I go to bed any time from 9-11pm and I'm liable to be up any time between 4-6am.

[Sonic_Death]

I am still pretty young, but I am finding this transition to be infinitely harder than I thought it would. Like you, I am naturally a night owl and have always been that way.

My new hours with school force me to get up early, but it's still a pretty daunting task in the mornings. I find that going to bed earlier isn't an issue and that I can usually force myself to fall asleep. Waking up in the mornings on the other hand is a tricky task.

It seems like the 7-8 hours that used to be enough for me aren't acceptable when I have to wake up at 6 or 7am. My body just does not want to deal with it, so even when I hear my alarm and gain consciousness, I have this uncontrollable urge to go back to bed. Usually when I have very pressing things to get to in the morning, I will just get up through will-power, but otherwise, it's tough...

My only advice I can offer at this point is so make a strong attempt at getting to bed at a reasonable hour, try to keep a consistency about your sleeping habits, and make sure you know you have things to do in the morning so you gain that extra motivation to wake up.

I am sure exercise and good nutrition helps in this battle as well... unfortunately I tend to lack in those areas.

[Skitch it!]

I've always been a night owl too, maybe something to do with being born in the darker months? I like the peace most of all I think, I get quite a lot done in practise and prep a lot faster without the distractions, but I can arrange teaching hours to suite that.

Get a bike dude and burn it off a bit

[Jared Lash]

I have

Was a nightowl in college and kept that schedule after graduation when I was working the late shift in the county crime lab. Then I took a job teaching and the commute and the need to be in my classroom early to prep for the day changed my sleeping habits.

I think it's actually pretty easy to reset your body's clock. I'm sure there are easier ways but I just set my alarms (yep two loud ones that I had to get out of bed to turn off) at 5:30 but didn't try to make myself go to sleep any earlier.

For about a week I was going to bed at 1:30 or 2 and getting no sleep until I was tired enough to start going to bed earlier and soon settled into that routine.

What's harder to change is the notion of being a "night person" vs a "morning person". For a long time after I adjusted my sleep I still resented getting up early and wished I could go back to staying up late.

Eventually I got to where I actually LIKED being up early and being productive in the mornings and that's where I'm still at today.

[EdHunter]

I keep shifting. During school, I'll be asleep before 11 and up at 6:45. Come the holidays, and I go to bed about 3 and wake up around midday.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

I
I think it's actually pretty easy to reset your body's clock. I'm sure there are easier ways but I just set my alarms (yep two loud ones that I had to get out of bed to turn off) at 5:30 but didn't try to make myself go to sleep any earlier.

For about a week I was going to bed at 1:30 or 2 and getting no sleep until I was tired enough to start going to bed earlier and soon settled into that routine.

That's pretty much how I did it too.

[anonymous02282011]

I recently made this transition. The first early morning was the most difficult. After that first long day I was exhausted and naturally fell asleep at an earlier hour so the internal clock was reset pretty quickly. It's still kind of a struggle to actually get up out of bed, but once the covers are off and I'm moving around I'm totally fine and ready to start the day.

I'll echo some of the points above that worked for me:

- Exercise

-Stopped drinking a LONG time ago

-Quit smokin herbals

-Gave myself at least an hour of "quiet time" before bed

I also drink tea and juice in the morning instead of coffee and start my day with a healthy breakfast.

[MJ5150]

I do both, but I also have a coffee IV.

-Mike

[MatticusMania]

Before I started working fulltime I was a huge night owl. Im talking get off work at 10 or 11pm and going out til 4am on the regular. I started working a fulltime 9-5 type job and the transition was really hard on me. Getting up at 6am I'd be really tired, but not able to go to sleep until 2am at the earliest. So I kept going out for a while and dealing with it. But that wasnt good, cuz Id start falling asleep at work, or on my drive home. It took some time, but I just started making myself go to bed earlier and earlier. Im still not an "early bird" so to speak, but now Im capable of waking up at 6am, getting through work without falling asleep, getting home fine, and doing whatever else. I try and get to bed by 11pm, midnight at the latest, unless I have a gig. When I gig I usually fall asleep as soon as I lay down. On the weekends when I dont work I am still able to stay up late.

So no, not successfully, but I get by.

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by Relic

I did. Oddly enough though, it really wasn't a conscious thing. As I got older it just sorta happened on it's own.

This started happening to me last school semester. Part of this was brought on by my class schedule, but what was funny was that I'd still wake up at 7:30-8 on the weekends as well. I've only recently been becoming more of a night owl again, but I think this is largely due to the sun not setting until much later in the day.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by adbass

I also drink tea and juice in the morning instead of coffee and start my day with a healthy breakfast.

That really helped me a ton. No double espressos until 9 or 10AM. I managed five years without sleeping in more than a few times -- miraculous given my long time night owl tendencies.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by jive1

Anyone make the transition? And If so, how hard was it, and what did you do to ease the transition?

I spent the first ~20 years of my professional life living as an archetypal rock'n'roll night-owl: Sleep until noon, work in a recording studio or gig until 2:00AM, lather rinse repeat.

When I turned 32 I entered grad school and, to support myself while in school, took a job in corporate audio/video staging & production that often started at 5:00 or 6:00AM! So for a couple years there I was operating on 4 hours sleep a night, because if I wasn't gigging I was writing music or term papers for school until the wee hours.

After I got my degree I started getting more selective about which gigs I would take, and was able to cut back the number of nights per week I was out past midnight. By the time I was in my 40s I'd pretty much successfully transitioned to, if not quite an early bird, at least a somewhat more daylight-centric person.

And then when I turned 45 I discovered (and became obsessed with) road cycling, the training for which invariably takes place in the pre-dawn hours. So I worked to further cut back my late night gigs to only a few per month. Now (I'm 50) I wake up somewhere between 5:00 and 6:30AM every day including weekends, and I try to go to bed between 10:30 and midnight every night.

Part of me misses the nightlife (sic). Part of me has never been happier. Most of me doesn't care either way, it just is what it is. But no, it wasn't hard...it was just a very gradual process.

[bassteban]

I think so- I used to stay up late, sleep late. After moving out of mom & pop's, I stayed up late but rose early(cabinet shop- @ work by 6-7, after bike commuting 30-45 minutes). Now, after 12 years of stay-at-home dadding, I need the sleep but still get up early. Anything past 7am is excessive.

[HEIST]

Night Owl here. I was forced to be an early bird for 8 months for school and it was torture every morning.

[ShredderMaximus]

night owl here too, when I do need to start getting up early, i just set my alarm early. (7:00 or so) And though it is absolutely killer for awhile, getting up earlier eventually automatically trains me to go to bed early, slowly forcing my internal clock to shift. Only getting an hour or 2 of sleep eventually catches up with me and once I actually get dead tired enough and fall asleep at a reasonable hour, its just becomes natural.

[L-A]

Hint: taking a walk early makes you feel like the world is yours; it's an excellent motivator.