Late sleepers are tired of being discriminated against
I was a night owl when I was younger. Went to bed around 2am and felt like a sack of potatoes for a couple hours in the morning. I have no idea what time I would naturally wake up because I always had to get up earlier than that. I remember sleeping until the afternoon on weekends when I was a teenager. I slept through my fair share of alarms, didn&#x27;t remember hitting the snooze button, etc.<p>Sometime in my late 20s after learning enough about health in general I realized that sleep was much more important than most believed and I decided my routine was unhealthy. I dealt with it with similar methods mentioned on other comments. No caffeine in the afternoon, blackout curtains, red lights, limit light when it&#x27;s dark out, not eating late.<p>That was about seven years ago, I&#x27;m now 35 and I&#x27;m not a night owl anymore. Part of it is probably getting older, I&#x27;ve heard that this frequently happens to people as they age. But I noticed the changes within a few months of taking sleep hygiene seriously. A few years ago I threw out my alarm clock because I hadn&#x27;t set it in a few years (I&#x27;m lucky that I really only have to be at work by 10am for a standup so it wouldn&#x27;t matter if I overslept). I can&#x27;t remember the last time I woke up later than 7:30am, that&#x27;s late for me now. Usually it&#x27;s around 6:30am. I am wide awake when I open my eyes. My main sleep problem now is waking up too early and not being able to fall back asleep. I&#x27;ll then get tired and go to bed early, and wake up even earlier the next day.<p>I feel better than I have at any point in my life previously. It&#x27;s certainly possible that many people here with sleep problems have naturally different rhythms. It&#x27;s also possible that certain obese people are naturally obese and no amount of diet or exercise changes will fix it. I have personally come to the belief that having a sleep cycle which is not mostly aligned with the natural patterns is unhealthy, regardless of whether it&#x27;s &quot;natural&quot; or not.<p>If anyone is interested in specific techniques I have all sorts of little hacks, although I don&#x27;t have to use many of them anymore.