Ask HN: Has anyone switched from being a night owl to being a morning person?
I have. Kind of. My solution might not work for you, or it might be unacceptable for other reasons.<p>I&#x27;ve always been a night owl, and by always I mean that I remember anecdotes about getting up in the middle of the night of a Saturday to read or to do something, going back to when I was like 8 years old. Like you, I&#x27;ve realized that my mind just works better at night (but my mood is better during the day. YMMV).<p>When I was studying my first degree, and during my first job after that, I had a horrible sleep schedule. More like I didn&#x27;t have a real sleep schedule. I would sleep an indefinite amount of time, between 4 and 7 hours, and then have a mini-crash each weekend, sleeping until 1 or 2 pm. During my first (part-time, mornings) job, for a few months I slept twice from 4 to 8: once at 4-8 am, then again at 4-8 pm. It was way worse than it sounds.<p>About 6 years ago I decided that I had to take care of my sleep, and I devised my life hack: <i>I would sleep just after work, instead of just before work</i>. I&#x27;ve been successfully doing this since then. So, the guidelines are:<p>1) go to sleep <i>as soon as possible</i>. This means going to sleep at an apparently insane time. Lately I&#x27;m going to the bed at about 6 pm.<p>2) sleep as much as you want without looking at any clock. Sometimes I get up at 1am, sometimes I get up at 3:30. Get up only when you are confident that you don&#x27;t need more sleep. Don&#x27;t worry, you will still have a few hours with three juicy bonuses to mental activity (completely rested + night time + silence). If you&#x27;re anything like me, your productivity be tremendous.<p>3) Most chores can be done during this night time. Most notably, it&#x27;s a great time to cook; just be careful about noise (avoid blenders, and if you&#x27;re cleaning, avoid the vacuum cleaner). Other chores, like buying groceries or anything noisy, will have to wait until the weekend.<p>4) For obvious reasons, social life will also have to wait until weekends. You might not get a lot, with this schedule; I&#x27;ve never had much and I&#x27;m accustomed to that, so this is not a problem for me. But this is probably the greatest deal breaker for most people.<p>5) Follow the same sleep schedule every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. This is very important, and it requires discipline.<p>6) Ideally you should also have a job with sane hours (and finishing at the same time every day), which again is not available to everyone. Plan your meals accordingly. I have two meals a day, one just before work and another one, lighter, just after work and before going to bed. You might have a different plan, like eating once when you get up and then have lunch halfway during your work.<p>The key is: regardless of whether you are a lark or an owl, go to the bed at the same time every day, try to sleep 8 hours, and try to make them continuous. There is this myth about people having a noncontinuous schedule during the middle ages. I&#x27;m a little sceptical; but above that, I&#x27;ve realized that, for me, the only thing that really works is a continuous sleep.<p>Other tips:<p>1) Avoid caffeine. If you follow this schedule, getting up and needing coffee immediately will be a thing of the past. In fact, if you are still tired after 8 hours, you can just sleep 1 or 2 more, since work is still a few hours away. I&#x27;ve found that an excess of sugar also works against this schedule, but again, YMMV.<p>2) No alarm clocks either. You will wake up naturally when you are fully rested. Also, turn off your phone just as you arrive home.<p>3) Melatonin is your friend. You might notice that some days your body is not ready to sleep. If this happens to you, start taking melatonin about 1h before going to bed.<p>4) As much as I dislike it, exercise helps a lot. Something as simple as walking around your house with the blinds closed might be good enough; the ideal condition would be to do something during the day that tires you a little, like an 1h walk or a short visit to the gym.<p>The biggest problem is setting up the schedule. In order to do this, go to bed two or three hours <i>later</i> each day, until you are going to sleep at the desired time. I usually reserve the latest 4 or 5 days of each vacation period to do this, but of course this might not work if you don&#x27;t have many days off during the year. I live in Europe, so I can afford three 10-15 periods during the year (mind your bank holidays and weekends and plan accordingly, of course).<p>I always say that the cons of this schedule are obvious, but the pros, while not obvious, are also there and they are great. No alarm clock; sleep as much as you want every day; the best hours of the day are for myself and not for the job (but you will still be very productive at work since you will be well rested); and I get easy access to some underrated pleasures like going to the beach just before dawn.