[danvasquez29]

as an early riser myself, what bothers me about this is that I personally feel like I'm only talking about because someone else is making a big deal out of it. I don't think I go out of my way to bring the topic up, but I'm constantly getting people saying things like "omg I saw when you sent that email/made that commit/whatever, do you ever sleep", and then I gotta say something like "well I was up at 5 so I knocked it out before I drove in..." and now it's a thing we're talking about and I'm the crazy guy.

It feels like a much bigger issue to late-risers than early-risers.

[LifeQuestioner]

I really wish I could sleep by 2am. It would make life possible. My natural sleep pattern is 5am-12. I've literally spent the last decade trying to solve it. Until, I gave up.

[anon1253]

I'm the same, but I've found a life hack: work remotely for a company in the US while in the EU ... then it lines up better!

[danvasquez29]

it's been a conscious effort on my part and I'm still very susceptible to falling off the wagon for a week at a time. I don't think it's very natural for people tbh. I was always a late worker and still kind of am when the shit really hits the fan, but I am a believer that when I have to put in the extra hours, I'm usually more efficient in the morning that late at night. That motivates me to keep trying.

[rootusrootus]

For some people it is the most natural thing in the world.

[Retric]

Move to a new time zone and that 'natural' 5am-12 would shift to match that time zone. So, it's really not about biology it's about how you set up your environment.

That said, as long as it's working for you great! Just don't assume it's impossible to change if it's causing you problems.

[LifeQuestioner]

This is not your fault, as you really do not know the lengths and depths and tears and effort it has taken for me to change my sleep pattern to be consistent. But there is no "assumption here".

A main problem is - even when i've had to be awake at 9am every day (yes awake at 9am, not working at 9am) it causes me to fall really ill. Mentally and physically your body feels wrecked and it doesn't matter how tired you are, you wake up at night.

I now, after a decade, manage a sleep cycle that doesn't change every day by a few hours and I can just about function enough for meetings.

I can just about get to 1pm meetings and it's taken so much effort just to be able to get here!

I've written nearly 4 articles covering the different strategies i've used to be able to wake up early in the morning. I've slept through some of the most important things - which led me in my final exams to just stay up all night to get to 9am exams incase I wouldn't wake up.

What has worked is accepting that it is a genuine disability and problem. And as you say, adjusting my environment to suit my sleeping issues. Unfortunately, changing time zones doesn't work. But it's a nice theory (I've already tried this).

I'll be posting my articles soon which documents every strategy i've tried over the last decade, in hope it might help someone find a solution for them.

[Retric]

>change every day by a few hours

I personally know someone that lived on a 28 hour day for a while (6 * 28 / 7 = 24). He was able to keep a fairly normal workday during the week but over the weekend he was crashing in the day. It only worked because he was religious about managing light levels at home with blackout blinds and sunlamps on timers.

If your willing to try just about anything it might be worth a shot, but you end up making a lot of sacrifices and must keep a very tight schedule.

[LifeQuestioner]

I've been on a non-24 hour rhythm :). My sleep would change every day by 4-6 hours.

I've had shutters for my windows so no light could get in the evening, light simulation alarm clocks, only used the computer for a maximum of 8 hours a day and got rid of my smart-phone so I had an old fashioned phone, to reduce phone use. I don't drink coffee or tea. Melatonin, sleeping tablets, waking up every day at the same time and going for a run.

Fyi, waking up every time at the same day makes me ill because I still can't sleep early even if i've had a lack of sleep for several nights before.

You can't crash at weekends either. Because if you crash at weekends it messes up your sleep cycle completely and you'll start Monday having slept at 6am on Sunday night.

A tight schedule means you have to do it every day. Then there's the other problem that happens when you crash out - you're really groggy for days.

When I was in school, I'd crash out at 4pm on a Friday night and wake up at 7am the next day. I'd have headaches and feel so drained. And I'd still go to my weekend job.

It's not a lack of motivation.

If you know anything about this guy and the strategies he uses, please do share. Always looking for suggestions.

[hinkley]

You might be able to tweak it 45 minutes though by living at the edge of the time zone. But you have to figure out if you’re staying up with the sun or your work schedule.

If you stay up until the sun is nearly up then the eastern edge means the sun is up longer before you have to be at work. But if it’s N hours after you get home, then you’ll see more daylight on the western edge which might be more healthy for you.

For me I don’t want to move if the sun isn’t up yet. I need to move farther south so my winters aren’t as rough.

[collyw]

Does this change at all when the clocks go back / forward? How long does it take you to adjust then?

In my opinion the 2am is just a conceptual thing and there is nothing concrete about it - we change it twice a year and most people adjust fairly quickly.

[LifeQuestioner]

my mind says conceptual thing, my body does not

[learnstats2]

It should be a bigger deal to late-risers because, you know, a typical schedule of work and socialising isn't compatible with rising late. This is particularly galling because it appears that late-risers are not uncommon.

Early risers speaking on the issue don't have anything interesting to say.

[dang]

That last bit is obviously not true, and please don't post polarizing comments on divisive comments, a.k.a. flamebait.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[pseudalopex]

"I was up at 5 so I knocked it out before I drove in" comes across differently than "I was up at 5, but I go to bed around 9:30, so it evens out".

[rootusrootus]

Just goes to show that as careful as we ought to be to make sure what we say is reasonable, we should also be careful to keep our interpretations charitable.