[emiranda]

I've been waking up at 5am for the past 5 months so I can head to the gym (my first telecom meeting starts at 7am). Because no one is ever going to bother me between 5am and 7am, I've been able to consistently got to the gym at least 3x per week (trying to bump it up to 5x per week for the new year).

I started doing this because it was very difficult for me to consistently go to the gym after work. Things come up, I get tired, friends want to hang out, sometimes I just want to relax after work. But getting up and getting my workout done in the morning has many benefits: Being physical in the morning gives me an energy boost and is a great wake up call, I get my workout out of the way and I don't have to think about it the rest of the day, the gym in generally empty compared to the afternoon, helps me control my sleep cadence, and I feel great knowing that I already accomplished something significant so early in the morning (My whole workout usually spans between 1.5 and 2 hours, I do a lot of stretching and like to take my time). I also try my best not to use my phone aside from music and my workout/fitness apps.

Since I've had such great results from this, I'm thinking of trying to switch it up by working on my side project in the morning and attempting to do the gym in the evening.

[dbingham]

I could never do this. Because even with really good sleep hygene and good early bedtime habits, the earliest I ever wake up is 6:30 am. And those are rare days. More often bedtime will slip to 10 pm or later and I will awake naturally between 8:30 am and 9:30 am.

I'm just not a morning person, no matter what I do. And I'm a 9 hour+ sleeper, so I need those sleep hours.

[parliament32]

> I’ve always figured out that there 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours and have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute Arnold, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then, just sleep faster, I would recommend.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

[tachyonbeam]

AFAIK it's pretty well established in the literature that some people naturally just need less sleep. We're not all made the same, we have different genes. There's this saying that humans have 99% identical DNA. What this fails to convey is that you and me probably have different versions of the majority of our individual genes (even though they might differ by just a single letter of DNA). In other words, genetic variation in the human population is huge, and it does have a measurable impact on sleep, stamina, personality, etc.

I don't want to sound like a biological determinist, but It's not all about willing yourself to do amazing things, there is some amount of biological reality we have to deal with as well. Consider that now olympic sprint runner prospects get tested to know if they have fast twitch muscle fibers [0], and if they don't, they basically can't compete, they're considered not worth training. For some reason, people like to imagine that things like sleep and motivation are different, they forget that the brain is a physical organ.

[0] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/what-makes-the-perfe...

[purplethinking]

> And I'm a 9 hour+ sleeper, so I need those sleep hours. Most people need at least 8-8.5 hours (as in 99.999%). He does too, just doesn't realize it.

[utexaspunk]

>He does too, just doesn't realize it

He didn't say what time he went to bed or how many hours of sleep he got

[Balgair]

We can estimate. Assume that the OP needs 8 hours, like most of us do. That means a 9pm bedtime for adequate sleep. The OP mentions that the first call is at 7am. Assuming a 40 hour workweek, with an hour for lunch, that's a 4pm clock-out. This gives OP 5 hours in the evening/afternoon and 2 hours in the morning before work, and an hour for lunch, for a total of 8 hours 'off'. This is a very do-able schedule for morning people. Mixing kiddos into this is not too bad when they are young, but as they turn into teenagers, this is likely to shift towards later hours as the teenagers shift too.

Personally, my natural times are a 8am wake-up and an 11pm bedtime. I need the extra hour and I'm a night-owl. Couple that with a mandatory 8am stand-up and 6pm 'clock-out' time for my job's work schedule. It's ... less than fun in Corporate America.

[FPGAhacker]

I do ok with 7. I’d sleep longer but my back starts to hurt if I’m in bed too long.

I get up at 5am to avoid traffic.

[purplethinking]

Sleep deprived people can't tell how impaired they are. Sleeping only 7 hours a night has serious long term mental and physical health consequences, and is affecting your productivity short term. If you don't believe me, read Why We Sleep, it's a great investment in your future health.

[war1025]

I switched to a futon-style very firm mattress several years ago. Now any time we go out of town my back feels miserable in the morning. I honestly don't know why people subject themselves to the torture that is the modern box-spring mattress.

I think people would have much less back issues if they spent the two weeks it takes to sleep on a firm surface. Its all about learning to actually distribute your weight across the surface area of your body.

But I guess I am also relatively young and fit (I.e. 30 and not overweight or obese), so maybe I'm just not representative of the average person.

[telchar]

That's great if you sleep on your back but side-sleepers aren't going to be happy on a hard mattress, the shoulder becomes a single point of contact with the bed. I'm not convinced that people accustomed to sleeping in one orientation can easily change to the other. Although I would be curious if anyone has anecdotes about that.

[JauntyHatAngle]

I've always been a side sleeper. (6"2, 175 pound, early 30s male).

Due to a random medical issue (which has since become much more manageable), I got bad chest pain from sleeping on my side.

Despite this, I absolutely couldn't get a good nights sleep on my back, despite months of having to to. I end up being awake until I fall asleep from exhaustion and then waking up again after a few hours. It caused a lot of other problems as I was only getting between 3-6 hours sleep for weeks.

Months later when my condition improved, I went back to side sleeping, and even when it was still causing me pain, I slept much, much better.

Just an anecdote and I'm sure people are unique for things like sleep, but my own personal experience is that it isn't easy to switch.

That said, I actually like a hard mattress despite being a side sleeper.

[camgunz]

I'm a side sleeper with an "ultra firm" mattress and soft mattresses mess up my whole alignment. I never get sore shoulders or hips, even if I sleep all day like I recently did. I can also reliably switch to back sleeping, which I usually do when I'm sick because of congestion.

It's all anecdata, but I think people are just different.

[JeanMarcS]

Well I’m a near 50 overweight guy (yeah, I know...) and sleeping on the side (if I sleep on my back I snore like hell).

If I sleep on a too firm mattress, I confirm my shoulder starts to hurt during the night. When I’m sleeping, I can rest for several hours, even the whole night, without moving or changing side.

But on firm mattress I wake up several time during the night to change side.

About the orientation, it’s really strange, and I cannot explain why, but it depends. And I mean the side is VERY important, as I can’t fall asleep if I’m on the « wrong » side.

But it’s not always the same side. And sometimes it lasts for weeks or even month. And one day I switch for no reason I can find, because it’s impossible to fall asleep on the side I’ve spent weeks sleeping on.

Strange.

[AngryData]

Best bed I ever had was a 10 inch futon mattress placed on top of a decent air mattress, using an old quilt to protect the air mattress from anything poking it.

[quailmaster]

At 5'11", I fluctuate between 115 and 120 lbs and cannot comfortably sleep or sit on any hard surface. It feels like my bones are touching stone directly, and sometimes causes parts of my body to fall asleep. It also doesn't help that I sleep on my side.

Fairly certain I'm an outlier as well, but a soft mattress seems to give my body the contour and padding I lack naturally.

[schuke]

Same height, used to have similar weight. I can vouch for this.

[gji]

Source for this? I personally need 9+ hours as well but am constantly told I sleep for too long.

[purplethinking]

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, it's the most mentioned book on sleep recently. According to this book there is no such thing as sleeping "too much". Sleeping a lot is correlated with higher mortality, but that is because sick people tend to sleep longer in order for the body to recover, not because sleep in any way causes ill health.

[LawnboyMax]

I heard this "energy boost" point many times and never understood it.

I tried waking up at 5 AM for a morning workout for a year (with proper 8-9 hour sleep at night) and I would always feel tired for the remainder of the day, especially for a few hours right after the workout. Maybe this depends on the type of a workout. I was doing mostly powerlifting with heavyish postworkout meals.

I am now working out a few hours before my bedtime and it is perfect. I get tired and physically can't stay up late after an evening workout; it really helps with keeping my schedule stable (i.e. not staying up late in front of a screen).

[therealchiko]

Exactly the same thing I realized. Working out in the morning actually drained me of energy for the day and made me super sleepy instead. Running though, has the different effect and made me feel a whole lot more fresher and ready to tackle the day. So i guess it depends with each person what activity you do in the morning to get your body ready.

[pragmatic]

Same. My wife does it so she talked me into it when I switched jobs and had to start work at 8 am.

I was miserable. I finally decided just to do the gym on my lunch when possible. Much better.

[fuddle]

Pretty cool, what time do you go to sleep at?

[madiathomas]

This is the technique I used and the reasoning was the same. I can safely switch off my phone and leave it at home in the morning and focus on working out because no-one is going to call me at 5am. Also, no-one is going to arrange a meeting with me at that time of the day.

After having some success in the gym using this technique, I decided to try it for my studies. I enrolled for a 3-year IT qualification and managed to finish it in record time while working a full-time job and running a profitable side project.

I was doing 5 modules every semester. Every weekday when I wake up, first thing I did, was taking a shower and study for an hour, then go to work. I was studying just one module per day.

This year, I am planning to study further using same technique. I always recommend this technique for people who think they don't have time to do X. The best time to do X is always first thing in the morning when there are no distractions.

[jimmaswell]

I'm really glad my workplace has a gym in it. I use it during lunch hour daily and it works out great.

[chris11]

I once worked at a place across the street from the gym they gave us memberships to. I did the same thing, and worked out at lunch. It was great.

[gadders]

Agreed. One thing I do is book a recurring meeting for myself in Outlook to book out the time. It doesn't completely guarantee people will book a meeting during my gym time but it definitely minimises it.

[irrational]

Same here. Being able to go for a swim, lift weights, using the climbing wall, etc. when stuck on a problem is great.

[dev1n]

Where do you work? Would love to be somewhere with a pool to take laps in.

[gadders]

There is a gym below my building with a pool in Canary Wharf in London if you are UK based.

[dgacmu]

Probably Nike.

[z3t4]

When bumping training from 3 to 5 days/week, a common mistake is to increase total load to 5/3=170%. The trick is to lower the load on each day to 60-70% and advance from there.

[MRD85]

I'm a very busy person when uni semester is live. I work 45 hours per week, I have my kids about 65% of the hours that I'm not at work and it leaves me about 20 hours per week to maintain my house, do jobs and complete what is meant to be 30 hours of prescribed university work. My secret is going to sleep at 8pm and waking up at 4am to get uni work done. I'm refreshed and I tend to be far more productive than if I do work at night.

[gentran]

I've barely adjusted waking up at 6 daily, and consistently going to sleep around the same time has been near impossible for one reason or another. What is your secret

[kraig]

What reasons? It takes some discipline but I get to bed by 10pm pretty regularly because I wake up at 6am and at the gym daily at 7:20. If I am not asleep by 10:30pm my morning suffers, so I make sure I stop myself to get the sleep I need. In general that means starting to wind down after 9pm (usually 9:30) and then doing some light reading.

[damontal]

Whenever I wake up at 5 am and work out I wind up hitting a brick wall at about 10 am and have to take much more caffeine than usual to keep going.

[eaurouge]

For your workout, do you do weights only? If so, try adding some high intensity aerobics like running and see if that makes a difference.

[zupzupper]

Do you eat breakfast in there somewhere?

[damontal]

Yeah. It’s not lack of eating I drink plenty of water too.

[sAbakumoff]

what kind of gym opens 5am.

[mprev]

Many are open 24 hours or provide self-entry outside core hours.