[avenger123]

I don't have an elaborate setup as yours but I have found the most dramatic improvement by getting one of these:

https://www.philips.ca/c-p/HF3670_60/smartsleep-connected-sl...

It's a sunrise and sunset alarm clock. I wake up at 5:15 AM on a daily basis and 20 minutes before, the light starts with increasing brightness. At 5:08 AM, I have selected ocean waves for the sound and at 5:15 the loud alarm comes on.

It's been a dramatic change for me with this. I would normally get 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep but would have a very hard time waking up and more often than not, would go back to sleep.

With this arrangement, it's been really wonderful. I now tend to be mostly awake before the main alarm comes on and I am able to just get up.

I know this is not a inexpensive option but there are other models without the bells and whistles.

[cuspycode]

My wife got one of those (or a similar model), and it was very helpful for her, especially during the toughest part of winter here when it's completely dark for 17 hours. For me on the other hand, I just made a deliberate mental switch when I was around 35 years old when I decided, for efficiency reasons, to stop working late evenings and doing all-nighters, and tried to catch the early bird instead. The switch was surprisingly easy for me, but YMMV of course. And I've since started working late evenings for a bit again, but my sleep habits have stuck.

[nikofeyn]

my girlfriend got one of those, and i absolutely hate it. it wakes me up with light in a way that makes me feel bad. it honestly puts me in a bad mood immediately.

one thing i have noticed being a night owl is that even during periods where i am sleeping "normally" (i.e., early) and waking up moderately early is that i still hate the mornings. i could be making this up, but it feels quite inherent to me that i do not like the climate and sunlight in the morning. the climate transitions that happen at night and also the light at twilight have always been extremely calming to me.

when i was younger, i would play basketball during the evenings and into the night. during the summer, i would also get up early and workout and practice, and it was always a complete slug, despite being well rested. the air and light just feels different for me in the mornings. also, when i wake up and immediately shower, like for a workday, it feels worse than when i sleep in on the weekends, am awake for an hour or two, and then shower.

i have no idea if that's really what's going on, but that's what it feels like to me.

[wpietri]

Yes! I started with a Philips sunrise alarm clock, an older model than that. It was good, but I really wanted more light and coverage in more rooms than the bedroom, so I got a bunch of Hue bulbs and wrote my own daemon [1]. I added the dim-in-the-evening thing more as a lark, but it ended up making a big difference for me.

[1] https://github.com/wpietri/sunrise

[leto_ii]

I also have an older model of that. What I found however is that if my back is turned to it when it starts brightening up its effect is greatly diminished. It simply doesn't have enough power to brighten the whole room.

Does the newer model mitigate this issue?

[avenger123]

The lux level on this is 315 which I believe is the highest. For me, this hasn't been an issue as it is right beside my bed. At this point, I believe the ocean waves have become a signal to my brain that I need to start getting up. I did have to experiment with how many minutes before the alarm goes off to turn on the ocean waves sound.

[leto_ii]

Thanks for the details.