[rharb]

I’m currently sleeping from 8pm to 4am to help out with a newborn baby.

I’ve found that the best thing I can do to consistently be ‘on’ right at 4 is to set my bedtime, not my awake time. I’m always in bed at 8 whether I think I’ll need 8 hours of sleep or not - this has allowed me to more consistently get something done right away outside of whenever the baby’s got me busy.

[gexla]

This was the right answer for me. There does seem to be people who aren't morning people in any situation. Some people may just have to grow out of not being a morning person. Not everyone has the control over their schedule to do what's ideal for them (especially when you have kids.)

For everyone else, train your body to sleep and wake at the same times. I'm a bit out of whack right now, but my best routine was when I could barely keep my eyes open at XPM at night and wake up on my own at XAM in the morning. It was like clockwork. I could tell you what time it was by my internal clock. Also helpful was going to sleep AND waking up in the dark. Sunlight streaming into your sleeping area is also like an alarm clock.

Don't do things which will mess with your sleep. If you're going to drink alcohol, don't do it during the week. I stopped eating after 6. Disconnected from screens an hour before sleep time. I was also on a sort of keto diet (loads of veggies, small portions of organ meat and fish, fat from coconut oil.

I have never experienced such mental clarity than I did during this time. It seemed like a switch got flipped one day about 3 weeks into this routine. I had this persistent feeling like I had drank 2 cups of coffee, but without the weird jittery feeling.

[rharb]

You make an interesting point that I hadn't thought of. I haven't had alcohol since I switched to this schedule (right after the holidays).

Plus, since I'm not eating after 8 and I still eat breakfast (with other kid) at 8, I'm in this sort of accidental intermittent fasting mode. I wonder how much that is contributing.

[jxm262]

This was a game changer for me as well. Set my alarm to go to sleep, not to wake up (though i set that too in case i accidentally oversleep on an important day)

I find my body gets into a natural rythm. And 8 hours of solid sleep makes my mornings so much more productive.

[teekert]

Stupidly, my iPhone sleep settings help with that. You choose your target sleep and then set an alarm. At alarm_time - sleeping_goal your phone goes into a dimmed state that doesn’t let messages come through, If sound is on it plays a little “go to sleep” chime.

[corobo]

I had to disable the go to sleep reminder after I went to bed unusually early and it woke me up to tell me to go to bed haha

[teekert]

Haha this happened to me too, but now I set it to sleep manually, also prevent messages from ruining my early bed plans.

[corobo]

Oh yeah the rest of the feature is great but man I was annoyed at 4am when I still couldn't get back to sleep

Love how customisable the notification settings are now, that's an Apple win

[Phrenzy]

My S21 has something similar. It goes quiet at night and switches to black and white.

[enobrev]

This worked well for me also. Main difference was that my shift with the baby was between 11pm and 7am and then I would go right to sleep.

I had my day split for 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 8 hours with the baby. This allowed both my wife and I to get 8 hours of sleep every day once my son was on formula.

I was sleeping better and my work was more focused, and the boy (and my marriage) is still alive and happy. It worked so well, that it took me months for my body to shift away from that schedule when we moved on to more "normal" hours.

[rharb]

Yeah - I've wanted to be more of a morning person for a while. Always envious of my friends that have no issues getting up at 5 or 5:30 to run or work out before sitting down to work. I am hoping that I can shift to something like that after the baby is sleeping a little better and keep the habit.

[specialist]

Yes and: I removed the curtains in my east facing bedroom. To better wake up with the dawn. Weirdly, once established, my self-wake time mostly carried over to winter.