[plg]

get up earlier

seriously though after I started getting up every single day without fail at 6:00 am, no matter what happened the day before, no matter what’s on my schedule today, ever since I have had no trouble whatsoever ever falling asleep. Usually by 9:30 pm I am feeling v sleepy and by 10 pm I cannot help but lie down and close my eyes.

The only thing that modulates this is caffeine. No caffeine after 2:00 pm otherwise I may be up until 11:00 pm even midnight.

but even then, wake at 6:00 am the next day without fail, that was the magic bullet for me

all this stuff about bedtime routines, warm bath, soft lighting, etc, seems funny to me - like I said by 9:30 pm and certainly by 10:00 pm I cannot help but lie down and close my eyes, I don’t need any enticements.

[voxl]

It would only seem funny to you if you ignore the most fundamentally important fact of humanity: Humans have much more variance than normality. Even if half the population can get by with what you're saying, there is a full other half filling out a wide variance.

[bradfa]

Get up earlier but at a consistent time each day. Add in some daily exercise and that’s what has done the trick for me.

[Unai]

I don't think "early" really matters, but consistency has been the key for me.

I used to set an alarm every night in bed for 7-8 hours later, relative to whatever random time I was getting in bed. For years the only advice I ever heard in terms of sleep quality was "getting a good 7-8 hours", so this led to years of awful sleep.

Now, I set an alarm once and don't ever touch it again. It goes off every day of the week, weekends and all, everyday at the same time. And it's been one of the biggest and most directly noticeable changes I've ever done for my routine and wellbeing. Sure, sometimes I go to bed late and I don't get my 7-8 hours, but for the first time since I was a kid I feel sleepy at night and it doesn't take 1+ hours in bed to fall asleep.

If anyone reading is in the same situation I was, please try it. Even of you usually wake up late, even at noon or later, just wake up at the same "late" hour everyday. "Early" doesn't matter. But after a while you can make small 15-30 minute changes in the wake-up time every month to two months or so, if you wanna start waking up earlier. If you still have trouble falling asleep, even some light exercise like a light walk around the block, helps a lot, particularly if you spent the day sitting.

Maybe this is super obvious for most people, but it wasn't for me, so it might be helpful for someone else.

[bamboozled]

Getting up earlier is a stress reliever as I have more time in the day to accomplish tasks, therefore I sleep knowing things are ok.

If I get up even an hour later than 5:30am, the stress builds as things fall behind schedule.

[EasyMark]

I generally go to bet by 12 and get up at 6, generally, I think it’s the set schedule, not necessarily getting up at an exact time no matter what. However, I’ll bring up not everyone is the same, so people have to experiment, but not give up too early, at least a month and keeping honest notes on it, rather than relying on very fallible human memory. Excel is great for this amongst other things.

[Brajeshwar]

Well, to wake up earlier, one needs to sleep earlier.

[WildGreenLeave]

You don't _have_ to, I think previous commenter means that after a few days of feeling tired and groggy you will be tired earlier in the evening and go to bed earlier.

[m_a_g]

Adjusting in increments truly helps. If you usually sleep 8 hours, try waking half an hour early for a few days. It won't cause sleep deprivation, but you'll feel the need to go to bed early.

[BoiledCabbage]

> Well, to wake up earlier, one needs to sleep earlier.

Why?

[znpy]

Because if you don’t you’re going to regret it. Been there, done that, it’s torture. Quite literally, sleep deprivation is a form of torture.

Waking up super early without having a decent amount of time is just another form if self harm.

[exe34]

i think the idea isn't to sleep late and wake up early consistently. instead it's about waking up at the exact same time everyday, no matter how late you went to bed the previous night for reasons inside/outside your control. the expectation is that the next night you'll feel sleepy earlier and catch up.

in contrast, walking up late one day because you slept late the previous night will wreak havoc.

I'm only trying to clarify this because it works the same way for me.