- Sleep and wake up at the same time everyday, at least in the beginning
- Avoid eating a lot near your bedtime
- 300mcg (micrograms) of melatonin can help make sleeping earlier at a certain time easier - helps me reset if I get into a stretch of sleeping late
- Clear your head before bed; if you have stuff on your mind, you'll probably be thinking or worrying about it - write down what you need to do the next day
- Get one of those sleep tracking apps like Sleep Cycle to wake you up when it thinks you're in a lighter sleep phase
- Get a Wake-up Light alarm or rig some lights to turn on; light is key and is pretty effective
- Drink water when you wake up
I recommend not drinking caffeine after 12pm or so (depends on you of course) to ensure you can get a good night's rest. You will probably have no problems being productive as you should be excited the first week or two at work. Otherwise, grats on the new job and good luck!
While he was starting off he kept the schedule fairly strictly, with weekends and meetups included. After he got into a routine he started getting a bit more lax, but I'm pretty sure he still has an alert on his phone some 2 years later after starting this habit.
I used to wake up at 4am every day to go to the gym. The secret is that I wouldn't break my sleeping schedule on weekends.
If you're staying up late on weekends, you're never going to be a morning person - Mondays will always be brutal, and you'll start feeling normal around Thursday/Friday only to repeat the cycle.
When I worked 12 hour shifts 0600 'til 1800, I got up at 0400. I always woke at 0359.50, and turned off the alarm just before its first beep. That's how crazy accurate the internal clock is. I'd always sleep at the same time, IIRC 2100.
Now I work normal-ish office hours I get up at 0730, work from 0900-0930 to 1730-1800. I could work earlier or later, and this means I'm a bit more lax at sleeping. Case in point, replying here at 2240 when I should be thinking about sleeping.
I think you can adapt to any cycle you like so long as you have the willpower to define the sleep and wake times, and stick to them. It only takes a couple of weeks and then it's second nature.
I had always considered myself very much an evening person but have managed to become a morning person in the last year or so.
It's important to recognise that the body has 2 natural alarm clocks - needing the bathroom and hunger.
Without these urges it's easy to keep sleeping. With them it's easy to get up and stay up.
Feeling alert in the morning comes from schedule and diet
First, over a few weekends catch up on any sleep debt. Reasonably early nights and sleep in until you've had your fill. No alarms and no early starts necessary.
Then over the course of a few weeks improve your water intake. At least 2L spread across the day. Try and eliminate caffeine and sugar especially after dinner.
Ensure you are not eating dinner too late, you will not be hungry for breakfast if you're still eating late into the night.
Over time you will start to feel more alert, less groggy and get to know how many hours is best for you.
At first it takes some trial and error but finding the right balance makes it easy.
The key is get up early every day.. yes even the weekends. In order to get up.. drink a lot of water before bed. This will force you not to hit the snooze button too long.
Have a goal to do in the morning also. Get outside, clean the house, or write some code. Don't just sit there and watch TV.
I'm at the point where I naturally wake up at 6am at the latest even if I don't set an alarm.
The best advice is go to bed early.
- getting up at that time every day
- no caffein after 5pm (or even earlier)
- reduce light after 10pm (lower room light, dim, invert (or using dark themes) or even tint monitors with the program flux)
- routines to fall asleep (watching something really booring, meditating while lying down, counting sheep or some other mind-scenario that you feel home in :) )
If you can scheudule it, you can also consider splitting your sleep in to 2 phases:
When I had to get up early for school, I slept at least 2h at a very fixed time in the evening (around 5pm). Here it helps to really be on time, if you have an appointment at that time you'll be super tired :/... Once you got really quick at falling asleep, you can try to have an espresso just before. Makes getting up 2h later so much easier.
Getting up early is about getting on a schedule.
A few years ago my cat started waking me up at 4am, like exactly at 4 am +/- a few minutes. He would even keep on schedule when the time changed.
So I started staying up, starting work at 4am. After a while you just get in a routine and you function normally.
I would go to bed by 9 or 10pm and usually by Thursday/Friday I would be more tired than usual if I didn't go to bed early enough.
I also gave up soda around the same time and switched to green tea and the carbonated unsweetened drinks. Getting away from soda I felt better had more energy.
Recently we've been staying up late with friends and watching movies and I'm slipping back to staying up late/needing to sleep in so it's definitely about getting adjusted to a schedule and keeping on it.
A 9am start isn't bad so you could probably still stay up later on the weekends and still adjust back. But I seem to feel better sticking to the same schedule all the time.
My grandmother's cat does the same thing (except 6am). She said that when the time changed a week or two ago, and the cat woke her up, she thought "you dummy, you don't know what time it is."
But she checked the clock anyway, and the cat was correct.
That doesn't even make any sense to me, and now you're confirming it...crazy!
Your cat can tell time. He's planning your murder. Watch your back.
cat -t 0400
Following podcast on Caffeine by "How Stuff Works" explains the mechanics. Very enlightening.
http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/the-duality-of-ca...
Start the day by exercising (will wake you up); and end the day reading (it helps you calm down)
I started getting up at around 5:00am -- and going to bed before 10pm.
I'll never be a morning person -- but I'm able to shift the time of my first morning meeting to virtual-late-morning.
Works for me.