To give you an idea, my typical (great) day in the holidays was something like bed around 1am, wake up at 9am/10am. Same as you this was difficult to accomodate when you have to wake up at 6.30am-7am the latest to go to the office.
What drastically changed everything was the discovery that I could wake up at 4am "like a breeze". I've started reading more about sleep cycle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_cycle) and circadian rythmn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_clock) and by that I mean trying to take that on account and apply it.
After much experimenting, I've found out I have 3 "wake up slots" where I can wake up with no efforts and feeling refreshed. During the last months they changed a bit but finally stabilized to : between 4.30am-5am, at 6am sharp and between 8-9am. Same with falling asleep, I can fall asleep in 20min or less if I'm in bed around 10pm or around 11pm. Anything after that and I have trouble to fall asleep - the owl is still around! :)
List of benefits is quite long but here's the best 3 for me:
- I'm in an "auto-piloted equilibrium" ; if I go to bed a 10pm I automatically wake up at 6am. If I go to bed at 11pm, I will still wake up at 6am but the evening after I will feel the urge to go to bed at 9.30pm already. I'm just not fighting it and oblige.
- Since my sleeping pattern is balanced, I don't feel worried or gloomy about sleep anymore (the "pff i will wake up late feeling like shit again" thoughts). I know that it will welcome me (which in turn makes it better). Mood improved a LOT.
- I don't need no stinky alarm clock in the morning. I set one up just in case but I haven't heard it for a long time.
Aside of that what helped also was to use a light box in the morning and having something to do right away ; I usually look forward watching a lecture on youtube while having my morning coffee.
Interestingly, it's been a month that I changed jobs for a full remote position. I thought the owl would come back (with a vengeance) but actually it is not the case at all! I've now completely ditched my alarm clock and I'm always up between 6-6.10am and slowly using the previous commute time for other things (sport mostly).
As said above, the owl is still there, I just give it free reigns over the weekend and not the week days =)