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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

11. Get enough exercise.

I find when I'm getting regular exercise, I open my eyes in the morning and I'm awake and ready to go. It's the opposite when I've been lazing around for a few weeks not doing my physical activity.

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My uncensored opinion is that the original article is garbage. Waking up early isn't about what you do in the morning, its about what you do the night before (or fail to do.)

Forcing yourself to wake up early for the sake of waking up early is destructive as it means your body has not gotten enough sleep yet. Your going to either have impeded judgement capability, diminished work energy or both. A lot of people pretend this doesn't happen to them; they under perform for years or sometimes their whole life.

Being a business owner associating with a lot of people with the worst sleeping schedules imaginable I have a pretty good idea what causes serious sleep problems.

That said, most average people can fix their sleep problems just through being active.

Here are a few things that are a really big deal:

1. Wind down work hours before your ready.

2. Shut off most of your lights. Especially the horrid blue lights that so many electronics emit.

3. Don't do drugs. Yeah, if your snorting cocaine on the weekends expect to have some problems sleeping for the rest of the week.

4. Be on a regularly eating schedule. My sleep disruptions go hand in hand with meal disruptions.

I travel to trade shows and have 24 hour days. When I go back home, my sleep schedule goes back on track within 48 hours. This is coming from someone who, over half a decade ago, spent years attempting to stop a 26 hour day cycle (meaning your sleep plus awake time always ads up to over 24 hours a day resulting in no predictable sleep pattern.)

With regard to your second point, late night hackers might find f.lux useful. I have used it with success the past year and half; just be sure it is not activated while doing anything which includes a color palette.

Check it out here: http://stereopsis.com/flux/

3. Don't do drugs.

Most importantly, do not consume caffeine. No coffee, no tea!

I'm a green tea drinker and I've actually read that small amounts of caffeine throughout the day are okay. Seems to be working for me. Went from coffee to black tea to green tea and have been primarily drinking green tea for 2-3 years now.

That would depend on whether you are fast- or slow- caffeine metabolizer. For example, I am of a latter kind - I can drink few shots of espresso, then go to bed in an hour after that and pull of a full-night sleep.

I don't know if "do not consume caffeine" is more important than "do not do cocaine", but otherwise I'd agree. That said, I personally care more about my Coke fix than I do about any impact to my sleep schedule.

Green tea has a lot less caffeine than black tea.

This is not necessarily true. In particular: "2. Black and green tea manufactured from leaf from the same bushes on the same day will have virtually the same caffeine levels (within +/- 0.3%)"

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and...

Didn't know that, I stand corrected. Thanks!

No tea? How dare you.

That one was actually on my initial list. I left it out though because I have just recently started working out regularly. But yes, so far I have been getting better night sleeps after my workout days.

Depends on the exercise.

Heavy deadlifts & rack pulls: I sleep like the dead. Squats can have a similar effect.

Rowing, swimming, cycling, or other cardio: not so bad.

This math doesn't work - you're gonna wake up early to have more productive hours, but you'll waste the gain by exercising.

You are right - the amount of time you wake up early may be cancelled out by the amount of time you exercise. Two things to note:

1. The title of the article is "Waking up early", not "how to have more productive hours in the day"

2. I'm personally much more interested in the health benefits gained by exercising so I have no doubt it's worth it.

Presumably, if you exercise then you'll have more days total in which to be productive (that is, you'll live longer)!

Working out won't make you healthier. In fact, boosting your metabolism and gaining muscle mass is the sure way to getting cancer sooner.

Plus, you might find yourself more productive on days when you have exercised. I certainly do.

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