Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It | Hacker News Reader

Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

zenhabits.net

15 pointsdanhak26 comments

As with most Zenhabits posts, it's just filled with feel-good hokey (come on, the Dalai Lama? How is he an expert on good working hours? I'd rather get sex tips from the Pope). No actual evidence. And if you've got flexible hours (which a lot of programmers have), most of it is moot anyway. Late risers can have their breakfast and prepare for the day at 12 o'clock if they want to...

I didn't see a single thing in there that couldn't be replicated by rising late. I have done both early rising and late rising for extended periods of my life. Both have things to offer. Even the 9-5 routine has some advantages (the word "routine" basically captures it).

s/sunrise/sunset/,

s/breakfast/leisurely dinner/

You win.

Having done a lot of late rising and early rising in my life, s/sunrise/sunset/ and s/breakfast/dinner/ doesn't apply. You can go to bed at 22:00 every night and unless you live in the Arctic Circle you'll see a sunset every night you care to, all year long.

I think there was a study that showed sleeping during daylight is not as good as during night time. Don't quote me on it though.

The guy is clearly not a programmer. Programmers' most productive time is at night - everyone knows that.

I actually get a lot more done early in the morning. All the distractions are gone. No one is sending me email or trying to chat with me on IM.

Surely it isn't very hard to close your mail & IM clients?

Some people are morning people and some people are creatures of the night. My mind is much sharper in the mornings. Most of my co-workers are better at night.

Anytime someone says something and follows it with "everyone knows that", my skepticism sensors kick into high gear :)

Have you ever tried waking up early yourself? Do you have any "actual evidence" even from your own experience?

In my case, commuting is one huge advantage of waking up early, when I do it. Traffic between 5-7 tends to be far less stressful, even when it's heavy. These are all people who are relaxed, focused, and moving quickly without being in a hurry. 8:00-10:00 people are rushing and hurried and angry and chatting on cell phones, 11:00-13:00 gets very heavy with lunch rush, with some people hurrying and others just meandering along getting in the way. Then after a brief lull between 14:00 and 15:00 (the early risers heading home) you start getting a mix of traffic from commuters and people doing afternoon activities, which tends to persist until late (20:00-21:00) except on Monday nights, unless there is an event like a Red Sox game or something.

In the SF Bay Area, commuting by car over the past 15 years, I've found that there are no generalizations I can safely make about traffic during a particular time of day, which applies to all routes and all directions.

I became an early riser for a particular job and have stayed on that sleep schedule for (arguably indirectly related) health reasons, so I'm awake by 13:00 UTC every day, which is 6am or 5am, depending on Daylight Silly Time. However, I tend to adjust my commute departure time such that I get a good overlap of being in the office with my cow-orkers.

The article is OK, but in my opinion, it gets a few things wrong. And I should know: after struggling with getting up my whole life, I became an early riser (pre-5am). Rather than rehash it, here's a previous comment on the subject:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=525334

Agree with ojbyrne that this could all be replicated on a late night schedule as well.

How about this: 10 benefits of conforming to your bodies natural rhythm? I've read plenty of research on innate, physical inclination to rise early or late.

Regardless of whether I work late or early, I tend to rise at the same time (unless acted upon by an outside force). Working late means I need less sleep and am more productive.

Of course the downside of this is that the world is on a morning schedule. I am currently conforming to this due to children. I look forward to reverting to a night schedule.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1903838,00.ht...

The benefits of rising early are so profound that he decided to do the opposite: http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/how-to-become-a-late-riser/

Another Benefit - reading an article like this leaves you with a feeling of acknowledgment and pride.

As opposed to my current feeling of guiltily agreeing with all of these points and knowing I won't do anything about it.

There are benefits to rising late as well. Some of them are similar to the ones listed in the article. If you are in your room by yourself, 1AM to 2AM tends to be a quiet and peaceful time. A lot of social activity also happens around midnight, and if you are an early riser you may find yourself burnt out and unable to participate by the time midnight rolls around. If you are forced to stay up late a few days in a row and you naturally wake up early as well, you may start accumulating a sleep deficit. A sleep deficit will eventually catch up to you and you'll stop appreciating those morning benefits.

There was also an article posted a while back of a study done that showed people who tend to wake up late performed better on some cognitive tests at certain times of the day, while there was no similar advantage for people who naturally woke up early at any other times.

I do think this article does point out some of the practical advantages that the experiment in that other article wasn't interested in; like how a sunrise makes you feel, the value of beating commute traffic, the value of getting a head start on daily activities, etc. (I like rising early and have tended to for the past 5-6 years. In my case, natural light and no drugs[1] is all it takes)

[1] Alcohol, caffeine, as well as ibuprofen and other painkillers can all help me sleep through a sunrise.

Additionally, working (and therefore staying up) late can be out of your control. If you have a job where you have "fire drills" with some frequency then your sleep early/wake up early schedule is going to be hard to maintain. However, if you have a sleep late/wake up late schedule then a last minute fire drill might cut into dinner, social life, etc... but its less likely to cut into sleep.

Wow that putting alarm clock away from the bed is ingenious. I've gotta try that.

Don't worry, you'll learn to sleep through the alarm clock =P

You think you jest...

I have to have 2 alarm clocks on normal ok-if-I'm-late days, and 3 if I absolutely have to wake up by x:00 AM. Each a progressively further zombie walk away from the bedside.

I have 3 for the important days because walking to the kitchen is apparently not enough to wake me.

The problem now is that my third is my cell phone, and if I forget to turn my ringer way up, I can sleep right through that since it's so far away.

I am not a morning person. -_-

I recommend buying a vibrating alarm clock like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/ila-Vibrating-Alarm-Clock/dp/B0017TPFY...

and putting it under your pillow.

I have difficulty waking up and sleep through alarms.

Clocky has worked wonders. I just can't believe my gf puts up with it (and actually bought it for me!). It is loud as hell and you can make it drive away from you.

http://www.nandahome.com/products/clocky/

I didn't know they actually make these. I saw it in Make Magazine a few years back and thought it was a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

Total irrational BS. Just like mhd said, that whole site is full of feel-goodey things - doesn't belong on HN. The comments clearly reflect that.

If I'm healthy and exercising 3 times a week and eating right, I can wake up whenever I want and be productive the entire day.

If I'm not, it's simply impossible.

This stuff really isn't that complicated, people.

When I was younger I used to wake up at 4pm and code till early 6am, pure zen.

Now that I am older I try to go to bed the same day I wake up.

The older I get the earlier I want to wake up, the less I want to sleep.

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