Anyone ever adjusted their "internal clock" to become a morning person?

[Bleacher Creature]

I've always had trouble falling asleep, and have never been able to wake up. With small kids and a job, however, I really think that my life would be better if I switched this around. Anyone else have the same experience (or know someone who has)? Since falling asleep is the issue, it's not as simple as trying to go to sleep earlier. . .

[Moondog]

1. Yes.

By nature, I was always a night person. But when I got out of school, I found that the world that I moved into, and was living in, was populated with day-walkers. And more to the point, it was run by day-walkers. So I was forced to adapt. Which I did by buying, and using, a clock radio. When you get up in time to be where you have to be, at some point you will start falling to sleep earlier, due to fatigue. I did this for about 25 years.

But I never really liked it, nor did I ever really make the change in a mental sense. And now that I no longer have to do this, I find that I am slowly but surely shifting back to being a night person. And yet, I have retained the ability to get up at an obscenely early hour. Which I now do to be able to exploit the first light of day photographically, or to go fishing. Which is to say, because I have a reason to do so, not because I am forced to do so due to occupational constraints.

It sucks the big one, but it can be done. And, when the need to do so ceases to be a driver, you can easily revert.

[jakeXT]

2. I've only heard about the guys working with Mars time, I believe it's hell

Shifting Schedules 40 Minutes Every Day

Mars rotates approximately 40 minutes slower than Earth every day. Since each rover operates when the sun is pumping energy onto its solar panels, the slower rotation of Mars boils down to a longer day in which the mission team can use a science instrument, drive a little farther, or send more data to Earth.

Thus, ambitious rover team members have chosen to extend and alter their schedules 40 minutes every day to stay in sync with their twins' day and night schedules on Mars. One day, for example, team members might come in to work at 9:00 a.m. The next day, they'd come in at 9:40 a.m., and the next day at 10:20 a.m., and so on. They end up running multiple laps around Earth's 24-hour schedule throughout the mission.

...

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/spotlight/dayinthelife01.html

I've never been a morning person, only when I had to.

[LynzM]

14. That kinda sounds nice to me...

Might not be nice when you're living it, but I've always said that I could get up later and stay up later, progressively, until I went around the clock...

[jakeXT]

25. Yeah and ice cream

We have now discovered that scientists exist on ice cream and coffee. There is ice cream available to the rover staff members and we see more and more of the scientists that seem to be eating ice cream morning, noon, and night (martian time). The ice cream bars are usually followed by more coffee. One of the scientists commented that some days he seems to eat nothing, and other days he might have 5 meals. The interrupted sleep and activity schedules are having an effect on all the people involved?but the enthusiasm and excitement keeps them going! Days off provide time to try to catch up on sleep!
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/classroom/students/asip_journal_silversprings.html



I've never tried to to wake uo progressively later, I would probably collapse and fall asleep some day.

[guitar man]

3. yes

I worked 2nd shift for 5 straight years before I was offered this 830-530 management gig. It took a while to adjust to the new hours, rough, but I finally got there.

[abq e streeter]

5. tougher when you're a musician too, as you know all too well, I'm sure

[guitar man]

6. exactly

I had wrangled fridays off under my old schedule, I was working 4 10 hour shifts, 1pm-11pm monday through thursday with friday off so I could gig. Going to the 5 day a week day gig thing just kicked my ass sideways for a while :(

[charlie and algernon]

4. I think most do after college

All through college I'd sleep till 11 and go to bed after 3am. Now I'm dead tired by midnight and am up by 9am, even on weekends.

[loudsue]

7. SleepMD. It's an herbal supplement that helps people like you & me

We're night people by nature, but SleepMD will help you sleep at night ( ! Novel thing to do!! ) and when you wake up in the MORNING, you actually WAKE UP! (Also a novel thing for people like us. )

I've been using it for about a year now, and I actually wake up in the mornings.

[seemunkee]

8. years of getting the kids off to school changed it for me

and now my work schedule is 7:30-4 so I'm still getting up early. On weekends I'm usually up by 8 without trying.
Honestly, if I didn't like getting home early I could change all that in a week.

[AngryAmish]

9. I was born a morning person but suffered from insomnia for years

1. No caffeine after lunch.

2. NO TV IN THE BEDROOM.

3. Exercise also helps but with small ones I know it is tough.

4. Marry my wife. Peace of mind, no drinking all night. Wait, no you can't marry my wife. I found her first.

Honestly, I think the TV was the most important thing.

also, if falling asleep is a problem, get up, drink a beer, rub one out and BOOM. It works for me.

[TrogL]

10. Stop listening to the sleep nazi's

Maybe the reason you can't sleep is because you're trying to get 8 hours sleep when you really only need 4.

Stay up until 2 a.m. doing something productive that will tire you out instead of laying in bed doing nothing staring at the ceiling for 4 hours.

[graywarrior]

11. Being a vampire, I have never been able to adjust to day gigs.

Now that I am in school I have to be out of the house by 8 am. SUCKS big time. I love staying up til 2 am. Today was my first day of school and I feel like I got hit by a bus I'm so effin tired.

[Pharlo]

12. I 'adjusted' to an extent.

I'm ok during the week and for a two day weekend. A three day holiday and by day three, I'm back to staying up to see the sun rise and going to bed at noon.

But then, I don't have little kids either. I have got The Damn Mutts though. They have massive problems with the whole 'weekend' concept and demand to be let out at 4 am. No problem though, just collapse right back to sleep after they come back inside.

[hippywife]

13. No, but

age did that for me. Really. :hi:

[Strong Atheist]

15. Every fall... nt.

[yewberry]

16. Yes. I used to be a bartender.

For many, many years, I had trouble falling asleep at night, but it was okay because I worked nights. It became a real problem when I started working in schools, and I just skimped on sleep for about 2 years. Not good.

I had a revelation when I started at my current job: I simply had to be at work by 0600, and after a few days I just started getting tired at night. It truly sucked at first, but if you have to be up by 0430, then you really do start to want to go to bed earlier. I still find it kind of unbelievable to be getting to bed so early (when I used to be just starting to think about dinner!), but the schedule just became routine.

I'm still a night person by nature, but getting up early is okay for me now. It beats the snot out of being constantly exhausted.

[auntAgonist]

17. I just had to do that.

Working afternoon shift for the past 10 years was great, suited me to a T. I was always a late night person.

Now, I'm up at 4:30am and on the road for a 45 minute drive at 6am. I awaken to an alarm clock (YUK) Get into the shower (yikes) wash my hair, make lunches, dress , dry hair etc ...

I still don't think I'm a morning person. I'm very tired come bed time, which by the way was 10 minutes ago.

:)

I really would rather work nights.

aA
kesha
:hi:

[applegrove]

18. I'm having a hard time adjusting to a new schedule. I'm not really a morning person and with

the meds I am on I need a good 12 hours sleep. So it is hard to make the sleeping changes I need to make. I'll try again tomorrow.

[NMDemDist2]

19. get into the sun in the morning every morning

light plays a large factor in resetting your circadian rhythm

this video may help

http://www.ehow.com/video_4399838_how-circadian-rhythm-affects-sleep.html

[crim son]

20. Yes. It takes brute force but it can be done, and quickly.

I'm a real night person who sleeps until noon and is up until five a.m. if I have the choice. However I can make the switch to "regular" time by biting the bullet for two days in a row. Rise at six, bed at ten. Two days and I'm set.

When I was younger I thought lack of sleep was a miserable crime against humanity. Now I know it's just a thing to be endured and endured well. The switch isn't too tough if you're tough about it.

[wickerwoman]

21. Yep, I had to get brutal with caffeine.

One or two cups in the morning and then absolutely nothing else later in the day. Even sugar less than three or four hours from bedtime can make me twitchy and hyper.

What really helped was going camping for a few days. The fresh air and exercise (and lack of TV or anything else to do after it got dark) wiped me out by 9:30 or 10. Then when I came back to civilization, it was easier to stick on that sleeping schedule.

[Iggo]

22. I did.

But I was unemployed and freshly off of drugs at the time. Not a lot of responsibility, other than getting and staying clean. If I'd had to go to work with the attitude I was wearing in those days, it would've been a little sketchy...

[texanwitch]

23. I am not a morning person.

High school really hard getting up so early.

The Army wasn't fun either.

I only get up early if I have to.

In October I start early voting hell.

It is only for a two weeks.

[XemaSab]

24. I think part of the trick is no caffeine ever

I know that it really messes up my sleep cycles, so I'm constantly playing sleep catchup.

It's so, so good, however. :9

[TheKentuckian]

26. I've often tried but usually I just sleep lots less if I have to do early mornings

[busybl]

27. I wish I could do that

since I retired I've turned back into a night owl. Fall asleep at 5 am and wake up at maybe 1 pm, sonetimes later. yikes. I'm gonna try some of your suggestions,

[NuttyFluffers]

28. i can use an alarm clock, but NOTHING shifts my internal clock. :(

i can fly all over the world and right as rain my internal clock will rapidly adjust to shift me into being a night person in the new time zone. sure i can wake up at insane o'clock if i absolutely, the building is going to collapse around you right this very second if you don't, have to. but that leaves me patently exhausted the whole day, and accrues exhaustion even more as the weeks roll by. further, as soon as the nearest day of rest comes about -- like literally, the weekend -- i switch, without control, to being a night person.

no, i am not made for midday sunlight. i can feel it burn. the hours from 7 AM to noon are hours to rest from the heat and sunlight. i tried everything: hypnosis, mental training, trying to build it as a habit, positive reinforcement (happy activities in the morning), etc. nothing works. i just cannot do mornings. it's in the blood.

edit: i should also add that i need at least 9+ hours of sleep as well. and that for every day that i wake up early -- like a week of waking up around 8 or 10 AM -- it carries over and completely shuts down my weekend. i end up having to sleep the weekend away by sleeping at least 12+ hours each day just to catch up and not just shut down for next week. i literally CANNOT function with a daylight lifestyle. it's bad when i had to set my alarm on a SAT at 4 PM so i can get up early enough to rush to the bank and deposit a check before it closes.

i also sleep like the dead. i've had false fire alarms go off in the dorms and i almost slept through it. imagine, all room lights on, loud fire siren right outside your room, door open to a big red flashing light spinning around, still took me over 10 minutes to get up and out... and that's because an RA had to shake me and tell me to leave. consciousness is not my normal state...