How To Sleep Early

[Henry]

I just wanted to pass on some advice that helped me sleep early. I used to sleep at 2 am or later.

The advice?

1) Have a set routine that you have in the morning. Do it in the same sequence and do it every morning. Pretty soon it will become habit and you can perform even if you're half-asleep.

2) The key is waking up at the same time every day, not going to bed at the same time. If you wake up at the same time despite your energy level, your body will naturally get sleepy when it needs to. At first, you'll be tired but you'll adjust.

3) Do this for at least 10 days. It takes a while for your body to adjust to the amount of sleep and to manipulate your energy levels.

[Zach]

I think Mr. Pavlina made a detailed report of this in one of his blog posts. But anyway, thanks much for the info..you can never have too much good advice.

[Pandora20]

Yes:

How to Become an Early Riser Part I

How to Become an Early Riser Part II

[magnethy]

I fully agree with your post, but I guess there's always room for comments The biggest problem I had a few years ago when it came to sleep habits had nothing to do with what I did in the morning. It had to do with forcing myself to stay up late. This was simply because of my computer and Internet access. Chatting, surfing, gaming. I was never motivated to do anyting, simply because I was never really rested.

I later figured I had to change my life, and this was a wake up call making me force myself go to bed early instead of doing unimportant things like gaming. It's all about motivation. There's no reason I should stay up until 2-3 in the morning reading bash.org - but it was simply hard not to.

So, force yourself to go to sleep early for a few weeks. I often find it hard to go to bed when my body tells me to, so I'm still having trouble with this. But it's far from as often as it used to be.

[Nico Kempe]

Good one, I read Steve's blog posts on this too and have decided since then that I too would become an early riser.

So, 22:41 now, time to go to bed..)

[Fusebox]

Getting good sleep is something im struggling with at present. My situation is I work in a rotating shift role at work. Its 12 hour shifts, 4 days on and 4 days off. Its 2 days and 2 nights.

For example, on Monday I'll start at 7am, finish at 7pm. Same on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I'll start at 7pm and finish at 7am on Thurs, then back again that night from 7pm to 7am. Then ive got four days off.

So for me, Im unable to get into a healthy routine for personal development. I was wondering if anyone can offer any advice? I am planning to stay in this role for about another 15months at least (its a career role).

[dcaldwell]

I find that if I get to bed late (i.e. after 12am) my brain keeps me out cold for at least 7 hours. I've found the only way to guarantee my body gives my brain the appropriate signals to sleep each night is to eliminate processed sugar from my diet and get some exercise that day. That done, I find I get naturally sleepy mid-evening and can get up anywhere from 6am onward the next morning.

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by Fusebox

Getting good sleep is something im struggling with at present. My situation is I work in a rotating shift role at work. Its 12 hour shifts, 4 days on and 4 days off. Its 2 days and 2 nights.

For example, on Monday I'll start at 7am, finish at 7pm. Same on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I'll start at 7pm and finish at 7am on Thurs, then back again that night from 7pm to 7am. Then ive got four days off.

So for me, Im unable to get into a healthy routine for personal development. I was wondering if anyone can offer any advice? I am planning to stay in this role for about another 15months at least (its a career role).

That's a tough one. I've never dealt with a schedule like that, but I did work 2nd shift (in my case, 5pm - 1am) for quite a while, and struggled with living a "regular life", especially on days off.

For me, the challenge was sticking to something on the off days, and adjusting to the fact that maybe it would be better to go to bed right after finishing work, rather than the more traditional "get up, go to work, come home, do stuff for five hours, then sleep" pattern.

There's no way (it would appear) that you can have the same schedule every day, but perhaps you can try to make either the 7am-7pm or 7pm-7am schedule work for you on your offdays. Then you have five days a week that are consistent. The first day or two of that each week, shifting back from the other schedule, might be hard, but at least you'll have two or three solid days a week.

Or you could devise a way to change your schedule...

[tgl]

Originally Posted by Henry

I just wanted to pass on some advice that helped me sleep early. I used to sleep at 2 am or later.

The advice?

1) Have a set routine that you have in the morning. Do it in the same sequence and do it every morning. Pretty soon it will become habit and you can perform even if you're half-asleep.

2) The key is waking up at the same time every day, not going to bed at the same time. If you wake up at the same time despite your energy level, your body will naturally get sleepy when it needs to. At first, you'll be tired but you'll adjust.

3) Do this for at least 10 days. It takes a while for your body to adjust to the amount of sleep and to manipulate your energy levels.

Thanks. I needed this.

[Nico Kempe]

well I went to bed early enough last night, and thought about getting up early before going to sleep.
then, this morning at 5.30am, my alarm happily woke me up, I gave it a happy little tap, and went to sleep again..
I slept on and off till about 9am.

I have this problem very often lately and I don't like it.
In the summer I got up at 6am every morning, even in the weekends, and it wasn't much of a problem, but now it seems like I'm getting some kind of winter depression or something, bah. :/

And it's not that I haven't got anything to do, thanks to Steve and you guys I now have a looong list of things I want to do even.

I think tomorrow morning I'll turn of the heating and open the window a little, maybe the fresh air will help me get up. Or I'll go to hibernation, that's possible too..)

[Matt]

One thing that helps me get up on time, every time, is I set two alarms. I set my radio to go off first about a half hour earlier than my beeping alarm. The beeping alarm is set for the time I want to get up. The volume on the radio is down low enough so that it wont jolt me awake if I am still asleep, but loud enough that it will gradually pull me out of sleep.

When the music wakes you up you have a choice. Relax and enjoy some quiet music until the alarm sounds, or just hop out of bed and get started with your day.

This is much more effective for me than just relying on the noisy alarm to startle me awake. This would trigger a "fight-or-flight" response since I was not fully awake when it sounded. Several times I would wake up hours after the alarm sounded not remembering turning it off!

[magnethy]

Originally Posted by Nico Kempe

well I went to bed early enough last night, and thought about getting up early before going to sleep.
then, this morning at 5.30am, my alarm happily woke me up, I gave it a happy little tap, and went to sleep again..
I slept on and off till about 9am.

I have this problem very often lately and I don't like it.
In the summer I got up at 6am every morning, even in the weekends, and it wasn't much of a problem, but now it seems like I'm getting some kind of winter depression or something, bah. :/

Got the same problem here. In the summer and early autumn - while it's pretty much light all day it's no big deal getting up early in the morning.. But now - it's dark when I get up and dark when I come home from school. I can't wait for some snow, if I'm lucky it will make it easier to get up early since it's not so dark. For now I've pretty much given up getting up early in the weekends.

[JohnnyJimJams]

Originally Posted by Matt

One thing that helps me get up on time, every time, is I set two alarms. I set my radio to go off first about a half hour earlier than my beeping alarm. The beeping alarm is set for the time I want to get up. The volume on the radio is down low enough so that it wont jolt me awake if I am still asleep, but loud enough that it will gradually pull me out of sleep.

When the music wakes you up you have a choice. Relax and enjoy some quiet music until the alarm sounds, or just hop out of bed and get started with your day.

This is much more effective for me than just relying on the noisy alarm to startle me awake. This would trigger a "fight-or-flight" response since I was not fully awake when it sounded. Several times I would wake up hours after the alarm sounded not remembering turning it off!

This is what I do.... kinda. I have my loud alarm on the other side of the room, and I allow myself an extra 45 minutes of snooze time.

1) Alarm goes off
2) Zombie out of bed and hit snooze
3) Zombie back to bed
4) Awake again to the alarm 8 minutes later, and repeat.

The reason this works for me, is that I need time to wake up, it takes time for the fog of sleep to raise, before I can function well enough to make rational decisions. That being said, the idea of reading this forum allowed me to hop out of bed the other day in a flash at 5am.

[haider]

Hello everyone,

I've struggled with waking up early for a long time, and when I first got married, it really annoyed my wife, because she thought I didn't care about my work and being a good employee.

My main problem was that I was too reliant on the snooze button, and I couldn't use it when I got married because that would ruin my wife's sleep.

But a week ago, I made some changes to my diet (in amount, not in content), along with an excellent ebook I bought from Powerful Sleep, which have helped me to jump out of bed since I started applying the dietary change and ebook advice. I once overslept, but by around 15 minutes, and I feel more in control than I used to before.

I should also note that my wife recently gave birth to twins, so they may have left a dent on the quality of my sleep

Please note that I have only tried these new lifestyle changes for a week, so I don't know how sustainable they are (but they don't seem to be too difficult to maintain). I do sense some muscle pains when I wake up, and I felt *very* drowsy the first day, but that's expected in such changes.

About the dietary change: I used to eat until my stomach gets bloated, after which I feel very sluggish and my sleep becomes very heavy. However, now I eat whatever's for lunch, but the amount is less than what my stomach can handle. If you try this now, I can almost guarantee that you'll experience an energy boost, which you'll need to improve your sleep schedule (find out why in the ebook!).

I would love to list the advice mentioned in the ebook I bought, but I really appreciate the benefits the ebook has given me, that I would like the author to get rewarded for his work. The ebook gives a lot of scientific explanations for the nature of sleep, which helps you manage your sleep system better.

Finally, Fusebox, I'm sure you'll find a lot of beneficial tips from the ebook, but he does actually insist that you maintain a consistent sleep schedule. You can email the author if you have any further questions.

Best of luck with greeting the early sun

[Fusebox]

Interesting ebook, I'll have a better read through of that site when I get home. question: how long is the ebook btw?

[haider]

Hi Fusebox,

The ebook is 111 pages long (but with appendices). It also comes bundled with a few other ebooks which I haven't read. There's an ebook about overcoming jetlag, one on how to remember your dreams and a few others.

Once you purchase the book, the author sends you emails to highlight the main parts of the ebook. I've only bought it around 10 days ago, and he's already sent me an extra ebook about boosting my energy levels!

I hope you find the advice in the ebook helpful (and I *certainly* hope I didn't give you bad advice!)

Let us know how it goes...

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by magnethy

There's no reason I should stay up until 2-3 in the morning reading bash.org - but it was simply hard not to.

I'm a webdeveloper who's constantly trying to be creative, experimenting late at night. Whenever I feel seduced to stay up till 2-3 am, I have to call myself to attention:

Me: I really need to figure this thing out!
Self: Dude, make up your mind! Either go to sleep RIGHT NOW, or don't sleep at all! I know you, and you NEED some rest. I don't care if you only sleep for 2 or 3 hours.
Me:Yeah, you're right. I guess I just don't want to loose this groove I'm into.
Self: Here's the deal. Go to bed and set your alarm at 4am so you can finish this in the morning. If you really think it's that important.
Me: Aight, cool.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I'm a webdeveloper who's constantly trying to be creative, experimenting late at night. Whenever I feel seduced to stay up till 2-3 am, I have to call myself to attention:

Me: I really need to figure this thing out!
Self: Dude, make up your mind! Either go to sleep RIGHT NOW, or don't sleep at all! I know you, and you NEED some rest. I don't care if you only sleep for 2 or 3 hours.
Me:Yeah, you're right. I guess I just don't want to loose this groove I'm into.
Self: Here's the deal. Go to bed and set your alarm at 4am so you can finish this in the morning. If you really think it's that important.
Me: Aight, cool.

That's a GOOD reason to stay awake. I love it when I'm in the zone getting things done. It makes it easier to get up the next morning.

That's one of my aspirations. To be in the zone all the time. To love what I do soooo much that I don't even want to go to sleep.

[thadroe]

That's one of my aspirations. To be in the zone all the time. To love what I do soooo much that I don't even want to go to sleep.

I am at the opposite end of this right now. The thought of getting up for my job just makes me want to puke. As a result, I stay up very late working on my own biz....which I LOVE doing and never want to go to bed.

Maybe I need to have that little conversation with myself at night and get up early to work on my own biz before I go to work instead of staying up late to do it.

It's so ironic because that "How to become an early riser" post by Steve is what brought me to his site to begin with several months ago.

Thad

[haider]

Hi all,

Bruno, your "self" sounds so cool... maybe you wanna convince "it" to join these forums

Thadroe, I can relate to your situation. It feels depressing to know you're wasting so much time on something you don't enjoy. I don't know what your job is, and what your reasons are for not quitting (you probably want to see your own business launch off first), but my solution to this problem (it's actually a patch :P) is to look for accomplishments I can make at work, so that I can boost my confidence, feel more motivated and make a good contribution to my work place.

Some times I write a plan on what I wish to accomplish for work so that I can increase my motivation and be more productive.

Best of luck with your work, and *especially* your own business!

[elai]

Anyone have success in having different sleep times? I have a schedule that goes like this:

Work mon & weds 4:30pm to 11pm (home by 11:20pm)
Early classes start at 8:30am (which I have to be up by 7:30am at least to get ready properly and get there in time) on Tuesday, Wendsday and Friday.

Now I can get good nights sleep if I force myself to go to bed 30minutes after arriving at work. But usually from standing around all night long and dancing around to entertain myself during the dead periods (hard to concentrate on anything more than skimming news articles with variable customer interruptions), I really really really want to unwind and do something else for a few hours, which results in me going to bed at earliest around 12:30am to usually 2am. It drives me nuts!

How would you deal with this (other than changing schedules)? It's hard for me to keep consistent sleep and waking times. If I could resort to that, it would be great!