That's #1 out of "6 Daytime Habits for Better Sleep/Experts say a great night’s rest starts as soon as you wake up" (NYT).
#5 of the 6 habits is "Wake up at the same time every day." The article treats "time" as a number on the clock. You'd think right after the "leap forward" they'd be more attuned to the reality of the sunlight and say what I assume they intended to mean: Rise consistently with the sun.
Get up and get out and do your sun exposure with the sunrise. Make it a sunrise walk (or run) and you'll take care of #6 on this list: Exercise.
I know I'm biased because this is what I do, but I don't know why everyone doesn't at least experiment with getting up and out to do a sunrise walk or run. Were you born a night owl — a permanent night owl?
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I'm in the sun every morning at the moment it rises because I'm running. I suspect all the helpful tips are just nonsense to fill pages though.
I can fall asleep on a mantelpiece, as my dad used to say, and feel functional with 4 hours of sleep or fresh as a daisy on 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I never wake up at night. It's a blessing to be able to sleep as well as I do.
I am being tempted by this fad for rising precisely at 5 am every morning. I might just see if I can make it a habit.
So many people have work schedules that have nothing at all to do with the natural cycle of light and dark. Especially people working multiple part-time gigs. CC, JSM
Getting sun in the morning won't do much good if you're ruining things on the other end -- by getting lots of blue light exposure from TV, computer and phone screens at the end of the day, right before you go to bed. That also "suppresses hormones that make you sleepy and shifts your body into wake mode."
Isn't the article simply an advertisement for the products they pimp at the bottom of the page?
I find all the advice superfluous. I read on my laptop in bed every night, but when I turn off the light, I'm out. I do get up every morning at 4:07am, usually just before my alarm sounds. Oddly, my ability to fall into sleep instantly first started back when I was a very serious meth user. I could do meth and instantly sleep if I so chose. I was once handcuffed to a chair in a police station and I just said to myself "that's enough of that, I'm going to sleep". I slept like a baby.
"I am being tempted by this fad for rising precisely at 5 am..."
I wish I could stay asleep that late but I can't.
Around the summer, to get to my sunrise point, I need to leave the house at about 4:45, but generally 5 would be a good choice of wakeup time for a sunrise person. In much of the year though, you'd have to wait to go out, the sunrise being after 7
Waking up at sunrise is the best way to go. But if you have a job that's hard to do. When I was in College that's what i'd do. And i tried to do it later on vacation/weekends. But when you have a job your body is set to wake up at "I gotta go to work time", and you'll wake up then, even on your days off.
I'm in the gym for 90 minutes when the sun comes up.
The best is to have a bedroom that faces east, so the sun can shine on you as you wake up. Of course, if you want to be outside watching the sunrise, any bedroom view will do.
We've been trying to shift our sleep pattern. It's been easy this week, because we have painters in, arriving in the morning, so we have to be ready for them. But I like getting up early, while it's still dark, and having that first coffee waiting for it to get light enough to walk the dogs. The cats generally follow us around, on this morning cruise, and part of the reason I do it is to get the scent of the dogs out on the perimeter, to let the predators know they should stay away and leave our cats alone. The birdsong this past week has been an Ode to Spring, and today, after a couple of days of rain, the trees have reached their seasonal flushing and are showing off their new leaves. And I have seen Lindheimer's bee balm blooming in the woods, so I can expect its other variety soon, out on the land, where the bees are hungry. Insects coming right up, after next week's cold front.
Althouse said…
Were you born a night owl — a permanent night owl?
Hoo… I mean, who?
For me?
#1 is to avoid tannins in foods. Stuff like cranberries, grapes, black tea, and chocolate have sleep disrupting effects that go way beyond caffeine. Cranberries are murder.
#2. Is to avoid blue light and heavy brain activities before bed. Set the yellow/orange tone on your monitor and phone. Use warm not cool room lights.
My morning wake time is largely a function of exercise on the prior day -- I sleep better when physically tired.
Im usually up, showered, had breakfast, and commuted about an hour to work before the sun is up. I do like this part of the year, because the sun rise starts to catch up to my routine. I’m definitely not a night owl.
"but I don't know why everyone doesn't at least experiment with getting up and out to do a sunrise walk or run"
I'll take a stab. Inertia and cold temps.
0430 rise
0500 leave for gym
0530 workout
0700 breakfast
Cool but I have a life and a good prostate so I get what I can when I can…
I’m up before the sun probably 9 months out of the year.
My wake time is pretty consistent and I haven’t used an alarm in years. For me, the key to a good night’s sleep is to gradually wind down starting a couple hours before bed. If I cut that short—usually by going out at night, something I don’t like doing—then I sleep poorly and feel tired the next day even if I didn’t technically stay up late.
Maybe there are a lot of different sleep patterns, and you should experiment and find the one that's best for you.
"Were you born a night owl — a permanent night owl?"
Yes. And I'm perfectly happy about it; I love the night.
Why does that bother you?
I used to not set an alarm. Then I noted at times, especially if I had to adjust my wake up time, I would wake up early trying to anticipate the wake up time. I thought initially that meant I could control my time, then I was able to associate some anxiety with that early wake up. Now I set an alarm to allow me to sleep to it. I still wake up about 10 min early or more, but when I’m really tired, I can sleep to the alarm. I wake to an alarm about once in a month.
I appreciate all the details and tips from other lives. I had never thought of how I might go to sleep handcuffed to a chair in a police station. Now I sorta know. I worked as the all-night man at a radio station in Marin County. Every morning I would cross the Golden Gate at the end of my "day", surrounded by crisp people heading into the city. I'm old now and tell anyone who'll listen that you will spend your life learning lessons of relativity, which almost always reinforce the idea that you are doing it right, whatever it is, and nearly everyone else is doing it wrong. Ten years ago, I met Ann Althouse, the first person besides the morning DJ at KTIM-FM, who began her day in the dark with a plan. And a camera. And a guy. Thanks, Professor! I live in L.A. and every day when I get up to slip to the bathroom, I think of you, there in Madison, and my son, Johnny, across town a little ways. He never got up at the that hour until my granddaughter came along. Maybe she'll be a law professor. She does seem judgmental.
I get to work at 6 a.m., which is always before sunrise in Florida, no matter the time of year. It's always black dark when I get there, so until I retire, daily sunrise walks are not an option.
It's so wonderful to wake up with the sun. That's why we save it for rare occasions (that may never come).
I wake up before the sun
I don't use an alarm (never do)
It's a real annoyance. So I sit in bed until it's closer to sunrise
I am cursed with a bifurcated sleep cycle. 3 hours of sleep, then awake for 2 hours, then back to sleep. As my wife and I are retired, when I arise is of no consequence.
This only works if you do it naked.
People who live close to the poles must have really bad sleep.
No, not those Poles. Hey, did you hear about the one who boke his arm raking leaves?
When I got my PhD I learned to stay up all night grading problems and working the next day. It was a great learning experience in human matters. Either you
Previous comment posted by mistake.
I prefer getting up early to staying up late. The toughest adjustment from moving south and east has been shifting from the east side of the Central time zone to the west edge of the Eastern time zone. Lots of people find the late sunsets (almost 10pm at the latest) enjoyable. I despise the late sunrises (immediately after the switch to DST the sun isn't up until about 8am). The dog and I are usually up around an hour or so before his morning walk which happens when its light enough or about 7:30am, whichever is earlier.
Andrew Huberman neuroscientist Stanford Professor Joe Rogan Bro has been saying this and more about morning sun exposure and diurnal sleep reset by also skipping coffee for 90-minutes. This triggers appropriately timed endogenous melatonin release. He's against taking melatonin in pill form. Claims it's a hormone more powerful than Testosterone.
Life tip: If you do cocaine this becomes unworkable. You would think that with all the free time they have, coke would be more popular with retirees than with people who need to get to work early. Maybe it just needs a marketing refocus. "Are you one of the lucky ones for whom everyday is Saturday? We got something exclusively for your lifestyle."
Some "experts" also say you need to step outside barefoot everyday to ground your body to the earth. I do that everyday, but not because I believe the theory. I'm just to lazy to put on shoes when the dog want out right now.
I've discovered this century that I sleep better & longer during the day, the older I get. It's annoying getting stuck on vampire time, though. Shingles in 2014 ruined my ability to sleep well for over 5 years--would get knots in my spine when lying down.
I grew up in the desert , and worked in the trades. Now I live in Hawaii, and work in the trades. Sun is something I get, like it or not. most of us avoid the sun when possible. Seeing people laying out in the sun is something we are puzzled about.
I always get up before the sun, a habit acquired when I was young and surfed. Haven't needed an alarm clock, or a watch, in decades.
I find the best way to wake up consistently is temperature more than light. When the heat kicks in, I am instantly awake, regardless of time.
I think Pol Pot did that in his camps. Mandatory morning exercises in the sun.
What an interesting thread!
So many personal, sincere, interesting, and authentic comments.
Notice that there is no politics and none of the bots. Coincidence? I think not.
I am an early bird. I usually sleep until 3 am, and then am wide awake, so I get up and read the news online.
Unfortunately for me, my left foot is full of osteoarthritis now, and I have trouble walking. Used to walk 3 miles a day, now I need a handicap placard to go to a small store, since I my foot can't bare to walk a huge store anymore without extreme pain. I do sit outside weather permitting most of the day if my Mother is okay and doesn't need extra caretaking....
I take it you've never lived in Portland or Seattle. This time of year I'm hoping for few breaks with some sun over the week.
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