Tips on changing sleep cycle
Been a night owl for most of college + career. Current typical sleep time is at 2-230 and wake up at 10-1030. (Partial wfh, office hours from 11)
For health and productivity reasons, i want to switch to 11-7
Any tips by anyone who has successfully done this or similar.
There was an Andrew huberman podcast about this. Here's what I remember
- Have a warm bath at night, it will make u sleep earlier. Similarly a cold shower early in the morning to start ur clock earlier so that u feel tired earlier
- Get enough (and direct) sunlight early in the morning, ur sleep clock will start earlier
- Less blue light at night ( that's correct, no grapevine after 9pm)
Bruh 9pm is like day. I still have 6 more hrs of artificial daylight
Don't sleep for a night. Try staying awake until around 10:00 pm on the next day. You will sleep early that night. You would be able to wake up early as well, relatively early. And from then on, try to stick to your required schedule.
Also, affirmations do work, so you may try that as well. Having something to do after waking up will also help in waking up early.
Slightly overeat and go to bed within 30 min to 1 hr of the meal. So, if u want to sleep by 10, eat by 9 or 9.30. Do this for a couple of days so that you start feeling sleepy around the same time regularly. Then slowly adjust your meal quantity and time accordingly so that you eat the right quantity and eat at the right time(ideally 3 hrs before bed). This has worked for me personally to reset my sleep cycle when needed.
Everyday in the evening walk more than you can. For example what I do is I walk 7kms. It’s more than my average walking limit per day and I get exhausted. I come back home, have dinner and hot bed. So you can try something similar
You are getting around 8 hours of sleep which isn't bad. I don't think it is bad from health and productivity perspective. It is only bad if your sleep time impacts your diet and exercise.
I have the same sleep schedule but I ensure I do exercise and take care of my diet. I do tests regularly and everything is normal.