Ask HN: How did you correct your sleep patterns?

How about getting up at 07:00 and going to bed before 10:00 for a while?

Another solution would be to have a child, but that would be irresponsible given the state of the future.

Try doing something physically exhausting.

Otherwise, if you're just hacking in the lab, you're going to be up all night. I think this is normal and inevitable. Even the fictional Dr. Frankenstein had similar habits.

My strategy has been to binge on a project and go all out, then recover with periods of no computer, just necessary emails. I use this time to binge on outdoors or gym. Sleeping 10 hours is a plus for recovery time.

A few tricks that would likely make a difference:

1) set a wake up time and stick to it - let yourself go to sleep when you naturally feel sleepy 2) turn down your lights and phone/computer screens in the evening and take melatonin at the same time every evening - this will help sync up your natural circadian rhythm to your desired time to be getting sleepy, naturally 3) speak with your doctor about sleep difficulties - you may have an undiagnosed sleep disorder or might just need help with building the habits of sleep hygiene

CBTI is incredibly effective for all kinds of sleeping issues but oh man does it suck for the first two weeks.

It's not very sophisticated but you really need to be motivated to stick with the plan.

Melatonin and SR9009 can be used to hard set your circadian rhythm. Checkout Leo and Longevity on youtube.

I quit caffeine and alcohol, exercised daily, and took melatonin every night for about six months.

I used to have the same problem. I used to sleep around 2-3 am. I tried everything from turning to a strict schedule to putting phone in a different room but none of it worked. Then read about Chronotherapy where you delay your usual sleep time by 3 hours every day for a week until you reach the desired time then you stick to it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronotherapy_(sleep_phase) Now I go to bed around 10:30 and it has vastly improved my wellbeing.

Getting up and out of bed at the same time every day no matter what is the main thing. Also, for me at least, I have two windows where I fall asleep easily, after midnight, or really early, around 8:30 pm.

How much exercise do you do in your week? Exercise and warm showers in the evening has always helped me sleep at better times and I feel better in the morning. Find books—Preferably physical—that are interesting to you and start reading around 9:00pm. It's a great way to wind down without looking at a screen.

I try workout at least every other day. Running, lifting, or even cardio at home.

I've had a lot of sleep problems in my life. I haven't solved them completely, but I've largely controlled them with a basket of measures. I wear a sleep mask, I get ready for bed around the same time every night, I only drink coffee before noon, I drink the same amount of caffeine every day, I go for a walk first-thing in the morning, I limit my alcohol intake, I try to keep my room cold when I sleep, I don't eat really heavy meals right before bed.

I don't follow this religiously - I'll stay out later and drink with my friends. But doing this as much as possible, and reverting to the routine when I stray, has improved the consistency and quality of my sleep.

Take advantage of the Circadian rhythm. Your body reacts to sunlight. Go outside soon after you wake up. I haven't set an alarm clock in years, now I just naturally wake up around the same time every day.

Sleep is high-variance, so any single measure you take will be difficult to notice. But if you create a system and stick to it, your body can probably adjust to any cycle you want.

It's something I've always struggled with as well.

- Melatonin is a great, cheap, natural sleep aid. You should only need 1-2mg. Take it an hour or two before bed. I believe you're not supposed to use it more than X nights in a row; look that up. But you can use it to establish a habit.

- Getting good exercise helps. If you're not currently exercising, anything is better than nothing: do some stretches, take a walk, etc.

- If you live somewhere where marijuana is legal, some strains can be good for sleep, but it may be a slightly extreme solution unless you've tried other solutions. I have nothing against marijuana but I would try other solutions first.

- I will of course not insult anybody's intelligence by mentioning ruling out stimulants as much as possible, especially later in the day.

    Also, waking up early has been almost a challenge for me

It could be that your sleep quality is poor.

If you have been sleeping poorly for months or years, it can take weeks of good sleep to erase that. In the meantime you will be hungry for extra sleep.

Can also do some exercise in the morning. Once your body is in the habit of morning exercise it may anticipate this and wake up better.

If you have ruled out sleep quality issues, maybe stimulants are the way to go.

Sleep at same time every night no matter what. Thirty mins in a dark bedroom pillow talk with wife before going falling asleep. Key being same time and dark before sleep. Also, no electronics in room except alarm clock. Nothing else, ever.

Bright light in the morning is incredibly effective for me. I always sleep with the curtains/blinds open. And I'm investigating a bright artificial lighting system that comes on automatically in the morning for winter (those wake-up alarms tend to have pretty pathetic light output).

You have to actually want to change to make it possible, so that’s the first step.

Obvious second is avoiding caffeine anytime after lunch.

Third, set an alarm on your phone for 30 minutes before you’d ideally like to be sleeping. When the alarm goes off, get ready for bed and then get into bed.

To get to sleep (tricks someone showed me in uni): turn off all lights so your room is pitch dark. Keep your eyes open as long as you can, even after they feel droopy. ‘Look’ into the darkness. Try to create an Elaborate story in your head with characters and settings. Build gradually on this story night after night. Each niggt you only need to work out a tiny additional detail, like what characters wear or say or do. The story builds slowly and gradually and you’ll start to trigger your brain to get tired through just thinking of the story.

Before long you’ll hopefully be sleeping at your target time.

Phone off and 1mg melatonin every night at 9.

If I'm in "work" mode by 10 and I don't want to quit, I set the alarm for 04:30 and lie down with an audiobook (preferably something that's reasonably dense, e.g. the Odyssey or Milton). Never takes more than 15 min.

You need to adjust your circadian clock. Not an overnight solution, but exposure to bright lights in the morning for at least 30 minutes is what worked for me. Real sunlight is best, but full spectrum lamp (e.g. Happy Light) shining close to your face in the a.m. is effective too. And in the p.m. avoid bright lights, particularly blue light is helpful. I have yellow goggles and LED bulbs that I turn to red at night. (Neighbors have teased me about what the red lights means!)

It took me years and years to realize it, but I'm very sensitive to caffeine and the effect lasts a long time. More than one cup of coffee a day, any time later than first thing in the morning, is noticeable in terms of getting to sleep. Obviously different people are different, and there's probably something to the argument that if you consume caffeine in exactly the same pattern every day, you will adjust to that as the new normal. But, don't discount the possibility, like I did, that a single cup of coffee before noon can actually be a real factor in whether you can sleep at midnight.

Also, having a baby - it gets up early so you have to, and it goes to bed early, leaving you exhausted, so you go to bed early. Health, wealth, and wisdom, here I come.

Another good one: learning to tell yourself that if you're lying in bed in the dark, wide awake, that this is still helping your brain rest and recover. I have no idea if that's true, but it's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Good once I gave up coffee.

One thing with coffee, the often touted ratio is that if you stop drinking it after 12pm and limit to two to three cups max, it won't impact sleep. While this may be true for some, it's not true for all, as we metabolise caffeine differently.

I stopped around 2 years ago. First 7 days was headaches 24/7 and then around day 9 I slept like I had not slept in years, almost like a child's sleep. After around 2-3 months my productivity and alertness was naturally restored.

In hindsight it was funny how I left caffeine to the end. I went through the following:

* Black out curtains

* Stop electronics at 7pm

* Magnesium

* Melatonin

* CBD Oil

Going to sleep:

- I find melatonin helps me to be sleepy about 20-30 minutes after I take it.

- If I want to sleep better, I'll try to get lots of exercise, avoid caffeine within 8 hours of my hoped-for bedtime

- sometimes taking a hot bath or shower about 60 minutes before bed can help. Apparently it'll lower your core body temperature which can help with sleepiness. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870...

Waking up:

- I use a sunrise alarm clock to wake up, which is immensely more effective for me than just a jarring noise.

- I also drink coffee pretty much first thing in the morning; I have a timer on the coffee pot that sets it to brew right before my alarm clock goes off.

Reading this at 2am. The advice in the comments are great so far. I hope I get enough motivation to actually implement them.

Check out https://sleepio.com. They offer a variety of strategies to help you correct your sleep over a 6 week period. It helped me increase my sleep and create better sleeping habits.

Unfortunately, it does seem limited a bit by regions; your mileage may vary.

The best way that did work for me is do not use alarm clock.

Setup a proper sleeping place first: a) it must be dark enough (if you close your eyes, wave your hand in front of your face and can see brightness changes, then it's not dark enough); b) it must be cold enough, and you likely need to have proper warm and heavy blanket; c) it must be quiet enough; if you have noisy environment, you can mask it by using source of monotonous noise; I've found, that air purifier produces decent enough masking noise; d) air inside the room must be fresh.

Then, take a break and allow yourself to sleep as much as possible without setting an alarm clock or having to worry about things to do. Your body will figure out sleep schedule automatically.

Absolute obedience to the alarm clock: when it rings (early) in the morning just jump out of the bed, when it rings (early) in the evening just stop everything and go to bed.

Waking up every day at the same time, including week-end and holidays, is the secret to excellent sleep patterns.

Good luck.

> Also, waking up early has been almost a challenge for me, and I can't say how many opportunities I've missed because of that.

Do you mean you missed so many opportunities that you lost count or that you're not sure if you missed any?

Unless you have a good reason to believe otherwise, I don't see why you'd miss any opportunities due to not waking early.