I want to start getting up earlier. Any slightly off-the-wall suggestions for making it easier?

@RandomGirl – Holy crap; I was just about to ask a similar question: I work at home (right now) and have all sorts of wacky hours, and I’d love to get a routine/regimine going. Somedays I’m up at 9AM, somedays 12:30PM. (It doesn’t help that my current project is from a Hungarian enterprise, so there’s an annoying time-difference.) So, GA @RandomGirl! If I could wake up early every day, that would be so ideal.

P.S. “I’m looking forward to seeing some slightly bizarre, clever ideas!” On Fluther; you must be joking! :)

Getting to sleep earlier at night is the best way I know to get up earlier and still be functional when awake.

First you really have to want to get up, otherwise, you’ll outsmart any system. What I did was to put my alarm clock 10 feet or so from my bed. When I could do that without waking up, I would put obstacles along the 10 foot path: shoes, boxes, stuffed animals, toys, etc. Stumbling around in barefeet amongst the obstacles did the trick. Then my inner mind mind said, “You idiot~ If you want to get up, get up! This is nonsense.” So I picked up the stuff in the path to the alarm. I agree that it’s good to get yourself used to a system of getting up. I know people who just wake up I think it must be nice. Any way, good luck.

@RandomGirl I’m trying to do the same thing. It’s an uphill battle for me, because I’m a night owl by nature! I hope you get some good ideas so that I can take advantage. ;)

Hmm. I just realized that my answer was not technically “helpful”, so I will add I also hear that sticking a banana in your ear first thing in the morning works wonders.

Someone recently brought to my attention the concept that all of us have a peak productivity period of about 3 hours in a day. For some, that peak comes early in the morning. For others, it is late at night. The person expounding this truth used the idiom, Roosters and Bats. Personally, being a night-owl, I’d have far preferred owls for the denizens of the nighttime hours, but the concept stands. It may be worthwhile to train yourself to get up at an hour when most people are expected to report to work. But there is also something to be said for recognizing your own internal working and arranging your schedule so it works for you.

Drink lots of water before you go to bed. Indians did this to wake themselves early.

Id just put my alarm clock away from the bed, so that I have to get up to turn it off :)

Maybe you should invest in on of these”

I once heard a sleep expert recommend pushing yourself later and later rather than trying to fall asleep earlier until you wind up going to sleep earlier in the evening. If you usually go to bed at 1am, then tonight go to bed at 4am. The next day 7am. Until you push yourself around the clock. I have no idea if this really works well.

I know when I go to Europe I get a few hours sleep that night on the flight, then I stay up most of the day and fall asleep very early. Within a couple days I adjust to their time, but then when I get home I am waking up at 4 or 5 am, because it is 10 or later in the country I returned from. It is the only time waking up early does not seem odd to my body. It only lasts a few days though.

The other is to get very little sleep until you are so exhausted you fall asleep early and get into that pattern. An alarm might not be enough. You might have to make some sort of committment that really forces yourself out of bed. Doctor’s appointment, breakfast out at a restaurant with your mom, some sort of obligation. When you are exhausted by 8:00pm that night go to bed. All lights off, sleeping position, hands and feet nice and warm (literally this has been shown in studies to be important for falling asleep, cold feet and hands keep us alert). I think this would work in a couple of days.

The thing is, if you hate going to sleep, and I do, it feels almost like you are missing something going to bed very early. At least for me it does. Which sucks. Maybe that is not the case for you.

Another option is wake up early and take a nap in the middle of the day. Then you can still stay up late if you like that schedule. Naps should be around 1.5 hours to actually cycle through all stages of sleep.

As a grown up I sometimes get onto my husband’s schedule, he usually is dying to go to sleep by 9:00pm and wakes at 5:00am. I hate it.

Put a light on a timer and have it turn on 15 – 20 minutes before your alarm.

@LuckyGuy now that’s an easy idea that I never really thought of… And I even have a lamp that would be perfect! Now all I need is a timer. Any suggestions?

@LuckyGuy That reminded me that my GF had stashed away and combined alarm clock/wake up light, so I am am gonna be testing that 7.30 am tomorrow :p (local time)

@RandomGirl Timers are dirt cheap, I use one for a radio which switches off automatically at night and back on again in the morning, I also have one attached to a lamp, check out a hardware-type shop, I live in NZ and I am therefore not sure what options along those lines you have in the US.

You need an alarm that make an unexpected noise.
When I lived alone I found a ‘Little Green Sprout’ talking alarm clock. Every morning a little kids voice would say “It’s time to get UP, it’s time to get UP. As we say in the valley, have a Ho Ho lot of FUN today! Beep Beep Beep…” It scared the bejeezus out of me every morning for about a week. I went back to the radio. :)

I once had two alarm clocks in my bedroom. One had two alarms built into it, the other had one. Both were very far from my bed. Both clocks were set at different times, neither of which was the correct time. Every morning, if I wanted to buy an extra few minutes of sleep, I’d have to do mental arithmetic to figure out what time it actually was to figure out what time to reset the alarms for. By that time I was awake.

I’ve never been a snooze button person, though.

The alarm clock worked.
Scared the hell out of me waking up to a thunderstorm….(inbuilt nature sounds apparently) :p

I was doing some reading on this subject. Being a night owl myself. Having to be to work at 7.

It said to go to sleep at increments of 15 minutes earlier for around a week.

When you get up do something you enjoy. That you don’t normally have time for.

Reading your favorite part of the paper. Doing your hair particularly nice. Taking a short walk. Watering or tending your plants. Cooking a breakfast or lunch. Do not check email or facebook.

Make sure you get 8 hours of sleep a night.

I found that didn’t work for me.

Go to bed earlier!

@rosehips – “Did” or didn’t – Very funny!

@serenityNOW Let’s just say it is a daily miracle that I make it to work… Mind you I am quite frequently a minute or two late.

One day I will see your name and not think about Firefly. I know it has nothing to do with that..