How to be a morning person

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The early bird apparently does get the worm. Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany, found that morning people are often more successful than evening people because, as a group, they tend to be proactive. A recent survey conducted by The Guardian confirms this idea, reporting that many CEOs of successful companies are up by 5 a.m.

But what if you’re more of a night owl than a morning lark – is it possible to change your ways?

Yes, but it will take work, says Dr. W. Christopher Winter, Medical Director for the Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, Va. and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“Your genes determine what we call your ‘chronotype,’ which is if you are a morning or evening person,” says Winter. “It’s often similar within families, but it can be influenced to a certain degree.”

Changing your chronotype takes about two weeks, but you have to stick with it. If you slack off, you’ll drift back to your natural tendencies, Winter cautions. He offers six simple tips for adjusting your internal clock:

1. Put yourself on a morning schedule, but don’t sweat bed time.
Wake up, exercise and eat at the same time every day, says Winter. The body likes to anticipate what’s happening, and will settle into a routine. But don’t worry about your bedtime: “People get hung up on setting a bedtime, but that’s a mistake because it can cause stress,” he says. “The bedtime will sort itself out because you’ll be tired. The most important piece is to not slack off on the wakeup time.”

Winter says the problem occurs when you drift back to older patterns during weekends and vacations. Sleeping in on weekends tells your body that your early morning routine is just an arbitrary schedule and that it should stick to its chronotype. To become a morning person, it’s important to get up early on weekends, even if you are out late the night before.

2. Use a smart alarm.
The snooze button was designed to allow people to go back to sleep for a few minutes without reentering a deep sleep cycle, but it can hinder your transformation into an early riser, says Winter.

“There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but if you want to wake up at a certain time you’re not in a cognitive state of mind to make a decision about whether or not to add nine more minutes of sleep,” he says.

Instead, Winter likes to use a smartphone alarm app, such as Smart Alarm or Math Alarm, that requires him to solve a math problem to turn it off or set it to snooze. “Solving a problem makes your brain awake enough to make an informed decision,” he says.

He also likes to use his music library to play a random song as an alarm. “You can become callous to the same song or sound on your alarm,” he says. “Different songs will be a novel stimulus and that can be helpful.”

3. Let in the light.
Whether it’s natural or artificial, light is significant because it tells the brain that the day has begun and sends signals to the body to stop making melatonin, the hormone that helps regular sleep, says Winter.

“If it’s dark when you want to wake up – say 5 a.m., for example – you can fool your brain into thinking the sun is up by using bright indoor lights,” he says.

4. Get some exercise.
Winter says exercising first thing in the morning helps wake up the body. Researchers at Appalachian State University found that morning exercise lowers your blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety, and helps you sleep better at night.

Winter says exercising in bright light is best. He suggests going for a morning bike ride or jog, or taking the dog for a walk.

5. Have a protein-heavy meal.
Skip the bagel and go for eggs or yogurt, says Winter. Protein facilitates wakefulness, he says, while carbohydrates promote sleep. “Protein increases your dopamine levels, which help make you ready for the day.”

6. Avoid the urge to nap.
Winter says falling asleep earlier may be difficult in the first few days, and you may have a strong urge to nap, but you should fight it.

“Capitalize on sleepiness as a way to go to bed earlier,” he says. “If you nap, you’ll destroy your natural stimulus for sleep.”

Deep in the labyrinth of your DNA, a small collection of genes exerts a powerful influence on whether you are a morning or an evening person. Also shaping your inherent tendency toward morning-ness or evening-ness are a number of other influences — hormones, sunlight, age, and even where on the planet you live.

If you’re naturally inclined to be more active and productive at night, can you override these biological and environmental influences? Can you intentionally change yourself into a morning person? It won’t be easy — and it might not be permanent — but the answer seems to be yes.

Your natural tendency to be more of a morning person or night person is sometimes called your chronotype. Sometimes people refer to chronotypes in animal terms — early birds, night owls, wolves, or dolphins — but there is no real scientific connection between these labels and human sleep phases.

Whether you are raring to go at first light or you’re at your peak in the wee small hours is largely a matter of genetics, but it is possible to change your sleeping and waking cycles — even if the changes don’t last a lifetime.

If the demands of your job, your school schedule, your family’s needs, or your personal goals require you to be more active and productive during morning hours, you may be able to alter your sleep and wake cycles. Here are a few doctor-recommended tips for aligning your sleep schedule with your current needs:

Gradually change your bedtime

Whether you’re a lark or an owl, a good night’s sleep is important for your health. Sleep experts recommend that you start by going to sleep anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours earlier each night. Over a period of weeks, move your nighttime routine earlier and earlier until your bedtime allows you to get the requisite amount of sleep before your alarm goes off and the day begins.

Let lighting help you realign your body’s clock

Your body has an inner clock that sets your circadian rhythms. That clock is highly sensitive to changes in light. In fact, your body is capable of releasing the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin in response to sunset-colored light.

Dawn-like blue light, by contrast, stimulates a wake-up response in your body. You can use this light sensitivity to your benefit. Limit your exposure to devices that emit blue light (such as phones and tablets) close to bedtime, and opt for nightlights and bedside lamps with amber or red bulbs that mimic sleepy-time sunset colors.

Develop a soothing nighttime routine

Going to sleep isn’t as easy as switching off the lights. If you’re trying to override a lifelong habit of nighttime activity, it may help to create routines that send a bedtime signal to your brain. Gentle stretches, meditation, deep breathing, aromatherapy, reading books, journaling, and other calming rituals may help you develop a pleasant and relaxing nighttime routine that encourages an earlier start to your sleep cycle.

Track the positive impacts

As your sleep cycle begins to transition, you may notice changes to your energy levels, productivity, or mood. Make a note of these changes as you experience them, because reviewing the positive impacts may help you stay motivated on days when you’re feeling a bit sleepy or disoriented.

Reward yourself for reaching incremental targets

Studies show that when people pursue long-term goals, they’re more likely to stay motivated if they recognize smaller accomplishments along the way. As you plan your strategy for becoming more of morning person, think about ways to reward yourself when you do hard things.

You know the experiences and indulgences that matter most to you: Use your daily or weekly achievements to micro-motivate yourself.

Keep an eye on your larger, more aspirational goals

If prolonged daytime sleepiness or the slowness of change occasionally discourage you, it may help to remind yourself why you began this journey. If the practical reason you wanted to become a morning person (to obtain a degree, increase your income, get fit, build a business) is not enough of a motivator, you may benefit from examining what behavioral researchers call “ superordinate goals .”

Thinking or writing about relationships, personal values, hopes, aspirations, and the characteristics of your own identity can empower you to overcome difficulties and obstacles when other methods fail.

Don’t let eating habits undermine your progress

A 2020 analysis of research on diet patterns and chronotype revealed that evening people tend to eat their dinner meal much later in the day than morning people do. The studies also showed that evening people, on the whole, tend to skip breakfast, eat fewer vegetables, and consume more caffeine and alcohol than morning types.

If your goal is to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier, you may want to adapt your eating habits so that they promote better sleep. Sleep researchers recommend that you limit caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime and eat your largest meal earlier in the day.

Incorporate exercise into your day

Studies show that you can use exercise to move your sleep phase earlier in the evening. In a recent study that tracked the exercise patterns and sleep cycles of 52 participants, people with an evening chronotype could advance their sleep cycle to an earlier time of day by exercising either in the morning or in the evening.

The same study indicates that once you’ve shifted to a more morning-oriented sleep cycle, you should exercise early in the day to preserve your new sleeping pattern.

Give it time

Becoming a morning person literally won’t happen overnight. The more entrained your sleep patterns are, the longer it may take to revamp them. While it’s perfectly fine to let yourself hit the snooze button on a weekend morning or when you’re on vacation, try to honor your new schedule as much of the time as possible. In the long run, that consistency will deliver better results.

Enlist the experts

If you’re not getting the results you need, consider working with a specialist at a sleep center near you. If your sleep is disrupted, you’re having insomnia, or you want to work toward a different sleep schedule, a sleep study could help you better understand your body’s needs and patterns. You may want to begin by consulting a primary care physician to find out whether a medical condition could be contributing to any sleep difficulties you’re having.

Last Updated: November 18, 2020 References Approved

This article was co-authored by Sandra Possing. Sandra Possing is a life coach, speaker, and entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sandra specializes in one-on-one coaching with a focus on mindset and leadership transformation. Sandra received her coaching training from The Coaches Training Institute and has seven years of life coaching experience. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

There are 23 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

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People tend to say they dislike a “morning person” — one of those lucky few who are happy, full of pep, and productive in the a.m. while you’re still wrestling your snooze button. Secretly, however, most of us wish we could be one. Switching from “night owl” to being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at daybreak is no easy task, but there are simple steps to take that can make the transition more manageable. So take back your mornings without sacrificing the sleep you need!

Sandra Possing
Life Coach Expert Interview. 13 August 2020. It’s important to get up at the same time every day once you’re established in your new routine, including weekends. [18] X Research source Don’t sleep in on days when you don’t have to be somewhere; doing so throws off your sleep rhythm. Leave sleeping in for when you’re unwell. Instead, get up and use the time to read, enjoy a longer breakfast, chat with others, or exercise.

Each evening, or each week, plan out something enjoyable to do with your newfound morning time. Be it catching up with an old friend or learning to crochet, give yourself something to look forward to each night. [19] X Expert Source

Sandra Possing
Life Coach Expert Interview. 13 August 2020.

Sandra Possing
Life Coach Expert Interview. 13 August 2020. Moreover, being a morning person or a night owl has a genetic basis that may not be easy to override. (It is estimated that only 10% of us are the former, and 20% the latter, which means the remaining 70% of us should be able to change our ways more readily. [21] X Research source )

• As such, it may not be possible to switch yourself over entirely to becoming a morning person, unless you’re a morning person reforming from a lapse into a night owl lifestyle. However, if waking even an hour earlier is benefitting you, it can be worth the effort and the new routine in your life.
• Even night owls are prone to wake up earlier during the warmer months when the morning light streams through earlier. Try to go with your body’s natural flow and it’s more likely that you’ll wake up earlier than usual anyway during spring and summer months.
• Stick with the process; it’s not going to be easy for the first few mornings. The more your body becomes used to the light cues and the regular bedtimes, the more you’ll find it easier to transition.
• Have rewards in place for early rising, such as a delicious breakfast at the local cafe, a brand new paperback to read, an early appointment massage, etc. Reward yourself with something that encourages you to keep getting up early each day.
• Give yourself a pep talk last thing each night and first thing each morning. [22] X Research source Remind yourself that tomorrow/today is a new day. Forget about what happened yesterday, it’s in the past. Today is a fresh day, enjoy it!

Let me be clear right from the start – I’m not talking about the kind of morning person who carries on full-length animated conversations with people before 7 AM. The thought of that literally makes my body hurt. In this post, I’m sharing three tips that will help you get out of bed and use the early morning hours to get your day started in a productive manner!

#1 Get up at the same time every day

I started doing this a couple years ago and it has changed my life. Early mornings don’t seem so startlingly early when it becomes part of your routine. You might even find that your body wakes up at this time on its own after a while!

It also helps me to choose a nice, calm alarm tone. Currently I’m using a quiet instrumental song from the Aladdin soundtrack that always makes me feel peaceful. Waking up to the “wonk wonk wonk” of a traditional alarm is never a good option for someone who isn’t a morning person!

#2 Incorporate something you love into your morning routine

I structured my morning routine so that after I’ve showered and gone through a few basic tasks, I get to sit down with a cup of coffee and work on my blog. Drinking coffee out of a mug is one of my favorite things – if I sleep in and miss out on this time, I have to drink it out of a travel mug on my way to work. Additionally, I sit in my home office with calm, dim lighting and work on my blog – something I definitely enjoy!

This is one of my favorite parts of the whole day – yet I know if I sleep in, that’s the thing I have to skip. It’s a huge motivation to get out of bed on time! Find something you can look forward to, like drinking coffee on the porch, journaling or something else that helps you ease into the day.

Read More: My Intentional Morning Routine

#3 Go to bed early

You can’t be a night owl and an early bird – so make sure you are in bed at a decent hour. Don’t feel guilty about going to bed early! Most of the time it means giving up an hour of watching TV or scrolling the phone so that you can be productive in the morning. Going to bed at the same time each night is as helpful as getting up at the same time each day!

Are you a morning person? If not, try one or two of these tips and let me know how it goes! ❤

Even the most dedicated night owl can become an early riser with these tips

At 6 a.m. we’re lucky if we have the energy to reach for a cup of coffee. Mornings may be rough for some of us, but hold off on sleeping in: There are perks to waking up with the sun. (And we have some tips to make it easier too!).

Snooze and Lose-The Need-to-Know

The old “I’m just too tired” complaint may be more than a sorry excuse for waking up late. Research suggests there are biological differences between early larks, who wake up at the same time every morning and feel most active around 9 a.m., and night owls, who get more sh!t done once the sun goes down. One survey found more than half of Americans fall into the morning category, saying they’re at their “personal best” from 5 a.m. to noon. And it may get easier to greet the day at dawn as we get older, thanks to body clock changes as we age.

It turns out the early bird may get more than the worm. According to self-reports from college students, those who wake up earlier feel more optimistic and proactive than those who rise later. Other studies have found morning larks tend to be harder working and more conscientious than night owls. (Still, it’s not clear whether waking up early actually makes someone more productive or optimistic.) And perhaps the secret to a 4.0 isn’t only hitting the books: Another study of university undergraduates found those who said they function better in the morning received higher grades than those who preferred the evening. That’s possibly because morning risers are more likely to get to class on time or to forgo late-night partying. Researchers also suggest memory may improve during sleep, so getting to bed earlier in preparation for a morning alarm could help those exam notes soak in.

Being a morning person may actually be good for our health too. When UK researchers questioned adults about their sleep habits, they found people who stay under the covers on the weekdays until 9 a.m. are more likely to be stressed, overweight, and depressed than those who get up at 7 a.m. Another study found teenagers who went to bed and woke up late were less inclined to hit the gym and more likely to be overweight than those who went to bed and woke up early. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed. (Again, remember it’s not clear that waking up early causes stress, depression, or weight gain.)

Good Day Sunshine-Your Action Plan

But night owls aren’t totally out of luck. One study found evening-lovers are more productive than morning people are at night. Still, being a morning person may be more advantageous for most people’s work schedules and routines, since the workday typically starts around 9 a.m. and the office is (usually!) not open at midnight. Regardless of the situation, there are ways to reset the body clock and happily greet the day:

1. Get enough sleep. It may seem obvious, but getting those recommended seven to nine hours will make getting up earlier easier. Pro tip? Keep the laptop and other work out of the bed to sleep soundly.

2. Stay consistent. Try to set the alarm clock for the same time every morning-including weekends. A constant wake-up call may make it progressively easier to jump out of bed.

3. Start slowly. Pick a new wake-up time and gradually work towards it. Want to rise at 7 a.m. but stuck at 8 a.m.? Start by setting the clock for 7:45, and move down in 15-minute increments until that new time goal is reached.

4. Skip the snooze. Disrupting sleep an hour or so before actually getting out of bed may disturb our REM cycle, which helps stimulate brain regions linked to cognition. You don’t want to mess with that (or bug a roommate with multiple alarms!). Set one alarm for when it’s time to rise-and maybe another a few minutes later in case you snooze through!

5. Set some happy sounds. Skip the beeps and blares and set an alarm tone to something soothing or fun. Need an idea? Here are 10.

6. Let in the light. Research shows a little light may be all we need to reset the body block. A simple solution is to keep the blinds open during the night. Or greet the day and brush your teeth outside! (While waving to the neighbors…)

7. Eat breakfast. Sleepiness doesn’t disappear just from drinking a cup of coffee. Having enough time for some green eggs and ham (or maybe just a yogurt parfait) will also provide energy, not to mention it’ll boost that brainpower too.

8. Hit the gym. Those tired eyes may go away once a morning workout routine is in order. Exercise will definitely boost energy-give these early-bird exercises a try!

9. Treat yo’self. Have a reward waiting in the a.m. to motivate climbing out of the covers. Dive into some freshly baked fruit and nut bars, or slide into a warm bath instead of taking a quick shower.

10. J.F.D.I. Sometimes we need to bite the bullet and “just f’ing do it.” Researchers have found that creativity may flourish when we feel groggy, so don’t let a little drowsiness interrupt seizing the day!

Need a bigger push? Check out our super comprehensive (and fun!) How to Become a Morning Person guide!

First things first: Getting up early is not a prerequisite for success. Even though The Wall Street Journal says that 4 a.m. may be the most productive time of the day, the most successful people wake up and start work whenever the (heck) they decide is the best time for them.

That’s because the only thing that truly matters is what you accomplish while you work. What time you start, and what time you finish is unimportant. What matters is what you achieve.

But still: Even if you’re a committed night owl who loves to wake later in the day and work late into the evening, you may not have that luxury. Maybe you have clients in other time zones. Maybe you run a business that requires you start your day early.

Maybe you have little or even no control over your start time, much less your stop time.

If that’s the case, you owe it to yourself to become a morning person. You’ll feel better and get more done.

1. Let “bedtime” take care of itself.

Think about a time you knew you had to wake up early to do something important. You needed to be fresh and rested and full of energy. So you went to bed early.

How did that work out for you? I’m guessing terribly — because all you could think about was how badly you needed to fall asleep.

And when you try to fall asleep, you almost never can.

If tomorrow is your first day of shifting to an earlier start time, don’t try to go to bed early tonight. Just go to bed when you normally do. Sure, you’ll be tired tomorrow, but that’s OK. Natural fatigue will help you get to bed a little earlier that night, or the next night.

In time, your body will adapt — as long as you don’t shift back to your night owl ways on the weekends. Shifting back and forth results in an endless cycle of sleep schedule resets.

Ask anyone who works shift work how badly those suck.

2. Exercise first thing.

Take advantage of the mood-boosting effect of exercise: Research shows that as little as 20 minutes of moderate exercise boosts your mood for the next 12 hours.

Researchers found that aerobic training of “moderate intensity,” with an average heart rate of around 112 beats a minute — which is elevated, sure, but still falls on the lower-mid end of the cardiovascular intensity scale — improved participants’ mood for up to 12 hours after exercise.

“Moderate intensity aerobic exercise improves mood immediately and those improvements can last up to 12 hours,” says one of the researchers. “This goes a long way to show that even moderate aerobic exercise has the potential to mitigate the daily stress that results in your mood being disturbed.”

And as Gretchen Reynolds says, exercise can make you smarter; exercise creates new brain cells and makes those new cells more effective. Plus you’ll burn more fat since your body will still be in a fasting state.

So if the thought of waking up early and having to exercise seems doubly bad, remember this: It will make the rest of your day a lot better.

And help you be a little healthier.

3. Eat more protein and fewer carbs for breakfast.

Protein naturally increases dopamine levels, and while most people think dopamine regulates pleasure, research shows dopamine regulates motivation, causing individuals to initiate and persevere.

Which is exactly what you need to do when you wake up: Initiate and persevere.

4. Harness the power of light.

Wake up before dawn and it’s tempting to keep the lights low; after all, it’s no fun to face bright lights when you’re still sleepy.

Do it anyway: The presence of light tells your body to stop producing melatonin, the chemical that helps you sleep.

Turn on plenty of lights in your office. Or your facility. Wherever you are, make it bright.

5. Don’t plan to nap.

While taking a nap this afternoon might seem incredibly tempting, it will also make it harder for you fall asleep at a good time tonight.

And make it harder for you to shift your schedule so that waking up early seems automatic, not forced.

6. Start every day with something you really want to do.

As Ernest Hemingway said about writing, “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day . you will never be stuck.”

His advice applies to any work. Stop when you know exactly what you’ll do next and you’ll be excited to get started again.

And if that’s not possible, plan to accomplish something extremely important first thing. Do that and once you’re done you’ll feel really good about yourself — and will be motivated to accomplish whatever is next on your list.

You snooze, you lose.

There’s always that one person at work that exudes happiness in the morning. While this co-worker, Jim, greets everyone with a “Good Morning”, you greet Jim with a side-eye, mumbled “hello” and coffee in-hand.

This is how you look at Jim.

You and I both know that we secretly wish we could be a morning person – like Jim.

Since it takes 21 days to become a morning person, I challenged myself to the following steps below.

Set an alarm to go to bed early

Adults needs about 8 hours of sleep. Since sleep has all sort of health benefits, we must get our beauty rest. Apple’s iOS 10 bedtime feature was a huge help.

Placed my phone on night-shift

So much research confirms how horrible a phone’s blue light is for our sleep. Instead of spending an hour scrolling through social media, I put the night-shift light on and limit my time to a minute or so.

Stopped hitting snooze

There were times that I had to place my phone out of reach. I’ve heard of some people placing their alarms across the room. Snoozing longer is bad for us – it messes up our sleep cycle’s mojo.

By the time I was mentally awake, I already knocked out a workout. Knowing I didn’t have a workout waiting for me after work, I didn’t feel so bad going to a few happy hours. #fitlife

Added to the routine

I made time for one positive actionable item in my routine. For instance, I decided to make coffee at my place a few mornings. Making time to brew coffee, meditate, or pray made me ready to tackle the day.

If you can make it through these 5 steps after 21 days, then I congratulate you. You will have made it farther than me. I successfully accomplished the 5 steps for 13 days.

Each day is a new day – we’ve got this!

Below is Ryan Gosling wishing you a good morning.

The early bird catches more than just the worm.

If you’re the kind of person who wakes up at the crack of dawn to sneak in a workout, you may be onto something—actually quite a few things.

It turns out, early birds benefit from more than just a view of the sunrise. To help inspire you to continue being a morning person or to encourage you to become one, here are six major benefits of waking up early.

You’re more likely to exercise.

A busy schedule is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of fitting in a workout. Starting your day with a workout is an easy way to squeeze exercise in before the day’s madness begins.

Aaptiv has workouts you can take any time of day. Download the app today.

“Early risers tend to exercise more frequently and enjoy the health benefits that go along with regular fitness routines such as reduced blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and weight loss,” says Constantine George, the chief medical officer of EPITOMEDICAL and founder of Vēdius.

You’re more apt to eat a hearty breakfast.

When you give yourself enough time in the morning, you’re more likely to save some time to enjoy a well-balanced breakfast enriched with the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Plenty of research supports the importance of breakfast.

One study published in the journal Circulation linked skipping breakfast with an increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Another cross-sectional analysis from 2014, as part of the Child Heart and Health Study in England (CHASE), found that regular breakfast consumption may reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes in adults.

You might be more productive.

Sleeping in doesn’t disqualify you as a go-getter, but setting your alarm for earlier might set you up better to tackle the day. One study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that morning people tend to be more proactive than their evening-type counterparts.

They also found that morning people were more inclined to use positive language, outwardly portray confidence in their daily interactions, and assert themselves on a regular basis.

“Waking up early also allows for fewer distractions and allows you to define your goals and reach them,” adds Dr. George.

You may experience improved mental health.

It’s true that waking up early gives you some space and time before your day begins to collect your thoughts, get in touch with your feelings, and even set a mind and body agenda for the rest of your day.

“The morning allows you to get a jumpstart on the day and removes the sense of rush you feel throughout the day, which results in better mental health overall,” Dr. George says. This sense of rush is also linked to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which research has linked to increased anxiety and body fat.

You may get more restful sleep.

Few activities are more important to us humans than sleep—it’s a vital function we need to survive. Still, according to the American Sleep Association, approximately 35 percent of U.S. adults report not getting enough shut-eye during a typical 24-hour period.

Research has found that night owls, or those who go to bed later and sleep later, are more likely to be faced with harrowing thoughts as they wind down for bedtime than those who go to bed earlier and rise earlier.

“Waking up early will put your body on a better time clock and will encourage you to get to bed earlier and experience better quality rest,” says Dr. George. Aim to get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep each night. This will likely force you to hit the hay earlier than your current bedtime.

You’ll procrastinate less.

As it turns out, your boss might reap the benefits of you waking up earlier, too. A 2008 study published in the Journal of General Psychology analyzed the connection between late-night and early-morning behaviors and found that those who went to bed later and woke up later were more likely to procrastinate than their early-morning counterparts.

“An early rise time gives you the chance to acknowledge and deal with issues first thing, so the rest of the day is dedicated to tackling your to-do lists which can lead to less stress and better efficiency,” says Dr. George.

Wake up early and get your workout on with Aaptiv’s on demand classes you can take anywhere. View the newest class releases in the app today.

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It’s not easy being a night owl. Like it or not, much of the world operates on an early bird’s ridiculously eager schedule. “Our society tends to reward the larks,” says psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist Michelle Drerup, PsyD, DBSM.

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Whether you’re dragging yourself to an 8 a.m. meeting or trying to deliver your kids to school without earning them (another) tardy slip, living in a lark’s world can leave you short on shut-eye.

What’s a lover of the midnight oil to do? Dr. Drerup offers advice on how to shift your natural rhythm so you can finally break up with your snooze button.

What’s your sleep chronotype?

Our natural sleep/wake cycles are known as our circadian rhythm, and they can vary a lot from person to person. People fall into different groups, or chronotypes, depending on whether they feel most awake and alert in the morning, in the evening or somewhere in between.

No chronotype is inherently better or worse than another. There’s nothing wrong with staying up late and sleeping in, Dr. Drerup points out. “If that schedule fits with your lifestyle and your obligations, it’s not necessary to change it.”

The trouble comes when your late bedtime clashes with your early morning obligations. If you’re regularly getting less than the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night, your health and well-being can suffer.

Unfortunately, we can’t pick our chronotypes. Genetics plays a part in whether you identify as a night owl or a morning lark. Still, says Dr. Drerup, your habits and behaviors can reinforce those natural tendencies. And those habits aren’t set in stone. “By making behavioral changes, you may be able to shift your sleep schedule preferences,” she says.

How to reset your circadian rhythm

How, exactly, do you become more of a morning person?

1. Shift your bedtime

Count back from the time your alarm rings, aiming for a total of seven to nine hours a night.That will be your target bedtime — eventually.If you’re used to turning in well after midnight, willing yourself to suddenly fall asleep at 10:00 p.m. is sure to backfire, says Dr. Drerup.

Aim to go to bed 15 or 20 minutes earlier than usual for a few days. Then push it back another 15 minutes for several more days. “It’s important to adjust your sleep time gradually,” she says.

2. Make it routine

A quiet bedtime routine is key to helping you fall asleep earlier. At least an hour before lights out, dim the lights and power down your electronics. Find something soothing to do, like taking a warm bath, reading a book or listening to a (not-too-stimulating) podcast. “Give yourself time to wind down and prepare your mind for bed.”

3. Lighten up

“Our circadian rhythms are responsive to light and dark,” Dr. Drerup explains. Exposure to bright light first thing in the morning helps you feel more alert and also helps shift your internal rhythm toward an earlier wake time.

Natural light is the best, so get outside or open your bedroom window. If you can’t get outside or your room is natural light-deprived, try a light therapy lamp that mimics the spectrum of natural light.

4. Make mornings more pleasant

Try to schedule something to look forward to in the morning so that getting up feels like less of a slog, says Dr. Drerup. Perhaps a hot cup of coffee, sipped in silence, and the daily crossword puzzle. Knowing that something pleasant awaits can help you take that first, painful step out of bed.

5. Move your alarm clock

Hitting snooze is all too tempting, so remove that option, Dr. Drerup says. Try putting your alarm clock across the room, so you have to get up to turn it off.

Some apps make it even harder to sleep in, by forcing you to engage in mentally stimulating activities like solving a puzzle to stop the beeping. “Do whatever works to keep you from hitting snooze,” she says.

6. Get moving

If you’re a night owl, an early morning jog might sound like punishment. But if you can get yourself into the habit, exercising in the morning can give you energy to jump-start your day.

7. Be consistent

You don’t have to be a slave to your schedule. If you want to stay out late at a Friday night party or sleep in on vacation, that’s OK. “Life happens,” says Dr. Drerup. “But try to keep your new schedule as consistent as you can. Limit the ‘exceptions,’ or they’ll snowball and push you back toward your old schedule again.”

8. Consider the upsides

Do you want to become a morning person so you can be more productive (or just less of a zombie) at work? So you can spend more time with your family on weekends? So you don’t wake up at noon feeling like you’ve wasted half the day? “Thinking about your reasons can help keep you motivated,” Dr. Drerup says.

Get help shifting your sleep clock

If you’ve made these changes and are still struggling to drag yourself out of bed, consider consulting a sleep specialist, advises Dr. Drerup. “We can help figure out if there are barriers keeping you from making these behavior changes, or if you might have an underlying sleep disorder,” she says.

While shifting your schedule takes some effort, it’ll make it easier to accomplish that first task of the day: waking up. You might never be someone who lives for the sunrise, but mornings don’t have to hurt.

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I love staying up late, but I hate struggling through the mornings. Here’s how I adapted, and how you can, too.

By Harry Guinness

• Jan. 16, 2020

The world isn’t made for night owls.

You struggle into work in the dark hours before 10 a.m. — or your morning coffee — and you’re greeted by some chipper person who has already been to the gym and is six items into his to-do list. I used to fantasize about fitting punishments for such morning people, but in the last two years I’ve seen the (morning) light, and I’ve become one of them.

If you love staying up late but hate crawling through your mornings in a haze, here’s how you can do it too.

The problem with staying up late

After a long, draining day you finally get home, settle down in front of the TV and throw on whatever season you’re currently bingeing. Heaven. But then, when a reasonable bedtime rolls around, you don’t want to stop. It has been a hard day, aren’t you entitled to just one more episode? So you push play, trade a bit of sleep for more Netflix time and continue the cycle that keeps you tired all the time.

Dr. Alex Dimitriu, founder of the Menlo Park Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine clinic, explained it like this: “Long days leave us tired and exhausted, but the reality is, our days would be less hard, and less exhausting, if we weren’t so tired through them. The trouble with being a night owl is that your sleep gets clipped in the morning hours, where most of the precious REM or dream sleep occurs. Instead of sleeping seven or eight hours per night, most night owls get forced to sleep five or six — with a hard start time in the morning.”

Dr. Dimitriu can’t stress enough just how important REM sleep is. It’s “the key to our emotional and creative energy” and comparable to “self-therapy,” he said, adding that it “balances us out in more ways than I can describe” and that without enough of it, our memory and moods take a hit.

If you have the freedom to wake up when you like, then things are different, but if that extra Netflix episode is forcing you to cut your sleep short, then you should try to do something about it.

Learn to love a good night’s sleep

Part of the problem with trying to change your sleep habits, Dr. Dimitriu explained, is that “there is a small delay in getting several nights of good sleep and feeling better the next day.” Going to bed early one night won’t cut it, so a lot of people give up before they see any difference. “Patience is key,” he said. “Keep it up for a week. The days get easier.” And once the days get easier, you’ll “learn to love sleep again.”

To get to bed earlier, you also have to slow down in the evenings. Excitement makes it harder to sleep. “Smartphones and laptops are just too exciting,” Dr. Dimitriu said. “So many people find it easier to go to sleep after reading a book than after trawling the internet. Do more quiet, relaxing activities in the hour or two before you plan to sleep.” Books, audiobooks, just listening to music or even meditating are all perfect — though make sure you don’t mess around with your phone too much.

Similarly, exercise, big meals and bright lights — especially sources of blue light like screens — should be avoided an hour or two before bedtime. Not only do blue lights suppress melatonin, which makes it harder to fall asleep, they also diminish the quality of sleep you get through the night.

Personally, I find it much easier to get to bed earlier if I let myself get a little bit bored in the evenings. Sleep is preferable to great literature, at least after 10 p.m.

Have something to get up for

Dr. Dimitriu recalled one of his mentors, Dr. Rafael Pelayo, asking a patient, “What are you waking up for?” Many people work long, hard days, “and the evenings are the only respite — so why end them early?” Just to return to another day of work all over again?

Instead, Dr. Dimitriu recommends having “something fun or desirable to look forward to in the morning” before work. Things like coffee, the news, social media and uninterrupted smartphone access are all “O.K. once the sun is up.” He has even used video games as an incentive with some youngsters to get them up earlier.

Getting outside into the morning light is also great. Light acts as a “zeitgeber,” a natural cue to our bodies’ circadian rhythms. The more light you get in the morning, the easier time you’ll have falling asleep that night. Top tip: Don’t wear sunglasses first thing.

If you can schedule whatever you’re getting up for in the morning, even better. Having something fun you’ve agreed to do is a sure way to get out of bed. Surfers are some of the earliest risers going; they just can’t miss the allure of a sunrise surf with friends.

What I love most about getting up early is how much more free time it gives me before work. Instead of rolling out of bed and going straight into work mode, I get up slowly and either head to the gym for a workout or go on a long walk with my dog. I also get a head start on the things that normally get (begrudgingly) done in the evening, which gives me more free time later in the day.

Make changes gradually

Any changes you make to your sleep schedule should be gradual. “You can control when you wake up more than you can control when you fall asleep,” Dr. Dimitriu said. He recommended trying to wake up about “30 minutes earlier each week” and then, in the evenings, to “do quiet, relaxing activities that invite sleep.” Step back about 30 minutes each week, or as much as your schedule (and level of tiredness) allows. Once you’re tired, go to bed and don’t fight it.

Track your mood to see the gains

Humans are terrible at recognizing long-term changes and gains. Dr. Dimitriu suggested tracking your mood, energy levels and sleep habits for about two weeks while you get to bed earlier. It is important, he said, to recognize that there is “a big difference to how you feel in the morning versus how you feel through the day.”

Some night owls will never feel great waking earlier, but as he said: “How you feel in the afternoon is the true test of sleep quality. Adequate sleep should result in improved memory, mood stability, creativity, impulse control and eating and drinking habits. Track these for a good while before deciding that sleeping for eight hours is no different to sleeping for six.”