Morning motivation....how do you?

I am a night owl. If I didn’t have to work, I would probably sleep until 9 everyday. It sounds like you are in your natural sleep pattern. Do you need to get up earlier or do you just want to? Maybe find a “need” to get up. Make an early morning “date” so you have to get up early. Also gradually start going to bed earlier.

I do like how getting up early makes you feel like you’ve done a lot before noon. But given a choice I would rather stay up late than get up early. When I eventually retire, I’ll probably drift to a later sleep time than I have now.

I'm a total morning person so I can't imagine not being awake and up by 6:00 at the latest, often even earlier. So I'm no help there. Hopefully the night people will have advice for you. 

But I've often thought that it's easier to be a morning person than a night person... It seems to me that it's easier to keep myself awake at night if I need to than it would be to crawl out of a cozy bed earlier than I wanted to. So I think your situation is harder, unless the night owl person has a shift job where they can sleep late and work in the evening.

Hopefully someone will have good tips for you!

I’m a morning person by nature.

But anytime I’ve had to change my sleep cycle for any reason, I start by waking at the new time every time. I might feel a little sleep deprived for a few days, but my body quickly adapts to the new bedtime.

Schedule yourself something to do in the mornings to give you a reason to get up if that’s what you’re wanting to do.

Well I am a night person and I work 2nd shift, so I tend to stay up late/ not get up early.  I am usually awake by 8 or 9 (but I also have sleep issues).  I can’t really seem to easily get going to do things until 10 or so. Even when up earlier I usually stay in bed and watch the news, surf the net, etc.  

If I need to get up really early for a specific reason I make sure to set two alarms (about 10 minutes apart)because I also seem to snooze them a lot or shut them off. So I really have no good advice except, if possible, follow your natural sleep patterns and start doing what you need to do later.  I can get up early if I need to for a specific reason but it does not seem sustainable without an appointment or reason.  Good luck.

I don't think I'm a morning or a night person. I think I am a person who has adjusted to a particular schedule. And I think what helps is going to bed at the same time every night. An evening ritual helps you get in the place to go to sleep. I don't do anything that would *jazz* me up after dinner, including looking at my phone. I eat dinner around 7 pm. I then clean up the kitchen, let the dog out, take my medicine, and put on my pajamas. Then I get in bed and read. If I get tired before 9, I go to sleep. If not, at 9, I put on my bluetooth eye mask and lay there listening to a podcast. 99% of the time, I am asleep by the time the podcast ends. And then I am up around 5. I take my mornings slow (this is why I think I'm not a morning person). I spend at least a good 1/1.5 hours drinking coffee and petting cats. I'm trying to get back into running so after coffee, I've been getting out there to walk/run. Then I shower and start working. I will say that exercise in the morning is also a huge push to get yourself going for the day.

I’ve always been a night owl and find it much easier to stay up late than it is to get up early. However, the older I am, I’ve found it is easier for me to get up early now than when I was 20 or 30. Part of it is having a big, whiny dog that forces me to get up to let him out and feed him (my little dog will stay happily curled up next to me forever until I decide to get up, so she’s no help).

A bigger part of it is that now aches and pains from staying in bed too long force me to get up and get moving. It’s not the kind of motivation I would recommend.

The best advice I have is to gradually start going to bed earlier and make yourself get up right away cold turkey when the alarm first goes off. Hitting that snooze button ends up being the downfall that gets you every time. If you force yourself to get up with the alarm in the morning every day you will gradually be more tired earlier at night, shifting your clock from night to day.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with being a night owl, the primary issue is that most people aren’t, and now post Covid most of the business world isn’t either. Gone are the days of 24 hour grocery stores, pharmacies, discount stores because they can’t find staff to work those overnight hours. We used to have a bunch of 24 hour grocery stores and Targets and Walgreens, now not so much. They all close around 9 or 10 at the latest. The biggest issue I have is that everyone else in my life is on a daytime schedule so if I want to socialize at all I need to be working or doing daytime stuff in the daytime so I’m free when they are. It does me no good to be wide awake at 2:00 am if everyone else I know is in bed asleep.

Just wanted to add one thing that helps me get up early when I have to is sunlight. My bedroom faces east, so I get the morning sun coming into the room because we don’t have shades on all the windows. It is enough light to irritate me and wake me up. 😂 It also lets me know if I am sleeping too long.

I will say for me, as I get older I find that I really dislike driving around in the dark. If I want to get my errands and shopping done during daylight hours, that means I have to get up early enough to make that happen especially in the winter when it starts getting dark around 4:30 in the afternoon. In the summer it’s much less of an issue because it stays light out longer, but I still generally won’t jump in the car to go out shopping somewhere after 7-8 pm unless I absolutely have to.

I’ll also say that as I’ve gotten older, I’m normally awake now by 6:30-7:00 am without an alarm which was a near impossible feat when I was 20 or even 30. I only set an alarm these days if I have to get up by 6:30 or earlier.

I'm a natural morning person, but I'm with those who say you should embrace your body's natural rhythms and not force yourself to get up early if you don't need to.

I can relate. I need my sleep. If I don't get enough sleep, it affects my energy level.

Oh, I struggle with this as well. Definitely a night owl, but I love it when I do get up early and start my day.
As others have said, when I set the alarm early for a flight or walking date, etc., I need to spring up out of bed the minute it goes off.  
Snooze button is my downfall.  

Every time I do wake up early, especially to walk, I am sooo happy that I did it.

I recently read someone's advice, possibly Mel Robbins, who suggested that when we are faced with doing something we don't want to do and the alarm or other reminder occurs, say 5, 4, 3, 2 1 and then get up and DO IT!

One of the things I love most about retirement is that I can generally go to bed when I want and get up when I want.

I usually go to bed around midnight and wake up around 7am. I generally don't get out of bed and get dressed until around 8:30, after I've played Wordle, scanned the newspaper and read my emails.

The way I stay on track on a day when I am not heavily scheduled is by setting an alarm for thirty minute intervals during which I do housework or paperwork or do other things I need to get done that day. I schedule in a lot of leisure time for myself and I don't feel guilty about it, but I did when I first retired.

Here's the one I have: www.amazon.com/MUSICOZY-Headphones-Bluetooth-Breathable-Sleeping/dp/B09SPN8J1R/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?keywords=bluetooth+eye+mask&qid=1689889511&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1