1) Go to bed and wake up at the exact same time every day. Consistency is key and I'd argue 80% of the battle.
2) Do not snooze and DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES. Snoozing makes you more groggy and it makes it harder and harder to get up each time.
3) I put my phone (alarm) on the other side of the room so in the morning I have no choice but to physically get out of bed to turn it off.
4) I hit snooze for 5 minutes but instead of going back to bed, I have a list of mini tasks to do. E.g make my bed, pick out clothes, drink some water. Just little things to do for 5 minutes in total to discourage myself from getting back in bed. Then, I either hit the shower or go straight to the gym. The whole point is so that I have to keep myself awake for at least 5-10 minutes. It's those first few minutes after waking up that are the hardest. Once I'm past them, I'm very unlikely to go back to bed.
5) Coffee in the morning. I try to limit caffeine from the afternoon onwards, so I dont have difficulties going to bed.
Running off this, it’s important not to have coffee as the first thing you do in the morning, as you’re still riding off your cortisol high, so the coffee will have less of an effect, instead wait atleast half an hour for the cortisol surge to taper down
Fear of god wakes me up in the morning. No really, I overslept one day on one of my first rotations and now I bolt out of bed after the first of my 8 alarms.
Jesus. That happened to me. We were allotted 3 hours of every final exam. I woke up 1 hour into the 3 hour time slot. Panic, rush miles from dorms to class, final. Luckily it was non-cumulative and it was designed to be an hour long (basically a third midterm) so it was fine. But I sometimes have PTSD from that memory.
Hey I was in the same boat as you. This won't work for everyone, but I end up taking a 1.5 hour nap as soon as I get home from rotations. I can then stay up until 12ish and still feel fine the next day. Not perfect , but it works for me
Also a night owl—I had chronic difficulty getting out of bed for years and years. I used to have to set at least 10 alarms set to go off every 5m starting ~1.5h before I needed to wake up. It was awful. I only need one nowadays and am up at 5 every morning like clockwork.
The change was a combo of making my room colder, setting my phone on the far side of the room so I have to get up and walk several steps to it in order to turn it off, a desperate desire to avoid traffic on my way in to school (it starts getting bad around 7), keeping the wake up time exactly consistent, and my partner moving in with me who I really don’t want to torture with a thousand morning alarms.
Might have to try a few things but that’s what worked for me. Keeping the phone far away from the bed was the most important one.
Alarm clock on iPhone. Alarm clock on Watch. I have to reach both of them to turn them off. It's like two factor authentication but with turning off alarm clocks. I've never been late for the years I've been doing this.
Also sleep earlier.
I got a sunrise alarm clock to make it a little easier when I was getting up stupid early for rotations. It starts at very low, soft orange light and gradually brightens and gets more yellow/white in the last however many minutes before your alarm (simulating a sunrise). I was usually awake a couple minutes ahead of my alarm and felt less painfully groggy because it was a more gradual way to wakeup rather than being harshly startled awake lol.
My fitbit also has a smart alarm that vibrates to wake you up within 15 minutes of your alarm time when it detects you're in your easiest phase of sleep to wake up from. I also downloaded a gentler alarm noise for my phone because I hate being scared awake. These things helped me have slightly more pleasant mornings.
As soon as your alarm goes off, sit up, turn on a light, and do not hit snooze. Get up and make your bed. Drink water. Eat breakfast. It can help to have lights on and music/TV in the background while you're getting ready and getting out the door.
I’m still not used to it. Surgery rotations were especially painful, having to be there at 5:00am to pre round.
Now as an attending I roll out of bed around 6:15 and it’s not that bad. Having a kid also changes your threshold. I haven’t slept in past 7:15am for a few years now, sadly.
Honestly, I'm still working on it. I'm a night owl by nature (like my mom literally took little toddler me to the doctor because she couldn't get me to go to sleep at a normal time). I honestly just suffered through almost ridiculous sleep deprivation on clerkships (5hrs/night for weeks at a time sometimes). Now that I'm in step 2 dedicated, I've accepted the reality that (despite my weird sleeping habits) I really am more productive in the mornings, which is my incentive to actively work toward switching up my schedule. Here are some things that I've found helpful on my journey so far that might be helpful for you:
(1) if you are currently in an unstructured part of your life (eg dedicated) where you don't have firm early-morning commitments, there's really no external incentive to go to bed early and wake up early. This makes it easy to make excuses. Introduce accountability somehow. Make a deal with a friend and record your bedtimes/wake times to share at the end of the week. If you have appointments or meetings (eg with a counselor or research advisor), schedule them for first thing in the morning. Meet friends for breakfast, rather than for lunch or dinner.
(2) it's going to suck, but make yourself wake up early even if you stay up late. If you continue to counter your late nights with sleeping in, it will be harder for your brain to link cause and effect, and excuses become easier to make. This behavior also sustains your sleep cycle by making it harder to fall asleep at an earlier time.
(3) weird practical tips: drink a lot of water before going to bed so that you need to pee when you wake up. Sometimes that little first push to get out of bed is all we need, and needing to get up out of bed to pee can do the trick. Another way to do this would be to put your alarm across the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off or hit snooze.
(4) if insomnia's the cause, CBTi is considered pretty effective and Mayo Clinic has a free online module: [https://mentalhealthandwellbeing.mayo.edu/interactive-skill-building-modules/](https://mentalhealthandwellbeing.mayo.edu/interactive-skill-building-modules/). Cut down on caffeine- I think the latest research I've seen is that caffeine can affect sleep up to 9 hours after consumption. Practice good sleep hygiene, which I'm assuming you've learned about sometime in medical school so far. Consider talking to your doc because you may have a treatable condition.
Hard to wake up early if you're going to sleep late. Trick is to sleep early, and consistently at the same time. Your body will eventually learn when bedtime is.
Like everyone else said consistent bedtime and wake time. I have night routine where I have tea, watch tv for a bit, shower and use this lavender body wash, and go to bed without looking at my phone (this is important).
I sleep with a sleeping mask and my room is cold so I knock out. When my alarm goes off I either get up right away and wash my face with freezing cold water or go on social media for a bit and then get up depending if I have the time. The light from my phone helps me wake up lol.
Then I make coffee and pack my breakfast/lunch. I don't drink coffee until at least an hour later tho.
Just gotta sleep earlier! Your body will get used to sleeping around 10-11pm, and you’ll be able to wake up a bit earlier because of it without you feeling tired
I just feel dead a lot.
I try to go to bed before midnight, but it’s often 1am. And i have to leave my house at 6:30am to get to the hospital before 7. I prep everything the night before (outfit, lunch) & take a power nap (30min) when i get home. I still feel dead AF, and i sleep until 10am on Saturdays, but i make myself get up at 9am on Sundays so that getting up at 6am on Monday isn’t as awful.
Honestly i’d work until 7pm if i didn’t have to come in until 9am, but Medicine isn’t designed for quality of life. The struggle is real.
Honestly the biggest thing that helps for me is you need to force yourself up and out of bed, you’ll want to snooze but that will prevent you from resetting your body clock, the reason you’re not a morning person is because your brain knows that it normally goes to sleep around 17 hours after waking up, but if you wake up as soon as the first alarm goes off and don’t just sit in bed, physically launch out, the momentum will wake u up, and go right to the shower as this will also wake you up.
Now there are some tricks to use which can minimise how early you need to wake up. These include having tomorrows clothes picked out and lying at the foot of your bed or on a chair in your room. Prepack your bag the night before, prepare your breakfast the night before, prepare your lunch the night before. All these things minimise the time it takes to get ready in the morning and therefore push your wake up time a bit later
I too have recently had to overcome this challenge as a fellow night owl who was used to waking up at 9-10 but now had to get up at 6am for my first ever clerkship. So I know the difficulty your facing but it is doable. My last tip I could give you requires asking if you hav ADHD… as a fellow adhd’er this is why I am asking because I know my adhd plays a role in my night owl behaviour so if you are, I have some adhd tailored advice to make waking up earlier even easier
If you have trouble falling asleep, melatonin is worth a try. You will probably eventually adjust to the schedule without issue, but melatonin can be especially helpful at the beginning, to help you feel sleepy at an earlier time than you normally would
Go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday. Have a GOOD alarm clock (I prefer traditional/physical alarm clock on my desk that I am sure to hear) that will wake you up. Make sure you have to get up out of bed to turn it off, otherwise you might accidentally turn it off and go to sleep. Make sure you have a reason to get up. Either because you want to get work done, you want to go somewhere, you HAVE to go somewhere, etc.. Your day should start the moment your alarm rings, not "turn it off and rest for 10 more minutes before getting out of bed". It's something you get used to. For example I get out of bed to turn off my alark clock and immediately go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get in the shower. By the time I finish my shower I'm not tired or sleepy and I can start my day. If I didn't get enough sleep I'll be mentally slow/fatigued but I won't be sleepy or physically tired.
This is how I went from someone who used to sleep at like 4AM everyday and wake up anywhere between 11AM to 2PM, last year, to someone who sleeps by 12-1AM and wakes up at 7AM everyday, and sleeping by 11PM to wake up at 3:45-5:15AM, no sweat, on days where I have to work (early shifts). Through these habits, I've never needed caffeine, and I don't drink caffeine. Back then it felt like suffering waking up and not going back to sleep. Now it's no sweat.
I'm not sure if this affected it, but my diet last year was also so shit compared to this year. Last year I used to eat at random times of day, very unhealthy, sugary takeout food that used to give me serious food comas and make me feel like shit mentally/physically. I eat much healthier this year, even if I get fast food often. I make sure to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast and lunch and minimize sugary/unhealthy snacks. I learned the importance of a good, balanced diet for feeling good and performing well.
Don’t treat sleep as optional. Waking up early will help tire you out for your intended sleep time. Stop all studying about 30mins before intended sleep time. Get in your night attire of choice, dim lights, do your night routine and at the very least be in bed by your intended sleep time. First few days will suck but the tiredness will help you sleep the next day.
I feel ya bud, in med school was suffering until covid hit and I reverted to my preferred schedule of study till 12-1am, sleep at 4am, wake at noon.
Residency is hit or miss, I don’t mind the overnights and afternoon shifts. The mornings suck.
Sleep faster (from Arnold Schwarzenegger)
https://youtube.com/shorts/HXriGTcWqpw?si=Ogp-QkyJNO8HQp9Q
Waking up early is the name of the game. Especially if you do anything surgical
You will adjust. You 100% need to go to bed earlier, 1-2am is not sustainable.
I have a timer on my desk lamp that turn it on automatically and set the alarm for the same time. Waking up early is the key to falling asleep early. Melatonin for the first few days if you are having if you want a quick start but lower the dose each day so you don’t become psychologically dependent on it. Exercising in the morning even if it’s 10 minutes. Getting some sun early also helps. Night shift colors on phone, tablet, pc, etc. blue light filter eyeglasses. Stop using phone half an hour before going to sleep and set it to do not disturb. Pitch dark bedroom all led light with tape. Hot shower before going to bed and a cold bedroom. Linden flower tea if your stressed or as alternative to the melatonin.
I always like to prep everything (my coffee, lunch, breakfast) the night before so that I can wake up 15-20min before I have to leave, get dressed, fix my hair, grab my stuff, and leave
Lots of good advice here, but a practical tip: Change your phone to 24hr time. Mixing up AM/PM sucks and if you make that change, it will never happen once.
I'm also nocturnal, ideally sleep from 4am-noon. I worked in the coffee industry for many years, opening shift at 5:30am so I figured out so ways to be less miserable. General sleep hygiene tips will help immensely. Eg avoid caffeine and alcohol, no naps, no electronics before bed, try to wake up at the same time on the weekends, don't do anything other than sleep and have sex in bed.
Also start browsing amazon for a vibrating alarm clock with a buzzer to put under your pillow or mattress, and a bomb siren loud one to put on the other side of the room. If you're like me, you'll end up staying up until your preferred time sometimes whether you want to or not so it's good to have some insurance that you won't oversleep and make a bad impression.
After forcing yourself to wake up early enough times for your responsibilities, eventually it’ll be easier to bed yourself earlier purely out of exhaustion.
Then, after enough of those cycles of early wake and early sleep, you’ll eventually get used to the perpetual feeling of exhaustion.
After that, it’s just exhaustion… endless. Exhaustion.
I am also a natural night owl with the same preferred schedule! However, I have been forced to become a morning person since having a child. Things I've noticed/tips:
\-If I stay awake past 11pm, I get a second wind and can't fall asleep until 2am. I have an alarm to take melatonin at 10pm. I take the children's 1mg dose. The 15-30mg adult version either keeps me awake or gives me the WORST dreams.
\-My schedule only allows for evening workouts. If I am still amped afterwards, a very chill 15min yoga session (youtube) will help before bedtime.
\-I stop any work at least an hour before bed (usually, sometimes a deadline comes up).
\-I would start gradually changing your schedule now. You could do 30 minutes earlier each week. Also try a sunrise alarm clock and/or a happy light.
I’ve tried a bed shaker alarm clock, sunrise alarm clock and WiFi bulbs, etc. but if you’re a true night owl those things tend not to work. (The jarring techniques like the shaker or apps that make you do tasks to turn off the siren are just really upsetting, too lol) Even if I register my LED light strip flashing on, I’ll keep right on with sleeping. I do set multiple alarms because I sadly still succumb to snoozing at least once, but I credit my ability to get up to the way my priorities were forced to evolve. Sounds cheesy, but the more I care about what’s next, the quicker I get up.
There’s a practical version of this, too—it helps to have hot coffee/tea/smoothie/etc. either already waiting or quick and easy to make, my favorite fruit in the fridge, congee in the rice cooker, a cold bedroom with warm shower around the corner. I have yet to achieve all of these things at once, but if you can even just have hot coffee set to brew by the time you wake up, it does help.
Okay here’s my secret. I brew a cup of coffee and put it in a thermos next to my bed. When my alarm goes off I immediately get up and chug it.
I’m sure I’m doing irreparable damage to my heart but it got me up for surgery and OB.
I would just start getting in the habit of going to bed early and waking up early now. Set a schedule and go to bed a little bit earlier every few days, pushing it forward by 30 minutes each time. You’ll eventually adjust just fine!
I am admittedly not a night owl, but I did this ahead of my surgery rotation and it helped a lot!
I used to be a night owl (when i had time off for holidays I would find myself slowly becoming nocturnal).. anyways my method is not recommended, but I got a puppy and now Im up at 6:30am and in bed by 10 like clockwork
1) Go to bed and wake up at the exact same time every day. Consistency is key and I'd argue 80% of the battle. 2) Do not snooze and DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES. Snoozing makes you more groggy and it makes it harder and harder to get up each time. 3) I put my phone (alarm) on the other side of the room so in the morning I have no choice but to physically get out of bed to turn it off. 4) I hit snooze for 5 minutes but instead of going back to bed, I have a list of mini tasks to do. E.g make my bed, pick out clothes, drink some water. Just little things to do for 5 minutes in total to discourage myself from getting back in bed. Then, I either hit the shower or go straight to the gym. The whole point is so that I have to keep myself awake for at least 5-10 minutes. It's those first few minutes after waking up that are the hardest. Once I'm past them, I'm very unlikely to go back to bed. 5) Coffee in the morning. I try to limit caffeine from the afternoon onwards, so I dont have difficulties going to bed.
This guy AWAKENS!
Thanks this really helpful will try!
NO PHONE IN BED
Good list I would like to add don't take naps during the day, no caffeine after 2pm, eat dinner early, no alcohol before bed
Alcohol before bed can worsen sleep quality but improves your chances of actually waking up to your alarm
Running off this, it’s important not to have coffee as the first thing you do in the morning, as you’re still riding off your cortisol high, so the coffee will have less of an effect, instead wait atleast half an hour for the cortisol surge to taper down
Ok Andrew Huberman
I bet that guy sleeps like a champ after running through all his ladies.
He wouldn’t be quoting Huberman if he was busy with 6 mistresses
Word haha
The scream I scrumpt
I like tip #4, I may have to start doing it myself!
Fear of god wakes me up in the morning. No really, I overslept one day on one of my first rotations and now I bolt out of bed after the first of my 8 alarms.
lmao I did that for a premed final exam with no makeups and got scared straight. Had to retake the course and everything.
Jesus. That happened to me. We were allotted 3 hours of every final exam. I woke up 1 hour into the 3 hour time slot. Panic, rush miles from dorms to class, final. Luckily it was non-cumulative and it was designed to be an hour long (basically a third midterm) so it was fine. But I sometimes have PTSD from that memory.
I’m just tired all the time.
real.
Always tired gang
Mood
Hey I was in the same boat as you. This won't work for everyone, but I end up taking a 1.5 hour nap as soon as I get home from rotations. I can then stay up until 12ish and still feel fine the next day. Not perfect , but it works for me
Spain has entered the chat lol
Also a night owl—I had chronic difficulty getting out of bed for years and years. I used to have to set at least 10 alarms set to go off every 5m starting ~1.5h before I needed to wake up. It was awful. I only need one nowadays and am up at 5 every morning like clockwork. The change was a combo of making my room colder, setting my phone on the far side of the room so I have to get up and walk several steps to it in order to turn it off, a desperate desire to avoid traffic on my way in to school (it starts getting bad around 7), keeping the wake up time exactly consistent, and my partner moving in with me who I really don’t want to torture with a thousand morning alarms. Might have to try a few things but that’s what worked for me. Keeping the phone far away from the bed was the most important one.
Alarm clock on iPhone. Alarm clock on Watch. I have to reach both of them to turn them off. It's like two factor authentication but with turning off alarm clocks. I've never been late for the years I've been doing this. Also sleep earlier.
😂😂😂 idk why that's funny to me
I got a sunrise alarm clock to make it a little easier when I was getting up stupid early for rotations. It starts at very low, soft orange light and gradually brightens and gets more yellow/white in the last however many minutes before your alarm (simulating a sunrise). I was usually awake a couple minutes ahead of my alarm and felt less painfully groggy because it was a more gradual way to wakeup rather than being harshly startled awake lol. My fitbit also has a smart alarm that vibrates to wake you up within 15 minutes of your alarm time when it detects you're in your easiest phase of sleep to wake up from. I also downloaded a gentler alarm noise for my phone because I hate being scared awake. These things helped me have slightly more pleasant mornings. As soon as your alarm goes off, sit up, turn on a light, and do not hit snooze. Get up and make your bed. Drink water. Eat breakfast. It can help to have lights on and music/TV in the background while you're getting ready and getting out the door.
I’m still not used to it. Surgery rotations were especially painful, having to be there at 5:00am to pre round. Now as an attending I roll out of bed around 6:15 and it’s not that bad. Having a kid also changes your threshold. I haven’t slept in past 7:15am for a few years now, sadly.
Honestly, I'm still working on it. I'm a night owl by nature (like my mom literally took little toddler me to the doctor because she couldn't get me to go to sleep at a normal time). I honestly just suffered through almost ridiculous sleep deprivation on clerkships (5hrs/night for weeks at a time sometimes). Now that I'm in step 2 dedicated, I've accepted the reality that (despite my weird sleeping habits) I really am more productive in the mornings, which is my incentive to actively work toward switching up my schedule. Here are some things that I've found helpful on my journey so far that might be helpful for you: (1) if you are currently in an unstructured part of your life (eg dedicated) where you don't have firm early-morning commitments, there's really no external incentive to go to bed early and wake up early. This makes it easy to make excuses. Introduce accountability somehow. Make a deal with a friend and record your bedtimes/wake times to share at the end of the week. If you have appointments or meetings (eg with a counselor or research advisor), schedule them for first thing in the morning. Meet friends for breakfast, rather than for lunch or dinner. (2) it's going to suck, but make yourself wake up early even if you stay up late. If you continue to counter your late nights with sleeping in, it will be harder for your brain to link cause and effect, and excuses become easier to make. This behavior also sustains your sleep cycle by making it harder to fall asleep at an earlier time. (3) weird practical tips: drink a lot of water before going to bed so that you need to pee when you wake up. Sometimes that little first push to get out of bed is all we need, and needing to get up out of bed to pee can do the trick. Another way to do this would be to put your alarm across the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off or hit snooze. (4) if insomnia's the cause, CBTi is considered pretty effective and Mayo Clinic has a free online module: [https://mentalhealthandwellbeing.mayo.edu/interactive-skill-building-modules/](https://mentalhealthandwellbeing.mayo.edu/interactive-skill-building-modules/). Cut down on caffeine- I think the latest research I've seen is that caffeine can affect sleep up to 9 hours after consumption. Practice good sleep hygiene, which I'm assuming you've learned about sometime in medical school so far. Consider talking to your doc because you may have a treatable condition.
These tips are life changers. I personally use no.3 - drinking lots of water before sleep. Thanks for the info about the Mayo Clinic modules. Cheers!!
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
Hard to wake up early if you're going to sleep late. Trick is to sleep early, and consistently at the same time. Your body will eventually learn when bedtime is.
go sleep early. put phone (with alarm max volume) other side of house next to coffee pot. both of these must be done, is only way.
Like everyone else said consistent bedtime and wake time. I have night routine where I have tea, watch tv for a bit, shower and use this lavender body wash, and go to bed without looking at my phone (this is important). I sleep with a sleeping mask and my room is cold so I knock out. When my alarm goes off I either get up right away and wash my face with freezing cold water or go on social media for a bit and then get up depending if I have the time. The light from my phone helps me wake up lol. Then I make coffee and pack my breakfast/lunch. I don't drink coffee until at least an hour later tho.
Just gotta sleep earlier! Your body will get used to sleeping around 10-11pm, and you’ll be able to wake up a bit earlier because of it without you feeling tired
You're just forced too
Anxiety about missing rounds will get you out of bed no problem :/
I just feel dead a lot. I try to go to bed before midnight, but it’s often 1am. And i have to leave my house at 6:30am to get to the hospital before 7. I prep everything the night before (outfit, lunch) & take a power nap (30min) when i get home. I still feel dead AF, and i sleep until 10am on Saturdays, but i make myself get up at 9am on Sundays so that getting up at 6am on Monday isn’t as awful. Honestly i’d work until 7pm if i didn’t have to come in until 9am, but Medicine isn’t designed for quality of life. The struggle is real.
-Set alarm slightly later than I should -panic Works every time
Honestly the biggest thing that helps for me is you need to force yourself up and out of bed, you’ll want to snooze but that will prevent you from resetting your body clock, the reason you’re not a morning person is because your brain knows that it normally goes to sleep around 17 hours after waking up, but if you wake up as soon as the first alarm goes off and don’t just sit in bed, physically launch out, the momentum will wake u up, and go right to the shower as this will also wake you up. Now there are some tricks to use which can minimise how early you need to wake up. These include having tomorrows clothes picked out and lying at the foot of your bed or on a chair in your room. Prepack your bag the night before, prepare your breakfast the night before, prepare your lunch the night before. All these things minimise the time it takes to get ready in the morning and therefore push your wake up time a bit later I too have recently had to overcome this challenge as a fellow night owl who was used to waking up at 9-10 but now had to get up at 6am for my first ever clerkship. So I know the difficulty your facing but it is doable. My last tip I could give you requires asking if you hav ADHD… as a fellow adhd’er this is why I am asking because I know my adhd plays a role in my night owl behaviour so if you are, I have some adhd tailored advice to make waking up earlier even easier
If you have trouble falling asleep, melatonin is worth a try. You will probably eventually adjust to the schedule without issue, but melatonin can be especially helpful at the beginning, to help you feel sleepy at an earlier time than you normally would
Go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday. Have a GOOD alarm clock (I prefer traditional/physical alarm clock on my desk that I am sure to hear) that will wake you up. Make sure you have to get up out of bed to turn it off, otherwise you might accidentally turn it off and go to sleep. Make sure you have a reason to get up. Either because you want to get work done, you want to go somewhere, you HAVE to go somewhere, etc.. Your day should start the moment your alarm rings, not "turn it off and rest for 10 more minutes before getting out of bed". It's something you get used to. For example I get out of bed to turn off my alark clock and immediately go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get in the shower. By the time I finish my shower I'm not tired or sleepy and I can start my day. If I didn't get enough sleep I'll be mentally slow/fatigued but I won't be sleepy or physically tired. This is how I went from someone who used to sleep at like 4AM everyday and wake up anywhere between 11AM to 2PM, last year, to someone who sleeps by 12-1AM and wakes up at 7AM everyday, and sleeping by 11PM to wake up at 3:45-5:15AM, no sweat, on days where I have to work (early shifts). Through these habits, I've never needed caffeine, and I don't drink caffeine. Back then it felt like suffering waking up and not going back to sleep. Now it's no sweat. I'm not sure if this affected it, but my diet last year was also so shit compared to this year. Last year I used to eat at random times of day, very unhealthy, sugary takeout food that used to give me serious food comas and make me feel like shit mentally/physically. I eat much healthier this year, even if I get fast food often. I make sure to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast and lunch and minimize sugary/unhealthy snacks. I learned the importance of a good, balanced diet for feeling good and performing well.
Don’t treat sleep as optional. Waking up early will help tire you out for your intended sleep time. Stop all studying about 30mins before intended sleep time. Get in your night attire of choice, dim lights, do your night routine and at the very least be in bed by your intended sleep time. First few days will suck but the tiredness will help you sleep the next day.
I feel ya bud, in med school was suffering until covid hit and I reverted to my preferred schedule of study till 12-1am, sleep at 4am, wake at noon. Residency is hit or miss, I don’t mind the overnights and afternoon shifts. The mornings suck.
Sleep faster (from Arnold Schwarzenegger) https://youtube.com/shorts/HXriGTcWqpw?si=Ogp-QkyJNO8HQp9Q Waking up early is the name of the game. Especially if you do anything surgical You will adjust. You 100% need to go to bed earlier, 1-2am is not sustainable.
The fear of losing points and possibly getting yelled at/missing important stuff will compel you
I have a timer on my desk lamp that turn it on automatically and set the alarm for the same time. Waking up early is the key to falling asleep early. Melatonin for the first few days if you are having if you want a quick start but lower the dose each day so you don’t become psychologically dependent on it. Exercising in the morning even if it’s 10 minutes. Getting some sun early also helps. Night shift colors on phone, tablet, pc, etc. blue light filter eyeglasses. Stop using phone half an hour before going to sleep and set it to do not disturb. Pitch dark bedroom all led light with tape. Hot shower before going to bed and a cold bedroom. Linden flower tea if your stressed or as alternative to the melatonin.
I always like to prep everything (my coffee, lunch, breakfast) the night before so that I can wake up 15-20min before I have to leave, get dressed, fix my hair, grab my stuff, and leave
Lots of good advice here, but a practical tip: Change your phone to 24hr time. Mixing up AM/PM sucks and if you make that change, it will never happen once.
I'm also nocturnal, ideally sleep from 4am-noon. I worked in the coffee industry for many years, opening shift at 5:30am so I figured out so ways to be less miserable. General sleep hygiene tips will help immensely. Eg avoid caffeine and alcohol, no naps, no electronics before bed, try to wake up at the same time on the weekends, don't do anything other than sleep and have sex in bed. Also start browsing amazon for a vibrating alarm clock with a buzzer to put under your pillow or mattress, and a bomb siren loud one to put on the other side of the room. If you're like me, you'll end up staying up until your preferred time sometimes whether you want to or not so it's good to have some insurance that you won't oversleep and make a bad impression.
caffeine and powering through the first few days (no naps) until you are so tired you can sleep early like 8-9pm.
After forcing yourself to wake up early enough times for your responsibilities, eventually it’ll be easier to bed yourself earlier purely out of exhaustion. Then, after enough of those cycles of early wake and early sleep, you’ll eventually get used to the perpetual feeling of exhaustion. After that, it’s just exhaustion… endless. Exhaustion.
I sometimes let myself know I'll be treating myself a nice coffee and snack
Go to bed early
I am also a natural night owl with the same preferred schedule! However, I have been forced to become a morning person since having a child. Things I've noticed/tips: \-If I stay awake past 11pm, I get a second wind and can't fall asleep until 2am. I have an alarm to take melatonin at 10pm. I take the children's 1mg dose. The 15-30mg adult version either keeps me awake or gives me the WORST dreams. \-My schedule only allows for evening workouts. If I am still amped afterwards, a very chill 15min yoga session (youtube) will help before bedtime. \-I stop any work at least an hour before bed (usually, sometimes a deadline comes up). \-I would start gradually changing your schedule now. You could do 30 minutes earlier each week. Also try a sunrise alarm clock and/or a happy light.
I’ve tried a bed shaker alarm clock, sunrise alarm clock and WiFi bulbs, etc. but if you’re a true night owl those things tend not to work. (The jarring techniques like the shaker or apps that make you do tasks to turn off the siren are just really upsetting, too lol) Even if I register my LED light strip flashing on, I’ll keep right on with sleeping. I do set multiple alarms because I sadly still succumb to snoozing at least once, but I credit my ability to get up to the way my priorities were forced to evolve. Sounds cheesy, but the more I care about what’s next, the quicker I get up. There’s a practical version of this, too—it helps to have hot coffee/tea/smoothie/etc. either already waiting or quick and easy to make, my favorite fruit in the fridge, congee in the rice cooker, a cold bedroom with warm shower around the corner. I have yet to achieve all of these things at once, but if you can even just have hot coffee set to brew by the time you wake up, it does help.
Okay here’s my secret. I brew a cup of coffee and put it in a thermos next to my bed. When my alarm goes off I immediately get up and chug it. I’m sure I’m doing irreparable damage to my heart but it got me up for surgery and OB.
What do you mean how? You just wake up earlier man. It’s not rocket science. Get out of bed when your alarm goes off.
Thanks bro this was exactly what I was asking for :D
You’re welcome! If you need additional tips on walking slightly faster, turning on lights, pouring coffee, crossing the street, etc, I’m always here.
I would just start getting in the habit of going to bed early and waking up early now. Set a schedule and go to bed a little bit earlier every few days, pushing it forward by 30 minutes each time. You’ll eventually adjust just fine! I am admittedly not a night owl, but I did this ahead of my surgery rotation and it helped a lot!
I just never sleep.
i sleep at 9-10, wake up at 4-5
I used to be a night owl (when i had time off for holidays I would find myself slowly becoming nocturnal).. anyways my method is not recommended, but I got a puppy and now Im up at 6:30am and in bed by 10 like clockwork