Night Owl to Early Bird: Why?

and how.

As a kid and a teenager I was not an early bird for sure and even though I could not fall asleep early, I was forced to bed at around 11 so was not sure about my capabilities to work as a night owl.

Then I came to college hostel and it was almost impossible to sleep before 2 AM. Four years in college and I am almost certified night owl. The thought of sleeping before 2 in the night was strange to me.

Even after working for two and a half years, still pretty much a night owl and on top of it while it was forced upon in college, now I started appreciating the silence of those night hours.

Recently I found myself with a lot of tasks and not enough time to do them and realized that the world around us and even our bodies are designed to favor early birds, not the night owls.

• Going to the gym: on a working day, I can either go to the gym in the morning or in the evening (read it as night). As a night owl I wake up late and if I go to the gym in the morning I will be too late for work. The only option I have is to go to the gym after work. The problem here is I like to have a black coffee before going to the gym and if I take it few hours before sleeping the caffine ruins my sleep (at least now, after reading so many articles about how to have a good night sleep). Even if I skip coffee, I do not have the energy to work as a night owl after the late night dinner.
• Eating the frog: if I wake up late and there is limited time before I leave for work, I can not focus on and can not eat a good amount of frogs. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/procrastination-sucks-so-heres-the-eat-that-frog-way-to-powerful-productivity-543b07ecf360
• Late breakfast and early lunch: on waking up late, I eat my breakfast late (around 10 or 11 am) and then the lunch time is at 1 or 2 pm. The gap between breakfast and lunch is too less.
• The feeling of guilt: if I wake up with intense sunlight all over my room and the sounds of everyone already started working while I am struggling to brush my teeth, does give me a feeling of slacking behind the world.
• No caffeine support: say I have to a task of two hours to be completed. If I choose to do it as a night owl, I will be tired and won’t have coffee because it won’t let me sleep after the work is done. While in the morning I can have my coffee if I am too sleepy.

I have not cconvertedinto an early bird, still struggling in between.

I will probably write a post about what I learned as an early bird if I could make it to a few months as an early bird.

Not trying to force myself to sleep early. Instead, I am getting ready for some late nights and early mornings with annoyed days until I start feeling sleepy on time to get enough sleep.

My trick to wake up on time: I ask Alexa to play music at 6 AM and then mute her. It is already kept at a place where I can not reach while in my bed and the most important part: I do not turn off the music until I have completed one task that requires properly waking up.