How do you become a "morning person"?

[Lone Shark]

This is a bit random, but I just said I'd throw it out there and see what came back.

All my life I've been a night owl by nature. I'm at my most productive, work wise, in the evenings and if I'm really under pressure, I'll work from midnight to 5am and will get great work done in that time. In contrast, my brain is absolute sludge in the mornings - I can't concentrate, I make sloppy errors, and generally feel like punching the world in the face because I have to be awake and don't want to be. It's actually a blessing that I'm working by myself because I'm viciously cranky in the morning, completely unlike me normally.

Due to the nature of my work, I've spent very little time in a 9 to 5 regime and even when I was working in an office, it was always a flexible enough situation, where you could show up at 10 and work on till 7. At least then though you could have a chat to someone and a little bit of human interaction would stimulate the mind a little. Now I'm self employed and working from home, and it's even harder to keep that regime. However the good lady is a 9 to 5 worker, and every day she's up before 8 and wants to be in bed by 11. For the purposes of a harmonious home life, I've spent three years trying to fit into this schedule, but I'm no closer than I was when I start. At least two or three times a week I go to bed at 11, only to lie there getting cranky because I can feel energy surging through my system and I can do nothing with it, all the while my to-do list gets longer and longer.

Just to be clear, I get up every day at 8am and have done for three years now, but invariably the clock rolls around to noon and I've feck all done. It's then panic from there on. It's really affecting me, particularly since I'm trying not to spend my evenings working. It doesn't help that I've recently been diagnosed coeliac, so the option of having a good healthy cereal-based breakfast is out the door. You can get coeliac-friendly cereals, but they're horrible and to be honest I've no appetite at that hour of the day anyway. I only eat because I know I should, and I feel like vomiting with every bite, no matter what I have. I start with fruit, but I invariably fall back on sugary stuff because my body just wants the fast kick of processed sugar to get me up and running. I know this isn't healthy, but I'm not sure what my best alternative is.

I've tried each of the following:

(1) Doing an all nighter on Monday night, which leads to me to be wrecked all day Tuesday, before my usual burst of life around 10pm kicks in as normal.
(2) Early morning exercise. I'm just not able for it with no food in the system, but I still can't eat. I end up even more tired for the rest of the morning, before again, getting my normal burst of life at night. (You may be starting to see a pattern here)
(3) Doing pointless busywork in the morning before getting on to the meaningful stuff in the afternoon - but even then I get distracted and it takes me 3 hours to do something that should only take 40 minutes.
(4) Red Bull. It's a temporary solution, but it's still not the same and it's hardly a long term resolution.

This is actually really getting to me lately. I feel that I'm eating, sleeping, working and exercising all when the clock tells me to and never when my body feels like doing any of those things. It's really upsetting and in the last few months it's getting to me in a big way. I don't want to go back to how I was four or five years ago, sleeping late, working late and essentially living in a completely different timezone to my fiancée, but I can't go on like this either.

Anyone with any advice, or experience in this?

[Armaghgeddon]

Psychology has found that being a night owl or morning person is down to your personality.

[AZOffaly]

First of all, I disagree with this sentence - I'm viciously cranky in the morning, completely unlike me normally.

Secondly, ask herself what you can do about this  - At least two or three times a week I go to bed at 11, only to lie there getting cranky because I can feel energy surging through my system and I can do nothing with it, all the while my to-do list gets longer and longer.

Finally, and more seriously, Have you tried getting up earlier and going for a run or a workout? I'm starting that now because I hate mornings, and it's good. Gets the blood pumping, clears the mind and gets you ready for the day. Also, come that evening you might feel a bit more tired and ready for the scratcher.

[johnneycool]

Have a few children and you've no choice but become a morning person!!

[Lone Shark]

First of all, I disagree with this sentence - I'm viciously cranky in the morning, completely unlike me normally.

Finally, and more seriously, Have you tried getting up earlier and going for a run or a workout? I'm starting that now because I hate mornings, and it's good. Gets the blood pumping, clears the mind and gets you ready for the day. Also, come that evening you might feel a bit more tired and ready for the scratcher.

Okay, crankier than usual then...... 

I've tried the exercise thing, but to be honest so far it hasn't worked. I feel lifeless and start to run out of energy very quickly, due to not having eaten - but at the same time I'm more or less unable to eat. Maybe I need to start getting up at six and forcing food down earlier or something, but this is the first thing that everyone says to me and whether it's mind over matter or whatever, it's a real case of "body says no" when I try.

Have a few children and you've no choice but become a morning person!!

Slightly radical solution there. Using a sledgehammer to drive in a thumbtack perhaps.

[gerrykeegan]

. It doesn't help that I've recently been diagnosed coeliac, so the option of having a good healthy cereal-based breakfast is out the door. You can get coeliac-friendly cereals, but they're horrible and to be honest I've no appetite at that hour of the day anyway. I only eat because I know I should, and I feel like vomiting with every bite, no matter what I have. I start with fruit, but I invariably fall back on sugary stuff because my body just wants the fast kick of processed sugar to get me up and running. I know this isn't healthy, but I'm not sure what my best alternative is.

I assume that you all of a sudden weren't just diagnosed coeliac and that you have suffered for some time before you discovered it,Its very draining in its self as I understand it, my dad lost a serious amount of weight and had no energy at all. It took about 18 months before they diagnosed him. The change is diet is pretty tough at first but you can adapt to it, your other half needs to start baking.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Would your Circadian rhythm (Wikipedia) be somewhat fecked up Lone Shark?

[Lone Shark]

. It doesn't help that I've recently been diagnosed coeliac, so the option of having a good healthy cereal-based breakfast is out the door. You can get coeliac-friendly cereals, but they're horrible and to be honest I've no appetite at that hour of the day anyway. I only eat because I know I should, and I feel like vomiting with every bite, no matter what I have. I start with fruit, but I invariably fall back on sugary stuff because my body just wants the fast kick of processed sugar to get me up and running. I know this isn't healthy, but I'm not sure what my best alternative is.

I assume that you all of a sudden weren't just diagnosed coeliac and that you have suffered for some time before you discovered it,Its very draining in its self as I understand it, my dad lost a serious amount of weight and had no energy at all. It took about 18 months before they diagnosed him. The change is diet is pretty tough at first but you can adapt to it, your other half needs to start baking.

Just on that aspect of it, the diet change is tough, but I actually had no symptoms, other than mouth ulcers. There is a long history of it on my mother's side of the family and that's why I got tested. Also I never had any appetite first thing in the morning, but I used to be able to eat brown bread, and did so in copious amounts. That's all but impossible to bake with tritamyl flour, and impossible to buy too, unless I'm down in the midlands where there is one place that does it well, and even then you have to know the day before to order it, and it doesn't freeze well either. Everywhere else sells stuff that's either really light and sweet, or else loaded with fat and nuts to compensate for the absence of texture.

[Lone Shark]

Would your Circadian rhythm (Wikipedia) be somewhat fecked up Lone Shark?

I think that's pretty much the issue all right.

[gerrykeegan]

. It doesn't help that I've recently been diagnosed coeliac, so the option of having a good healthy cereal-based breakfast is out the door. You can get coeliac-friendly cereals, but they're horrible and to be honest I've no appetite at that hour of the day anyway. I only eat because I know I should, and I feel like vomiting with every bite, no matter what I have. I start with fruit, but I invariably fall back on sugary stuff because my body just wants the fast kick of processed sugar to get me up and running. I know this isn't healthy, but I'm not sure what my best alternative is.

I assume that you all of a sudden weren't just diagnosed coeliac and that you have suffered for some time before you discovered it,Its very draining in its self as I understand it, my dad lost a serious amount of weight and had no energy at all. It took about 18 months before they diagnosed him. The change is diet is pretty tough at first but you can adapt to it, your other half needs to start baking.

Just on that aspect of it, the diet change is tough, but I actually had no symptoms, other than mouth ulcers. There is a long history of it on my mother's side of the family and that's why I got tested. Also I never had any appetite first thing in the morning, but I used to be able to eat brown bread, and did so in copious amounts. That's all but impossible to bake with tritamyl flour, and impossible to buy too, unless I'm down in the midlands where there is one place that does it well, and even then you have to know the day before to order it, and it doesn't freeze well either. Everywhere else sells stuff that's either really light and sweet, or else loaded with fat and nuts to compensate for the absence of texture.

I must ask my sister for some recepies, she bakes every second  week for my dad and he freezes it and is happy as larry, the bread issue was a disaster for him at the start.

[All of a Sludden]

Get some exercise first thing, if you are a coffee drinker have one before any exercise. Have you tried fresh fruit and natural yogurt for breakfast? Hit the gym or go for a walk in the evening, anything to try to tire the body. Turn off your computer, tv or whatever at a set time and stick to it.
Sleep is like a woman, the more you chase it the further it gets away from you. Go on a holiday, take a break and you'll find that you get in to a more normal sleep routine. Just try and keep it like that. It only works for me for so long, so I suppose more holidays may be the answer.
The problem with being a night owl is that you try to live like the average 9 to 5 person. You cannot do both.

[Lone Shark]

Get some exercise first thing.....

This seems to be the consensus, but I've tried it a few times. Others who may have been in my situation, what way do ye do it? Wake up at 7, on the road by 7.10? Or what is your routine? All I end up doing is a measly five or six mile run because I don't have the energy to do more, come back in, shower, and go back to being fit for nothing but sleep.

[the Deel Rover]

Get some exercise first thing.....

This seems to be the consensus, but I've tried it a few times. Others who may have been in my situation, what way do ye do it? Wake up at 7, on the road by 7.10? Or what is your routine? All I end up doing is a measly five or six mile run because I don't have the energy to do more, come back in, shower, and go back to being fit for nothing but sleep.

I wouldn't call 5 or 6 mile rune measly Lone Shark. Me myself i'm wide awake at 6 in the morning probably due to the fact that that my 2 children have fecked up my sleeping pattern over the years. I wake at 6 normally take a pint of water and a banana and make up a recovery drink for after my run  at around 6.45 i head for a 6 mile run that takes around 50 minutes i'd be home around 7.30 take the drink , have a shower , a bowl of porridge (i don't know can you take this ) and feel great for the day .  I find it really clears my head , i have only started this since the new year and must admit i feel great.

[Milltown Row2]

If you were waking up to this every morning I think it would solve your problems!!!!

[Puckoon]

Being a total morning person, almost to the inverse of what you describe (i.e. I get cranky and irritable at night, and if someone gives me a new task at work at 3pm I'll hate them for it, as mentally I'm halfway out the door), this is really interesting. Im wide awake with boundless energy from about 5am and I'll often be in work with a days work done by the time the crew gets in at 9. I find myself lying in bed in the morning and all the time my to do list is getting longer so I just have to get up and get to it.

Both my father and brother are not morning people at all, its a running joke that you daren't look at them before noon. My wife is the same and I've often suggested to her to get up and make the most of the day only to get the daggers at me. Suggested exercise - but she just can't handle it in the mornings, says it makes her feel ill. I suppose from reading your post I should be more understanding with the fact that some people really cannot handle mornings, the same way that maybe I just cannot handle late nights (if I'm not in bed by 10 its a war zone) - Ive actually fallen asleep in front of guests on purpose just to get them to leave so I can go to bed.

Have you tried getting out of the house a few mornings to maybe an outdoor office, the local coffee shop or breakfast joint, complete with wifi and getting maybe an hour's work done over the few hours it takes for you to wake?

Also, regarding your energy levels and diet - check out the documentary 'Fat, sick and nearly dead' - it's about a fella with a disease (can't remember the exact one, but I believe it was just making him sedentary and listless) and he went on a juicing diet, and after he had shed the pounds he put juice in as one or two of his meals a day and has made leaps and bounds in terms of his weight, and his energy levels.

This will go to a whole new Gaaboard low here but - like most men would you not fall asleep/get very very tired after a drop of the old romance? Maybe ask your good lady to take one for the team for a few weeks, tiring you out and making sure you were out cold by the stroke of midnight, see if you can get a bit of a routine on the go.

If that fails, well as the black and white stripped zebra said - You is what you is.