Figure out how much sleep you need per day, and try to set up a rigid schedule where you wake up when you want to and go to bed the required hours before the time.
Hacks for getting to sleep at a specific time:
- Take an hour long walk, go to the gym or go running during the day to get more tired.
- Try to get exposed to direct sunlight during the day, this is supposed to do something in your brain that helps it maintain the circadian cycle.
- Use F.Lux to keep your monitor from blasting your brain with sunlight analogue wavelengths in the evening.
- Try a cold shower or a cold bath about an hour before bedtime. Several people have reported that this helps them sleep.
- Have a schedule for doing specific non-open-ended stuff that doesn't get you anxious or worked out for half-an-hour to an hour before bedtime. The repeating ritual will prime your brain for sleep.
- Don't read in bed. Make your brain associate being in bed only with sleeping.
- Try meditation. Either do sitting meditation right before bed, or do mindfulness meditation while lying in bed.
- Maintain a very small sleep deprivation, like sleeping half an hour less than you would without any alarms, to fall asleep quickly.
- Fast during the day and eat a carbohydrate heavy meal right before bed. Post-dinner coma will knock you out.
Hacks for waking up:
- Set an alarm 60 or 90 minutes before the time you really wake up, eat a 100 mg caffeine pill and go back to sleep. The caffeine will kick in while you're asleep and you'll wake up when it's fully effective.
- Get a sunrise lamp or rig one up yourself with a power timer. The light will prime your brain for getting up when it's time to wake up.
- If you have a smartphone with an accelerometer, see if there's a smart alarm clock app that will detect when you're sleeping lightly and wake you up then. There's ElectricSleep for Android and EasyWakeup for iPhone.
- Committing to attending something early in the morning like 8 AM will make you anxious to wake up and get up in time. Anxiety isn't very fun though.
- If you've gotten yourself out of the bed at the time you want, but feel like going right back in, try a shower, a walk, or a run to make your body wake up a bit more.
It's much harder to spend two consecutive nights sleeping much less than usual to adjust to an early wakeup time than a single night.
Hacks for waking up:
- Set an alarm 60 or 90 minutes before the time you really wake up, eat a 100 mg caffeine pill and go back to sleep. The caffeine will kick in while you're asleep and you'll wake up when it's fully effective.
Very interesting, will give it a whirl. Hydroxycut could be an alternative. It tends to give me less "jitters" when drinking 4-6 cups of coffee, and more of a longer-term boost with just a single cup.
I COMPLETELY agree that waking up WITHOUT a stimulant is highly effective (natural waking). I tend to drink coffee in the morning out of either habit, or, the love of coffee's flavor.
Hacks for getting to sleep at a specific time:
- Take an hour long walk, go to the gym or go running during the day to get more tired.
- Try to get exposed to direct sunlight during the day, this is supposed to do something in your brain that helps it maintain the circadian cycle.
- Use F.Lux to keep your monitor from blasting your brain with sunlight analogue wavelengths in the evening.
- Try a cold shower or a cold bath about an hour before bedtime. Several people have reported that this helps them sleep.
- Have a schedule for doing specific non-open-ended stuff that doesn't get you anxious or worked out for half-an-hour to an hour before bedtime. The repeating ritual will prime your brain for sleep.
- Don't read in bed. Make your brain associate being in bed only with sleeping.
- Try meditation. Either do sitting meditation right before bed, or do mindfulness meditation while lying in bed.
- Maintain a very small sleep deprivation, like sleeping half an hour less than you would without any alarms, to fall asleep quickly.
- Fast during the day and eat a carbohydrate heavy meal right before bed. Post-dinner coma will knock you out.
Hacks for waking up:
- Set an alarm 60 or 90 minutes before the time you really wake up, eat a 100 mg caffeine pill and go back to sleep. The caffeine will kick in while you're asleep and you'll wake up when it's fully effective.
- Get a sunrise lamp or rig one up yourself with a power timer. The light will prime your brain for getting up when it's time to wake up.
- If you have a smartphone with an accelerometer, see if there's a smart alarm clock app that will detect when you're sleeping lightly and wake you up then. There's ElectricSleep for Android and EasyWakeup for iPhone.
- Committing to attending something early in the morning like 8 AM will make you anxious to wake up and get up in time. Anxiety isn't very fun though.
- Use mind judo to get up from bed without willpower: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fh/willpower_hax_487_execute_by_defa...
- If you've gotten yourself out of the bed at the time you want, but feel like going right back in, try a shower, a walk, or a run to make your body wake up a bit more.
It's much harder to spend two consecutive nights sleeping much less than usual to adjust to an early wakeup time than a single night.