HOWTO become an early riser

This HOWTO explains how to turn yourself into an early riser. I've always been an early riser -- when I was a kid, I used to get up at 4AM; these days, it's more likely to be between 5 and 6 -- and I love it. I get so much done while everyone else is asleep, by the time I get to work, I've already gotten my blogging done, worked on my novel, cleared out my inbox, done some physiotherapy exercises, Tai Chi and yoga, eaten a healthy breakfast and gone for a walk.

Apparently, non-early-risers make a lot of mistakes when they try to switch -- like just going to bed earlier, or going to bed whenever and waking up whenever. This article, written by someone who's tried many approaches, explains one approach that worked for him.

The solution was to go to bed when I’m sleepy (and only when I’m sleepy) and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time (7 days per week). So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5am), but I go to bed at different times every night.

I go to bed when I’m too sleepy to stay up. My sleepiness test is that if I couldn’t read a book for more than a page or two without drifting off, I’m ready for bed. Most of the time when I go to bed, I’m asleep within three minutes. I lie down, get comfortable, and immediately I’m drifting off. Sometimes I go to bed at 9:30pm; other times I stay up until midnight. Most of the time I go to bed between 10-11pm. If I’m not sleepy, I stay up until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Reading is an excellent activity to do during this time, since it becomes obvious when I’m too sleepy to read.

When my alarm goes off every morning, I turn it off, stretch for a couple seconds, and sit up.

Link (via Evhead)