What's your strategy for waking up early without feeling like garbage?

Acceptance

For some reason if i go to sleep at 0000 i wake naturally quite early. But if i go later or earlier, i sleep way too much. I went to bed at 0000 for about a year as I had things to wake up for and at some point i started to wake in time or earlier even without alarm. It still seems to work even after sleeping way too late for many months.

While i had work, i also woke up about hour before i had to leave just so i can "nap" for hour. I would wake up, brush my teeth and put my clothes on so i can just leave and then set alarm for about 1h. I dont know if it was good idea or not, but it felt like it worked.

So going to bed at same time each or at least most nights and getting enough sleep might help. And definitely dont do anything extra in bed while trying to sleep like using phone, it will surely lower the quality of sleep.

Don't forget that whatever method you adopt repetition and time are the most help. Like exercise or quitting smoking, eventually your body will get the message that now it's time to go to sleep, and now it's time to wake up. But it takes practice to make a habit. I heard once a habit takes on average 36 consecutive attempts, so expect at least a month or more before you don't feel like you're trying anymore and it just happens on it's own.

The only thing I've tried that actually works: apps like Sleep Cycle.

The app tracks your sleep, but that's secondary for you. What you want out of it is the alarm part. You give it an interval of time when you want to wake up, and it'll do it based on which sleep stage you're in.

The idea is simple - you have different stages of sleep. Sometimes you're in deep sleep, sometimes in REM (rapid eye movement), sometimes in light sleep - there may be others, idm. You want to wake up from light sleep, that's when you feel the most fresh. Waking up from deep sleep you're all groggy and still half asleep. So the app determines when you're in the lightest sleep, and it plays an alarm gradually, so that you're not just scared awake.

You can read more here: https://www.sleepcycle.com/features/smart-alarm-clock/

The thing is, this feature is actually not why I got the app. I wanted to track my sleep, I didn't really care about how I woke up. But I honestly just found it easier to wake up with this, so now I recommend it.

Be born different, my friend. Never regret how you were built, however, as it is prized and unique.

Do you mean regularly or exceptionally?

If I need to get up early as an exception I just go to bed earlier and automatically tend to wake up before my early alarm.

get 10-12 hours of sleep before, works like a charm, I get tired around 3pm and go to sleep at 7-8. wake up at 4-6 and have no free time. but I manage to get to school on time, and all I have to do is sacrifice my entire personal life.

Get up. Don't fuck around with snooze, those few extra minutes don't help.

Allow time to reward yourself for getting up. For me it's word puzzles and coffee before I get ready.

I do several things in conjunction.

1. I plan when I need to go sleep using either sleepyti.me or wakeupti.me and set my alarms accordingly. Setting your alarm to align with your sleep patterns makes the act of waking up much easier.

2. I set my phone on my desk away from my bed. The reasoning is two-fold; it forces me to get up and out of bed to dismiss my alarm(This works extra well if you make it a habit to get dressed as soon as you're out of bed.), and it prevents me from laying in bed while playing on my phone.

3. I wake up at the same time every day. Consistency is paramount managing sleep.

4. I only sleep in my bed. I don't do anything else. This builds an association to automatically get sleepy when you get in bed because the only thing you in bed is sleep. Your brain knows what to expect and just does it. Sort of like how some guys get excited when they see their girlfriend tie her into a ponytail.

I wake up between 4-5AM every single day of the week, and all year long. I don't even need an alarm clock. I can go to sleep at anytime

• No screen before bed. No computer, no phone, no tablet, no TV (we don't own a TV, so we don't have much choice here ;). What do I do instead? I read a book, journal, write, chat with my spouse or friends, play chess or board games,... I do various stuff just not on a screen. Not even using a Kindle.
• No coffee in the evening. No alcohol at all (evening as well as in the day: I was an alcoholic many, many years ago). No soda either. Either I'll drink water or herbal tea.
• Light & healthy diner. I don't stuff my stomach, don't eat garbage pre-packaged industrial 'food' either (this alone was a huge change for me, the day I quit eating that absolute turd a few years ago and my health has jumped through the roof, pre-packaged food is just poison in a fancy packaging and a lot of marketing, I would not be surprise if it was to become the tobacco of the XXI health-wise).
• No snacking, no candy, chips, or whatever.
• At least one long walk during the day. Every day.

Wake up early consistently every day for at least a week before then. Also go to sleep early every day for a week before then.

Eat relatively healthy, stay hydrated, and get 7 hours of sleep.

cracks a beer and stuffs a jalapeño popper in his gob

Routine. Go to bed at the same time. Reduce electronics before bed.

You can't make yourself sleep. You can make yourself get up. Force yourself to get up early the going to bed early part will take care of itself.

Oh and you should stop drinking liquids a couple of hours before bed. Unless your a man over 50, in that case if you want to sleep through the night you'll have to avoid any fluids after Tuesday.

So far it looks like the consensus is: wake up early and don't feel like garbage. 😆

Waking up early and feeling like garbage is amplified for me by drinking, staying up late, eating just before bed, watching screens until I fall asleep, having inconsistent hours over the weekend, and getting accustomed to snooze.

Avoiding these things seems to help.

Having kids and hearing them do stuff early in the morning seems to get me moving early.

No drinking definitely helps me.

• I just need a good 7 hours of sleep at least. You can't cheat sleep duration. Eventually, you'll need to catch up if you aren't getting enough and it'll compound the bad feeling.
• I fall asleep faster if I've had a drink, but not necessarily better. I might wake up in the middle of the night if I do.
• Pattern is important. If you usually wake up at 9 or 10am and want to wake up at 5 or 6am instead, you'll probably have some meh feeling regardless, but the more you do it, the better it gets. Maybe consider moving your normal wake up time closer to the earliest times you want to wake up.

I've redefined what early means. My work starts at 2pm so waking up at midday is early and it feels slightly better

Go to bed early if possible. Coffee if I can't and then try to stay away from other humans till I can be less of an asshole.

If I'm shifting my schedule, I'll try and aim for 9 -10 hours in bed until my body adapts, then it's back to the 6 to 7 I usually get.

I do the classic where I get anxious about having to be up and actually alert, and don't sleep as a result. Don't really recommend.

My puppy. First thing at 0430, get up, take him out to pee, get dressed, go for a short walk, inside for training (all kibble is used to training), then hand him over to my wife at 0530. That hour really gets me going, but only because I want to give the puppy three best life, which also brings me joy!

Pay attention to your sleep cycle, so you don’t wake up in the middle of deep sleep. And as others have said, wake up early the day before so it’s easier to fall asleep

Get old.

Go to bed earlier. Give yourself 9 or 10 hours to sleep so that you wake up before your alarm rested.

Not possible for some people, but as a single person without kids it works for me.

I'm pretty sure that's a physical impossibility in the known laws of the universe. Best I can do is wake up earlier to give me time to feel like garbage, but then be fine by the time I have to do anything.

Go to bed at 8:00 p.m.

My "strategy" consists of going to bed at a fixed time and a modern electronic alarm clock that is 100% reliable.

Actually go to bed very, very early. I don't mean "23:00 instead of midnight" early, but at like 19:00. My body is used to going to bed at 22:00-23:00 and then 2 hours of videos and livestreams. Instead, it gets 3 hours till 22:00, at the end it slips into disbelief that it should sleep already, but finally slips into it at 22:00-23:00. And so, 8 hours of sleep at 6:00-8:00. And then either getting up, or resting till 9:00.

Go to bed early the two nights before, if it's just a one off thing. If I'm adjusting my schedule I'll take some NyQuil or melatonin to help sleep only the first two nights or so.

I don't. I'm not a morning person and I'm always garbage if I try to be.

Don't have kids

Try Melatonin and Vitamin D about an hour before bedtime.

One of those sunrise alarm clocks, going to bed more than 8 hours before it goes off, a neti pot or benadryl so I can breath while sleeping. Blackout shades, and an air filter that makes some soft white noise.

Make a clone of yourself to wake up early for you

Drugs

My estradiol alarm. Starting the day has never felt so good.

There's always going to bed earlier.

My only strategy is to try to get enough sleep. Coffee provides less of an effect and more of a feeling of an effect.

No screens for two hours before bed.

Be consistent with the time you wake up and don't use the snooze button. Get out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off.

Shower and a cup of tea or coffee

I get seasonal affective disorder in the winter. Thirty minutes of the light therapy lamp first thing in the morning works wonders if you use it properly and consistently.

Biphasic sleep. One 5 1⁄2-6 hour block over night, one 90 minute siesta before work.

How early? When I had to get up at 5, it just sucked no matter what. At 7? Just do it for a couple of weeks until you can be sleepy at 11pm, it will work itself out.

Yellow zzzquil at bedtime

Alarm clock set for an hour before you need to wake up, now spend that extra hour doing nothing or taking a morning nap.