Graduating From Night Owl Status

I've done a bunch of things over the years which have greatly improved my circadian rhythms. Underlying all these things is this idea that we probably should be out in the sun a lot, and not have a lot of artificial light at night. The ideas are similar to the paleolithic diet, but we are not in the paleolithic, and I have to do things like work inside under florescent lights rather than be outside.

In the mornings I take 5000iu of vitamin D3 (probably a good idea to get some K2 to go with it). I got this idea from the late Seth Roberts, best known for his Shangri La diet, but he made a lot of great observations on his blog over the years. Another observation he made that seems to help in this arena is what he called morning faces. The premise was that we are designed to socialize, to we will tend to be more awake at times when we expect to be socializing- but you can actually use this by doing things like watching youtube videos where someone is just talking straight at the camera.

I try to get out in the sun and walk around with my glasses off during the day to get the full spectrum of light. Seems like the more sun the better, except don't burn- which seems deceptively simple, but in practice I have had to remember to start with really small amounts of time and build up, especially if I try to sunbathe. In recent years there's been some suggestion that it is the high Omega-6 oils that are causing the bad sunburns. My O-6 intake is pretty low, and although I did get red this spring, it did not progress to the type of sunburns I used to get as a child.

I eat a relatively low carb diet most of the time, though I am not sure how important this is for sleep. I do feel a lot of carbs right before sleep will likely disrupt sleep- perhaps wake me up due to low blood sugar later in the night. Also, I tend to get cramps in my feet and legs if I eat too many carbs and then go lay down in bed.

I take 3mg of melatonin at night and put on blue blocking glasses. I also have my windows covered so light won't come in at night.

One of the things I noticed was that the switch to daylight savings time messes me up. Ideally, I would wake up with the sun, perhaps not take anything at all, and let my body produce all this naturally. But since I have to work, I decided to set my wake up time in the summer at 6:30am, and sleep time is around 9:00pm. I take the melatonin at 9, and put on the glasses, but I don't necessarily go to sleep right away. In the mornings I will get up regardless of the day of the week and take the D3, but if I am still sleepy on the weekends, I'll go back to sleep.

In the winter, I get up at 5:30am and take the melatonin at 8pm. This means I don't have to shift twice a year, which we all end up doing when we follow the daylight savings time edicts.

I have coffee in the morning. There have been times I tried not drinking coffee and I did not notice a great difference. I have noticed alcohol close to bed can disrupt sleep pretty severely, leading to waking up in the middle of the night. From experimenting, I have noticed it is probably best to stop drinking at 6pm. It seems, from a dose perspective I can handle about 4oz of liquor or about a half bottle of wine without sleep disruption- but of course, much depends on how much over time, and how long before sleep.

It takes time, but eventually I got so habituated to it I noticed I get sleepy at the right time even in situations where I didn't expect it. I noticed this once at my mother's house where there was socialization, way too much artificial light, and I was mistaken about what time it was. And I have also begun to awaken a little before my alarm from time to time.