While not a night owl, I was always grumpy in the morning until my first professional job. I was a teacher at a residential school for autistic teens and if you were grumpy when you went in there it did not go well with the students. I learned to be calm and cheerful....still am and now I wake up around 6am without an alarm every day. I set an alarm if I need to be up before that.

I have always been a night owl. Left to my own devices, I would stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. and sleep until 9 or 10 a.m. Never could do that when I worked, although I would stay up late on my days off. If I go to bed too early, my body thinks I'm taking a nap and I wake up a few hours later and lie awake for hours in the middle of the night.

I NEVER have actually wanted to get up early, so, no, I never was able to make the change. I begrudge the alarm every morning I have to wake up earlier than I'd like. Now that I'm retired there are some weeks I am able to stay up as late as I want and sleep in, but my schedule (grandbaby care) requires me to get up at 6:30 a.m. some of the days of the week. I really, really hate those days, but my grandson is the reward.

I am a natural night owl and way more productive from 8pm-2am than I should be. I had to make the switch to mornings for work and now with the kid, it evens out my life (good) but I kind of miss binging on work or schoolwork at all hours.

I believe early birds in general are steadier, more productive and sunnier. I think night owls in general are more spontaneous, creative and somber. On average.

Like oly, I have always been a night owl. Stay up to 2 or 3 am, sleep until 9 or 10am. I had to change for work. One day per week, I had to be at work at 3 am. The rest of the week, I started at 5 am. On the weekends, I would revert back to staying up late.

Now that I’m retired, I try to get to bed by 1am and up by 8.

I am a natural night owl. Having children changed that instantly. I like quiet early mornings now, but feel the most productive late at night still.

When I was working, we traveled a few times halfway around the world across the date line to a work site for 2-3 months. It was hard to get used to the time difference for a few days. I usually got up very early (3-4 am), made coffee in my room, went for a run and then got ready for the day, which was usually a very long work day. We all had to eat meals at a specified time. I usually tried to eat lunch early so I would have time to take a short siesta before biking or walking back to the work site. We kept easy hours so everyone could take a quick break most times during the day.

Now that I am retired, I am more of a night owl than I used to be. But I still am asleep by 11 pm and usually up by 6.

I flip back and forth depending on what I have scheduled. In general, though, I like to wake up with the sun which makes winter awakenings difficult.

I am a total early bird. Awake as soon as it starts to get daylight, even in a room with no windows. :)

As far as making new habits, I am on the Noom weight loss program and their psychologists say there is no set length of time to create a new habit. It has to do with how badly you want to do it, how much you have to change to create the new habit, and what the habit is you are trying to create. :)

Donna

I’ve always been an Early Bird, except for the 4 years I lived in South Florida during my single years, when my friends and I were hitting a lot of the clubs in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami after work in the evenings. It didn’t take long to make the adjustment then. I imagine, because I was just in my early-20s . . . and motivated (LOL)! But, I quickly got back to my early rising ways. Thank goodness DH is an EB, too! Weekdays we’re up at 5:30 or 6AM. Weekends we sleep in . . . until 7:30 or 8. I can’t even imagine myself sleeping later! As with the rest of you Early Birds, I am happiest and most productive in the morning.

Both my mom and my best friend were/are Night Owls who married Early Birds. Both have told me that part of their (both long happy ) marriages was tough.

I've been an early bird all my life. Even in college I was up early, and asleep by 10:00. I no longer wake up to an alarm clock, but I wake up as soon as it starts to get light. Which these days is rather annoying at 5 in the morning!

My husband is the same way so we get along well, and I've never had any reason to try to change.

I'm an early bird also. When I was in college, I took a night shift job. On paper it was great. Work all night, go straight to class, then to bed. I never slept very well. Finally, after a year, I quit for another job. I really never could adjust to a night schedule.

I used to be early-to-bed-early-to-rise until I had a child. When she was a baby, I'd stay up after she was in bed just to have some quiet grown-up time. Bedtime between 11 and midnight is now pretty normal for me.

I have never been either. Ironically, I used to be able to sleep like a baby all through the night for 8 hours every night. But now that I'm retired and can have the luxury of sleeping in, even after only 5 hours of restless sleep, my eyes pop open at 6 a.m.

I am a natural early bird. I generally wake (without an alarm) anywhere between 4 and 6 am.). I love the morning hours all to myself. I am retired now, but even when I was working, still cherished and savored the extra hours in the morning.

I immediately have my coffee, browse on the computer or read or watch tv or all 3. Then after about an hour, I get productive- laundry, sweeping, wash the floor.. My husband is a night owl. Makes for an interesting time.

..The only time I was a night owl was when I had my babies.

I remember staying up to watch David Letterman as that was my alone and down time.

I've always thought of myself as neither an early bird nor a nite owl as my natural preferred sleep cycle is from 10:30-11 pm until 6:30-7 am. My husband is a seriously early bird. He likes to be in bed by 9 pm, if he's really tired I've seen him turn in by 8. And he used to be up always before 6 am. Now that he's retired he's luxuriating in bed till 6:30 am--the first few weeks he did that I kept going to check and be sure he was still alive, it was so unusual LOL.

Stress really wrecks my sleep patterns, so when I'm under pressure at work which is reliably the case from August till May I start waking up earlier and earlier. I eventually am in a bad pattern of being up at 5 am or in really bad spells at 4 am after falling asleep at 11. And once I'm awake I can't get back to sleep so the day starts with me already feeling lousy and a loooooong slog till bedtime.

I also have problems when I'm stressed with waking up in the wee hours unable to get back to sleep-I start ruminating and it's all over. For many years the only really refreshing period of good sleep for me has been summer time because as a college administrator that's the only period at work without students or deadlines or projects or stress.

Now that things are winding down at work permanently and our house sale and move is complete I'm getting SUCH good sleep!! And it is truly life changing. Lack of sleep really affects me negatively and as I get older even more so. That's one aspect of retirement I anticipate with great joy. To be able to read myself to sleep and rest all night and get up when I want.....bliss.

Early bird here although not as early as some. I'm up before 6, feed the cats, have my coffee and sit on the computer until 6:40 when I go to the gym or 7:30 when I go for a run. My DH sleeps later and I love that me time.

My kids are one of each.

Early bird. I love being awake before everyone else. I get my coffee, feed our cat Sunshine and go sit on my couch to drink it. She comes to keep me company most of the time. We have the couch facing the window which looks onto the park across the street. I watch the day dawn. If weather permits the windows are open and I can hear the birds start singing. My husband is a night owl.

Early bird and morning person. I always have been, except for a period of debauchery in my 20s. Even so, I'd wake up early, the penance for my sins. Fortunately my late husband was also an early riser so it worked out. I generally wake with the dawn, or my cats' idea of dawn, which can often be long before the real dawn.

It's not like I spring out of bed. There's still that momentary groan, but once my feet hit the floor, I'm fine. I'm not chirpy and hyper, I just like my coffee, classical music and otherwise no talking for an hour or two. I'm very productive in the morning, have my best ideas. Past noon, it's pretty much downhill for me.

I consider mornings the best part of the day, it's all new and promising. Another chance.

Early bird, here. I am useless in the evenings and even as a young adult when I'd go out partying with friends, I would crave sleep. I remember a bar here re-decorated with daybeds and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep.

Early bird. When I have to stay up late at night to work, I am not happy! When I was finishing my dissertation I would go to bed and then get up at 4 a.m., start the coffee pot and work.

Now the cats are up with the sun at 6 a.m. so I am still up making the coffee.

I've been a night owl most of my adult life. I love the quiet of my house after everyone goes to bed, and I usually get a lot done then. But as I get older, I'm naturally waking up earlier. I don't mind it once I'm up and have a cup of coffee or two. I don't usually mutter a word until after 10 a.m. though. I like to ease into the day.

Yup...and it’s all DH’s fault. Early bird catches the worm I used to say and I was always in bed by 11 and up at the crack of dawn. I loved it, not only did I have enough time to get things done but there was time to spare so I could have down time too.

Along comes DH with his night owl tendencies and I slowly took to the habit too. The problem I have now is that I will stay up until 1 or 2 and still wake up fairly early as well. .

I too switched from night owl -- crazy night owl who would regularly pull "all nighters" for both work and play-- to a morning person about 5 yr ago. Honestly, it was work and work stress that switched me. It started out as a reaction to NOT being a morning person. I needed a good 2 hr at home before I could deal with people but it soon evolved to working my best in the am.

I get up at 5-5:30, have coffee, work a bit and then shower and go into the office around 8.

I turn off all electronic devices by 9-- no phone/text messages, no work emails, no tv. The only thing I use after 9pm is my kindle. I go to my bedroom about 9:30pm-- to sleep by 11pm.

I have been working a LOT lately and am finding I need more sleep. I try to catch up on the weekends but it is rare that I sleep past 7:30am-- even if I am up into the wee hours (which I do still do on rare occasions).

I’m a night owl. I’d prefer to stay up until 4am. I’m much more productive and creative as the day goes on. During school years I always had a good sleep schedule but somewhere in my 20s I discovered I preferred staying up late. Kids haven’t changed my night schedule much. I just learned to drink coffee after the birth of second child. :) I’m also an introvert and need the quiet time to recharge. It‘s rare I’m in bed before midnight.

I can get up early but don’t enjoy it. I have to fight to be pleasant at 5, 6, 7 am. I don’t usually feel real awake until 10 am.

I have tried to switch (up early AND bed early) but didn’t stay with it but a few weeks and I disliked it very, very much.

eta -With kids I don’t stay up until 4 but that’s my preferred time if my responsibilities were different.

My mother used to complain that I was a night owl even when I was 5. I'd be up reading until 10! I'm maybe more of a "second shift" gal, I'm most productive from 3-midnight. I worked a lot of 2nd shifts, too!

I changed with kids, dang it school starts in the morning??? But now that they are graduated I'm back to evenings.

The problem is, I married an early bird. And I mean, he's up with the birds. He gets up around 4 am just because he does, and he always did even as a kid. And he goes to bed early. He's itching to get the lawnmower started, but we can't start motors till 7:30 in our town. Usually he just starts working in his home office.

The early part doesn't bother me, if I rouse I can go back to sleep -- although, by the time I get up the coffee is cold. But I want to start noisy projects like cleaning closets at 9 PM, and I can't because he's gone to bed!

I’m a night owl but adapted to the work world. Left to my own schedule I would never get up before 8am unless I had to catch a flight. I too would stay up until 1 am or so and sleep until 10 If I didn’t have to go to work. I was on a path to that during my two weeks of full retirement. However now that I’m working a couple days a week I’m getting up by 6:30 on work days and 8 on my days off. DH on the other hand gets up around 5 am. He’s sleeping in if he makes it to 6. I will never become a morning person.

My dogs are early birds so I guess I am too LOL

I‘m an early riser and when on vacation with others try to be quiet like a Ninja so I can have the time to myself. Last year with my in-laws, I realized that Corelle plates and bowls are so noisy. I was afraid the utensil clinking against the plate/bowl would wake them (neither of them shut their bedroom doors). It seemed so unnecessarily loud. The last thing I wanted was an additional hour of together time at 6 am.

Total early bird!! I get up and go on a 6 mile run at 5 each morning! So much energy until lunch....then I need to collapse on the couch for at least 20 min. I am a serious, hardcore napper. I blame my mom, who completely believed in an afternoon nap for my brother and I up until probably 1st grade! I remember coming home on the bus at 2, and mom would fix me a snack and then tell me to go rest for 1/2 an hour, lol. It caused problems when I was in college and had to schedule an afternoon class. I’d be diligently taking notes, and then just sort of lose consciousness. There’d be like a squiggle in the notes! When I was working before kids...I had to drink coffee (which I hate) and Diet Coke (which I love too much) just to get over the hump. My little siesta helps me to stay up long enough to go to bed at the same time at night owl dh.

I am infuriatingly perky in the morning, and drive dh and both of our kids nuts bc they are all crabby night owls who hate waking up. :)

Nini -Ack early morning runs. The occasional times I do work out early (Last time was over decade ago.). It felt great to get it out of the way and I did feel more awake but was ready for bed early by evening.

My nephew needs more sleep

and sounds like a similar nap situation.

I have a relative who harps at me (lovingly) that I should go to bed early because of our body resets and does certain things when we sleep. I believe relating to adrenals. I’m just hoping mine does it on a different time table.

I never was a night owl. College created some long study nights, then working for years was another routine. In my later years, I enjoy the quiet time at night but don't like getting up later. So it's a mix for me.

Very interesting to me to read everyone's posts. Everyone seems to have their "prime" time when they're most productive. Trying to make the switch is a challenge but I appreciate the comment that the 21 day rule doesn't really apply - it's motivation and determination. Like most everything in life :)

I was a forced early bird during the raising kids and working years. Like others, I would stay up late after the kids were in bed for the quiet time to myself.

The last job I had for ten years and I started at 7:30. I really disliked getting up so early. I am not a happy camper in the morning and don't want noise or chit chat. Some coworkers arrived at 7 and would be laughing and carrying on when the rest of us arrived. I of course said good morning to everyone but then I would think to myself "can you all just be quiet for an hour?"

I am definitely a night owl now that I'm retired, although I have to admit I'd like to get up a bit earlier than I usually do. I like to lounge in the morning for awhile before getting dressed and heading out. I make all appointments in the afternoon. DH is, and always has been, an early bird and is chipper and chatty the minute his feet hit the floor. We've had numerous "discussions" about me being the opposite and not wanting chit chat first thing and needing quiet for a bit. I have to keep reminding him, but many mornings he is out playing tennis or pickle ball when I get up so I have the quiet and am ready to be social when he gets back.

My brother retired several years ago and still sets his alarm for 7 am. The first thing I did when I retired was unplug the alarm clock! We were talking about it and he said he didn't want to "waste half the day by sleeping in." When I told him I like staying up til 1 or two he said there was nothing he would want to be doing at 2am, to which I replied there's nothing I would want to be doing at 7am...ha!

Early in my career, before kids, I was a runner and would run at 5:30 a.m. before work. It was the most unnatural thing for my body to do. I struggled every single morning.

Like Sheeisback, I'm an introvert and need time alone at the end of my day to decompress. It's worked to my advantage as a mom to teens. They got away with nothing because I was up late, but I didn't like to talk in the morning, so didn't pester them.

I just heard a report on our Canadian CBC that you can change your schedule and that it is helpful for your mental abilities. Apparently it takes a while to do it though and a concerted effort.

I have attempted to be a morning person. I do call it a semi success as I can get up in the morning and be cheerful.

Of course in order to be officially a morning person you have to go to sleep at 10 pm and get up at 6 am for example. I go to bed at 11:30 and get up at quarter to 6 for work. No matter what I do, at night I am perpetually late to bed. My natural time is around 1 to 9 ish a.m.

I also have had a slightly hyperactive bladder and it is most active at around 9 to around 11 pm so that doesn't help.

I don't take any caffeine or sugar at all. I have all my fruit in the morning. I don't drink anything past around 4 or 5 p.m. unless I have had salty food and am extremely thirsty. In other words I have stopped doing most of the things they say interferes with your timely sleep.

The one thing I have trouble stopping is reading on my phone. Apparently the bright lights of our devices is also supposed to be counter-active to sleeping on time. I read that you're supposed to stop doing anything that is mind stimulating two hours before going to bed.

I don't think reading a book is overstimulating though unless you tend towards nightmares from scary books.

I was always a night owl. When I was married my husband was an early bird and I slowly changed my habits. I never liked him going to sleep before me. It is weird to think of that now. I work evenings and night shifts so I am definitely a night owl once again. I think my body just likes to stay up late and sleep in.

It is healthier to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I have read a great deal about working all night or just staying up really late and sleeping in. Apparently you gain weight if you are a late riser. I have noticed that with myself so I try to get to bed by midnight or 1:00 and usually sleep until 7:00 or 8:00.

I read an article about a study done on doctors that worked the night shift vs. those that worked the day shift. Our DNA breaks down every night and repairs itself. The night shift workers DNA was not repairing itself in the same way as the day shift workers. Very interesting. I am a bit off topic here but I remember reading that and it was so surprising and fascinating. I have read a great deal more about cortisol levels and insulin levels going up when you do not get to sleep until after 2:00 and what it does to one's body. It is actually quite scary.

I don’t know if I am a night owl but I am a confirmed hater of mornings. I struggled every single morning when I was working . It was the worst part of the day for me. Not only do I have trouble waking early, I need to sit with coffee for about an hour before I feel human. If I have to get up early, I can but it is painful. Early mornings always feel damp and uninviting to me. I do love night time and staring at the stars.

A little of both, I think. I like being in bed by 11:00 ish and up by 6:30 or so. Dh loves to sleep in on weekends and I love the quiet of coffee on the deck. Just me and the birds (and my dogs.)

Night owl, since time immemorial. Bed at 1-2am or so and up at 9-10am is natural for me.

When I was in college, I took mostly night courses. Everyone else in my class was working. Not me, I was just a night-owl. My classes ended at 10pm!

However, Wall St is not for night owls (unless maybe I had traded foreign currency). For years I had a standing daily 730am meeting; one at which I presented and was beamed out to our satellites. So I had to be a-wake. And presentable. I do not miss that one bit. Or catching a gazillion flights.

My favorite was always business trips to the W coast. Suddenly, a 7am breakfast meeting was civilized, since it was 10am to me!

As I get (a tiny bit) older, i notice i get up a bit earlier. And during the school year I still need to make sure "the baby" is up at 7am. Thankfully DH drives her tho, so I can somnambulate and then go back to bed. Going back to bed on a cold rainy day is delightful.