We've talked about how much sleep to get and insomnia, but I have a different problem. I am a night owl. I have been my entire life. All newborns seem to be prone to being awake at night, but my inclination to stay up late never went away with age. I drove my parents nuts as a child, and I haven't changed as I move into my middle years.

Early birds are as much a mystery to me as I am to them, but unfortunately for me, the early risers seem to run the world, so I've had to conform somewhat. I get up and go to work like I should, though I do start later than most people. That's not the problem. My problem is fitting exercise in on a really regular basis.

My life has been very stressful lately with my job and kids (I have a senior in high school) and various other things. Especially lately, there is a lot going on. So what always ends up getting cut? Exercise. Besides walking the dog, which I don't even count, there are too many days I just don't fit it in. I leave for work, come home to change, and head back out. Or if I do stay home (less seldom lately), I'm cooking, helping kids with homework, doing more work work, or spending a little bit of time with the husband.

The answer probably seems simple... get up early. And I'm afraid that's what I have to do. I always have time right before bed, but if I work out then, I'll be up all night long. That wouldn't be a problem, if I didn't have a job. So far, I value sleeping later and staying up later more than exercising, but I'm slowly coming around.

So... is that the only answer? If so, is there anyone else out there like me who hates getting up with a fiery passion? I'd like to hear from night owls who suffer for the cause and get up anyway. Tell me how you do it every day.

Coffee is good...I work shift work with a 56 day rotation. My sleep patterns are all over the place as I am active in my kids activities as well as different organizations as well as work. I make the best of it and fit it in. I have resorted to scheduling exercise and have included my family when it fits there schedule. I have made it a proirity to get a healthy life style so I have quality time later in life.

I have trouble with this one myself. I am both a night and a morning person - which kind of sucks! I like to stay up late, but I would prefer to get up early, which doesn't always work for me. I set my alarm for 5:30, and get out of bed around 6:30.

Starting next week, I will be going to bed before 9:30 and getting up at 5:15 so that I can get into the gym in the morning (damn 35lb challenge!) as well as after work. I think if I'm able to get enough work outs in I will be more tired at night. Once I get caught up on my schedule at home, and with work, I intend to try to incorporate more into my life so that when I go to sleep, that's exactly what I do.

Dilemma!

I am a morning person and rarely see what the day looks like beyond 10pm. (yep, slippers and cocoa all the way).

Being a night/ morning person is generally something that you can influence but doesn't really change no matter how old you get, as you've found out.

I would suggest training at night. Why not. You fear that it will keep you awake, but I think you'll find that once you've developed a routine it could work quite well for you. Trial it for a week or two and see how it suits.

It stands to reason that the first few times you do it your body will be too shocked to react how you expect it too. I expect after exercise you'll probably be reaching for the duvet and sleep like a baby.

I am strange, I would consider myself a morning person.... now. But I have and can go both ways.

I used to be a morning person long ago, but life and work got in the way. you see I am a developer and I do my best work in the wee hours of the night. That is when I do the majority of my contract work outside my normal job..... or should I say - DID.

When I made the decision to get healthy and lose weight I was staying up till at least midnight every night, many times much later if I had work to do. I would then drag myself out of bed about 6:00 AM (or later) to get to work.

I knew, that with the kids and everything that goes on with them and my wife, and everything else that I had but one choice...... get up earlier. But how would I do that I asked? The only thing that really got in my way was some side work that I was doing and some times I was getting together with friends. I told my friends that I had to leave by 10:00 no excuses. I also made the decision to take on extra work that I could accomplish by 10:00 each night. It was a hard decision, but I forced myself to make it. My wife had to make some adjustments to because she is more of a night owl. I said, lights out at 10:00 PM....... PERIOD! I knew if I didn't get to bed by 10:00 I would never get up early.

And...... it worked! It took a little time to get used to, but now I am going to bed by 10:00, and am up each weekday morning by 4:15 to get about and run and workout. I absolutly love it and wouldn't change it for the world..... because that is my time, nobody else gets up till almost 7:00. So, I get my run/workout in before anyone gets up, and when I get home from work I can spend that time with them instead of working out or running.

I know I am not the person you were really asking this of, but I wanted to give you my experience.

Wow, Tim!

Your commitment to yourself is awesome!! and your path is unshakeable!!

I felt keen waking at 0530, but you put me to shame

Cindy,
I already commented on your profile, but I'll post here to for the world to see. Well...for people reading this thread to see.

I'm like Tim. I get up at 4:15 so I can get to the gym by 5 and get my workout done for the day. Do I like getting up? HECKIE NO! Is it difficult to roll myself out of bed when the friggin' alarm clock goes off? HECKIE YES! But I do what I must to reach my goals. I like to think of it as taking my health and weight loss into my hands instead of sacrificing getting to stay up late and sleeping late.

My suggestion is to give getting up early in the morning and going to bed early at night a try for a week (or at least a few days) and see how you feel. You may find you like it, you may not. But at least then you'll have a definitive answer.

I get up @ 8:00, and go to sleep at 12:00 - 12:30. I can't stand sleeping more than 8 hours, or less than 7

Luckily I have flex time at work. I get to work at 9 which is the latest they prefer you to arrive.

The best time for a workout for me is IMMEDIATELY after work, which ends up being around 7:00. When I get home I eat dinner, and go to sleep around 11.

Oh, and for what it is worth. My wife still doesn't always like it, but she is very happy with the changes I have made overall. She is fine with it most of the time, and just goes downstairs if she is not ready for bed. She was worried about me flopping over dead one day - but now she doesn't worry about that anymore.

Also - Once I got into the routine I felt better and was not nearly as tired as I was previously. Before I was always tired by 2 pm and it was hard for me to work, now I am not tired all day..... until about 9:30 I am no fun for friends anymore that like to stay up late, because I am nodding off at about 9:30. As my wife says I am turning into my dad!

And - I sleep in on the weekends (well, somewhere between 7 and 9)

Dean - it was only determination that did it...... and the will to change. I am not a very strong person by nature, but when I want something bad enough I am unstoppable! (kinda)

All this feedback is fantastic! I appreciate all the input and look forward to what others have to say too.

To make matters worse for me, I do have troubles with insomnia sometimes, even when I am exercising very regularly. My husband is also a night owl, and he plays in a band, so I'm often out late on weekends supporting him. While I have all but given up drinking when I'm at the bars, I do not want to quit going altogether. It's important to him, and I like to be there for that, but it really throws me off my sleep schedule when I do get up early.

Here I am moaning about getting up early at maybe 5:00, and Tim and Cardio are up at 4:15! That's commitment! I rather doubt I will be able to dredge up that level of determination, but I'm really considering trying to get up earlier.

I get a knot in my stomach just typing that!

I gaurantee you've heard it before, but the best thing for insomnia is to write a journal.

The old wives tale is that you have 'something on your mind when you can't sleep'. By writing a journal, you go into a mass brain dump and clear your head so you can sleep conscience free. I am not a sufferer but I have experienced the odd night where I couldn't settle till I'd written in my journal and got something off my chest. Also, I don't always know what is bugging me till I start writing. Is weird cos when I first started writing I spent about 10 mins working out where to start. Now I just start and let it go where it needs to.

The actual reason I write a journal is to clarify myself and my life and I would recommend everybody has a journal. Its fantastic!! but thats another story.

I've had a journal since I was little, and it does help immensely. I am a stubborn case when the insomnia hits though. I am a notorious worrier and have been known to stay up into the wee hours writing in that darn journal. I'm better than I used to be. Learning to let go more.

I get no sleep, that is part of my problem. I am usually asleep by 10:15 or 10:30 and up at 3:15. Really good nights I am asleep by 10pm. However, with a part time job, wife, son, working out, etc. it is hard to get sleep any sooner. On the weekends I wake up at 4:30 on Saturdays and 5:30 on Sundays.

I have always said I will sleep when I am dead. I want to enjoy life as much as possible with my family when I am alive, but I also know it is important to get sleep, so I am trying to improve on that.

I've always stayed up late and slept little. When I was in grade school I calculated that if I woke up every morning during the summer at 7:00 versus sleeping in to 10:30, I would effectively have given myself almost two additional weeks of vacation, so up at 7:00 A.M. it was.

But by nature, I'm not a morning person. I was never able to muster any energy to workout early in the morning. Then one day I forced myself to workout in the morning and do it everyday for a month. I brute forced my body into working out in the morning. Now it's not a big deal, I can workout whenever.

But I go to sleep around 11:00, up at 5 or 5:30 then out the door at 6:00.

I'm like you. I can adjust to going to sleep at 11 for school over the span of about a month, but then if I stay up past midnight even ONE night, I'm screwed for another month.

I literally cry when I wake up in the morning. I sleep with 3 blankets minimum, and it's cold in the morning. And I don't really WANT to go to school.

I don't need a ton of sleep, which is why I've managed so well thus far. Sleep is obviously important and one of the many causes of weight gain. I have had bouts where I would get up for a week or two, but something would happen to throw me off, and I would be right back to sleeping in.

I am quite tempted to just go with it, like Dean said, and work out at night. I would have to shower at night too, and that could even save me a little extra time in the morning for extra sleeping! I really dread the adjustment though and fear I might not make the adjustment at all. No harm in trying though.

Then I see so many of you who have managed to do it. I always wonder how much of a night owl are you though? My perfect schedule would have me going to bed at 2-3 AM and waking around 9-10 AM. When I worked graveyard shift, I had no problems with it at all... never got tired. When I wake up early, I often feel sick to my stomach.

Mikaela, it's not uncommon for teenagers to need extra sleep, especially in the morning. It's a shame schools don't start later to accommodate this, but then work would have to start later for parents, and all those early birds wouldn't like that!

Well I have a problem,

I go to bed around 12 pm or 1 am. Then I wake up around 10 everyday.

I was just telling you about me. I think if it is going to be too difficult you may set yourself up for failure (may!)

I think you should do just like Dean said and try going with the night workout first. Then if that doesn't work you can try something else.

Tim, while I do think I'm predisposed to sleep in and stay up late, I also believe I'm perfectly capable of getting up early. I have done it before, and it didn't kill me. I just despise it, and I'm having a very hard time giving in to the fact that if I want A (to lose weight and be fit), then I have to do B (get my buns out of bed before the sun rises).

I am going to give Dean's suggestion a try and actually did work out later last night, even though I could have done it earlier. As expected, I was up crazy-late, but I'm going to give myself some time to try to adjust before I throw in the towel.

I need 8-9 hours of sleep every night, but since I'm a grad student I usually don't get it. My house doesn't get quiet until 10, so I usually do work from 10-1 then go to bed from 1-2. I usually get up between 9 and 10 in the morning and work out right away. Even though I'm a night owl, I find that if I don't work out when I get up, I won't do it at all. Between classes and then coming home and making dinner/cleaning/taking care of my sisters I have no energy by the time 9 comes around to exercise. Plus if I do exercise at night, it makes me unable to sleep.

I share your pain Cindy... Though I'm a steadfast night owl, I keep telling myself day after day, week after week that I'm going to make a change and get up early enough to workout and have a decent breakfast before heading off to work. It never happens, I hit the snooze until I would normally get up.

I've often gone to bed around 4.15am, very rarely risen then though! I'm a confirmed night owl and struggle to get to work for 9.00am. I'm the same as Heather above, I have good intentions and set my alarm early, then snooze it all away until the latest possible moment I can get up and still have the kids and myself ready and out the door.

I go to bed at 11:30pm or 12:00 and wake up at 6:00am.

Before I started working out I went to bed at 9:00pm and woke up at 6:00am and would always feel really tired, now I get less sleep and feel far more awake in the morning than I ever did before.

I went to bed after 5am sunday morning and had to get up just after 7am sunday to work... I still haven't recovered

Oooh...that's rough Dave.

One thing that has helped for me is putting my alarm on the other side of the room, forcing me to get out of bed to turn it off. I used to snooze for as long as possible and HATED getting up. Now, well I still hate getting up, but I rarely hit the snooze button. It takes a few minutes for my brain to realize what's happening. By the time I realize that I'm up and getting ready for work, I'm kinda okay with it. And yes I would consider myself a night owl, not as much as you though. I have to get to work by 7 am so I've just had to deal. I think if I got 10 hours of sleep every night, I would still hate waking up at 6.

during the week... i go to bed around 12/1 and get up at 8, and during the weekend... i go to bed around 3 and get up at 9 or 10

my problem is i stay up really late, just happens, i get a second wind, but i HATE sleeping in too late (late for me is 11) so i'll be running on empty for a while.

I go to bed at 9 or 930 and get up at 5 or 530. I have an hour commute to work, and I have to be there by 7, so ... I really have no choice.