I was, and still am, a night owl - if there are no constraints.
However, there often are constraints that require me to be up earlier (yes, a kid is among them), and I found the following helps maintain reasonable focus and relative ease of waking up early:
1. About 10,000 IU of vitamin D (at 190lbs), taken before 10am - as a replacement for significant sun exposure which I don’t have. This is significantly higher than the RDA, though still below the toxic levels (50,000 IU/day or so at my weight). The timing is important - vitamin D is apparently part of the body’s sunlight clock PLL. Gwern has some n=1 experiments and references.
2. Sufficient protein intake (between 0.5gr and 1gr per lbs of body weight - low end for sedantry, high end for very active). Don’t know the mechanism - discovered by trial and error - but makes a huge difference for me. If I don’t have enough protein, I can’t fall asleep before 3am regardless of how tired I am. (Well, except when I do a multi day fast and everything goes berserk, but that’s for another post).
Even with those, at times I am not constrained I will naturally nightowl.
Don’t trust me. Do your own research and n=1 experiments.
However, there often are constraints that require me to be up earlier (yes, a kid is among them), and I found the following helps maintain reasonable focus and relative ease of waking up early:
1. About 10,000 IU of vitamin D (at 190lbs), taken before 10am - as a replacement for significant sun exposure which I don’t have. This is significantly higher than the RDA, though still below the toxic levels (50,000 IU/day or so at my weight). The timing is important - vitamin D is apparently part of the body’s sunlight clock PLL. Gwern has some n=1 experiments and references.
2. Sufficient protein intake (between 0.5gr and 1gr per lbs of body weight - low end for sedantry, high end for very active). Don’t know the mechanism - discovered by trial and error - but makes a huge difference for me. If I don’t have enough protein, I can’t fall asleep before 3am regardless of how tired I am. (Well, except when I do a multi day fast and everything goes berserk, but that’s for another post).
Even with those, at times I am not constrained I will naturally nightowl.
Don’t trust me. Do your own research and n=1 experiments.