My natural sleep schedule has me awake when my partner is sleeping. I miss out on a lot of the lit day, a bummer on adventures seeing something new. It's impossible to collaborate at midnight with my sleeping peers. I really want to become a morning person for social, personal and professional benefits.

My natural sleep cycle is delayed by hours beyond what most of society considers normal. I get most of my energy in the evening. I get my second wind hours after the sun has set. I’m most productive late at night. My body wants to be awake hours after it’s dark.

It’s extremely difficult trying to have a normal sleep schedule. I’m constantly tired because I can’t fall asleep then wake up at a reasonable hour. Even when detached from modern society, like when I’m camping for weeks with primitive lighting, no bright blue screens, and ample natural night throughout the day, I still struggle falling asleep and waking up at normal times.

For those that have become morning people, any tips on making a successful transition? Or is it worth fighting my body's natural sleep cycle?

I've wondered all my life about this! I seem to vacillate between owl and lark depending on what occupation I'm in, but we're told it's mostly genetic. Here's a 3-minute explainer that mostly covers what I've heard most of my life.

However, last month I listened to Daniel Pink's book, When. That gave me an entirely new perspective and has changed my workday. It's short, worth a listen, and there are some summaries online. Would love to know what you think.

I find that I naturally become a morning person when I spend time sleeping outdoors. It resets my clock to when the sun rises and sets almost instantly. Otherwise, I gravitate gradually to a work-all-day, recreate-at-night, sleep on the plane "owl".

Bummer, genetics. Don't know how to change that...

50,000 years ago, my night owl traits could have been useful for protecting my hunter-gathering tribe. I tell my friends I’m on the night watch, but they laugh because there aren't any lions or other tribes that will kill me in my sleep. I'm evolutionarily obsolete. Now I struggle to fit into a world with working hours that are generally 9-5.

I too have been a night person the majority of my life. It got heightened when I worked the night shift (3PM-12AM) at Bay Photo Lab.

A big helper for me in the switch was a "Sun Clock". This works at night and in the morning- fading out gently to help you fall asleep, and slowly fading light on about 15-30 minutes before your alarm. The idea is to imitate the sun's cycle to trick your body into waking up "with the sun".
I can't confirm that it works for everyone, but it definitely made a huge difference in my schedule as I can get up at 7am now (instead of 11AM or 12PM ahha)

For most of my life, I was a nightowl. Probably from age 10, during the summers, I would stay up till dawn, drawing, playing with Legos, watching late night movies. I kept this behavior till well into adulthood, and any time I could adjust hours at work to come in and stay late, I would do it. About three years ago, I decided that I really liked being able to do things in the afternoon, and my early morning hours could be solitary as well, so I just decided to start getting up at 5am. I get some time to myself, go in to work early, and I'm out when the sun is still up. I can go bike or paddle around the bay, or do anything else to enjoy the San Diego weather. It was weird at first, and probably survived on too much coffee, but it really only took a few weeks to adjust. I think it was a good move.