I'm definitely not a morning person. Never have been. I hated getting up in the mornings in high school, and I was up late, sometimes very late while in architecture school in college (everyone in that program was up late). It's rare that I get to bed before 11 pm, and sometimes it's even after 12. But then I have to get up at 5 if I want to ride the bike to work, and that takes a LOT of effort on my part. Even on the rare occasion that I can get to bed around 10 or before, it's STILL like pulling teeth for me to get out of bed. Sometimes I contemplate just sleeping another hour and driving, even though I have no real reason to not ride.

But then after I do get up and at'em, and finally get out there on the bike, I'm almost always glad I did, except maybe when fighting a nasty headwind or something.

Anyone else have as much trouble getting up as me? I hate it about myself and wish I could change it, but I don't really think I can.

Plan and organize you stuff the night before. I also pedal home and leave my car at work. Makes that an only choice for getting back to work in the AM.

Yeah I do get my stuff ready before I go to bed. Trouble is I'm often scrambling around doing other stuff, too, and by the time I get it all ready and get to bed it's really late.

I used to do the split commute thing, but got sick of having the bike rack on the back of the car all the time.

It doesn't matter what I do at night or how early I get to bed, I still have to drag myself up in the morning. Sometimes it takes as much as 30 minutes of alarms (starting at 4:30) to get my butt up.

I have been a night owl from childhood until I turned 46. My natural sleep time is 12:30 - 1 am and my natural wake up time is 9 - 9:30 am. After having kids and waking up early to drive them to school, my work suffered and I spent the entire day in a daze, but oddly I would get a 2nd wind around 11 pm. I always knew that animals go to sleep and wake up in a rhythm, called the circadian rhythm. Exposure to sunlight controls this rhythm. After 35+ years of being a night-owl, I am now a hummingbird (lark=early riser, hummingbird=normal riser, owl=late riser). I also want to mention that as a typical owl, I can sleep 8 hours just fine at 1 am and wake up feeling refreshed at 9-9:30 am. Practicing good sleep hygiene to try to go to bed before my "natural" bedtime never worked and actually made me frustrated.

I finally shifted my rhythm to 11 pm - 7 am by reading "Reset Your Inner Clock" by Dr. Michael Terman. He and his team have been researching circadian rhythms for several decades. He has a website where he has a self assesment to measure how owl-ish you are: - Center for Environmental Therapeutics

Dr. Terman's book goes into case studies of extreme owls, going to bed at 7 am and waking at 3 pm. That's extreme! I'd like to point out that some people have poor sleep due to restless legs, sleep apnea, and other causes. Resetting your rhythm only works if you naturally have good sleep, but just shifted out of alignment with your job. If your job is being a jazz musician or bartender, then you will have a big problem if you are an early bird. The book also goes into resetting your clock so you go to sleep and wake up later, which is a common problem for older people or a lark-ish actor that must have peak mental alertness during their evening performances, but most people are owls needing to reset earlier.

If you naturally go to sleep from 11 pm - 7 am, then you are a normal hummingbird. 70% of people are hummingbirds. Getting up at 5 am means you want to be a lark. If you gradually shift 15 minutes per day, it will take 8 days to shift 2 hours earlier, which is definitely possible and commonly done.

Eating times, social activities, and alarm clocks are a very weak signal to control circadian rhythms but the main signal is sunlight (or artificial sunlight). Many blind people have non 24 rhythm disorder, where they go to sleep an hour or so later every day. After 24 days they have gone from sleeping at night to sleeping in the day and then back again. They effectively chased the clock around. This is because the internal rhythm is not exactly 24 hours and the weak signal is just not enough. Non 24 rhythm disorder is treated with melatonin, but melatonin is far weaker in resetting rhythm compared with sunlight or artificial sunlight, but still stronger than social activities or eating timing.

re: "who else has trouble getting out of bed"

only every morning, don't worry you're not alone, and I AM a morning person

Yeah, I'm really bad about this. If I was left to my own schedule, I'd probably be in bed between 1 and 2 am, and be awake between 9 and 10. It stinks. I usually go to bed between 11 and 12 and just lie there for an hour or two. I really ought to be in my office at 10 and so I attempt to get up around 8, but usually I'm in bed until 9 and I don't get to work until 10:30 or so. Nobody really minds, it's a relaxed office, but I feel like a jerk sometimes. I do stay later than everyone else, so there's that.

I am a morning person and don't have a problem getting out of bed at 4:00 AM or 5:00 AM.

I feel your pain! I am somewhat of a morning person I like to wake up at 6:00 am on weekends and still have trouble getting up at 5:00 during the week for my commute. My trick is to put on my padded shorts as soon as I get out of bed. It makes me feel committed to get on my bike I guess. 5 minutes into the ride and Im glad I'm doing it

Story of my life. Lately I usually fall asleep around 11, wake up at 6, sometimes 630 and go from there, but I would rather be asleep until 7ish. I try to be on the road by 8 at the latest. Anytime before 6 is just mean, and I can't really force myself to fall asleep
My wife on the other hand seems to fall asleep within minutes of her trying amd is dozing by 9.

I'm not a morning person either. For me it's not just getting up but getting going takes time and coffee. One great advantage to getting old and gaining some seniority was being able to say that I'll be in sometime around 9 (but be cautious of scheduling any meetings before 10). I thought being a writer would be better but there are these deadlines. And a wife who doesn't want me working at night. Now I have to get up early again. Argh.

Laying stuff out helps me save time. This way I don't have to choose between breakfast or making sure I'm set for the day ahead. A quick check that everything is in order, make breakfast, dress, head out!

- Andy

Ha, you guys all sound like morning people compared to me.

I am solar powered and rise with the sun whether I want to or not... problem is when my feet hit the floor these days and I am reminded that I should have stayed in bed.

Not me. I love getting out of my warm bed and going to work.

I wake up at 5:30 with no alarm. I don't have to leave until 7am.

Up until last week I was training for a half-marathon running race. I got up three days a week (Tue, Wed, Thu) at 4:30am to run 5-7 miles before getting ready to bike to work. I guess I'm a morning person. But I do like to sleep in when I can.

heh funny enough I'm in architecture, also. We're fairly relaxed, but office hours are still 8-5. I have to leave the house by 6 AM in order to make it to work in time to shower and change (15.5 miles each way).

My wife goes to bed super early, like between 8 and 9 pm, and she is usually still in bed when I leave on days that I commute. On days I drive we're usually up about the same time. On weekends I lay in the bed and she's always up before me. The 5-year old doesn't help, either.

Yeah, I have no kids and am in NYC, where hours tend to be later in general. We don't have formal office hours, but it tends to be around 10-6. I am usually here around 10:30 or 11:00 and stay until 7ish. I used to do a fair amount of work in Nashville and the early meetings killed me. I really need 8 hours of sleep or I'm useless, but I can't fall asleep until 1am or so, no matter how much exercise I am getting. It really sucks.

Same problem; I prepare everything the night before, clothes by the bed, breakfast ready in the fridge, dishes set at the table, and bike/helmet/gloves/shoes prepped in the entry.

It is especially hard when I check the weather the night before and they forecast a mean headwind or some sort of "nasty" weather. Also, it is tough if I let my mind wonder right after my alarm goes off about how nice it would be to sleep in for an extra 20 mins and drive in. I always regret skipping the bike the moment I sit in the car (except on subzero / windy winter mornings) and even more so when I have to deal with other vehicular traffic; and then I have to re-live the misery due to my morning mistake when I step in the car for the ride home and it is gorgeous outside with a perfect tailwind...

Every normal person has as much trouble getting up early. Those folks who get up at 5:30 without an alarm are genetic anomalies.

I always have a shower kit and change of clothes at work (even over winter, when I rarely bicycle). I get my lunch ready and fold up a shirt (and underwear and socks for the next commute) into my panniers the night before, and make sure my tires are pumped. I fill a water bottle and have it in the fridge. I set the coffee maker to turn on 10 minutes before I get up so I can get a cup in me before I go. After I read the paper and have some coffee, I toss my lunch in my bag, put some coffee in a thermal travel cup (it fits in a bottle cage) and go.

my advice is to drink less !

hah I actually think I don't drink enough beer as it is now! On average 1 or 2 per week... seriously.

Take a melatonin at 8 pm. You'll be asleep by 9

I'm with you! NOT a morning person, never have been, have always had a hard time getting to bed on time and getting up on time. If left to my own devices (in other words, without specific things I have to be up for by a certain time) my schedule tends to shift later and later.
My better half is the complete opposite; if left to his own devices, he'll just go to bed earlier and earlier and get up earlier and earlier. Mostly this actually works out well, as we make a point of going to bed at the same time, so we balance each other out to some extent. But if he's out of town I struggle even more (as evidenced by the fact that he's currently out of town, and I am consequently in the living room with my laptop right now instead of in bed where I should be).

What makes me hate getting out of bed more than anything, though, is if the room is dark. I lived in Germany for a couple of years for grad school, and I absolutely hated dragging myself out of bed in the winter when everything would just be wet and gray and dark. New England can be a bit like that, especially around December and January, but way better than Germany.

At home I have a lamp in the bedroom with a daylight bulb, on a timer that turns on in the mornings. It isn't a magic bullet, but it does make me generally feel better about the whole business of having to get out of bed if the room is actually brightly lit.

It has no bearing on biking to work though. I'm self employed, and I don't own a car - I bike everywhere.

I'm an ultra-lark, usually up by about 4:30 AM, and I too use a (dim) nightlight to facilitate waking up to get en route by about 5 AM. One advantage of early morning commuting in New England is that when it is still dark, you can't tell how wet gray and dark it really is.

My alarm goes off at 4:20, I try to be out of the house by 4:45 to catch a 5:11 express train, and sleep most of the hour I'm on the train. If I'm slow getting out of bed and miss the 5:11, I'll catch the 5:25 local, which gives me another half hour of sleep.

I can't say I like that schedule, but it's my choice. At least I get home before dark for the best part of the year. Does that make me a morning person? I dunno... it's 7:30 and I'm at work and haven't done anything yet....