Best way to change sleep hours?

[Eliot123]

I once read an article about how, if you want to reset your sleeping habits, you should not just stay awake until whenever you want to go to bed normally but also not eat anything for around 14-16 hours before so that when you wake up and eat, that would be your desired ''breakfast'' time. I thought it was a bit weird but I tried it a couple of times when I had problems with my sleeping cycle (and when I say problems I mean I'd do WoW dailies at 3 am) and it worked for me every time. Basically if you want to wake up at e.g. 7 am, don't eat anything from maybe 4-5 pm the day before, and then just eat normally after you wake up.

[Fullmetal89]

I have the same problem when I'm not working. My solution so far is to force myself to wake up early like 6:30 am or earlier, drink coffee and have something to do. In about a week you should be back to a normal sleep schedule. Going to sleep at midnight was definitely a huge achievement for me after doing this, compared to going to sleep at 4 am ....

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Spend more than 48 hours awake and just go to sleep at the correct time.

This is very bad advice, especially if you have to drive. Don't stay up that long you can cause serious harm to yourself and others. I stayed up almost 3 days one time in College and collapsed trying to get back to my dorm after a lecture. I had to go to the hospital for over exhaustion, scary thing is I was planning on driving to Walmart that afternoon to buy some food. Best way is to just force yourself to wake up early, the first time you do it is going to be a bitch but eventually you will be so tired at around midnight you will fall asleep normally. Don't try to go to sleep early that almost never works, it can't be forced you will just sit there in bed for hours.

[Kurioxan]

Spend more than 48 hours awake and just go to sleep at the correct time.

EDIT: as Rucati mentioned, having a forced routine is also extremely important to prevent a relapse.

What they said, also you can do it faster, so you want to wake up at around 7, stop eating at about 14pm, dont eat ANYTHING past that time, go to bed, wake up with alarm clock at 7am, eat, this should reset your circadian cycle to 7am being morning, always worked for me quite well.

personally i just think one can find jobs that fit your natural circadian cycle instead of forcing it to a 9-5 job, your body will always tend to gravitate to certain period, in your case a night owl (if its natural and not just habit based), i personally have no where the same energy as if i allowed my body to do what it wants like i did before, it will always resent it somehow.