Are you a natural night owl?

If you can't fall asleep until 1 a.m., your body clock might be shifted. That's the timer in your brain that makes you alert in the day and sleepy at night, and in some people it runs late because of their genes ¹. Light plays a part too. Too little daylight and bright lights after dark are linked to a later body clock ². You can have the genes and the light working against you at the same time.

Think about the last time you had a week off with no alarm. Did you still fall asleep around 1, sleep a full night and wake up feeling fine, night after night? Then you might be a natural night owl ³.

There are a few other signs too. Once you fall asleep, you usually sleep straight through. Your mom or dad, or a brother or sister, keeps the same late hours you do. And you run short on sleep all week, then sleep in late every weekend ³.

If you lie awake no matter what time you go to bed, that sounds more like insomnia, and the two are easy to mix up ³. It goes the other way too. About 1 in 10 people who say they have insomnia may have a late body clock behind it ³.

How light pushes your sleep later

Think about a normal workday. Your body is looking for bright days and dark nights. But you're inside under office lights all day, then you're home with every light on until bed, and the last thing you look at is your phone.

Bright light soon after you wake up moves your body clock earlier, and bright light in the evening moves it later ⁴. So the light is the first thing I'd fix.

How to start falling asleep earlier

Before you change anything, ask yourself whether you need to. If your job lets you sleep from 1 to 9, you might be fine as you are. People with a late clock who get to keep their own hours usually sleep a normal amount and sleep well ³. The trouble is the 7 a.m. alarm. If you fall asleep at 1 and get up at 7, you're running on 6 hours every workday.

You won't fix that by getting into bed at 10 and staring at the ceiling. I'd start with your mornings and then work on your evenings.

On workday mornings

Keep getting up when work needs you to, say 7, and get outside into daylight as soon as you can after that. If you do nothing else, do this. That doesn't have to mean a walk at sunrise. Stand on the porch or the front steps, or eat your breakfast outside when the weather lets you, and if you have time for a real walk, even better. On your way to work, walk the first part of your commute or park at the far end of the lot, so you're outside a little longer before you're under office lights.

Inside, let the daylight in. Open the blinds the minute you're out of bed, and on the days you can't eat outside, eat by your brightest window.

If you can't get outside before work

Some mornings it's still dark at 7. Other mornings you're getting kids out the door, or you go from your garage to a parking garage and never see the sky. On those days you still want bright light as early in the day as you can get it. So turn on the brightest lights you have while you get ready, sit near a window at work and get outside at your first break, even if it's only for a few minutes.

If dark mornings are your normal, you could try a light therapy lamp at the breakfast table or your desk. Doctors do use these to move body clocks, but there isn't strong proof yet that they help a very late clock ³.

In the evening

After dark you want the opposite, because bright light at night pushes your clock later ⁴. After dinner, switch the room you're in from the big overhead lights to lamps. If the rest of the house won't go for that, do it for at least the last hour before bed.

You're probably going to watch something or scroll before bed, and if you do, at least turn the brightness down. Better yet, charge your phone outside the bedroom, so it isn't the last thing you look at.

If you're not sleepy at bedtime

Aim for bed around 11, which gives you 8 hours before a 7 a.m. alarm. You probably won't be sleepy at 11 at first, because your body is still used to 1.

If it's 11 and you're wide awake, don't lie in bed waiting to fall asleep. Stay up somewhere dim, read or watch something calm, and go to bed when you start to feel sleepy. Then get up at your usual time anyway, even if you're tired. Morning light moves your clock earlier ⁴, and you only get it if you're up.

The first week or two is the hardest. Coffee can help you get going (trust me, been there). If you're aiming for bed around 11, have your last cup by 3.

On weekends

Weekends are the hard part. You're going to stay out late some Saturdays, and I'm not going to tell you not to, but hold on to your mornings. Get up at your weekday time if you can, and if you can't, get up within an hour or so of it, even after a late night. Sleeping in later than that cuts into your morning light.

You don't have to nap, but if you're dragging on Saturday afternoon, nap between about 1 and 3. I wouldn't nap any later than that, because it can leave you too awake to sleep at night.

Give it two weeks before you judge it. If you're getting sleepy a bit earlier by then, it's working.

Is being a night owl genetic?

Partly. Being a morning person or a night owl is what's called your chronotype. Studies of twins find that genes explain 40 to 50 percent of the differences between people ¹. In some families, the late sleepers even share a change in one clock gene ¹.

Age plays a part too. On average, people's sleep is at its latest around 19 and gets earlier after that, so if you're 19 or 20, some of this is your age, and that part tends to ease ⁵.