Haven't read the comments, but I have something to contribute. I am married and a parent of a 1.5-year-old child. Employed at a full-time job, working out is something I consider mandatory. Adding all this together, plus household chores, it leaves little time for personal projects or just chilling out by myself. I used to stay up late to get some alone time, but as the article describes, it is not sustainable, especially for parents.
I had a project I wanted to work on, but it was difficult to focus at night after everything else was taken care of. So I flipped it. I started waking up early. I aim for 5 am; recently, it's been more like 6 am, but I've been thinking of trying out 4 am. I've never been a morning person, but you do get used to it after a few weeks. Now, I use the fresh morning energy to work on my side project, and from the moment my daughter wakes up, I start with all the responsibilities. I work out in the evening, and I don't dread going to sleep early because I wake up to my time. So, the earlier I get to bed, the more "me" time I get.
I've started doing this as well this year, waking between 0530 and 0700. I work out within an hour of getting up.
I'm usually ready for work between 0930 and 1030. It required a LOT of training (I am not, historically, a morning person) but I have been super consistent with it for the last few months.
On a plus side, I can get up without an alarm now on a consistent basis. On the minus side, I now get super sleepy at 2200, which makes hanging out late very difficult.
The alternative was starting work when I got up, but the flipside to this was my workouts getting on super late if I got hit with a late meeting. I still work out like this while I'm traveling. It usually means I have to skip on team dinner, which sucks.
One of the times in my life I got along the best with little sleep was when I woke up before dawn to go surfing. I still went to bed after midnight, but the excitement of going into the ocean got me out of bed quick as lightning. There's something to that idea for sure.
I had a project I wanted to work on, but it was difficult to focus at night after everything else was taken care of. So I flipped it. I started waking up early. I aim for 5 am; recently, it's been more like 6 am, but I've been thinking of trying out 4 am. I've never been a morning person, but you do get used to it after a few weeks. Now, I use the fresh morning energy to work on my side project, and from the moment my daughter wakes up, I start with all the responsibilities. I work out in the evening, and I don't dread going to sleep early because I wake up to my time. So, the earlier I get to bed, the more "me" time I get.