Mother’s always said I was an adorable baby who charmed everyone during the day then screamed nonstop through the night. By two, I was slipping around the house in the dark. By five, I was hiding flashlights and comic books under the bed. In high school, after Mom finally threatened to pour water on my head, I’d just go into the bathroom, lock the door, curl up on the floor, and go back to sleep.

Nature made me a night owl. And it’s a tough habit to break … especially since I set my own work hours. Believe me, I’ve tried every possible formula for re-setting my circadian rhythms—the internal dials that control such things as sleeping patterns and body temperature. For most people, circadian rhythms are influenced by light. So those people naturally begin to slow down as night falls. But that’s when I seem to rev up.

If you’re a night owl like me, is there anything you can do to fall in step with the rest of the world? Try these two suggestions:

• Gradually re-time your meals.  Your liver and digestive system have clocks of their own, and studies have shown that changing those clocks can help you change your body’s timing. If you’re trying to get up earlier, or changing shifts or time zones, start adjusting your meal times little-by-little ahead of time. For instance, if you don’t go to bed until 3 a.m., you probably eat dinner around late and have your last snack about 2 a.m. Each day or two, move your meals and snacks up by 10–15 minutes. It’s difficult to fall asleep when your digestive system is churning. The earlier you stop eating, the easier it will be to settle down for the night.

• Re-boot your body clock. I always struggle with jet lag traveling west to east because I can’t sleep on a plane. So traveling overseas, I’d arrive in the morning having been up all night and would head straight to bed. It was almost impossible to get my days and nights on track … until I stopped going to bed on arrival. If I toughed it out and stayed up until at least 11 p.m. local time, I could quickly adapt.

Crazy as it sounds, that can work at home, too. If you’re used to going to bed at 3 a.m. and want to start going to bed at midnight, try letting 2 a.m. come and go. Stay up through the next day. By midnight the following night, you’ll be ready for bed. Is it an extreme solution? Yes … and not for anyone with a health issue. But if you’ve tried everything else, it’s one way to quickly re-boot your system.