Becoming nocturnal.... :(

[LongCoolMother]

So I've become pretty nocturnal. It's a side-affect of college. When I was in school, I slept at 3-4am DAILY-- not just on occasion. I don't think I've slept early for a single day the entire year! This was because of the intense workload I took upon myself. Plus, I'm not exactly the best at time management, and I am also extremely thorough (read: slow) with completing my work and studying.

Anyway, summer is here, and I've been out of school for a good 3 weeks now. I thought it'd be a great release for me, and that I'd be able to finally restore a healthy lifestyle and a normal amount/pattern of sleep....

Didn't happen.

I'm still up until at least 4am every single day, even though I don't have any homework to do. Recently, it's been getting to the point that I sleep at 6am, when the sun is already rising, and the horizon is starting to look pale orange. Then I find it very hard to sleep with the sky brightening. I wake up usually around 1:30pm, and the cycle repeats itself.

Argh! Got to learn some self control or self discipline. Funny thing is that I've been known to be very dilligent and very disciplined in studying and completing tasks-- especially school work. I can make myself work for countless hours and not relent until I finish something without feeling too bad. Still, I don't know why I keep staying up. I guess I've done it for so long that it's simply embedded itself into my lifestyle and it's hard to shake. In fact, I often find myself ready to sleep at 12am... and I know I should, but I somehow manage to waste time brainlessly on wikipedia or something until it's 4-5am. Doh.

Just had to rant. Bored to death at this hour and still don't feel like sleeping.

 

[Mo0o]

That's nothing. The worst i've had it was during one finals period i would sleep at 10am - 12pm and wake up around 5pm

 

[91TTZ]

I'm a naturally nocturnal person. It takes an alarm clock for me to wake up on time. If I have a week off or so and can go to sleep and wake up when I feel like it, I revert back to my natural schedule of falling asleep around 4 am and waking up around noon.

It feels artificial trying to keep the schedule I'm on now, going to sleep around 11 pm and waking up at 7 am.

 

[spidey07]

You have to retrain your mind/body to go to bed at a resonable hour. It can take a while but you'll reap a lot of rewards for going to bed when you are supposed to - like more energy, better health, less stress, etc.

Just go to bed and force yourself to go to sleep. Read up on meditation and relaxation techniques and you'll be dozing in no time.

It's not that you are "nocturnal" but a year of unhealthy sleep habits takes some time to undue.

 

[illusion88]

benadryl.

I used to take 50mg to get to sleep when I was working overnights. I bet it would help you too. Take the dose about an hour before you want to sleep. You could buy Unisom (which contains the same active ingredient only sold as a sleep aide), but it is usually more expensive.

EDIT: Try to work out too, getting regular exercise is a great way to maintain a regular sleep schedule.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: spidey07
You have to retrain your mind/body to go to bed at a resonable hour. It can take a while but you'll reap a lot of rewards for going to bed when you are supposed to - like more energy, better health, less stress, etc.

Just go to bed and force yourself to go to sleep. Read up on meditation and relaxation techniques and you'll be dozing in no time.

It's not that you are "nocturnal" but a year of unhealthy sleep habits takes some time to undue.

I've been doing it for 7 years now. It still does not come naturally to me. The only sleep schedule that comes natural to me is the 4 am- 12 pm sleep schedule. That takes no effort and leaves me feeling good.

Waking up at 7 am leaves me feeling like crap all day. It's just not natural for me.

 

[brownboi512]

ur circadian rhythm is messed up, that is all.

 

[Dirigible]

Stay up all night. You'll be so tired you want to go to bed at a more normal time. Set your alarm for the morning after you do that. Stay on the new schedule.

 

[ponyo]

Go do some back breaking outdoor work all day. I guarantee you'll sleep good that night or the next night.

Your parents should make you work.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: illusion88
benadryl.

I used to take 50mg to get to sleep when I was working overnights. I bet it would help you too. Take the dose about an hour before you want to sleep. You could buy Unisom (which contains the same active ingredient only sold as a sleep aide), but it is usually more expensive.

EDIT: Try to work out too, getting regular exercise is a great way to maintain a regular sleep schedule.

Basically, this is what occurred to me. I have an opposite problem the last few years. I wake up early, go to bed early. It's worse when I have a lot of things on my mind, problems I haven't resolved. Then I wake in the middle of the night and start thinking about things and it can be hard to get back to sleep. Sometimes I just give up and get up and my day starts early, and that perpetuates the cycle. I have a volunteer thing I'm doing for a year that requires me to get up at 4:00 AM or earlier one day a week, so I won't be getting over this until then.

There are benefits to being up early, such as more daylight during your waking hours. Right now I'm trying to go to bed later, get up later because I'm taking a week off from my volunteer thing and visiting a friend who goes to bed at 2:00 AM and gets up at 10:00 AM. I'm having a problem adjusting my schedule, though. It's kind of like "jet lag."

 

[SludgeFactory]

You're at the point where you just need to pull an "all-day'er" and not go to sleep until 6PM or later, and force yourself to get up at 7AM the next day, and every day. Figure out when you need to get off the computer at night to maintain a decent schedule, and if you have to, set an alarm every evening that signals you to shut the stupid thing off at 11PM.

Realistically, you have no job to force you to get up consistently, I bet you'll be nocturnal all summer.

 

[Pepsi90919]

3g melatonin

 

[miri]

This is easy to fix

I used to sleep at 3-4am as well every nite when I was in school and waited tables at night.

I was able to change this by getting a job where I needed to wake up at 5am every morning.

 

[Cattlegod]

2nd the notion of "get a job"

i was the exact same way in college. it stopped when i got a job.

 

[GeekDrew]

I'm pretty much the same way... if I don't look at a clock, I start getting naturally tired at 3-4 AM, and then don't want to wake up until 10-11AM. I've *always* been this way, at least as far back as I can remember. I've had jobs that require me to wake up at various ungodly times of the morning, and I usually manage to do so, but I'm tired as hell, even when I have gotten "enough sleep". Nothing seems to be able to help me change my sleep schedule to what it "should be".

 

[IGBT]

..I worked graveyard for 18 years. The only way to make it work is to stay on a night schedule even on days off. The people that had the most trouble with it were the ones that revert back to a "day " schedule on days off.

 

[negativedecibel]

Hi.. This is my first post at Anandtech Forums... Been lurking for years, but I had to chime in...


Want to know how bad my sleep patterns are? I've been working rotating for the last 3 years now. Here's my schedual...

seven days from 8am-4pm; one day off;
seven days 4pm-12am; one day off;
seven days 12am-8am; five days off...

It's totally crazy; my body is constantly trying to catch up with my work. By the time I start to get on track, it's time for the next shift. My health suffers drastically. and I am always tired or wide awake. I have to regulate my sleep pattern with espresso and unisom. And if you want to throw more crazy into the expression, I have a wife and 2 boys also. My wife is a full time college student, and the boys are 6 and 4. On the week that I am on 2nd shift, I never see my family at all. It's better now that school's out for the summer...

On a plus note, I'm quitting work and going back to school this fall! yay!

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
2nd the notion of "get a job"

i was the exact same way in college. it stopped when i got a job.

I bet you're right. I've actually started some summer classes, math and English, to knock out some GEs. Actually, math has started, but English will start on Monday. Hopefully that will jerk me back into "normal" mode. The problem so far is that math class goes from 6pm to 9pm. So it leaves me no reason to get up early either. I also prefer to finish homework before sleeping so that I can relax the next day. I think I'll have to get more normal once English starts.