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Post by littlepea on Feb 4, 2006 1:25:59 GMT -5
my sleep cycle has gone completely topsy turvy in 2 days ... on thursday morning my alarm failed to wake me up and i awoke to see that i'd missed my morning lecture, so i decided to stay in bed and sleep as long i could (cos i am, after all, a lazy student). whenever i opened my eyes and felt like getting up, i persuaded myself that it didn't matter and stayed in bed and slept a few hours longer ... until, that is, i noticed that it was dark outside ... so i looked at my clock and it was 5pm - i didn't think it would be possible to sleep in that late ...
needless to say, i couldn't get to sleept the following night until about 7am, but i promised myself not to let it happen again and i'd get up at mid-day on friday to try and adjust (no lectures of fridays so that wasn't a concern), except this time although my alarm woke me, i just turned it off and went back to sleep and slept in until 4pm. it's not 6.20am and i'm only just starting to feel sleepy.
as well as feeling like a lazy bastard, i have to try and adjust my sleep cycle so that i can get up at 6am on monday morning to drive to the other side of the country for an interview with a law firm (for some work experience over summer), and this looks a though it's going to be a bit difficult ...
does anyone have any tips for adjusting my sleep cycle or for falling asleep quicker or anything else?
my current plan is to get up at 10am this morning (3 and a half hours time) since i want to go to a football match 75 miles away (hopefully that will be enough motivation to get out of bed) and that should allow me to fall asleep a bit better tonight, and then get up at 8am on sunday to prepare for the 6am start on monday. i've done long-distance travel on 3 hours sleep before when i went to see my team play in the north of england (about a 500 mile round trip in one day), so i think it should be possible ... i'll keep you all informed, but it's time for me to get some sleep i think - good morning!
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Post by littlepea on Feb 6, 2006 1:48:26 GMT -5
well despite my best efforts, i slept in until mid-day on saturday (still made it to the match, though), and then i couldn't get out of bed until 4pm yesterday i got up at 6.30am today after a grand total of probably less than 2 hours sleep it's not natural, it's still dark outside ...
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Post by dianaholberg on Feb 6, 2006 10:45:13 GMT -5
Mine goes crazy every winter...
You could put a timer on your lights to have them come on at the same time your alarm clock alarms.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 6, 2006 14:33:49 GMT -5
the interview went quite well, i think, but i was so tired by the time i got back that i went straight to bed and slept till about 20 minutes ago (from about 2.30 till 7pm). now i have to go down to the library and photocopy a bunch of articles to read for a lecture tomorrow, which will probably add up to over 100 pages of reading to do before i can go back to bed ... and here's me thinking law school was going to be easy i should have been able to get the reading down earlier, or at least pace it out properly since last week, but i've had a crazy week and things haven't gone to plan at all, so hopefully this won't become the routine for this term. i think from now on i just have to force myself to get up - when i hear my alarm, get up and have a shower without thinking too much about it and by the time i've dried off i should be awake. it's just that my bed is so comfy in the mornings ...
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Post by teancum79 on Feb 6, 2006 16:23:30 GMT -5
I have the same problem I went to bed about 11 last night laid awake for awhile listening to a religious/political conspiracy discussion in my apartment and than dozed of I got up about 7 and than laid on the couch to get just a few more minuets of sleep and work up around 10. The good side though for me is that I only have 1 class this term and don't work before 3 pm. best of luck with all of this if you figure out a solution let me know.
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Post by Tara on Feb 7, 2006 14:53:11 GMT -5
You could put a timer on your lights to have them come on at the same time your alarm clock alarms. That sounds cool. The sleep cycle must be messed up b/c of lighting or something like that. I mean... I've heard with some sort of depression that comes around in the winter, people sleep with the light on.... but how the heck would that be able to help you? Maybe I'm wrong.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 7, 2006 15:11:29 GMT -5
i guess it wouldn't have to be your ceiling light, maybe just turn a lamp on behind the curtain or something, i dunno. i failed to get out of bed this morning despite really really wanting to (after all, i did all my reading for the lecture, which was only about 50 pages in the end) and when i realised i'd missed my lecture i slept in until 4pm again. sigh. tomorrow i'll be up in the morning because i'm playing football at mid-day (and i definitely won't miss that ) and then on thursday i've got an 11am lecture. if i can get up in the morning 2 days in a row then maybe that'll sort my cycle out, cos it's really ridiculous at the moment. i couldn't get to sleep until about 6am again last night, probably because i had that long sleep during the day. i couldn't help it, though, at the time i had nothing to do for 4 hours and i would have fallen asleep anyway.
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Post by cenk on Feb 8, 2006 15:32:13 GMT -5
Littlepea the best thing is to stay up the whole night and go to sleep at around 6pm or 8pm. Your sleeping pattern should go back to normal. I remember having a messed up sleeping pattern during the Christmas holiday and used to go to sleep as late as 7am some nights but one time I just tried to stay awake (That was the hardest part). The next day I went to sleep at 6pm I woke up nice and early in the morning.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 8, 2006 16:33:42 GMT -5
i have a lecture tomorrow and then i have a week off ("reading week") so i'll try and get things sorted then. i'm trying to think which day would be the best to do the all nighter ... probably stay awake on thursday night and sleep friday-saturday.
the thing is i'm really really busy and can't really afford to waste a whole day. but at the moment i'm sleeping late, procrastinating for a few hours to get motivated, work a few hours, then give up because it's 3 in the morning and stay awake for 4 more hours, probably only getting about 4 hours of work done at most. but if i can get myself to wake up at 9am and go to bed at 11pm or soemthing like that then i could probably make up for it by doing twice as much work, or something like that.
anyway, i was up at 11.45 today (nearly slept through my football - that really would have been the last straw!), hopefully i'll be able to get to sleep before 3am this morning and then i have to be up at 10am tomorrow. getting up in the morning 2 days in a row might sort things out.
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Post by Tara on Feb 8, 2006 17:17:00 GMT -5
Maybe you should try forcing yourself to sleep or something... let your body know who's boss.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 9, 2006 8:10:21 GMT -5
lol. well, the night before last night i couldn't get to sleep until about 8am, and then i was up at 11.45am to go out and play football and after so little sleep and a really tough game (which we lost 3-2 - very frustrating, but the opposition were much better organised) i was absolutely knackered for the rest of the day. i went to bed at about 11pm and i think i got to sleep by about 12.30. i slept in until 10.30am and i've just finished my 11am lecture and it feels good to have finally had a proper night's sleep. i'll aim to try and get to sleep before 2am for the time being and try and adjust to living life in daytime hours which include mornings from now on ... if anything this whole episode has confirmed the fact that i'm really not a morning person
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Post by Tara on Feb 9, 2006 12:43:03 GMT -5
lol
caffeine. You know what I'm talking about.
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Post by dianaholberg on Feb 10, 2006 11:09:35 GMT -5
Good point, Tara. littlepea, are you still taking in a lot of caffeine?
I've tapered off steadily since the holidays... trying to prepare myself for Lent when I'll give it up completely. My sleep schedule is thrown off quite a bit, but since the side effects (tension, etc. that I didn't even realize were there) are gone it's definitely worth it.
No headaches, thank goodness. That was my biggest concern. I'm useless with a headache.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 10, 2006 22:38:29 GMT -5
yeah, still drinking lots of caffeine, though less sugar these days. this week won't be too annoying because it's "reading week" at uni which means we don't have any lectures, so i can sleep in without missing anything. i'll still try and get up before mid-day each day, though, just to make it easier for getting back to normal the week after.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 20, 2006 3:39:13 GMT -5
well, i have a lecture in 2 and a half hours (at 11am) and i've just done an all-nighter. i had last week off (for "reading week") and i didn't manage to stick to my plan of getting up before mid-day. yesterday i got up at 4.30pm, despite really wanting to get up by mid-day so i could get a good night's sleep before my lecture this morning but it didn't happen. i went round to my friend's flat for some drinks cos it was his 20th birthday but i didn't feel like going out after that, so i came back and mucked about on the computer. next thing i know it's 6am and i'm wide awake but i go to bed anyway to try and get a bit of sleep. so i lie in bed for a few horus, realise by 8am that if i fall asleep then i won't be able to get up for my lecture, so now i'm up and i've done an all-nighter. now that i've had no sleep i'm going to try and stay awake until at least 8pm tonight so i can get some proper sleep for once ... knowing me, however, i'll probably come back from my lecture and sleep from 1 till 8 or something stupid like that PS. i never realised how good cereal is as a cure for a mild hangover. need to add that one to the list. PPS. i heard back from the law firm that i had the interview for that i mentioned in my original post - they rejected me. oh well.
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