Recently I've been staying up all night until about 5am or so and then sleeping until 1pm. So I'm basically sleeping all morning, but am awake all night. I've decided to "reset" my sleep schedule to get back to normal. In order to do this, I'm going to try and stay up all night and all day without sleeping, and then just crash at like 7pm or 8pm.
It's currently 5:43am. I'm pretty sleepy right now, but once I get passed this initial sleepiness, I will be able to stay away for awhile. I plan on studying until its time to sleep, but studying makes me sleepy so meh. Anyhow, this is the most effective way I can think of on getting my schedule back to normal. If I'm off by a few hours, I wouldn't do something this drastic, but since I'm off by like 7 hours this should hopefully work.
So here's to an all-nighter (or is it an all-dayer?). (If you know of other methods to "reset" your schedule, let me know what you do)
Edits: Take 1: I failed my attempt. I went to lay down on the floor and study and at around 8am, I ended up falling asleep right there on the floor. I woke up at 11am and realized that I fell asleep and failed, and then I went back to sleep and woke up at 3pm. Right now its 4:25pm.
My new plan is to sleep as early as I can tonight, and then just set my alarm tomorrow morning for 9am and force myself to wake up no matter what. Even though I will only get like 3 hours of sleep, it's still easier than trying to stay up all night and day. I'll post an update to let you know how this second attempt will work.
Take 2: Went to sleep at around 4am and set the alarm for 9:30am. I moved my alarm clock across the room instead of keeping it on my bed frame so that I would have to walk across the room to turn it off. It ended up working and I woke up at that time. Since I had less sleep last night, I will go to sleep early today because I will be tired more sooner. This method is actually easier than staying up all night and all day.
Coffee? Or just try eating your meals regularly (like breakfast at 8am..etc..) and hopefully your body slowly adjusts to your needs. Also during the day if you get tired, go out in the sun and try to look at bright things often.
On June 26 2010 21:55 FortuneSyn wrote: You'd be surprised how much this technique actually doesn't work.
May not work for you, but it works really well for me. I've used it a couple of times before and it lasts for a long time. At one point I was sleeping at 8pm and waking up at 5am every day. But as time goes on and you start sleeping later and later every night, you eventually go back to normal schedule and then back to beyond normal (which is what I'm in now).
Your body needs to rest, and it will force to you rest eventually. Once you generate the "start" time, your body naturally only functions for a certain amount of hours before you begin to feel tired and sleep again. And since you woke up early, this time will also be early. Hence, the schedule resets.
Ya this doesn't work for me. I usually eat dinner at 7-8pm every night (which is 12 hours before I want to wake up), and despite not eating anything since then until 5am, my internal clock doesn't get reset. It might just be me though because I'm a pretty light eater and food doesn't really affect me much.
On June 26 2010 21:55 FortuneSyn wrote: You'd be surprised how much this technique actually doesn't work.
works fine for me. but sometimes, if i get reallly sleep at say, 3 pm and can't last until 9pm, i just go to sleep at 3 pm, wake up at say, midnight. then the next day, i can manage to stay up until 9pm. so basically, spreading out the "reset" over 2 days instead of 1 day.
Depending on how long you've been doing the nocturnal sleep routine, one all-nighter might not fix your schedule. I did this for about two months straight when I was in school, and it did not get fixed even though I regularly pulled all nighters for projects (this eventually worked out because I'm now in Japan XD). I think it's more or less a conscious decision, if you want to right your ways, just don't stay up for the sake of staying up.
On June 26 2010 22:22 Cambium wrote: Depending on how long you've been doing the nocturnal sleep routine, one all-nighter might not fix your schedule. I did this for about two months straight when I was in school, and it did not get fixed even though I regularly pulled all nighters for projects (this eventually worked out because I'm now in Japan XD). I think it's more or less a conscious decision, if you want to right your ways, just don't stay up for the sake of staying up.
On June 26 2010 21:55 FortuneSyn wrote: You'd be surprised how much this technique actually doesn't work.
May not work for you, but it works really well for me. I've used it a couple of times before and it lasts for a long time. At one point I was sleeping at 8pm and waking up at 5am every day. But as time goes on and you start sleeping later and later every night, you eventually go back to normal schedule and then back to beyond normal (which is what I'm in now).
Your body needs to rest, and it will force to you rest eventually. Once you generate the "start" time, your body naturally only functions for a certain amount of hours before you begin to feel tired and sleep again. And since you woke up early, this time will also be early. Hence, the schedule resets.
The older/more ingrained the pattern gets the more staying up doesn't work.
PROTIP: When you do go to sleep somewhere, make sure it's in a place that gets a lot of sun in the morning. Exposure to a ridiculous amount of sunshine in the mornings really help wake you up.
Does not work. All nighters sometimes work for me.
EDIT: Then again I'm not able to eat breakfast at the time I want to wake up, only 3 hours later. So the 16-18 hours I go maybe don't work as intended? I don't know.
On June 26 2010 21:55 FortuneSyn wrote: You'd be surprised how much this technique actually doesn't work.
May not work for you, but it works really well for me. I've used it a couple of times before and it lasts for a long time. At one point I was sleeping at 8pm and waking up at 5am every day. But as time goes on and you start sleeping later and later every night, you eventually go back to normal schedule and then back to beyond normal (which is what I'm in now).
Your body needs to rest, and it will force to you rest eventually. Once you generate the "start" time, your body naturally only functions for a certain amount of hours before you begin to feel tired and sleep again. And since you woke up early, this time will also be early. Hence, the schedule resets.
The older/more ingrained the pattern gets the more staying up doesn't work.
PROTIP: When you do go to sleep somewhere, make sure it's in a place that gets a lot of sun in the morning. Exposure to a ridiculous amount of sunshine in the mornings really help wake you up.
The sunlight thing does actually help. I should keep my blinds open before I sleep so the sun helps me get up more easily in the morning.
in my experience this works only if you set your alarm to wake up in the morning at the time you want to wake up. 7pm or 8pm might be a bit early... just go to sleep at the time you want to sleep at normally and wake up at the time you want to wake up normally. if anything, go to sleep ~1 hour earlier so you can catch up on the sleep you're missing
I have always heard the best way to maintain a sleep schedule is just to sleep when you feel tired but always wake up at the same time; after awhile you will start waking up just before the alarm.
yea I do this all the time when my CR gets out of hand. I read that eating thing long time ago but never tried it along with pullin all nighters. I'll try it this next time when I decide to fix my sleep. Problem with me though, is I don't eat regularly/on a routine anyways.
Goodluck GrayArea, I know the hardest part is from 10am-3pm when the sun is brightest. The funny thing too, is once you pass that part and dusk settles in, it almost feels like you don't even need to sleep anymore.
5am - 3pm is the hardest time to stay awake for me. your body was used to getting that REM at 5, so it lets you know hardcore that you gotta sleep. Later on you sort of forget.
So then at 7pm, i decide to go to bed. I have no clue why this happens, but I end up waking at some ridiculous time like 3:00am and i dont feel sleepy until that 5am-3pm once again.
If I fuck up just a little bit and sleep at 1am or 2am, then im out all the way till 1-2pm.
If you want to take a nap that's fine, and there is logic in what the author is saying that the brain will front-load REM sleep if you are sleep deprived, but this is not and/or should not be any kind of a solution to sleep problems for most people. Most people can sleep normally (one sleep session at night) and not need naps or anything else special... but it requires some knowledge and effort.
OP: by fixing a lot of my sleeping/insomnia problems, I've found it much easier to reset my sleep schedule than it used to be. I can brute force it forward a couple of hours a day without that much difficulty (relatively speaking).
However I used to have a lot of difficulty with this and I tried what you are planning or are doing. One thing I noticed was you can easily overshoot. If I am on a schedule where I go to bed at 5am and wake up at 2-3pm, then trying to stay up until 7pm and sleep until 9am seems logical. But, after struggling to make it past 1pmish, I suddenly get a second wind and don't feel like sleep at 7pm. All the sudden it's 10:30pm and I haven't gone to sleep yet and I find myself sleeping until 2-3pm the next day. You have to get yourself tired and in bed early enough that make it easy for you to get up at a normal waking time, plus it will be slightly harder to get to sleep the following night.
I've found that doing exercise when I'm trying to do an all nighter to fix mine helps me stay awake. However I feel it could work the opposite if you overexert yourself.
My sleeping schedule is so fucked up right now too. I go to sleep at like 8-9 AM and wake up at 6 PM, hell I dont even know how I can sleep for that long. I'm gonna go ahead and pull an all nighter too.
Go out and have a run or lift some weights. Afterwards, after you have a snack, lay down in your bed and put on a movie or some starcraft/day9. You should be out for three hours easy. Do this on a regular basis and you'll start sleeping normally again.
Yea, depending on how long you've lived the "night life"schedule, it's probably going to take awhile to adjust your sleep patterns. It is certainly possible and probably a good decision, but be prepared for the transition to last a couple weeks, if not longer.
For the last six weeks i've had pretty bad insomnia where I've been up for 2-4 days straight a week without sleep and then i would sleep the rest. Got on seroquel seems to be helping but I'm prolly fucked without medication.
On June 27 2010 02:36 MiniRoman wrote: For the last six weeks i've had pretty bad insomnia where I've been up for 2-4 days straight a week without sleep and then i would sleep the rest. Got on seroquel seems to be helping but I'm prolly fucked without medication.
Have you read all the crap I wrote on this last year? It sounds like your problem is pretty extreme but you probably already know medication is not the best long-term solution.
On June 27 2010 01:41 FreshVegetables wrote: My sleeping schedule is so fucked up right now too. I go to sleep at like 8-9 AM and wake up at 6 PM, hell I dont even know how I can sleep for that long. I'm gonna go ahead and pull an all nighter too.
Another Finland stereotype confirmed :D
I suck at falling asleep. I'm gonna try some of this stuff
Don't eat anything 16 hours before you need to wake up, get sunlight during the day (within an hour or two after you get up would be good), get some exercise and then you should be good to go if you keep it up for a week or two.
I used to do the stay awake until regular sleep time thing too. I still do sometimes, but age or whatever I'm finding it harder to take. Just becomes too unpleasant especially if there isnt a strong incentive .
What I find is slightly more pleasant is forcing yourself to wake up (even if little sleep). Eg get up at 6-8am regardless of when you fell asleep, even if it's like 4am. Its slightly better for me, although it takes some adjusting, just an arbitrary example.
work out/play a sport/do something physically tiring sometime in the evening/afternoon for a few hours -> tired -> get home and shower and stuff -> don't go on your computer -> sleep -> your sleep schedule is now reset to going to sleep sometime between 9pm and 1am ^^.
I played sc2 pretty much 16 hours straight the day I got the beta in order to reset my sleep schedule. (I was so into it I could've easily gone another 16 hours)
i had this schedule for a few years, sometimes even staying up til 10 am and sleeping until 8 pm. staying up all day doesn't fix it, you'll just not feel tired and wind up staying up 2 days without sleep, haha.
Whats wrong with just going to bed at the time you want to sleep again ? I'd try just going to bed at like 3:30 and forcing wake up at arround 8. The next day you should be able to sleep at a normal time again ?
On June 27 2010 08:18 Marradron wrote: Whats wrong with just going to bed at the time you want to sleep again ? I'd try just going to bed at like 3:30 and forcing wake up at arround 8. The next day you should be able to sleep at a normal time again ?
I failed my attempt to stay awake (ended up crashing early). I'm gonna try this method tonight and will post an update to let you know if it worked or not.
Dude, I have totally the same issue! I tried to do what you did, by staying awake the whole day and crashing at around 10pm. Instead, I fell asleep watching a movie at 8am
lay in bed close your eyes block out the windows and sleep it's not too hard,it's a matter of patience to lay down not move and keep your eyes closed, ofc i used to work nights and sleep during the day you learn to fall asleep when you need to. No need to stay up past 24h
When I was doing rotating shift work I became somewhat of an expert at changing my sleeping patterns.
It's always better to just get 2 or 3 hours sleep than trying to pull an all nighter. That way you'll be tired enough to sleep when you really want to but you won't be falling asleep randomly during the day.
So if I was on night shift friday and then day shift the next week I'd come home about 7am Saturday morning and instead of sleeping for 8 hours I'd crash about 7:30am and then force myself to wake up at 10am. I'd be a bit groggy for most of the day but I could easily stay awake if I found something to do (like play computer games or whatever), then by 10pm I'd be buggered and crash out and naturally wake up about 9am Sunday, then just go to bed about 10pm Sunday night and wake up at 6 Monday morning and by then you're pretty much sorted.
Using coffee is a pretty good way to stay awake when you want to, trick is you have to use it sparingly so your body doesn't get accustomed to the caffeine, I probably only drink coffee one or two times a week when I really need it, if you drink it every day then you'll get much less return when you really need the effect.
Whenever I need to set a proper sleep schedule, I'll do something I really like (used to be DotA before) for practically the whole night and day, until it gets to a reasonable time (around 9 pm) and then just crash until the next day. Be careful about going to bed too late after staying up all day because I tend to notice that I sleep extra to make up for the time I lost, and then end up waking up at 11ish in the morning and not getting into a proper rhythm.
EPT
