Someone help me get a good sleep pattern

[Erock]

I would really like to have a consistent sleeping pattern with a consistent wake up time, especially one early like 5 or 6 AM. I keep trying to initiate this pattern into my life, and am able to do it successfully Monday through Friday, but the problem is that my friends like to hang out until 12 or 1 on Friday and Saturday nights, and it throws me off every week.

Does anybody have a good solution to this, because I want to have a consistent wake up time to have better and more consistent energy throughout the day, but I don't want to have to give up hanging out with my friends either?

Thanks a ton
Eric

[Brutha]

You could try to take a nap Friday and Saturday.

[kat]

What about biphasic sleep (either every day, or just on the weekends?)

There are some forum threads about it: the basic idea is that you sleep in two chunks, rather than one.

[Erki]

I'd love to try biphasic sleeping but I wondered what happens if I can't take a nap some days?

[Wanderer]

Im currently trying biphasic
This is my second day, I certainly didnt get a big enough nap and now I feel abit drowsy but its not a major problem. Perhaps try taking a nap Friday before going out with your friends, if this doesn't appear to help, perhaps you could miss a week or two of friends to get into the 5:00/6:00 habit, and then your body should get up naturally. Powernaps are meant to be very useful, but I've never tried them.
Actually Im a bit stuck for great ideas to be honest. You could try Steves artcile on getting up early - just google it.
Hope this helps

[Erock]

Yeah, I thought about naps, but do they interfere with the pattern of sleep, as in I wont feel tired at night, so I won't be able to judge how much sleep I need?

Thanks a ton

[Cassie]

I'm struggling with my sleeping patterns. The darn weekend is what throws me off as well. I do try and get a nap in after classes friday before I go out. It helps a little. How long, ideally, should naps be? (I try for 20 minutes but always end up sleeping longer. Should I just be letting myself sleep as long as I need, even if its an hour or two?)

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Erki

I'd love to try biphasic sleeping but I wondered what happens if I can't take a nap some days?

Erki, take a look at the 'Switching to Biphasic Sleeping' thread - that will probably answer several questions you may have. As for this one : if you can't take a nap at the usual time, try taking it earlier; or taking a couple of short ones instead. I often do this (take 2 short naps) when I know I'm going out, and it works well.