Sleep patterns and time crunches

[ktox]

I was searching the web about how to convert my current erratic sleep pattern into one where I get up early. I'm in the 2nd semester of a pretty demanding masters program and would like to be able to take care of my body and mind as well as keep up at school. I do believe there are enough hours in the day to do this. However, I don't seem to be using them very well. I often must stay up until anywhere from 11pm to 3am (or later, during crunch times) and then get up at 7-8am. This simply isn't working for me. When I do get to bed at a decent hour, I end up still sleeping in to 8 or 9 am. In order to get some much needed exercise and personal time, getting up at 5 and going to bed at 11 or so would seem much healthier. I have tried the pattern of being very committed the night before, setting my alarm for 5am and then pressing the snooze button for a full 3 hours the next morning...any ideas?

[billybrads]

Get out of bed when your alarm goes off

[Andrew Brunelle]

I think they need to start developing electrostatic alarm clocks that will shock you into waking up. That would most definitely solve your problem.

[SamBeaven]

I find music helps - get a clock radio, or rig your computer up to run through an alarm clock script early in the morning (relatively easy on the mac - Here's one I made earlier).

[norbert]

Zig Ziglar calls it "opportunity clock"

[The Universal Call]

Seriously, like billybrads said: GET UP! Like Steve has mentioned I would not trust on my own body at 5 AM to make the call "Naah, let's sleep a little longer." That is not commitment on your part and if you want to get up at 5 AM you need to take a rough trip by simply swinging your legs to the left (or right, depending on where your bed is), once you're actually standing on your legs it is harder to "suddenly decide" to go back to sleep. Add a breakfast, and/or shower, and an exercise (like you say you want) to this and suddenly you got the entire day ahead of you without the need for 'oh sleep, oh'.

Failing to do this is to not be commited, and you're simply cheating yourself. Will you let it continue because 5 AM mind thinks that sleep is a better idea? Listen to the real you instead. Know who that is? That certain someOne who certainly won't cheat himself on his goals. Help that dude out for a while.


This thread seems misplaced. This subforum would be much more appropriate: http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/

[Scott]

Originally Posted by The Universal Call

This thread seems misplaced. This subforum would be much more appropriate: http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/

I agree - thread moved.

I've found that a splash of water is very effective in getting myself out of bed... from one of my polyphasic sleep blurbs:

Hydro-powered Alarms: I’ve received several questions about how exactly I’ve set up an alarm clock to dump water on my face. It’s really pretty straightforward; I use the Sonic Boom alarm clock with a vibrating disc. Instead of placing the disk under my pillow like the manufacturers would suggest, I like to place it above my head on the edge of a table, then attach a cup of water to the disc (and attach the disc cord to the table with a little slack, so the disc doesn’t smack me in the face). The alarm goes off, the disc vibrates and falls off of the table, and if I’m not quick enough to roll out of the way, then I’m reaching for a towel. If you try this at home, just know that you will spend a lot of time with wet sheets, even if you yourself avoid the torrent. It’s a fact of life. Get used to it.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by billybrads

Get out of bed when your alarm goes off

Put your alarm clock on the other side of the room, and turn it up loud so you have to get up when it goes off.

[sadavis00]

Put on Ipod with your best upbeat music when you want get up. Now the decision is not whether to get up, but to whether you want to listen to your music, which which will automatically wake you up. I think the act of manually turning on your Ipod is important, because it states you decision to wake up. When I set up my alarm to automatically play my favorite music it just didn't work.

[billybrads]

I wasn't trying to be flippant w/my response to your question. I too have had a lot of trouble getting out of bed in the a.m. and falling asleep at night.

I've just found that you can do a hundred things differently and none of them will be the solution until you just decide that you will get out of bed when your alarm goes off whether you are tired or not.

The only other option is to address if you REALLY want to get out of bed at 5 a.m. If you don't then stop trying. If you do then get out bed when your alarm goes off.

Good luck w/whatever you decide.

[ChrisCountryGirl]

Originally Posted by Scott

I agree - thread moved.

I've found that a splash of water is very effective in getting myself out of bed... from one of my polyphasic sleep blurbs:

Hydro-powered Alarms: I’ve received several questions about how exactly I’ve set up an alarm clock to dump water on my face. It’s really pretty straightforward; I use the Sonic Boom alarm clock with a vibrating disc. Instead of placing the disk under my pillow like the manufacturers would suggest, I like to place it above my head on the edge of a table, then attach a cup of water to the disc (and attach the disc cord to the table with a little slack, so the disc doesn’t smack me in the face). The alarm goes off, the disc vibrates and falls off of the table, and if I’m not quick enough to roll out of the way, then I’m reaching for a towel. If you try this at home, just know that you will spend a lot of time with wet sheets, even if you yourself avoid the torrent. It’s a fact of life. Get used to it.

I have the Sonic Boom alarm clock. It works very well when I need to wake up in the morning.