sleep pattern

LegacyUser

i cannot sleep at night, last night and every night the past few months im awake till 6.a.m. den when i finally get to sleep i dont wake up till 2 in the afternoon i have to be up early one day per week for a course im doing and i usually get up at 8.a.m. after getting to sleep at 6 im like a zombie then for the day... im so fed up off stareing at the ceiling all night any ideas on how to fix this

Squiggler

You need to stop lying in until 2... my little brother had this problem when he was in his late teens. He'd be awake till 5 or 6 and then sleep all day.

When he got a job and knew he was going to have to change his sleep pattern he started weaning himself.

If he usually woke at 2 he'd set his alarm for 12 and make himself get up... then he'd set it 30 minutes earlier every few days. After a few weeks he was falling asleep by midnight and able to wake in the morning feeling great.

Ickle Magoo

As a night owl who periodically goes through bouts of insomnia, I think it's possible to get yourself into and out of sleep patterns - and the easiest way of doing that is to up the exercise and have a structured bed and wake time and sticking to them - a bit like how we adjust to jet lag in the minimum of time.

Exercise at some stage in the day, eat properly and healthily, have a nice wind-down in the evening reading a book or having a bath and set the alarm and stick to it - and your sleep pattern will shift.

All the best. :cool:

LegacyUser

I excercise i go for a long walk every day, buts its not enough, im just thinking maybe its time to see a doctor i cannot take another long night of being awake till 6.a.m.!!

Firetrap

Have you tried going to bed and getting up at reasonable hours? If you're doing things like sleeping in til 2, it's going to feck things up.

Let's say your average person sleeps for 8 hours a night. That means they're up for the other 16 hours in the day. If you sleep in til 2 in the day, your 16 hours won't be up until 6 a.m. the next day.

C14N

Seems like you've gotten yourself into a bad pattern is all. Sleep patterns have always been something I've been concerned about but your situation doesn't seem that difficult.

What time do you actually go to bed? If you hit the sack at midnight and stay awake until 6am then that's one thing, if you don't even try to get sleep until 4am then this is your own doing.

If you want to try and change it really quickly try this: go to bed at 12, whether you sleep or not, get up by 8. You'll have gotten some amount of rest, even if not sleep. Make sure you get up. Set a loud alarm, leave the curtains open so the room is bright. Then stick it out for the day. Assuming you got almost no sleep the night before, you should be knackered by 12 at night. I do this whenever I travel a long distance and get severe jetlag.

Also, try more intense exercise than a long walk. Try going for a run or a cycle and keep up speed.

Firetrap

Also, wind down before you go to bed. Don't drink anything with caffeine in it after about 6.00 in the evening. Turn off your computer an hour before you go to bed. Try reading or something else that's relaxing.

echosound

One quick solution is to pick a day where you don't have anything important to to (like driving, working, or going to college, i.e. anything you need to be totally alert and on the ball for) and just stay awake right through. A weekend night might be ideal if you've nothing on on a saturday/sunday.

So if you're only getting to sleep at 6am, then just stay up, stay awake through the day with no naps, and you'll be so tired come 9/10 pm you'll conk out and get a full 8 hour's sleep, ready to get up refreshed at 6/7/8 am the next day.

I often fall into patterns like that as I have always been a night owl, even as a child. My ideal bedtime for a full night's sleep if I'm getting up at 8am would be to go to bed around 1 am.

So, I tend to fall into bad habits of staying up later and later til one night I realise it's becoming normal for me to be still awake at 6am, and this is the only way I can break the cycle and get back into going to sleep at a reasonable hour. Stay awake completely, and be so tired the next evening that I'll fall asleep and get a good 8 hour's sleep and be back into a "normal" pattern again.

After that, it's a matter of sticking to a routine of mentally setting your bedtime and sticking to it, so plan your day and activities so you're winding down from about 10pm, with an hour or two of relaxing however you like to relax, to be in bed by 12, say. Then, make sure you continue to get up at 8/9 whenever rather than lying in late as naturally you won't be tired again by midnight if you sleep in late.

Must put this into practice myself again soon actually, as I'm in a cycle of staying up til all hours tinkering about with a project, then sleeping til midday, not good!. It does work though, kinda like a reset button on your internal clock.

Good luck.

woodoo

The average person gets up at about 8am, you get up 6 hrs later.

So sleep at 12 and up at 8am = 8hrs sleep

Sleep at 6am and get up at 2pm = 8hrs sleep.

Sleeping is not your problem. The time you go to bed and particularly the time you get up in the morning is the problem

pragmatic1

I also get this from time to time. Wnet through it for months and months. Ended up staying awake up all day too.Its all about routine. Make yourself get up earlier even if you're destroyed tired. Dont drink coffee or tea after six and try to pack as much into your day as you can. Unfortunately theres no quick fix to properly adjust your body clock.

Overheal

Your body works best if you go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time each morning.

LegacyUser

well its half four in the morning now, and im still wide awake i tried to go to sleep at around 11, but no joy i might try the staying awake right through till the next night idea, hope it works, thanks for all the replys!!

fiona12

I am just wondering if insomnia is your only problem? Could you be suffering from something else? The first thought that came into my head is depression. Here are the symptoms, but it might be worth speaking to your GP

• you can’t sleep or you sleep too much
• you can’t concentrate or find that previously easy tasks are now difficult
• you feel hopeless and helpless
• you can’t control your negative thoughts, no matter how much you try
• you have lost your appetite or you can’t stop eating
• you are much more irritable, short-tempered, or aggressive than usual
• you’re consuming more alcohol than normal or engaging in other reckless behavior
• you have thoughts that life is not worth living (Seek help immediately if this is the case)

Ickle Magoo

fiona12,

As per site rules, please leave the diagnosing for the professionals who have all the information and can examine their patient - and please don't encourage posters to make their own internet diagnosis.

Please take the time to read the [URL="http http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056181484"]forum rules[/URL] in the charter and abide by them.

Many thanks.