I’m in my mid-20’s and I’ve never been much of a morning person. But, I recently graduated college, and I now have a job that starts at 6AM. So, I went from sleeping late many days when I was in school and after I graduated and was looking for a job, to having to set my alarm for 5 in the morning.
In order to get a full 8 hours of sleep I would need to go to bed at 9 PM, which I wouldn’t necessarily mind. But, on most nights I don’t end up getting to bed until between 10 and 11 PM because I’m not tired before that. So I wake up still feeling tired.
Basically I’m usually tired most of the day, and for most of the day I feel like I could go to sleep if I laid down. It seems like the only times during the day that I couldn’t go right to sleep if I decided to take a nap are between the hours of about 8 and 11 (which is right when I want to go to bed!)
I do sometimes take naps when I get home from work at about 4, but only when I am really tired. I try to avoid naps because I think it makes me stay up later. I probably take a nap after work about once or twice a week.
Any advice on getting onto a better sleep schedule? What should I do on nights when I need to get to bed but I’m not tired? I try to stay away from sleeping pills or nyquil or any of that stuff because I’ve heard its unhealthy, but is that something I should maybe consider?
If you’re drinking coffee or soda, cut you’re caffeine intake to less then half. Cut it out completely if you can! After I did this, I actually started to have more frequent dreams, felt tired at night and refreshed in the morning, and I really felt better throughout the whole day. Unfortunately, the taste of Dr. Pepper and Coffee got me caught up in the game again.
I know exactly how you feel! In college I slept late every day, and after that, got a job that started at noon, so all was OK. Now, however, I have to get up at 6, so it’s been quite a struggle.
I am on a medication that makes me drowsy at night. It’s a mild tricyclic. If you really have trouble going to sleep, see your GP and maybe s/he will try you on something non-addictive sleep aid to help you in the transition, so you won’t be like Edward Norton at the beginning of Fight Club.
I also drink a slammin’ dose of caffeine in the morning and eat a protein bar, which wakes me up pretty well. Try that and see if it helps, but don’t give in to the temptation to drink caffeine any time after lunch, because it’ll keep you awake.
Refrain from naps unless for some reason you know you won’t be able to get to bed until 11pm, because, say, your favorite show is on at 10. Then, screw it, get sleep while the getting is good.
Try not to let yourself sleep until noon on your days off, because then when you have get up again during the work week, you won’t be able to get to sleep the night before. I wish I could take this advice but often don’t, much to my later dismay.
Stay away from sleeping pills…ect. They interfer with normal, healthy sleep. Try not to take naps, they tend to reset your inner clock which resets your sleep schedule. If you do really need a nap take a short one, 15 to 30 minutes. This will refresh you somewhat but hopefully not interfer with your nightly sleep. Avoid caffeine or any stimulents. Don’t do any exercising late in the day. Set a sleep schedule- go to bed at the same time- and have a good sleeping enviroment,ie quiet and pleasent temperature. Use the bed for sleeping, no tv in bed,no reading in bed, have sex somewhere else. In otherwords, program your body to accept the bed as time to go to sleep.
Something that really helps me to sleep is meditation before going to bed. It calms your mind and quiets any problems you have been having in your waking hours.
Also, try not to go off your sleep schedule on your days off from work, don’t stay up late becausa you don’t have to work the next day. It takes time to train your body and mind to sleep. Be patient and when you do have a “bad” night of sleep just accept it. You are going to have some nights where sleep doesn’t want to come. Everyone has them. Don’t try to hard to sleep, let sleep come to you. Happy dreams.
I’ve worked nights for the past four years, and have had my fair share of sleeping problems, as well.
Most of the advice given so far is fairly solid. Refrain from naps. Don’t take sleeping pills. ( I keep them handy, only for the “emergency” days when I get off at work, get home, its 10 in the morn, and I CANT sleep, but NEED to so I can get up at 3 in the afternoon and be back on time. Normal bedtime is 8:30 am. . .)
Perform “activities” that your body starts to associate with sleeping. Do them before going to bed, and try not to do them otherwise. Things like having a set pair of Pajamas, reading poetry verses, eating toast. Whatever. Eventually you get conditioned that these things = bedtime, and your body gets used to winding down when you go through them.
The most important, helpful advice I could give is to regularly excercise. Once I started going on 45 minute runs 4 times a week, I slept like a baby. I could not only get to sleep 5 minutes after hitting the pillow, but I also slept “better.” I could wake up easier and didnt feel so groggy, so much to the point I did away with coffee, entirely.
I am a night person, but I managed to hold down a job that required getting up at 4am for a couple years and survived alright. I never really liked it, of course, but I did it.
Routine, routine, routine is how I did it. I went to bed at the same time every night (9 or 10) and woke up at the same time every morning. Even on my days off, I’d only sleep in an hour or two, because I was used to getting up before god. The exhausting physical labor I had to do during the day helped, of course, but I wouldn’t reccomend it to anyone, cause it sucked.
Now, every now and then when my sleep system needs a kick in the behind, I use an OTC sleeping pill, but it’s usually something like “I have a final at 8am and have to get up at 6am when I’m used to going to bed around 2am.”
As an aside, my advice would be to disregard the notion of a “full 8 hours of sleep” and just go with what your body tells you you need. I did this about a year ago - set my alarm for 9am every day, and went to sleep whenever I felt like it (usually quite late), counting on my body to force me to start falling asleep earlier if it needed it. And you know what? As it turns out, I only need about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. It’s a bit more of an effort to wake up, but the extra couple of awake-hours a day are extraordinarily useful. Usually I’ll go to sleep hours after my girlfriend and still wake up before she does. (And I no longer stick to the 9am wakeup, now that I know how much sleep I need - even when the alarm isn’t set I still sleep a lot less than I used to.)
All this started because I read an article about anxiety over lack of sleep being more detrimental than lack of sleep itself. (No cite, though, I’m afraid - I can’t remember where I read it.)
I also had big sleeping problems in college. In addition to what’s been mentioned, I can add a couple things. First is exercise. Exercising regularly every day helps your body establish a rhythm. The best time is mid afternoon, if possible, or at least that’s what I’ve heard. However, exercise right before trying to go to sleep is a bad idea. The other thing is diet. You might try pushing your evening meal a little bit earlier to give yourself more time to digest the food. Also, don’t snack after dinner.