I have been having some problems with my sleep - nothing serious yet to warrant a visit to the Doctor (at least I want to try everything possible before spending money on seeing one, and it seems a relatively minor issue now).
I have been sleeping too much (from 10 to 12 hours) and couldn’t seen to get out from it, and I do have some problems sleeping earlier. I have no idea how to best adjust my bio-clock.
For instance, I slept at 11 last night and woke up around 10, but I couldn’t get up. I could still close my eyes and dream and before I know it, I woke up around 2pm. And now I feel like sleeping again!
You may be depressed. One simple and fairly effective way to combat depression is exercise. So if you don’t already, try incorporating some exercise into your daily schedule and see if that helps. And since you don’t give your location - is it becoming winter where you are? If so, you could be affected by the lack of sunlight. Try getting outside to soak up what sunlight there is or buying a full spectrum light.
And a bit of off-the-wall advice: what sort of heating and water heating do you have in your house? If either one has the potential to generate carbon monoxide, that can contribute to increased fatigue and a desire to sleep a lot.
My roommates and I, when we were living in a nasty apartment my senior year, were probably affected by that: We weatherstripped everything and put plastic over the windows and then became tired all the time - no matter how much we rested we wanted to rest even more. After spring break, we felt much better so we figured we had just needed a break. Years later, I read an article about a woman who was nearly put on disability due to chronic fatigue, but then found it was her water heater malfunctioning and spewing CO into the air… and a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized what had most likely happened to my roomies and me.
A CO detector is cheap enough and worth the investment if you don’t have one.
I don’t know why everyone has to immediately jump to the “depression” conclusion when there are about a gazillion other reasons that would be more likely. Jeeeez…ya bunch of pill-poppin’ junkies! She said it’s not a big deal. Quit looking under the bed.
I find my sleep patterns get weirded out if I’m stressed, if the seasons are changing, or if I’m (wait for it) exhausted. If you can’t change the stressors in your life, you’ll just have to wait for the phase to pass. If you can cut down on the studying, burning the candle at both ends, or possibly dietary stuff, it would probably help.
There’s an ad/“service announcement” that they regularly show at my gym. It claims that regular exercise is at least as effective at controlling depression as medication citing some Duke University study.
Either way, I have to second the exercise recommendation whether the cause is depression, stress, or something else entirely. I work out consistently (maybe even too much), but I did notice when I started doing it consistently several years ago that it made a noticeable impact in my sleep requirements. I think my sleep needs dropped from around 7-8 to about 5-6. It doesn’t take much exercise to see benefit either, maybe just 30 minutes of exercise 3-4 times a week will net you some noticeable benefit; of course, I’d recommend more exercise if possible.
Also, another cause could be some sleep disorder like sleep apnea. If none of the simple suggestions help, you may benefit from seeing a sleep clinic. My father was diagnosed with sleep apnea a few years ago and, now that he treats it, claims he feels a lot more rested on less sleep.
Maybe you’ve just been shorting yourself of sleep a little bit each day/night for a while, and it’s catching up to you. That happens to me about once a year- I’ll feel really run down for a couple days, then one day I’ll barely be able to make it home from work awake. I’ll go to bed around 6:30, sleep until 9 or 10 the next day, and generally be fine after that. Or it might occur on two days in succession. After that, I’m in tip top shape.
As for execrising, I have been running around 3km (sorry, I’m from a Commonwealth country here, Singapore to be precise ) every 2 days. Unfortunately I have problems waking up early, so I can’t go for a morning run (which I heard is more effective), and I usually have to wait till 8pm to go for a job – that’s when the traffic dies down and I won’t die from breathing in too much exhaust from the cars…
To be honest, I have depression before, so I know what it is like for it to make me unable to sleep, hence I am quite positive it’s not this time round. Maybe I try to ring out my therapist after the exams are done and see if she can help me with the sleep clinic idea.
) every 2 days. Unfortunately I have problems waking up early, so I can’t go for a morning run (which I heard is more effective), and I usually have to wait till 8pm to go for a job – that’s when the traffic dies down and I won’t die from breathing in too much exhaust from the cars…