Source
r/AskReddit•
PhaseShift11

Reddit, how the fuck do I wake up on time/early when nothing is at stake?

So, I'm studying right now, however I don't have classes. Therefore I have no real "incentive" to wake up because I have no punishment if I oversleep. This is relevant because on days where I have to get up, my body will wake up fine. I'm never worried about oversleeping for exams and the like.

On the other hand, I sleep at 3am most days, and cannot remain awake before like 1pm. I might have an alarm for 11am, wake up, turn off my alarm, and my eyes will not open. Like they either hurt so much or just won't respond to me, and I'll just fall back asleep into bed. Often the alarm will go off for 1-2 hrs at a time.

I don't have a huge problem with falling and staying sleeping, so I don't think "exercise" and "eating right" will help. If I sleep earlier than 3am, I still wake up about as late as 12:30pm, so I'm wasting studying time if I try sleeping at 1am or something.

What can I do? Thanks.

Posted Jul 16, 2011, 3:11 AM UTC

016
usernamecharlie•

Put your alarm on the other side of the room. Nothing wakes a person up more than having to physically get up to stop the annoying sounds. You need to have the self control to not go back into bed at that point. Go piss, eat, have some coffee, and shower. If that doesn't get you going, you are fucked.

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PhaseShift11OP•

You'd be surprised, I can get up, run to my alarm clock, turn it off/snooze, and jump back into bed within seconds. All before my eyes open once. And I can snooze like that 4-6 times, 9 minutes each, leading to about 1 hr of being half asleep like that if not more. EDIT: I agree about the self control though. I should like splash my face or something with water but even that doesn't seem like a fool proof way.

1
usernamecharlie•

Again, the key words were "don't go back to bed." It is a self control issue. Personally, I would try to keep the same schedule daily, regardless of whether you need to get up or not.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
ClownFundamentals•

There's only one way to change your sleep schedule, and that's to force your body into it until it gets used to it. It always works, but sometimes it may take a while.

Pick a sleep schedule you want to keep. Start coming up with external obligations that force you to wake up by a certain hour: this does not include exercise (since it's easy to slack that off), but might include something like a temp job, some volunteer work, or even a game (I know people who fixed their sleeping schedules by changing their guild raiding hours).

Alternatively, get a better alarm. Get one that's incredibly, unbelievably loud, so loud you can't possibly sleep through it. Get one that flies away from you when you try to catch it. And when you finally turn it off, immediately jump in the shower and rinse off with freezing water. Cold water is hugely helpful in waking you up.

EDIT: I wouldn't worry about when you fall asleep. It's when you wake up that matters: if you need more sleep, you'll naturally go to sleep earlier if you know you can't sleep in in the morning.

2
PhaseShift11OP•

Pick a sleep schedule you want to keep. Start coming up with external obligations that force you to wake up by a certain hour: this does not include exercise (since it's easy to slack that off), but might include something like a temp job, some volunteer work, or even a game (I know people who fixed their sleeping schedules by changing their guild raiding hours).

I'm not sure if I can convince myself that "playing a game" is some sort of obligation that will force me to wake up. I'm studying full-time right now for a board exam, so although I like your advice to get some sort of job/volunteer position I don't think it's gonna happen.

Alarm clock - this is true, maybe I should find a louder one. But I'm wondering if there's anything I can do about my eyes, quite honestly it's actually difficult for me to open them, like I have trouble and I don't think I could open my eyes fully without using my fingers.

Is there something I could do like run into the bathroom and just splash my face with freezing water the second my alarm goes off?

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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PhaseShift11OP•

Dude, pretty sick post. I've been looking on blogs and stuff and I've seen some pretty similar advice.

Since you seem pretty knowledgeable, I'd like to ask a couple followup questions if you don't mind.

It sounds like if you were able to get up every day for a month you'd be fine, but how do you make sure you accomplish this? The alarm goes off, then what do you do to force yourself to get up? If you read the other posts I've made on this thread, you might have noticed I said I have trouble even opening my eyes, so I'm not really sure what to do in the 5-10 minutes it takes me to open them and to begin the process of waking my brain up.

Also, what is a good night-time routine before bed that's not stimulating? The problem for me is I'm quite computer based, and I have pretty bright lights on.

I'm thinking, dim the lights/use a lamp, and stretch with the computer off? That sounds pretty low-key and enjoyable.

Thanks for the help so far.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
glycosylated•

Be disciplined.

1
PhaseShift11OP•

I'm not sure if I'm making excuses but seriously, I've tried sleeping at 1am for days. And it doesn't do shit, I still wake up later than I want. If I sleep at 1am, I'll sleep for 11 hours. If I sleep at 3am, I'll sleep for 10 hours. It's like my body works best when I sleep at this time.

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glycosylated•

Try for months. It might take tons of time. Also, try cutting out all sugary or caffeinated drinks. And work out for an hour a day.

3
jumanji88•

If your body works best when you sleep at that time, and you can get up early when you have to, what's the problem?

1
PhaseShift11OP•

Because there's too many interesting things going on past midnight online and I feel like, at 1am, "oh I've been up the whole day there's no point studying now I'll just chill" until 3am, and then boom, two hours wasted.

On the other hand, I could get up at 8am, study until noon when my friends are at work/sleeping, and hey look - I've already done 4 hours of work by noon, instead of by 6pm. Then I could take an hour break, work until 5pm, and look, I've done 8 hours of work by 5pm instead of having 8 hours of work done by 1am.

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PerniciousEpiphany•

You might try forcing yourself to go outside long enough for a cup of coffee (or water or tea...or whatever it is you prefer in the morning). You'll have to put on at least some clothes, and you'll have to get a little sunshine probably. Might help you stay awake when you first get up.

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PhaseShift11OP•

Thanks, I think if I can get past the first urge to "jump back into bed" I just need to wait 10-15 minutes until my eyes open. Maybe if I go downstairs or something immediately I won't have that urge to fall right back asleep.

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ThePersonablePikachu•

Now i'm no expert, but I think part of the problem is that you are being woken up in the middle of a rem cycle. Try getting a rem tracking alarm clock, or a similar smart phone app. They keep track of your motions during sleep. You only move during non-rem sleep, so it will wake you up once you have finished the rem cycle nearest your desired wakeup time, or something along those lines.

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MosesIAmnt•

This is a site which calculates your REM cycles and tells you the times you can wake up. sleepyti.me

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athennna•

If I know I have to be up early I keep my blinds open so the light wakes me up in the morning. If I wake up and it's light outside then it's hard to go back to sleep. Also, just go to bed earlier.

1