Sleep
 

like most college students, I have a pretty bad sleeping schedule. Sometimes I go to sleep at midnight, sometimes I go to sleep at 4 in the morning. The problem now though, is that I can almost never get up in the morning (8-10 in the morning). In High School, I got by on 5-6 hrs/sleep a week for 4 years and would just crash on the weekends, but now in college I guess I'm just a lot lazier and just flat out a night owl. How can I change this? is it possible that some people are just not morning people? on weekdays, I usually go to sleep before 2 in the morning so its not even that bad, but I just find myself turning off my alarm and going right back to sleep every single day.

Another thing is I'm not sure how many hours of sleep I need. I always hear the 8 hour rule but whenever I do get 8 hours I'm still tired when I wake up, etc. However, when I sleep for 10-12 hours I'll still be tired too. Sooo... any suggestions?

Re: Sleep
 

Dude, I'm having this same problem. I got up in high school everyday fine, but I'm guessing you also had your parents bothering you about getting up for that. I'm going to schedule all my classes for after 1pm next semester though.

Re: Sleep
 

i've made some posts and there have been some threads about sleep, i did a lot of sleep research as an undergrad. in one class, a sleep seminar, we had to keep a sleep journal.

i slept an avg. of 10.2 hours per night, with an average bedtime of 1:45am and an average wake time of around noon.

some people, most people, do best with about 9 hours of sleep. and yes, changing your cycle messes it up.

Re: Sleep
 

sorry, don't want to be rude, but what are you trying to say? just that I should get a good sleeping schedule down? the problem is, I already do kindof have one, I go to sleep around 1-2 AM, and its hard for me to wake up before 11-12 in the morning, which is 9-10 hours of sleep.

Re: Sleep
 

do you take anything to fall asleep? because most sleep aids dont allow you to get REM sleep, which is the sleep you really need.

Re: Sleep
 

I don't know anything about sleep aids, but I know that if you didn't get any REM sleep you would be feeling it in a big way, so I dunno if that's true about sleep aids.

REM sleep isn't the kind you need, your body wants all the types and it hasn't been established that REM is "the important one" or anything like that.

OP,
We don't really know ish about sleep, it's a new science. IMO no one can say how much the average person "needs", "they" probably just take the average number people get, add a few hours since most people are tired, and pass that info out.

I would say you don't NEED any certain number, just whatever makes you feel good. If you want to restrict it, set an alarm so that you wake up in 6-8 hours, you'll be fine. If you feel better with more, fine. You can, however, slowly reduce the number of hours you get with about the same amount of energy and satisfaction of sleep. So if you were getting 9 hours you can then set your alarm for 8:45, etc.

Are you taking any drugs such as caffeine?

Re: Sleep
 

i dont take any aids, or any caffeine or anything. its just, I feel my whole sleeping thing is just messed up. For example, this last weekend, I went to bed at 3 AM sat. night and woke up at 1 PM Sunday afternoon and still felt tired/sleepy the entire day and then got more energy as the night progressed (this is probably a good sign that I am a night owl, which I definitely am). However, I tried to get the typical 8 hours yesterday so I went to bed at 1 but still could not for the life of me get up at 9 AM when my alarm went off.

have people actually tried sleep doctors? do they actually work?

Re: Sleep
 

I just stopped attending classes, slept when i was tired, and woke up when i was not. Ended up pretty close to a 28 hour day with 9 hours sleep. 28 works out well because 6 x 28= 7 x 24.

Re: Sleep
 

Yeah I get into that bxb.

SC,

I mean, your going to feel tired/energetic at weird intervals if you are sleeping like a crazy person. I am 5x as bad as you but I don't really have a problem with anything.

If you want to try to feel more consistently normal I would just suggest:
1. Go to sleep at 2AM every night no matter what, if you are not tired, lay in bed with the lights off.
2. Wake up at 11AM or whatever every day. Get 3 alarm clocks set at 10 minutes apart from one another at different parts of the room. Or buy this and this lol
http://www.nandahome.com/products.clocky.html
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/...larm_clock.php

Re: Sleep
 

The problem is not that you're getting X hours of sleep and still feeling tired.

The problem is that you're not getting X hours of sleep on a consistent basis.

Try putting yourself on a solid sleep schedule, i.e. going to sleep everyday at midnight and setting the alarm for 8. It's probably not a big deal to slack a bit on the weekends, but the general idea is to go to sleep and wake up at around the same time every day.

In the beginning this might be hard, I would suggest that on your first night stay up until whenever you want until you're tired enough to sleep. Then, set your alarm for 8-10 or whatever and make sure you get up at that time. Later that night it should be easier to go to sleep at your target time and wake up etc..

Also, avoid things like TV and computers right before bed because they can make it harder to sleep/deteriorate sleep quality. If I may ask, when you're up late at night are you constantly watching TV or on the computer? I would be surprised if you weren't.