Jump to content

Shifting sleep hours


Blair Thaumic

Recommended Posts

For the past few months, I've been living a nocturnal lifestyle. Today I went to sleep at 7AM and didn't get up until 4PM.

 

That's going to change soon... next month, I have a class that requires that I wake up at 6 in the morning. I'm also going back to uni later in the year. Therefore, I'm going to try moving to a diurnal schedule. Any advice? Can I do it all at once, or should I do it in steps: going to bed at 3:00 one night, 2:00 the next, and so on, until I have a normal sleep cycle?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haha, I have the same problem. Although most websites recommend gradual changes, I find that the best way to get back into gear is to do it all in one go; I stay awake an entire day, keeping myself up through doing some super-stimulating activity, like computer gaming. Then I go to sleep a few hours before the time that I plan to sleep in my new schedule. So in your case, you would wake up at 4PM, then stay up for a whole 24 period until about 5PM the following day. You will be so tired that you should be able to immediately sleep. Then you will have a long ~12 hour sleep, and should wake up at 5AM the next morning like you need to. You might need to use a combination of caffeine/naps/alarms to get the balance right, but it should work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'll probably have to shut out light, like with a sleep mask or hanging dark curtains over your windows. You have the benefit of artificial light when you're awake, so you need artificial dark when you sleep.

 

I think yes, you can do it all at once, it just sucks for a while as you get used to it. Like jet lag when you've gone a far distance. When I went to London (8 hours ahead of here) for a week, I spent half the week waking up in the middle of the night and getting super tired in the middle of the day, and only at the end of the week was I used to it. Just in time to fuck up my schedule again as I went home!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's working so far... went to sleep at 5AM last night, woke up to my alarm at 9. If I tuck in early tonight my clock should be reset.

 

In the meantime, I'm a lightweight when it comes to sleep deprivation, so I may be even more strange than normal. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm actually not ever going to attempt changing my sleeping/waking rhythm. I go to bed at 5 am (0500 hours) wake up at 2 pm (1400 hours). +/- an hour.

 

Of course if I really have to I can get up at any time and go to bed at any time... it's not very hard when you don't have any other choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...