That Annoying Urge To Sleep

[Neo-Logic]

Why is it that whenever i'm up at night, I don't want to sleep and it's easy to stay awake, yet in the morning when I try to wake up, it becomes one of the hardest things in the world for me to do, physically and mentally. It's soooo annoying. I noticed that as soon as I actually get up and by the time I get to the bathroom, my urge to sleep is gone and i'm back to my regular super-mode self.

So now if only I can break that one little drawback every single morning before I get up, things will be so much better off. It's hard to describe how it works but my body does not want to wake up physically, my eyelids do not obey my command to open, and it feels like an internal struggle inside my brain - i'm trying to convince myself to wake up, it's time, i'll be late for this and that or I have to take care of this and that, but there is another voice; a voice that says you can hold this off until this time, this doesn't matter, that can be done at this time, basically whatever excuses I have to make in order to convince myself to stay in bed. I find this pretty intriguing, actually. I seem to be able to manage my schedule faster in this short period of "wanting to wake but kinda can't" stage than I could awake.

Anyone else besides me feel this way? Anyone has any advice to wake up faster or fight that little urge to stay in bed for 10, 15, or however long I can convince myself that I can manage in my head?

[robtex]

Originally Posted by Neo-Logic

Anyone else besides me feel this way? Anyone has any advice to wake up faster or fight that little urge to stay in bed for 10, 15, or however long I can convince myself that I can manage in my head?

Slowly adjust your schedule. Say for hypothical's sake you normall go to bed at midnight and have to be up at 6a.m. but need about 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night. Well you know your goal is to be asleep by 10:30 am. Which means in bed by say 10:15 pm

What you can do is alter your eating and activity schedules to suit that time. You are in college if I remember correctly. Try to adust eating so that the lastest minus a small snack is no later than 8ish. If you play video games don't play them right before you go to bed cause they will wind you up.

Start off by going to bed say at 11:30 pm (30 minutes earlier than usual) and doing an activity at 11 pm on that is going to relax you as opposed to hype you up.

Slowly work on retarding that relaxing activity and moving the time frame back till you hit 10:15 pm.

[linwood]

Originally Posted by Neo-Logic

Anyone else besides me feel this way? Anyone has any advice to wake up faster or fight that little urge to stay in bed for 10, 15, or however long I can convince myself that I can manage in my head?

Yes I have always and still have this problem.
However I have found the perfect solution.

I had a child who bolts awake with the alarm clock and immediately starts jumping up and down on my bed and my physical person screaming "C`MON DADDY LET`S GO!!..LET`S GO!!"
This has proven to be effective 100% of the time it is used.

Not so sure that`s going to work for you though.

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Neo-Logic

Why is it that whenever i'm up at night, I don't want to sleep and it's easy to stay awake, yet in the morning when I try to wake up, it becomes one of the hardest things in the world for me to do, physically and mentally.

It's because your circadian rhythm is longer than 24 hours. In other words, if you were left up to your own devices, without any external time cues, you would naturally sleep and wake at a cycle of longer than 24 hours.

Originally Posted by Neo-Logic

Anyone has any advice to wake up faster or fight that little urge to stay in bed for 10, 15, or however long I can convince myself that I can manage in my head?

Full-spectrum natural lights. Our bodies are synchronized to the 24 hour cycle by natural light. Buy a full-spectrum light and set it on a timer to turn on in your bedroom at the time you want to get up, or slightly before. If you're willing to spend more money, they even make fancy alarm clocks that will gradually get lighter over the course of half an hour, waking you up more gently, but just an on/off timer will do the trick. Do not use a regular incandescent or fluorescent light for this. The brightness will wake you up but you'll feel awful.



Full spectrum lights are also good for avoiding SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

[michel]

Originally Posted by linwood

Yes I have always and still have this problem.
However I have found the perfect solution.

I had a child who bolts awake with the alarm clock and immediately starts jumping up and down on my bed and my physical person screaming "C`MON DADDY LET`S GO!!..LET`S GO!!"
This has proven to be effective 100% of the time it is used.

Not so sure that`s going to work for you though.

Oh, yes, that one sure works! it works twice as well with two............

Originally Posted by lilithu

It's because your circadian rhythm is longer than 24 hours. In other words, if you were left up to your own devices, without any external time cues, you would naturally sleep and wake at a cycle of longer than 24 hours.

I suppose you must be right (after all you are a fountain of knowledge - and I am not being sarcastic) - but I have always believed that it is connected to the physical bio-rythm, which of course will depend on the time at which you were born; does that tie in with your theory, Lilith ?

[Shadow Wolf]

I also have that problem. But I think staying up till 2 or 4 in the morning then attempting to get up at 8 or 9 have something to do with that.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Luke Wolf

I also have that problem. But I think staying up till 2 or 4 in the morning then attempting to get up at 8 or 9 have something to do with that.

I think that comes under the general heading of 'burning the candle at both ends'.

[Aqualung]

I'm the opposite. once 8pm rolls around, I'm dying to get into bed, but I can't sleep for very late in the morning.