Basically, being a night owl and all(sleep at 4-5 am, wake at 12-1 pm), spurred on from a past job of mine(quit, lmao), I'm about to be forced to wake up at the time I've been going to sleep at, all for a stupid 5 day fishing trip to Nootka Sound. Ugh.

Now this annoying guy right here is just wondering how well you guys think I could probably do if I were to stay up for roughly 33 hours, grammar drilling and finishing off some of the last few hundred RtK kanji? Of course I'd be nearly completely avoiding caffeinated beverages(besides tea and sugarless cocoa) and sugar, eating the kitchen cupboard, drinking gallons of water, listening to loud music, as well as hitting myself and running on the treadmill like my life depended on it. I can't just fix my sleep schedule by going to bed at a decent hour, since I'd just end up falling asleep a few minutes before I'm supposed to get up(I tried two days ago to go to bed earlier, but I ended up taking like 6 hours to fall asleep).. which is exactly why I'm thinking about being stupid like this. I mean, what else am I supposed to do during that time?

Besides the thing about staying up and studying, anyone have any tips for me? A possible alternative? Anything will make me fall madly in love with you :3. And don't you dare tell me to sleep on the way, and/or while I'm in the boat. Well, sleeping on the way there might not be too bad; sleeping in the boat, however..

i never study well at all without sleep....

Tornadic_Indignation Wrote:if I were to stay up for roughly 33 hours, grammar drilling and finishing off some of the last few hundred RtK kanji? Of course I'd be nearly completely avoiding caffeinated beverages(besides tea and sugarless cocoa) and sugar, eating the kitchen cupboard, drinking gallons of water, listening to loud music, as well as hitting myself and running on the treadmill like my life depended on it. I can't just fix my sleep schedule by going to bed at a decent hour, since I'd just end up falling asleep a few minutes before I'm supposed to get up(I tried two days ago to go to bed earlier, but I ended up taking like 6 hours to fall asleep)..

I had this situation one time when I switched from an overnight job to a not one! I don't know how people who do swing shifts all the time do this!

I don't recommend staying up 33 hours to fix it; but you did hit on the solution. Basically you need to make yourself tired. The best way to do that is to get up early and exercise (as you said). But no need to skip sleeping in the middle.
I'd say start your first day with lots and lots of exercise and try to see if you can make yourself tired enough to go to sleep a little early (I recommend swimming). Then set your alarm for 7am and exercise a lot again and try to pass out around 10pm. You'll get maybe 3-4 (or more?) hours of beauty sleep in the middle that way and lower the liklihood of oversleeping on your last morning. You can't oversleep or you'll keep screwing yourself on the other end. Set that rock music to go off at 7am. Also I highly recommend studying grammar or drilling kanji with no music in comfortable PJs in a soft bed after drinking warm milk as a definite way to pass completely out.

P.

IceCream Wrote:cocaine

Yeah, stay up. It's not too hard, i do it all the time. Find something you find addictive, and carry on doing it. Caffeine helps. Switch to something else if you get sleepy. Don't go to bed at the time you "should" go to bed, but some hours before, so you can sleep the extra bit and not just have the same problem in reverse the next day.

Alternatively, get a prescription of sleeping pills from your doctor, which should keep you in line for the whole week.

I regularly stay up 20 hours or so a day at times, doesn't seem to bother me too much. But it really is not healthy and I'm not really helping the blood pressure/cardiac disease risk too much. Sleep is really important, it gives your heart a chance to slow down.

I'd take my dog for a walk at night, that used to do the trick nicely. Stay away from anything the doctor could give you, drug induced sleep ain't like real sleep.

Also, I remember trying to study the Australian Constitution at university was impossible at night, I'd be out in minutes. Get reading something colourless or academic.

Melatonin works well for some people (jetlag, shiftworkers, etc). It's available in the vitamin section and doesn't have the problems associated with sleeping pills. And exercise (as Welldone101 suggests).

Fishing up in Nootka Sound? Lucky you. It's gorgeous up there.

Oohh.. i saw a Japanese show recently that gave advice on how to fall and stay asleep.

Some of the things I remember are:
- Go outside for a while in the evening before sun set. The light helps adjust your clock.
- Take a hot bath before going to bed. As your body cools down it should make you sleepy.

-Only lay down for bed when you are sure you can fall alseep within 10 minutes.
-When you wake up, no matter what the time is, start your day right then.
-Dont take naps in the day.
-Dont put your clock anywhere near your bed (dont check it before going to sleep, when you wake up, etc).
-Don't drink anything a few hours before sleeping.
-No coffee after 5:00, 6:00 pm
-Music/reading is better than TV/Computer before sleeping.

Less alcohol, more exercise.


The above has always helped me when I cant sleep.

Well, thanks to Thora, I've decided to give Melatonin a try. I ran out to the drugstore a little while ago to purchase it, being desperate and all. I also took a look over possible health risks, but I can't really see too much potential for adverse effects for ~3 mg of the stuff over a week's time.

Quote:Fishing up in Nootka Sound? Lucky you. It's gorgeous up there.

So long as you're not being torn up by a combination of swells and whitecaps 20 miles off the coast. ^_^

Quote:i never study well at all without sleep....

Today and the day prior I discovered how insanely hellish RtK reviews are when you haven't gotten adequate sleep. Props to the people who can actually grit their teeth and endure many days like that, because I sure can't.

Quote:Caffeine helps.

In moderation, sure. I don't really want to go impotent again, though, so I don't think I'll slip back into my old habit of a pot of brewed followed by like 15 cups of instant a day. I'm a theobromine fan, anyway.

Quote:Less alcohol, more exercise.

Don't need to tell me twice about the exercise part. As for alcohol, I only drink that on the occasions nowadays. Last time I drank it was a few months back to play the metal slug series. Day somehow ended with me flying off of the treadmill at like 2 in the morning and eventually losing consciousness on the spider infested floor.

Also, thanks to everyone for the tips. I'll try to keep a few of them in mind, such as the bit about cocaine, and the part about avoiding television/computer lightning before bed. Really don't think It would be possible for me to manage with the latter, though.

If you happen to return with a simply unmanageable quantity of salmon, well ...I happen to live in Vancouver...

Both in Vancouver 'eh, I'm a short drive away in Kelowna, BC ^^

Thora Wrote:If you happen to return with a simply unmanageable quantity of salmon, well ...I happen to live in Vancouver...

Quote:Both in Vancouver 'eh, I'm a short drive away in Kelowna, BC ^^

Actually, I live over on Vancouver Island. I just put down Vancouver, BC because the last time I was too specific about where I live, I got some freak waiting for me to come and visit him at the park a few blocks from where I live. No actually, though the part about that guy is true, I just put down Vancouver because I've come to detest living on Vancouver Island. I'm blowing this joint when I stop relying on my parents(which probably won't be until I'm 21 or 22, lmao).

Just for the record, it would seem that protein works pretty well for me if consume enough of it. I just finished a snack consisting of canned tuna, anchovies, えだまめ, and walnuts; I feel worlds better. Kind of makes me wish I tried something like that earlier. T__T

There sure are a lot of BC'ers here lately.
(currently in Victoria for a few more weeks)

Some stuff I find useful.

Never use your bed for anything other than sleep and sex. You need to associate your bed as the sleep place. This may take a while to change if you have been reading and doing various other things in bed. If you must you can read in bed for up to 10 minutes (or was it 20 I forget, I read it in a pamphlet) as you get sleepier.

Put a teaspoon of sugar in a mug of milk and microwave it so it is quite hot. Drink it fast. Knocks me out.

Regular exercise should also help.

Quote:Put a teaspoon of sugar in a mug of milk and microwave it so it is quite hot. Drink it fast. Knocks me out.

Okay, you're going to call me crazy, but intrinsic sugar gives me chronic dry eyes. It's likely related to blood sugar levels, even though I hardly consumed any at all.

As for warm/hot milk by itself, I tried it twice, and no dice.

thermal Wrote:[...]sugar[...]Knocks me out.

It's possible that may be unique to you. I sure wouldn't recommend sugar as a way to shut your body down

Tornadic_Indignation Wrote:As for warm/hot milk by itself, I tried it twice, and no dice.

I'm the same. I'm not sure there's really anything to this. I would be that for most people who this works for it's a trained thing. It's pretty easy to train yourself to be tired in response to habits. For example, anytime I open a book to study, I become tired.

Gah, I accidentally hit the submit button when I wasn't ready to post.

Anyway, I tried sublingual melatonin and it didn't work. I suppose my body already produces enough of the substance as it is or something.

Afterwards I gave chamomile a shot and it seemed to make the process of sleeping a bit easier since it has a very mild relaxing effect, but It still took me until like 4 in the morning to fall asleep. I probably should have just stayed up like I was originally intending, lmao

If you normally sleep 7 or 8 hours, how about you set the alarm clock to wake you up after 3 hours after going to bed your regular time? You should be tired again after 8 or 10 hours of being awake after that, which helps to 'program' your body into the desired patterns.

Yeah, uhm, I'm going to be forced to wake up at the time I slept at anyways(a little over 12 hours from the time of this post). If I were to try the alarm clock thing though, it likely wouldn't work. I almost always end up turning them off in my sleep, especially when I'm not well rested.

Back in school, I would have three of them set to go off at the same time at 5 in the morning. There was about 60% chance of me waking up from that, and that was when I had any sort of affinity with alarm clocks at all.

EDIT: I guess you can call me pretty damn screwed up? =o

Just set a really loud alarm clock far away from your bed. You may try to turn it off in your sleep, but there's no way you're going to go all the way over to the clock, turn it off and go back without noticing.

Haha, yeah, I actually tried that a long time ago, but I slept through it until my parents got pissed and came charging into my room.