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.

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.

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.

-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.

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

Thora wrote:

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 ^^

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

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.

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

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

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

Last edited by Tornadic_Indignation (2009 July 16, 5:55 pm)

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.