Sleeping earlier.

[PaulMacC]

Ideally I'd like to be in bed for 10:45pm and sleeping for 11pm so I can get a good 8 hours - 8 hours and a half sleep. I wake at 7:30am. I really have been having trouble with it and feel extremely tired and groggy in the morning because of getting 4-7 hours sleep. Any help?

[Eoin247]

Ideally I'd like to be in bed for 10:45pm and sleeping for 11pm so I can get a good 8 hours - 8 hours and a half sleep. I wake at 7:30am. I really have been having trouble with it and feel extremely tired and groggy in the morning because of getting 4-7 hours sleep. Any help?

I have a sort of simular 'problem', but in my case sleeping for short hours has never bothered me too much. I've slept small hours ever since i was very young. You say you feel very tired and groggy in the morning, does this stay with you for the entire day? If it's just a morning thing you might find that drinking some caffeine and a cold shower might help, as it does for me on the occasional mornings i feel really tired.

During exams however i tried to get myself some more sleep, thinking it might help me concentrate for study at night better. I tried a few techniques to get to sleep earlier even though my body didn't seem to need it and one sort of natural method i found worked out for me.

Don't watch tv, go on the computer or do any thing that might make your mind get too active at least an hour before bed. If you want to read a small bit that should be fine but try not to read something that might make you think too much if you know what i mean. Then take a hot shower and afterwards eat something like a bowl of cereal. The hot shower makes you relax and when you cool down after the shower your body will feel tired, also eating something small will make you feel sleepier as your stomach has to work a small bit again. After this just turn off the lights and go to bed. Try not to think over the day or days to come, especially if it's been a stressful one or if you have a lot coming up.

Anyway this seemed to work for me at least most of the time. I heard that listening to some light music in addition to this method helps keep your mind from getting too active before you sleep but i didn't need to do this.

Hope this helps.

[Jin]

I find,



In bed an hour before
Read in bed for one hour.
Some light music on a 60 min timer.
Alarm clocks set for 30 and 15 mins before the time you need to get up this helps you wake up through snoozing.

[Stephen]

Is it that you just can't sleep or you find something else to do that stops you from sleeping?

and

if its the comp that keeps you up then make something amazingly cool like a timer that shuts down your comp and can't be stopped unless you play your most hated game for 2 hours straight

[Slowpoke]

I usually neck some zopiclone or diazepam if I'm struggling. Though I've found since I've been doing proper full-time hours at work I can get to sleep at sensible times :)

Good luck with it Paul, it was always me and you who could never sleep :P

[Special]

try this; think of nothing

literally

think like you're in a blank room - no walls, no floors & no ceiling

imagine you're walking non stop through this whiteness