Have a seriously bad sleeping schedule. Tips?

[lmfao]

Hey guys. I've had a bad sleeping pattern most of my life. I'm 20.

So my pattern usually becomes me sleeping at 8am, and waking up at 3pm or 4pm. I'll end up fixing my pattern through brute force and a lot of trial and error. The corrected pattern will stay in place before it slips back in place.

I've had this never ending pattern of swapping between only semi-bad sleep and extremely bad sleep. Whenever I fix it, it reverts back. 

Recently, my pattern was started to slip and become bad again. It became even worse than normal on the day that I found out one of my best friends had died (he went missing, later body was discovered in a river, don't know how he died). I went from sleeping at 3am or 4am, before this bad news, to now sleeping at 9am or 10am. 

Yesterday I slept at 12pm and and woke up at 6:42pm. I'm typing this at 05:49 am as I speak.

Bad sleep ruins my whole day and mood. Any tips? 


My pattern isnt just a little bad, but extremely bad as a default. I guess I'm gonna actually go to a doctor about this one. 

Edited September 29, 2020 by lmfao

[chungii chang]

@lmfao you may get a 9-5 job and so that will motivate you to get up early, lol. For breaking cycle I recommend to stay awake for 24 hours and then get sleep at time whatever you choose.

[mandyjw]

Going for a walk or a run outside in daylight really helps your biorhythms and improves sleep. Also take vitamin D, in the "morning" or soon after you wake up only. 

Look up tips for jet lag to get back on schedule, you're essentially doing the same thing. 

Sorry about your friend, that's a really rough and jolting thing to have to go through. 

[RoseBand]

See a doctor, this is really a problem that can affect your health. Maybe light sedatives will help you. But the main thing is to level the routine of the day. Maybe sports, work, travel - will be able to distract you from what happened. I sympathize with you.
 

[Michael569]

7 hours ago, lmfao said:

my best friends had died

My condolences. 

Is it possible that you haven't allowed yourself to process the grief yet which is spiking your stress hormones and that will prevent you sleep. Perhaps it would be helpful to experiment more with this, opening yourself up to it for 20 minutes every single day and processing the emotion. May help your body adjust, reduce the stress and improve sleep. 

Otherwise, I've recently been working on pushing my sleep a bit earlier and going from 12pm to 10pm and you literally have to go to bed at the time you want and just lie there and let your body get into this sleeping mode. Cut out all electronics stimulants and anything that disturbs you. Have a audiobook with a nice story, something to help you relax and unwind. Mieditation is also helpful or a short session of easy hatha yoga. After some time, body will adjust, and the circadian clock will set right. 

Make sure to get some exercise in there and avoid eating 90 minutes before going to bed. Remove all clock from your room, switch wifi off, keep the room dark and slightly cool. 

For some extra help: levander, chamomile, valerian or passiflora may be helpful in a form of tea. If you feel very stressed something with Ashwagandha may help. 

Bachflower remedies for emotional processing and dealing with grief. Australian Buushflower remedies are pretty good, perhaps the one called "transition" could help. 

Good luck !!

[Opo]

Install a blue light filter on your electronics, it helped me a lot. 

[Espaim]

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Here are some things that work for me:

• Cut stimulants to the minimum needed (even better if zero) - caffeine is a sneaky devil
• Blue light filters on all eletronic devices
• Get a boring book and read it around the time you want to sleep

Maybe you have some type of sleep disorder but that's a stretch of my knowledge. Definitely check up with a doctor about that.

Good luck!

 

[lmfao]

Thanks for the replies all

 @mandyjw Yeahhhh someone else I talked to about this described my problem as jet lag as well. Whats wrong with vitamin D at night? My body thinks im awake because sunlight on skin makes vitamin D?

@RoseBand Valerian root is my sedative.

@Michael569 I guess I should try opening up the grief more. I think for me, it's triggered a mini relapse of depressive-like symptoms. 

@Opo @Espaim Yeah blue light filters all the way. A boring book, good idea lol. I remember my mom used to suggest that to me as a kid. 

[mandyjw]

6 hours ago, lmfao said:

 @mandyjw Yeahhhh someone else I talked to about this described my problem as jet lag as well. Whats wrong with vitamin D at night? My body thinks im awake because sunlight on skin makes vitamin D?

It hurts your sleep quality in high doses or taken before bed. If you want lucid dreams taking it before bed might be good, but not for good restful sleep. 

19 hours ago, Espaim said:

 

Get a boring book and read it around the time you want to sleep

I like reading those free downloadable classic books. Novels that are somewhat tough going are perfect. Fiction puts you into dreamland but not if it's too enthralling. Then you can tell everyone you've read all these classic books, even though you're really just lazy and were just reading them when you were half awake. I read Moby Dick that way and at the end I was like "oh fuck, this was really about enlightenment the whole time! Who knew?" 

[Michael569]

6 hours ago, lmfao said:

I guess I should try opening up the grief more. I think for me, it's triggered a mini relapse of depressive-like symptoms.

you know when in lord of the rings two towers, the Ents ripped apart the dam on the Isen River so that it could wash away all the stuff Uruk-Hai created? That's what we are talking about. It took some time before Isen was clean again but eventually it happened. Same way by opening up to these you can let the emotions run their course and flow through you. Cry if you feel like it, whatever comes through is what is meant to be

In case you never saw, LOTR, forgive my nerdy analogy

[Globalcollective]

What has helped me is get a evening routine preparing yourself for sleep. So no extra stimulation before bed so no caffine act. Also cut out any mindless internet surfing too and maybe all electronics on hour before. Try and make your room completely pitch black and maybe do some calming meditation or yoga. Also if there is one close by try floating, really helps with insomnia and catching up with rest.  

[lmfao]

@Michael569 I have not seen Lord of the rings yet. I will read it, one day. 

@mandyjw Wait a second, did you get that insight about moby dick on your own or was it something you heard about from jed mckenna? 

Also mandyjew, I discovered your YouTube channel. I saw a video of it on this forum like a month ago, liked the energy, subbed. Only recently did I figure out it was you lol. 

[UnbornTao]

6 hours ago, Globalcollective said:

What has helped me is get a evening routine preparing yourself for sleep. So no extra stimulation before bed so no caffine act. Also cut out any mindless internet surfing too and maybe all electronics on hour before. Try and make your room completely pitch black and maybe do some calming meditation or yoga. Also if there is one close by try floating, really helps with insomnia and catching up with rest.  

This is what I would recommend.

I also have an unhealthy sleep pattern, usually going to sleep at 3:00AM and waking up at 01:00PM.

Also try to experiment with L-Theanine, CBD oil, and melatonin.

What causes your insomnia? I can see how it relates to my lifestyle: having dinner late at night, drinking coffee or tea at 7:00PM, using electronics in my bedroom, lack of exercise...

Maybe a glass of red wine helps one in a while but it’s better to stick to a fixed sleep schedule. Going to sleep at 12:00 and waking up at 8:00AM seems like a god one.

Wake up at 8:00 and exhaust yourself with physical activity throughout the day. Limit naps to 25min at midday or in the afternoon.

And all that.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Arzola

[susanyzm]

On 2020/9/29 at 0:50 PM, lmfao said:

I'll end up fixing my pattern through brute force and a lot of trial and error.

Biological cycles change bit by bit. Perhaps you can take a more patient route. For instance, move your sleeping schedule half an hour earlier bit by bit. 

For me, what works best is stretching before bedtime and low-volumn guided meditation. It took me a lot of trials to find out what works best for me. Good luck! 

[Lyubov]

I'm in the same situation. When I work in person I go to bed around 3am and can wake up around 11am. Now that everything is online I stay up till sunrise and sleep till late afternoon.

[Michael569]

17 hours ago, lmfao said:

Also mandyjew, I discovered your YouTube channel. I saw a video of it on this forum like a month ago, liked the energy, subbed. Only recently did I figure out it was you lol. 

@mandyjw didn't know you had a channel. Nice to match a name to a real face 

[mandyjw]

17 hours ago, lmfao said:

 

@mandyjw Wait a second, did you get that insight about moby dick on your own or was it something you heard about from jed mckenna? 

No at the time, I only watched Leo and was also really into Eckhart Tolle's stuff, I hadn't expanded much beyond that. Terrence McKenna talks about "Moby Dick" too. Also at that time I read "Through the Looking Glass" and "Peter Pan" and had a similar realization. Then I reread "The Scarlet Letter" which I had read in high school but it was an entirely different book. 

@Nahm  

[Nahm]

@mandyjw

Typing that felt like this...

 

[mandyjw]

@Nahm  Don't make me sing. 

[Nahm]

@mandyjw ?