How to reset sleep cycle?
my sleep cycle is off .my sleep is in short session but i do get enough TOTAL hours like i'll sleep for FOUR hours in the morning wakeup and take and 2-3 hour nap at night. NOW IM HERE UP...ASKING YAHOO ANSWERS HOW TO GO TO BED NORMALLY and sleep in a FULL SESSION. whats wrong with me how can i reset this?!
My sleep cycle is so messed up?
This is really concerning me. Currently this is my sleep cycle: Sleep pretty well for about an hour around 9 pm. Wake up 1 hr later and stay up till 8 am or later. Force myself to get a bad sleep and wake up around 2 pm. Stay up till 9 again. Isn't this terrible?? It's okay for now cause I don't have any immediate commitments like school or work, but I want to break it asap. i cant bring myself to sleep, no matter what i do. then when i wake up after sorta forcing myself around 8 am, i wake up awfully, with so many body aches and pains. i'm getting roughly 6 hours of sleep a night if that, and im only 18! it happened during thanksgiving break when I went to visit my aunt in cental time zone (im in eastern now, moving to central in a few days), I was really tired after my flight and slept all day and even all night, but then I had nothing to do the next couple of nights and stayed up online, now it's so messed up.
Is there any harm in splitting your sleep cycle into two? I was wondering if there are any problems if one sleeps 4 hours during the night and another 3 hours during the day. Are there any research studies related to this?
This is mainly based on personal observation and some knowledge of sleep science but I haven't been able to find a formal study on it. For a semester in college, I mainly slept from 5-9AM and then 1-3 or 1-4PM. I was able to attend my morning classes, didn't fall asleep in them (unlike before), was well rested in the evening, and could stay up late at night like all the other MIT students. However overall, there were many pitfalls. Long 3 hour naps disrupt your circadian rhythm, which is bad. That's the actual harmful part. It confuses your body when you're awake for so long when the sun is down (7PM* to 5AM) since that's what helps reset your body's cycle. Then you're asleep for a long time when the sun is at its highest (for me, 1-4PM). Since your body naturally tends to a 24.5-25 hour cycle, being out of sync with the sun made it hard to control and set a pattern. The morning phase probably won't be very pleasant either since it's a short 4 hour break sandwiched between two period of sleep. This doesn't fit well with the circadian rhythm either. Relying on a 3 hour afternoon nap also messed up my weekend cycles too, since there were no classes to take I would have no reason to painfully wake up at 9AM. I would sleep from 5PM to 1PM and then my body would be even more confused.Finally, you might accidentally become nocturnal. If you do a loop the loop and your afternoon "Nap" becomes longer than your nighttime "sleep", bam you're in for 1-7PM knocked out and then need melatonin to fix a 12 hour jet lag difference. Split your sleep into two, but try to make your afternoon nap more like 30 minutes to 1 hour, not 3+ hours. * Average sunset time given that most of the year is in daylight saving time and twilight is a little more brightness
My Sleep pattern is the wrong way round!!!?
I was in your shoes earlier this year. No matter what I did, I'd fall asleep at 4am and wake up at 12 in the afternoon. After staying up 3 hours longer each day for a week to gradually adjust my sleep cycle didn't work (I'd stay up longer, but I was still waking up at 12 and eventually only got only 2 hours of sleep), I threw in the towel and saw my doctor. It wasn't officially diagnosed, but I think I had delayed sleep phase syndrome. My doctor prescribed me zolpidem (generic form of Ambien), and I was back on track within about two weeks and sleeping without medication after about a month. It's awesome because you can pretty much tell your body when to sleep, but you need to be careful that you don't become dependent on the drug. What I did was after I decided I was sleeping well, I bought a pill cutter and started taking only 2/3 dosage, and eventually tapered down to 1/4 a pill every other day until I was completely off. I'd recommend talking to your doctor about this.
Is a 48 hour sleep cycle medically safe to do?
If you can maintain the same basic sleep/ wake times you should be OK. don't change around when not working. A few studies have been done on extended sleep cycles- French underground duty - no outside sun cycle hints- study found about half the people tested went to a 30 hour day cycle- about 60 people over 5 years off/on 2 months at a time. . Antarctic weather station support teams working a 48 hour cycle to match outside day schedule had something similar to your proposal during winters, no serious problems noted in most of teams, some couldn't adjust though. This about 30 people, 3 winters . Some military radio watch, security teams have done 2 day duty cycles on posts as teams - the 1 long sleep was used less than 3 short naps in 48 hours though. Nuke sub watches have tried it, didn't keep it. Under ground missile watch teams have also used it- they got 2 day cycles= 1 48 hour in launch room underground, then relieved every 2 days - off 2 for about a month at a time- most reported alert enough, but again about 1/2 went to 3 long naps instead of 1 long sleep. .
My sleep cycle is not right. I don't feel sleepy until 1 or 2 in the morning. What can I do?
This list is not all-encompassing since your physiological profile is unknown to me, though this is a start;-Rule out underlying physical issues;-Get a complete blood analysis (CBC, Diff, Electrolyte Panel, Lipid Panel (fasting), blood sugar (fasting) anion/cation gap ration measurement, etc. as recommended). Review the results with your physician, examining them carefully. -Examine your diet specifically, what you eat and when. For example, if you eat just before retiring for the evening, this hampers sleep onset. The corollary to this is if you eat much earlier (>5 hours before you retire), your blood sugar may be too low and this also hampers sleep onset.-Examine your last intake of caffeine +80mg (typical amount in one cup of fresh coffee): If you consume caffeine after 5PM daily, this will hamper normal sleep onset.-Finally, melatonin taken just before bedtime may help reset your circadian rhythm though do not start this regimen until you've ruled out the above and spoken with your physician.
My sleep cycle is clearly inverted, what should I do?
The REAL quick fix to get your sleep schedule back on trackI say "real" because I first want to warn you about a quick fix technique that does NOT work.The "wrap around" technique is where you stay up all night until, say, 10pm the next day. You force yourself to go to bed at 10pm from then on.This doesn't work. If you stay up all night you get "sleep debt" and you will end up requiring more sleep in the following days to pay back your sleep debt. Sleep debt is a real phenomenon that has been discussed in academic journals. FYI If you oversleep one night you cannot expect to be able to sleep less the next night. There are no rollover hours. But if you don't get enough sleep one night you WILL have to repay those hours over the course of the following nights. This is why the wrap around technique is a myth. I have tried it over 10 times and failed over 10 times.HERE IS THE QUICK FIXStop eating. Right now. Fast until the time when you want to wake up, say, 7am. Go to sleep whenever you want but force yourself to wake up at 7am.At 7am go to a window where you can see the sun and look at it (not directly! but get the sun in your field of vision). Then eat a complete, healthy breakfast.You can survive 3 weeks without eating so it won't do you any permanent damage to fast until 7am.Your circadian rhythm is mostly affected by two things:1.) Sunlight2.) Meal timingsEven ancient roman philosophers (I'm thinking of Epictetus the Stoic) said that one must first control his eating habits, and then he must control his sleeping habits, (then he controls his sexual desires!)I have found it relatively easy to force myself to eat once at 7am, and not at all after dinner time. It's easier to change your eating habits than your sleeping habits. Once you change your eating habits your sleeping habits become much easier to change as well.Also consider if you are getting enough exercise.TL;DR Don't try to stay up all night. Stop eating right now and fast until your target wake-up time. Eat a large healthy breakfast and get some sunlight in your retina at that time. Repeat until sleep schedule has been fixed, it will take only** 1 or 2 days.**
What happens if you don't sleep?
I can tell you from experience. Day 1 without sleep: Extreme fatigue, poor coordination, and low focus. Day 2: Fatigue Worsens, focus is almost nonexistant. Frequent hunger. Hot and cold flashes add to the misery. Day 3: Fatigue is replaced by a nervous, almost manic energy. You feel that you can focus, but in reality cannot. Hunger worsens. Day 4: Fatigue returns. Your body will feel like it is breaking down. I am no stranger to severe injury, but can honestly say, this is the closest I have ever felt to death. You can actually feel your body dying. That may not be the case, but I have no other word to describe the feeling. Most of your time spent in a disassociative fugue. Even without sleeping, you will begin to lose track of large segments of time. Day 5: This is when the hallucinations start. large blocks of time gone missing, you'll go through entire classes at school, then look up, and realize you are in your room, and the classes never happened. Talk to people, freinds and family for hours, make plans, then look up, and its 10 minutes later in your room. I hear scratching on the walls, but no matter how fast I turn my head, the scratching will always be 90 degrees off center, just out of my sight. I hear gentle, and sometimes not so gentle knocking at my door, to open it and find no one there. Tapping at the window when you are not looking at it. Day 5.5) about 12 hours into Day 5, the visual hallucinations begin. You will look at something, and small shadows will suddenly dart out of your peripheral vision. If you try to visually follow them, you can't, they're gone, but more will dart the other way out of the corner of the opposite eye. Sometimes, the room will suddenly darken, or slide out of focus. (Interestingly, the shadows running in the corners of your eyes do not). Day 6: Things start to get really weird, but I'd rather not discuss it. Sleep deprivation can be fatal, but it usually takes more than one week. I have heard estimates from 10 days to 3 months. Studies have proven that it can kill though. I do not recommend trying it, as any sleep loss is very bad for your health. This is what I experienced, hope it helped.