How can I ensure that I wake up in the morning?

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I've had trouble waking up on command for basically my entire life. I just recently started grad school. The only job I've ever had before was in the evening, and it's never a problem for me to be awake then.

The thing is, I can already tell that attendance is basically mandatory for me from now on. I won't be able to get a decent GPA in graduate level classes despite missing 8am classes ~weekly like I could in undergrad. The other morning, I woke up at 8:10 asleep on top of my phone/alarm clock. I was lucky that I woke up at all, I had slept until 9am and missed my first class the day before.

It's not even that my alarm doesn't wake me up, either. A few days ago, I had five alarms set, at 10 minute intervals starting an hour before I had to leave in the morning. The first one woke me up, I spent over 10 minutes solving math problems to turn the alarm off (the next alarm went off while I was solving the first one). Once I got it defused, I turned all the other alarms off, and went back to sleep for two hours.

(I have my alarm set so that I have to solve relatively difficult mental math problems to shut it off or set a snooze. they'd take me 2-3 minutes at worst when I'm actually awake but they're not easy/possible for me to solve when I'm in the groggy just-woke-up state.)

This is beginning to really stress me out, because I need to go to the lectures every day so I can do consistently well on exams. I have never had perfect attendance in a class that met before 10am in my life; and my attendance is really good in classes that meet at 10am or later. Naturally, six of my nine credits are 8am classes this semester.

What are some steps I can take to make sure I wake up in the morning? I need to fix this problem now or I won't be able to continue on the path to get what I want out of life. How do you guys manage it?

(Note that while I'm willing to try basically anything, going to sleep early isn't necessarily an option.)

The essential difference between this question and the other one on Personal Productivity is that I have trouble sleeping in when I DO have something important to do. I don't mind sleeping in when I don't, sleep is basically good if my body wants it.

sig_seg_v

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

Reputation: 104

Question was closed 2016-03-09T22:41:56.907

You say going to sleep earlier may not be an option. When do you go to bed and do you fall asleep quickly?KenB 2016-03-06T06:07:11.723

I'll go to sleep between 12-2am, and I usually do, yes.sig_seg_v 2016-03-06T16:35:58.117

What time are you trying to get up in the morning? Should have asked that too. :)KenB 2016-03-06T16:37:33.230

~7am, I had mistakenly thought I mentioned that in the question.

(I live two blocks from work, so my commute is <5 minutes door to door) – sig_seg_v 2016-03-06T20:36:36.780

Answers

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This is beginning to really stress me out

Of course it is: look at the structures you have built up around getting out of bed. It's in your language as well: you call it waking up on command.

You don't seem to get that getting out of bed is a simple binary decision. Either you do or you don't. Why do you tolerate nonsense like and went back to sleep? Your alarm goes, you step out of bed, then switch it off. Period. It's not that the alarm does not wake you.
Then you go on to the next phase, like dressing, or eating.

Now, of course we can start giving you all kinds of 'advice' in the form of tricks, but that won't contribute anything. You are already doing enough tricks, any other won't help you. You are the one who decides that it is not important to get out, despite all your talk here describing how important it is. It is not to you, you are lying by saying so.

Kick the alarms out, keep one. No snooze, no elaborate structures. Stop thinking and talking about it, and do what you are supposed to do. Or drop school, fine, it's your decision. You can do that, you know. But stop the whining.

Jan Doggen

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

Reputation: 2 586

2

Life is too short,” she panicked, “I want more.” He nodded slowly, “Wake up earlier.” ~Dr. SunWolf

I've had the same problem throughout my life, but started scheduling appointments early in the morning so I knew I'd have to get out of bed. The point is YOU ALLOWED YOURSELF TO TREAT CLASSES AS AN OPTION! You had a low standard from the beginning and kept it, convincing yourself that that's the way it is. I'm really surprised that you spent 10 minutes solving a math problem and went back to bed. Why in the world did you go back to sleep knowing that if you hadn't got up then and there, you wouldn't have made it to the lecture on time? It was a 100% CONSCIOUS DECISION.

You can't even say you overslept because didnt hear the alarm clock, or you were too sleepy. You actually made a consious decision of not going.

An average adult needs AT LEAST 6 hours of sleep in order to close all the sleep cycles and not be light-headed. Going to bed (+ falling asleep!) at 2 gives you not even 5 hours of sleep. It's sometimes difficult to get out of bed with big motivation after 4,5 hours of sleep, not to mention a strong habit of not getting up and a boring lecture.

Really want to fix the thing? Do what it takes.

  • going to bed at midnight (you need some time to fall asleep)
  • using max 2 alarms clocks
  • possibly, having everything prepared for the morning (clothes, shoes, even a sandwich if necessary)
  • asking somebody from the classes for a bet - if you don't show up, you pasy (a lot!);

  • NOT giving yourself an option of not getting up. You get up, period.

Sleeping in from time to time isn't a bad thing. But don't tell anyone that it's stronger than you and it's just the way you are. If you're inconsistent enough with your priorities and values, at least have the guts to admit it. Or do something about it :)

Anna Blue

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

Reputation: 296

2

You said:

going to sleep early isn't necessarily an option.

If that is true, then getting up early isn't an option for you.


The reality is, humans need a certain amount of sleep, and if we don't get it, we don't function properly. Now, I know there are people who claim that they don't need much sleep, but they are either (1) rare and special (and there is nothing you can do to become like them), or (2) kidding themselves. The rest of us need a certain amount of sleep, and there is nothing we can do about that.

So, what can you do?

I think you have two options:

  1. Shift your bed time / getting up time. With practice, you may find you can get up earlier, but you'll also have to go to bed earlier, too.

  2. Embrace the fact that you don't do mornings, and focus on making the best of your natural inclination to get up late.

In the past, I opted for the second option:

  • As a student, I studied into the small hours to make up for the fact that I often missed morning lectures.
  • After Uni, I chose jobs with a flexible start time, and usually started after 10 am. But then I worked late, making the best of the quiet when everyone else had gone home.

Now that I have a family, I have had to adjust my lifestyle, with far more emphasis of the first option. I use various techniques to help me get up early, the most important of which is to try to get to bed as early as I can, and try to nap when possible.

Kramii

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

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If you can't stop yourself from making decisions int he morning to shut of alarms then that suggest that your body strongly needs more sleep than it's currently getting. If you can't get those hours of sleep at night, start taking naps during the day.

Christian

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

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-1

Ameen Akbar

Posted 2016-03-06T04:01:30.493

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