8am Interview, East Coast... Should I even bother sleeping?

[AORiverContra]

I live on the West Coast and I have an interview coming up at 8 am Eastern, and I have to be there at 7:30am. Since it's a new city, I'd have to get up at 5am at the earliest, which is 2am Pacific. Now I can adjust my sleep schedule by some degree, but getting up at 2am after flying there a day before is just unrealistic, especially considering nerves and all. Based on my experience, I think I'd be more tired having slept only 2-3 hours than not sleeping at all. Should I just do an overnight flight and go directly from the airport to the interview? Has anyone here been in a similar situation?

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[Leslie_Knope]

I live on the West Coast and I have an interview coming up at 8 am Eastern, and I have to be there at 7:30am. Since it's a new city, I'd have to get up at 5am at the earliest, which is 2am Pacific. Now I can adjust my sleep schedule by some degree, but getting up at 2am after flying there a day before is just unrealistic, especially considering nerves and all. Based on my experience, I think I'd be more tired having slept only 2-3 hours than not sleeping at all. Should I just do an overnight flight and go directly from the airport to the interview? Has anyone here been in a similar situation?

Take a red eye that arrives the day before. Stay up until 6 pm and sleep. I've done red eyes a lot and this is what works for me. The hard part is staying up!

 

[JPA178]

Don't take a red eye the night before your interview, because if something happens and your flight gets canceled, you're screwed. If that did happen, you could probably call the school to reschedule your interview, but even then, the stress it would cause you (at least, if you're anything like me) wouldn't be worth it. Also, your actual interview might not be until the afternoon of your interview day, so even if you flew in early AM feeling alright, by the afternoon you'll probably be crashing. I agree with @Leslie_Knope, take a red eye arriving the morning of the day before your interview and stay up as long as you can that day, explore the city, etc. You will be able to get to bed early and hopefully wake up around 5:30-6am on the morning of your interview feeling refreshed and ready to go.

 

[ski89]

Don't make this so complicated just switch your night time routine to eastern time a few days before. Start going to bed at 7 for a few nights. It's not that hard.

 

[turayza]

I live on the West Coast and I have an interview coming up at 8 am Eastern, and I have to be there at 7:30am. Since it's a new city, I'd have to get up at 5am at the earliest, which is 2am Pacific. Now I can adjust my sleep schedule by some degree, but getting up at 2am after flying there a day before is just unrealistic, especially considering nerves and all. Based on my experience, I think I'd be more tired having slept only 2-3 hours than not sleeping at all. Should I just do an overnight flight and go directly from the airport to the interview? Has anyone here been in a similar situation?

What you can do is pre-adjust to the jetlag by going to sleep one hour earlier (and waking up one hour earlier) each of the three days before your interview to get to EST. Please don't pull an all-nighter before your interview, you'll feel like crap and not be on your best game.

 

[TheLionheart]

You don't want to be fresh off an all nighter during the long interview day. There will be many talks, and some schools do a far better job of holding your attention than others (read: you might be the guy caught dozing off).

 

[tofuuu]

Why can't you just sleep earlier the day before the interview? That's what I did for all my East Coast interviews. So usually I would be landing around 5 PM eastern time, then go to bed like around 10 PM EST, and then wake up at like 5:45 AM EST.

I don't recommend just coming from the airport on the day of the interview. You should be in the area at least a day before the interview.

 

[ridethecliche]

Get **** faced and pass out at like 8PM ET to wake up at 4-5AM with no problem.

 

[mehc012]

Are you really incapable of waking up early once for a really important reason? Is it just not that important to you?
This is not some ridiculous or uncommon situation, why are you making a huge deal out of it?

 

[claduva94]

As someone who was only able to get 2 hours of sleep before my most important interview due to flight delays I will say any little bit helped.

 

[PlaqueBuster]

Take a flight that gets in a day before your interview (there is a storm coming to the east coast). Exhaust yourself on that day. Spend time walking around the city and campus and go for a run around 5pm. By the time its 7pm you should be tired from the flgiht, walking around all day, and getting a workout. Take a warm shower and read a book and fall asleep around 8 or 9pm. Set your alarm for 5 am and 5:30 am.