Messed up sleep schedule

[05med05]

Hi,

I've gotten into a rhythm of studying between 11pm and 4am, since I always seem to get a second wind around 11pm, no matter what time I get up in the morning. Any idea when I should start forcing myself to get up at 6am, so that I won't feel jet lagged on the day of the exam?

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[FutureDocDO]

Hi,

I've gotten into a rhythm of studying between 11pm and 4am, since I always seem to get a second wind around 11pm, no matter what time I get up in the morning. Any idea when I should start forcing myself to get up at 6am, so that I won't feel jet lagged on the day of the exam?

A week did it for me. I went to bed around 10:00pm and got up around six for two Saturdays before the actual MCAT.

 

[LauraMac]

i tried going to bed before midnight everyday for a week before the test. it didn't really work. the night before i was up til 2 or so, but i was definitely alert enough during the exam.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I have the same problem. In addition i have an organic chem final the tuesday before the MCAT which probably means an all-nighter or two that week...that will totally mess up any normal sleep. So i really don't know what to suggest for you either and wish there was an decent solution...sorry

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

my stupid final got postponed which is good i guss..more time to study or post on SDN ..my plot is to not sleep till the exam(ochem) and then hopefully afterwards i will be drained enough to comply to a midnight to 8 am schedule

 

[Scubadoc]

ah man diesel that sucks about the final or i guess it could be good, depending on how you look at it...more time to study? then again with the mcat coming up and all...

i have the same problem as you guys...i stay up way too late every night and know i need to be on the go to bed early/get up early schedule but how in the world to do that when you've been a night owl for as long as you can remember!! argh!

 

[Psycho Doctor]

when is your exam now??? that sucks, onc ei mentally know when an exam is, i don't want it changed unless i'm REALLY not prepared; it throws of my whole psyche

 

[05med05]

I think part of the reason that I'm such a night owl is that it gets so hot in my apartment during the day that I naturally just wake up after dark. Although I guess that doesn't explain why I'm so awake studying at school at 3am...

If only the weather would turn cold and rainy for the next week and a half...

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

ya'll i dont care because im suck a goof lately..i email photo of myself to supervisors vs friends and i dropped a borrowed book in a puddle getting out of my car and apparently its still there because my kid sister said " isnt that so-and-so's book...its outside in this tropical-storm thing we have daily"

right now i want to beg Bonnie (the name of the next depression) to stay far away and try to start sleeping on scale by this saturday
it takes atleasr 4-5 days of regular sleeping to begin a patter and begin to hack down any collecting fatigue -- so that whole kaplan start sleeping early thing thursday isnt really conducive -- i know a sleep specialist who puts his highschool daughter to bed at 9...but she is smart..why wasnt my dad a sleep specialist...book...puddle..bye

 

[Psycho Doctor]

..i email photo of myself to supervisors vs friends

just tell me it wasn't a nude pic or something....

so when is your exam now? good luck. and yea with Bonnie too

 

[dandelion]

I had the same problem w/ my sleep schedule. And I get that second wind at 11pm too, no matter what time I get up in the morning. A couple of weeks ago, because of classes & labs, etc., I was never sleeping for more than 3-4 hours at a stretch, usually 4-8 am, and then a long nap in the afternoon.

I tried really hard for two weeks to make myself go to bed by midnight and get up at 8am. What happened was I would just lie awake until the time I was used to going to sleep & sometimes later because I kept stressing about having to wake up in a few hours. So basically, I was cranky for 2 weeks, & my sleep schedule didn't kept fixed.

Then I tried rolling through, i.e. going to sleep about 2 hours later each day & letting myself sleep for as long as I wanted. This way, I no longer stressed about having to get up, & I was allowing my body to go to sleep about when it wanted to. A week and a half later, I was going to bed at 9 & getting up at 5 & feeling great. You can only do this, though, if you don't have to be places during the day, or if you have a block of a couple of few free days.

Hope that helps.