Pretext insomnia :(

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MCATTT

MCATTT

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Hey guys, I am just wondering how you guys deal with sleeping problems the day before the test. I always have trouble falling asleep the night before the test. My exam is five days away. Any good tips will be appreciated! Thanks.
 
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MCATTT said:
Hey guys, I am just wondering how you guys deal with sleeping problems the day before the test. I always have trouble falling asleep the night before the test. My exam is five days away. Any good tips will be appreciated! Thanks.
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Dude, you're talking to Mr. Insomnia. Do you really want to know how to sleep well? Don't care about sleeping well. I'm serious. The harder you try, the worse you sleep. I've slept pretty well for the last 3 months, and a common theme is not thinking any particular pattern of thoughts. You have to turn your mind off...that means allowing it to go random. Also, if you're constantly monitoring yourself or checking..."Am I falling asleep?" every 5 minutes, just forget about sleeping. This is what I mean about trying. You just have to not care. If you worry, your body will do the flight or fight thing until you get extremely tired. Usually, it takes me 5-6 hours in a worse case scenario. It was really scary. Going to bed at 2am, seeing the sun come up. Lol, not fun. So, I have insane sleep hygiene. I go to bed at 10:40pm, wake up at 5:40am...and I have my test scheduled at noon...so I can get 7 hours of sleep even with several hours of insomnia. Start going to bed early now.
 
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Get a script for Zaleplon, which you may recall has a nice short half-life. And get it ASAP so you can test it beforehand since it can have some pretty bad side effects like most of these drugs. I feel a little bit out of it for about an hour the morning after taking it and I wake up after only like 5-6 hours of sleep instead of the normal 7-8 but I figure 6 hours of sleep before the exam is better than the ONE hour I managed before the MCAT :laugh:

Actually since your test is in five days I'm not really sure if you'll really have enough time to test the medication so maybe you should just try meditating before bed every night starting now. Would be really bad if you started hallucinating crazy crap the night before the exam then got amnesia.
 
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Ambien, Tylenol PM (advil PM, benedryl, etc..), trazedone, flexeril and some others that I can't think of right now (but not zaleplon or lunesta)... All in some way make me significantly groggy the next day. Diazepam is the only thing that I've ever had that helped me fall asleep without the hangover. It is unique in that it simply made me feel less stressed about falling asleep as opposed to just bluntly knocking me out.

sebsvenmdc said:
Do you really want to know how to sleep well? Don't care about sleeping well. I'm serious. The harder you try, the worse you sleep. I've slept pretty well for the last 3 months, and a common theme is not thinking any particular pattern of thoughts. You have to turn your mind off...that means allowing it to go random. Also, if you're constantly monitoring yourself or checking..."Am I falling asleep?" every 5 minutes, just forget about sleeping. This is what I mean about trying. You just have to not care. If you worry, your body will do the flight or fight thing until you get extremely tired. Usually, it takes me 5-6 hours in a worse case scenario.
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For me, this technique is easier said then done, but it does work even for a vampire like myself. It's always harder on the stressful nights but I am hoping that if I practice it enough it will eventually be like second nature.:xf:
 
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runx said:
Ambien, Tylenol PM (advil PM, benedryl, etc..), trazedone, flexeril and some others that I can't think of right now (but not zaleplon or lunesta)... All in some way make me significantly groggy the next day. Diazepam is the only thing that I've ever had that helped me fall asleep without the hangover. It is unique in that it simply made me feel less stressed about falling asleep as opposed to just bluntly knocking me out.



For me, this technique is easier said then done, but it does work even for a vampire like myself. It's always harder on the stressful nights but I am hoping that if I practice it enough it will eventually be like second nature.:xf:
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Yeah, I think the OP should steer away from drugs. Even the non-BZs can have bad SEs. You don't want amnesia before the Step! The best thing for me has been to have a very OCD like schedule. Stop at a given time, every night...like 10:25pm...go turn the A/C on to get the apartment down to 71 degrees. Brush teeth -> floss -> mouthwash -> coffee grounds in filter -> load dishwasher -> fill water jug -> check alarm -> 4 min. shower (just barely warm) -> throw on boxers -> one sheet over my body -> one pillow -> fan on medium -> ear plugs -> check alarm -> black shirt over my eyes to shield out any lights from outside...

My sleeping schedule is very fixed and boring too. 10:40pm to 5:40am. My body is completely calibrated to it now. I wake up usually at 5:30am. Even if I struggle to sleep the night before...I'm going to be exhausted by say 2 or 3am and my body will shut itself down...I'm setting my alarm for like 10:30am on the test day.

Realize this...worrying about sleeping is as bad as worrying about the test. Also, worrying about worrying about sleeping is too. This is why I told the OP to try not to care. I've been analyzing sleep patterns and stuff for over a year now.
 
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sebsvenmdc said:
The best thing for me has been to have a very OCD like schedule. Stop at a given time, every night...like 10:25pm...go turn the A/C on to get the apartment down to 71 degrees. Brush teeth -> floss -> mouthwash -> coffee grounds in filter -> load dishwasher -> fill water jug -> check alarm -> 4 min. shower (just barely warm) -> throw on boxers -> one sheet over my body -> one pillow -> fan on medium -> ear plugs -> check alarm -> black shirt over my eyes to shield out any lights from outside...
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I have to say that I got a kick out of reading this. This is exactly me right down to the fan and the shirt over the eyes. Funny, and interesting.
 
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runx said:
I have to say that I got a kick out of reading this. This is exactly me right down to the fan and the shirt over the eyes. Funny, and interesting.
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Lol, the shirt is clutch for disinhibition of melatonin secretion. 🙂
 
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Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, especially sebsvenmdc.
I guess it is too late for drugs now. I will just tried using that OCD like pattern of sleeping for these couple of days and hope for the best.
I always tell my self not to worry about worrying about falling asleep. It is just sometimes I am out of luck. My heart keeps beating too fast.
What's ironic is that I am not worry about the exam itself. I know I studied enough. I am just worried that I won't be able to think well due to lack of sleep. This create anxiety and difficulty sleeping.
 
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MCATTT said:
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, especially sebsvenmdc.
I guess it is too late for drugs now. I will just tried using that OCD like pattern of sleeping for these couple of days and hope for the best.
I always tell my self not to worry about worrying about falling asleep. It is just sometimes I am out of luck. My heart keeps beating too fast.
What's ironic is that I am not worry about the exam itself. I know I studied enough. I am just worried that I won't be able to think well due to lack of sleep. This create anxiety and difficulty sleeping.
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Know exactly what you mean. Personally, my faith helps me a lot. I pray and just decide to relax and trust God even if I don't fall asleep fast. You should try to forget about the test a few hours the night before. And once you get into bed, absolutely refuse to think about anything step related. I can fall asleep within about 40 mins if I just allow my brain to think randomly. If you police yourself, you won't sleep well. So, the irony of sleeping well is not trying!

One more thing...my approach is definitely the best long-term solution. It's unrealistic to use medication in the long-term. Hopefully, this works for your Step, but please keep this in mind for after the Step too. Get your body into a very rigid sleeping pattern, and you'll be amazed at how you predictably get tired and spontaneously wake up according to the schedule. Also, I sleep best when I don't fight nature...I used to go to bed at 2am and wake up at 9ish. The bad part about that is that if you have insomnia, the sun can come up, and that will really frustrate you...if you go to bed on the other hand at 10pm, you're unlikely to have like 8 hours of insomnia (very, very difficult). Even if your body freaks out and your heart beats rapidly...your body will turn things down in like an hour or so. Don't stress about being stressed...it's like positive feedback.

Ok, enough of my sleeping book! 🙂
 
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