So I have recently come to the conclusion that my sleeping patterns are a bit out of whack. The earliest I ever fall asleep is 1am. I can sleep easy enough during the day but I'm just super-awake as soon as the sun goes down. I've lost count of the times I've seen the sun set and rise without having slept between them. And it changes all the time, one day I will sleep from 1am to 10am, the next 4am to 8am or not sleep at all. Last night I slept from 4am until 1pm. Obviously not the norm. My family keep telling me that it must have something to do with the fact I don't eat much red meat but I take iron tablets every day. And when I do end up getting to sleep at night, I sleep like the dead. My usual wake-up time is around midday. So I was just wondering, does anyone else have any advice to give about how I could maybe fix my sleeping habits up a bit because I'm sick of going to work feeling like I could fall asleep on my feet.
I'm not a sleep expert, sooooo.... Well, you're 18, still a teen, body is still maturing. I get kinda like you in the summer, no matter what I go to bed at like 3 and wake up like 12, (if there is nothing going on) And if I go to bed earlier I sleep later. What makes me fall back into a good routine is avoid eating before going to bed, avoid caffeine at all, and... well, What I do is meditation, I have a very active mind and it loves to be wake when it shouldn't. It's very calming and relaxing.
I've found that when my sleeping schedule gets out of whack, the only thing that can get it back in whack is having some kind of commitments during the day to wake up for. If I know I have nothing important to wake up for, my body will just do whatever it wants as far as when I get tired and when I get up goes. This summer my sleeping schedule was all over the place because I worked from home, so I didn't need to keep to a consistent sleep schedule, so I couldn't. Only going back to school and having classes and work shifts to wake up for regularly got my sleeping schedule back to something consistent. So if you don't have anything that requires you to stick to a consistent sleep schedule and you want to start sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, that might be a good place to start.
I'm the same way. I usually go to sleep around sunrise, although sometimes it's a bit before (rarely before 4 though). The wake-up times vary, anywhere from 11-5. It's become a huge problem, because I'm missing classes (although other issues are at play too). Even when I was sleeping normally (I've always been a night owl, but was better about going to bed), I had an extremely hard time waking up. I can set 10 alarms, and I'll still go back to sleep!!
