The Catch 22 of Sleep

[Armstead]

Does anyone ele have a whacky sleep clock?

I work for myself, so I don't have to get up at any particular time, or go to bed at any particular time.

My body clock is an unpredictable little bastid. I seem to go through periods where I have reasonable regular hours -- bed by 11 or 12, fall off and wake up around 8 a.m. or so. But then I go through otehr periods where I'm a night owl, and stay up all hours.

Lately, I've been on a real nite owl kick -- working until 3 ot 4 or 5 a.m. Usually get up about 9 a.m. but sometimes sleep later.

I tried the last coupld of nites to get back on a semi regular schedule and went to bed at about midnight. I went right to sleep, but woke up at about 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep for a while.

Arrrgh.

Anyone else have trouble getting their sleep patterns to behave?

[LuLu550]

1. try melatonin

My clock goes off ... I have a full time day job and have to cover night meetings for my freelance journalism job. I am too wired to fall asleep when I get home. Melatonin is a natural hormone that is released by your body to put you to sleep. Helps me.

[Maple]

2. All my life

I don't worry about it anymore. I sleep when I'm tired, and stay up when I'm not.

There is no law that says you have to be like everyone else.

[Laszlo_Hollyfeld]

3. I have an irregular sleep cycle

Which has at times been inconvenient. Most of the time it's irrelevant to the work I do, but does impact any potential social life.

If it's important to regulate my sleep cycle, I find better success with gradually, - over a week or so- getting closer to one set bed time works best.

[Ilsa]

4. Usually during the time change

and summer months.
Also if I'm having more hot flashes than usual, I wake up early and have a hard time going back to sleep.
Caffeine is a fiend.
Exercise is a friend to sleep.
Sleep is a friend to weight loss. (It's been proven that it is harder for your body to lose weight when you are sleep deprived.)

It's tough. I had a professor who said the human body is designed closer to a 25 hour cycle, but we are encouraged to get to bed a little early so we don't become sleep deprived over a week by shifting one hour each night.

[Melsky]

5. I'm like that too

I go from waking up super early (4:AM!) to going to sleep really late and waking up late. The problem is my husband can't seem to accept this. Though I am a freelance artist who sets my own schedule, he seems to think there is some advantage to keeping a set schedule. I'm happy the way I am.

[MercutioATC]

6. I'm an air traffic controller. I know about weird sleep patterns.

My "weekend" changes every 4 months. Right now, it's Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday, I work from 3:00pm till 11:00pm

Saturday, I work from 2:00pm till 10:00pm

Sunday, I work from 7:00am till 3:00pm

Monday, I work from 6:00am till 2:00pm and then I go back to work at 10:00pm Monday night and work until 6:00am Tuesday morning.

It does give me long weekends, though...


I've learned to sleep whenever I get a chance. Remember, naps are your friends.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I set my own hours, too,

and besides, my Japanese clients' workday coincides with my evening hours. Sometimes they'll call or fax at midnight with last minute additions or corrections to a job that's due at 6PM (2AM) their time, and I have no choice but to stay up and finish the work.

I'd adopt a swing shift schedule, but most of the rest of the U.S. operates on a day schedule, so I have to run errands and meet with people during the day. In addition, if I get too much into a late-sleeping schedule, Sunday mornings, when I have to be at the pre-service rehearsal for the church choir, are even worse than they would be otherwise. There's also the fact that if you sleep too late in the winter when you're at 45 degrees north latitude, you miss out on a lot of potential exposure to daylight.

However, even if I try to wake up early, it's hard for me to get down to anything constructive before about 10:30AM.