How do you change your sleep cycle?

[RedRobin]

At the moment i have a really bad habit of going to bed at 1-2am and getting up at 10am. What's the easiest and quickest way to change your sleep pattern?

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[serious]

I don't think there is any easiest and quickest way. Changing a habit can take time, it depends on the person as to how interested and motivated they are to change their habits, the rate of change will depend on that.

You will have to train yourself to sleep early or at least at 11-11.30 pm. You need to put pressure on yourself to change your current habit.

There is one way though, if you exercise then you can exercise close to your dinner time, then come home have a nice hot water bath, then have your dinner. In a while you will begin to feel sleepy, so that way you can develop the habit of sleeping early.

You can after exercising just wash your hands and face, have your dinner and then before going to bed have a hot water bath, that will also help you fall asleep early.

The point is along with tiredness if you take hot water bath before going to sleep, that helps you fall asleep quickly and also helps you sleep well.

Of course I am not an expert but I have tried this and it works for me so that's why I am suggesting this.

Other than this there is no shortcut or easier way as such. Hence just try this method mentioned above and see the results for yourself.

The method will also work even if you don't exercise, just take hot water bath at night.

[OlderAndWiser]

1. Stop caffeine intake around 6 pm.
2. Stop the stimulus overload that many people do late at night. Stop watching TV at least an hour before your target bedtime. Stop your online activity around the same time.
3. Force yourself to wake up and get out of bed earlier and that will make you get sleepy earlier the next night.
4. Place your alarm clock on the opposite side of the bedroom so that you must get out of bed to turn it off.
5. Make early morning plans with a friend so that you feel some pressure to get up earlier.

[HaveNoName]

Yes that is important. Use the Alam clock to get out of the bed early; even if you slept late. Otherwise, the chain never breaks.

[Darkfairie17]

I would say try getting up earlier. Force yourself to get up earlier by setting your alarm. Just start by getting up an hour before you usually do.

Make a point to get out of bed and get moving. Do exercises if you have to in order to wake yourself up.

Then get ready for bed a bit earlier each night. Do your routine you usually do. Whether that is watching tv or listening to music. Find something that you can do to get yourself in sleep mode.

Eventually you will train your body to get to sleep at a better time.

[RJGraveyTrain]

Honestly, force yourself to get up early even if you haven't slept much. Yes, you'll be tired. Yes, that will suck large. But you'll be tired enough to hit the hay at a reasonable hour and even if you're not, lay down, close your eyes and wait. Lol. It's all you can do that I know of.

[rjroy3]

You're forcing a sleep schedule so anything you do is going to be uncomfortable in one way or the other.

But the quickest and most effective way is to either:

1. force yourself to go to bed early.

Or

2. force yourself to get up at an earlier time and suffer the tiredness the following day long enough to go to bed at a more reasonable hour.

For example if you want to get up at 7. Go to bed at 1-2 am like usual and set your alarm for 6:45am. Put the alarm on the otherside of the room so you have to get up on your feet to turn it off. When you get up to turn it off, just stay up. Go take a shower or do whatever you normally do first thing. Go on about your day and get to bed at 10pm. You'll be excessively tired so sleep should be easy and getting up at 6:45-7am will be natural.

Oooor. You can turn off your phone and computer off at 9, then go to bed by 10. Staring at the tv, computer or phone screen without some sort of blue light protection makes it difficult to fall asleep. So downloading "Twilight" or "Flux" for your devices can help with this.

[SarahsSummer]

you have to start by waking up earlier. set your alarm to wake you acouple ahours earlier than you normally wake up. you'll then end up going to bed earlierthat day. turn off your electronics (bright lights of cell phones/tablets/tv's disrupt your brains natural release of melatonin). eat earlier at least 2 -3 hours before bed, no sweets, limit alcohol to earlier in the evening or not at all. and maybe even take a melatonin suppliment. It won't happen over night but after a few days your body will start to get tired earlier and you'll naturally want to sleepp earlier

[Levin]

Well, what are you doing at the hours of 11pm-1am, that's the question? While some may think some really complicated process is involved here, it requires two things, one of which is discipline. Discipline, to turn everything off, to prepare for winding down for the day by say 8 or 9pm. At that time, you shouldn't even be considering doing anything that will have your energy levels shoot up, if you've already had a busy 'yang' day.

Secondly, what's the psychological processes going on in those hours. Are you trying to cram more out of the day (the days diurnal rhythms should be respected, IMO). Or are you full of excitation, some other emotion flaring up in those hours when you should be sleeping? What prevents you from soundly drifting away to a restful slumber?

[Paris13]

It may Take some Time, and when Having or Needing to "Change your sleep Pattern"... May take some Time for your Body to Adjust.
Having lived All over, different Time Zones as well, my own Body has Learned to Adjust very Quickly to any Sort of Sleep Cycle. However, Some people, Many people, May not Be like Me.
Going Slow with this new Flow, after awhile, your Body Should get Used to this Pattern by Staying in the Same Pattern while Learning to Adjust.
Thank you for the Kind Invite, @RedRobin xx

[Paris13]

Thank you for the Like, hun. xx

[Sadly_It_Fell_Off]

For me I either have to attend an important meeting/event where the time/date cannot be changed or I do things to exhaust my mind, for e. g., researching something for work, looking for the perfect gift online, reading something engrossing, watching a box set. If I can tire my mind, my body will follow.

As its the season, and I have more time on my hands, I am sleeping/waking at random times.

[RedRobin]

That's actually a good idea, usually at night I can't stop thinking about stuff and my mind won't shut up lol so I might try doing maths in my head before bed to wear my head out haha

[CyberToothTiger]

My recommendation don't drink or eat anything with caffeine
in it past 2:00 noon cause it takes 6 hours or better for caffeine
to leave your body. The other option is to move up the time by
hours to get to sleep earlier , for example for week try to be in
bed by 12:00 midnight than do this for week or two weeks than
go down to 11:00 p. m. and do this for week this well help get your
body adjusted to new sleeping patterns. You can't just go directly
from one sleeping pattern to a lower one in a short amount of time
cause it's too much on the body.

[TripleAce]

There is no substitute for the simply incrementally waking up earlier... and slowly sleeping earlier

At first, waking up earlier is more important.. between 30-60 mins. Eventually sleeping earlier will becoke just as important

60 days for firmly adopt a habit - after 30 days it should almost feel normal

[springocelot]

*go to bed earlier (at a specific time)
*wake-up earlier (at a specific time)
*avoid blue-light (light from TV, computer, cellphone) at least 1 hour before bed
*if you're still awake after an hour of going to bed, get up, walk around for a short bit, then go back to bed

It takes at least a couple weeks before your circadian rhythm fully readjusts. So, if you want a change, keep consistent.

[madhatters4]

gradually shift the time you go to bed to the time the target time you want. maybe adjusting the time by 1/2 hour or 1 hour nightly.

another thing is to simply wake up earlier than your normal wake up time as that will most likely cause you to be tired earlier

[EmpatheticLady]

- Exhaust yourself during the day, so you are worn out by the time you go to relax in the evening.
- Don't eat or drink most things past 7:00 PM or so. Water and a warm glass of milk are exceptions.
- Do not look at phone or TV screens an hour before you plan to go to bed. These bright screens trick our minds into thinking it's still daylight out, which means you stay up longer.

[randomhobo]

Avoid sleep one night to reach around 36 hours of no-sleep. Then go to bed around the desired time and set a lot of alarms to wake you up when you need to be up. Will be enough to reset your ciradian rhythm, although will be painful the day you wake as you will still be deprived. Typically resolves that issue after the second nights sleep though.

[Saoirse_Nua]

I am a firm believer in a routine base so in increments of 30 mins I would train myself in. It seems you are an 8 hour person so I would go 2 nights, lights out at 2 am, out of bed no later than 10 am, next two 1.30/9.30 , next two 1/9 then work back to the schedule you want. The important thing is no matter how tired you are or how well you slept get out of bed at morning appointed time, I find a cold shower shakes the sleep cobwebs.

[Phoenix98]

i usually do it by going to bed a few hours earlier or later every night until I reach my goal like say I got to bed at 12 but I want to go to bed at 10 well tomorrow night I would go to sleep at 11 until that felt natural then I would go to bed at 10 until that felt natural.

[Unit1]

There is a great benefit in not drinking coffee to apply just in cases like these. You may drink coffee only when you are changing your sleep schedule and not after 13:00. Limit it by 1 cup only! As soon as you require more cups, stop!

Then, cease whatever activity you are doing at night and make time for "sleep preparations" just an hour before going to bed. Take a shower, meditate, have a little meal and masturbate!

I make preparations for bed time at 23:00 and wake up at 9:00

[Kuraj]

That is a bad habit?
These two weeks I'm going to bed at 4am and waking up at 13:30 lol.

Anyway, changing the habit is easy, just set an alarm clock earlier.
You will end up being tired and will fall asleep more easily at earlier times, continue setting your alarm clock until you can go sleep at whatever time you want without problems.

[zagor]

You can't - I've been stuck on those hours for years. Except I go to bed at 3-4 AM and get up at 10, so I don't even get enough sleep by sleeping in.

I don't think I would last in a job that didn't have flexible hours, like my current and previous jobs...

[Yanoa_Yanza]

Ah I have that exact same habit. But just go to bed at midnight. I know, it will be a struggle to actually fall asleep since you're not used to it, but endure and stay in bed, you'll fall asleep eventually. Put the alarm on 7 or 8 am, get up blabla. And then the next evening you go to bed at midnight again, it'll be easier than last time and before you know it, bam, no need for an alarm anymore :)

[coolbreeze]

You have to go to bed early and if you keep this up then hopefully your body will adjust and get use to the cycle change.

[Anonymous]

Pull an all nighter and fall asleep an hour or two before your desired time since you'll sleep longer to make up for sleep deprivation.

That's what I had to do. I physically can't make myself fall asleep earlier only later so I have to do all nighters if my cycle gets screwed up.

[John_Lion_84]

Manage your phone, pad, pc and tv time. Try to do some havey physical activity between 7 and 8 pm and some red tea after it, take a shower. A glass of white or red wine. find something boring, and you will be ready to sleep at 10 pm.