Sleep Cycle out of Whack

Sir Red of the Manti

Lately, I have found myself staying up all night for no worthwhile reason, instead sleeping for 6-8 hours in the afternoon. This is not stress related to my knowledge, and I haven't taken anything or traveled anywhere to throw my sleeping cycle out of whack to this degree. First, what else could be causing this shift if not these factors? Second, without resorting to sleep aids or similar drugs, how can I go about resetting this cycle so I can stop having a good afternoon's rest, and start getting a good night's sleep again?

DynamiteKid

I dunno what could have started it, but I think what you need to do is stay up, either for one day or two, whichever is necessary, i.e. 24 hours straight, until a sensible time of day at which you can go to sleep when you've been up for a day or more. Say you get up at 10am on Sunday. You stay up until 10pm on Monday, by which point since you've had no sleep, you should feel tired enough. If not, stay up for a further 24 hours. Eventually you'll be so tired you will just fall asleep like that and your sleep cycle should move back in that way. It's a bit extreme, but it works for me.

Muriden

When I was living in the College Dorms I had a friend who had done this same thing. He wanted to get back into a normal sleep cycle so he had a friend and myself help him stay away for an entire weekend. He slept during friday and we kept him up all of saturday and sunday. We would go to the mall and walk around a lot. Pretty much just staying away from his room. About 10:00 sunday night rolls around and he can barely move he's so tired. He wakes up the next moring refreshed and back on track.

Moral of the story is. Get a few friends who will keep you awake and moving for more than 24 hours until you hit a point where you are really wanting to sleep. Have them keep you awake and then let you go at a normal time for night sleep. While they're keeping you awake stay out of your place of residence as being there is kind of encouraging to go nap.

ArbitraryDescriptor

DynamiteKid wrote:

I dunno what could have started it, but I think what you need to do is stay up, either for one day or two, whichever is necessary, i.e. 24 hours straight, until a sensible time of day at which you can go to sleep when you've been up for a day or more. Say you get up at 10am on Sunday. You stay up until 10pm on Monday, by which point since you've had no sleep, you should feel tired enough. If not, stay up for a further 24 hours. Eventually you'll be so tired you will just fall asleep like that and your sleep cycle should move back in that way. It's a bit extreme, but it works for me.

Adding: Making sure you get a good amount of excercise in the days that follow will help keep it from slipping back into nocturnal mode by helping you get to bed at a more reasonable and predictable hour.

EggyToast

Since you're falling asleep in the afternoon, just stay up until 10ish and fall asleep. Account for sleeping about 9, 10 hours.

And these things happen when you're not active enough during the day. When you're mostly sedentary, you either sleep way too much or don't feel tired and can't sleep at all. If you get some exercise or activity that keeps you busy, you should be able to stay on a more regular sleep schedule.

Bedlam

The problem I can see with staying up for a day or two is that you will be so tired that you probably wont be able to function normally during this time. A more efficiant way is to pick a desired wake up time and set your alarm clock. Put the alarm clock across the room so you cant hit snooze and roll over, and force yourself to stay up once you get up, no more naps. Do this every day even on weekends for a couple weeks and your body clock will make it second nature for you.

THis is basically what I did when I started my new job and didnt have alot of time to get used to getting up at 3 in the morning.