Hey, everyone.

I'm just looking to see if anyone has any experience overcoming bad sleep habits in establishing a good routine. My desire is to wake up at about 6 every morning to work out, and I want to go to sleep no later than 12 (1 on days that I work until midnight), perhaps with a small nap in that time.

Currently, regardless of when I'm going to bed, I don't fall asleep until 2:30 or 3 am, and I don't wake up until 10 or 11 (which leaves me no time to prepare for school/work). I don't drink much caffeine; maybe a cup of coffee every couple of days, and I drink a lot of water. My work-out time is typically mid-afternoon, but not too close to my bed time that should keep me up. I do have a tendency to stay in my room instead of in our living room, but that's because I get distracted by what's on TV.

Do you guys have any tips or tricks that have helped your sleep? Something like routines, foods you eat, anything that helps you guys sleep better and wake up earlier?

I find some nice calming white noise helps me.
I will normally leave my TV on a low volume in the background, this gets me off to sleep rather quickly, and early at times to.
Also a brief workout in the evening can help make you a little more sleepy, the more tired you are the quicker you will drift off.
Which means waking up early in most cases, thou an alarm clock as a back up helps to lol

Hmm to start of with..I'd probably stay awake for 24 hours and then try to sleep at about 10pm..Have a shower at 9:30pm and then have one as soon as I wake up..Then repeat.. It's essentially just trying to get your body into a normal sleeping pattern. 

Generic advice would be to turn off anything that can cause stimulation.. E.G Television and Music... Though it depends on what you find relaxing... 

I always tend to watch Let's plays before I sleep actually.. They seem to have the power to make me instantly tired...  or I sometimes read.. Though I'm running out of fresh reading material and need to find a new series of books pretty soon!

Like alu says...An alarm clock usually helps as well

Warm drinks can help you. Drink some herbal thee or warm milk with anise it works for me some times.
i have a light form of insomnia. So my sleeping pattern is really disturbed.
i go to bed on like 4am. And my alarm would go off 5 am. I only slept for an hour.. Still i got enough energy to go to my work.
if i go around 12 pm (night?) i most likely oversleep.. Because my insomnia problems keep me awake. And only late times work for me.
I'm trying to change this because I'm dead tired in the middle of the day/week.

I really don't know if this kind of information could help you.. I hope it will. I'm no professional. I'm just someone who by passed your post. And felt the same. So tried to tell he's good old tricks.

Greetings, Yngwie

I see what you guys are saying. Just for the record, I do have an alarm clock, but typically I wake up telling it to shut up. Lol. In respect to the 24 hour thing, I've done that a couple of times, but I just can't seem to fall asleep when I lay down. I don't really understand that. I go to bed dead tired, I toss and turn for a while, and then I bust on the laptop and watch Youtube videos, read articles, or watch movies until I can't stay up any longer. In a lot of ways, it's maddening. I've got some fitness/school goals that I'm striving to achieve, and this horrible sleep cycle is making it worse.

I'm going to try soft music without lyrics. I think this will help. I'm also going to try the warm drink route, although I'm not sure what I'll drink yet since I don't drink any tea nor do I like warm milk. It's more likely that I'm just going to have to suck it up and do it anyways, since that's pretty much what it takes to get anything done nowadays.

I used to find that reading audio books helped me fall asleep earlier, but I still didn't wake up when I needed to, and now I'm not sleeping even while listening to them. Reading books at night is difficult as well, partially because I read mostly non-fiction nowadays, so when I fall asleep, I forget a large part of what I've read. Perhaps I need to stick to fiction at night and non-fiction during the day.

By the way, my doctor (who I probably should just drop) recommended that I take magnesium to help me sleep, since it's readily available and a small dosage is supposed to help with sleep. I have the wonkiest dreams when I take it, so I have just scrapped that all together. Not only that, but when I wake up, I feel like I haven't slept. I think everyone should avoid that stuff unless you have problems with your stomach, and even then, don't use it at night... It's not pretty.

Sorry about the random tangent, there. The good news is that, barring nights I have been silly and taken magnesium, I sleep fairly well. It's just the times that really bother me, since I have things that I want to do and it's much more beneficial to wake up early and work than it is to wait until later in the day/night to do so. I've read a lot of studies on this subject and I've taken quite a bit of advice, but a lot of it is very generic. That's why I've turned to y'all for help! I'm looking forward to seeing more suggestions.

pray75 : Hey I deal with a lot of patients with sleep problems so I'll give you a quick rundown of what I'm understanding and I'll let you know what I think. What you seem to be asking  for help with, is all the things leading up to sleep, which is usually called "sleep hygiene". The best way to approach this is to appropriately manage the time leading up to sleep, and not actually laying in bed itself. If you talk to any sleep specialist, every single one of them will tell you your bed should only be used for two things: sleep and sex, nothing else.

Clinical research has show that hyperactivity and stimulation of the brain will be releasing neurotransmitters (to keep things simple here), which will then leave your body in an excited state, and inhibit you from initiating your normal sleep cycle. And this stimulation refers to any type of sensory input. Meaning, do not do anything in bed other than sleeping; do not watch TV, read, listen to music, talk on the phone, use the Internet, the soft music without music or the warm drink like you're thinking about,etc....while laying in bed. This all seems counter-intuitive but statistic show that all these things will keep you from entering your normal sleep cycle.

Now with all that said, the time leading up to going to sleep is just as important as laying in bed. You regularly should give yourself some time to "wind down" before bed. Sure there are days where you're just exhausted and you'll instantly fall asleep the second you lay down, which is fine, but I'm excluding that. Have a set time you begin to wind down, not necessarily when you lay down (this is very important!). For example, you say you'd like to fall asleep around 12. So let's say it takes you 30-45 minutes to wind down and actually be tired enough to sleep. I'd then suggest you start getting ready for bed at 11:15 and do all the things you normally do to relax before bed, whether that's playing a game on vizzed, or reading, whatever you enjoy. And just do that until you're naturally tired enough to go to sleep. Don't constantly look at the clock, and then think you must lay down right at 12. If you're still not tired, stay awake a little longer, or if you're tired sooner, go to bed. This will program your internal clock (ie circadian rhythm) to adapt and accept this sleep schedule.

And one last thing, let's say you do feel tired and you lay down at 12. But you lay down and start rolling around and realize you really aren't tired anymore. If you aren't asleep in 15-20 minutes, get out of bed and go back to doing whatever it is you do to wind down for bed. By staying in bed, you increase your anxiety and reduce the probability of actually sleeping. The average person takes about 8 minutes to fall asleep, so don't let it bother you if you feel like you do lay there for a while.

I know that was pretty long, but I wanted to pass along as much info as I could to help out. A lot of this isn't really well know, or goes against what everybody grew up with. (Seriously, who didn't have a set bedtime when they were growing up?). I'd highly recommend all of this and it won't hurt you at all so I think it is worth the shot. If you have any questions about all of this or anything else related to this, I'd be more than happy to share what I know.

I'd just stay awake twenty-four hours and begin to sleep at the appropriate time.
This is the only thing I can really recommend you to do since I can't think of anything else.

For me, whenever I am tired and can't get to sleep consistently, I do a few things.

I used to have the exact same problem only for me I had to get up at 6:30 to get ready for college. I used to drink coffee (extra strong) three hours before I plan to go to sleep, this is because you feel very tired after the coffee buzz is gone, you should also try to tire our self out an hour before sleeping, but no later than 30 min before so you can relax. This may sound odd but it worked for me

What really helps me is listening to relaxing music during at least 15 minutes before I go to bed. Also, be sure that room temperature is comfortable. I've woke in sweat too many times already

try to sleep about an hour after you have eaten so you are not up and distracted. Try drinking warm milk or maybe stay in a dimly lit room, to ensure comfort and nothing to distract your sleep. If you can't sleep then maybe put on some light music, or try reading a book so your eyes get drowsy and you drift into sleep easier. Hope this helps!

I recommend "Melatonin", Ear Plugs, and Watching shows in Black and White (not exactly the old films just hit the remote button and set the T.V. to get rid of color).

Playing "Sim City" will do the trick too.

They say the less stimulation you have before going to sleep will ensure healthy sleep cycles.
You know that old saying about no caffeen five hours before sleep?
Similar rule with stimulation.
Try to keep everything you hear and see to not cause the heart rate to go up.

Before I began a graveyard shift?
Six to Seven hours every night. I often woke up five minutes before my alarm went off.
Now that I am on a graveyard shift?
I almost never sleep.
I buy time for sleep by making everything else less time consuming.
I get a healthy amount on the weekends but it is unnerving to try and get everything in a week done in two days.
I had to switch to paper plates to save time on chores for the days I could not get a healthy amount of sleep.
Laundry was done in a day for the whole week. All Lunches were all cooked in a day. Matter of fact many of my meals are precooked Ziplocked and divided in portions in one day for the whole week too.
I use the salad and veggie drawer in the fridge to store my meals that just need to be microwaved and served.
The Freezer becomes your best friend for storing monthly food.
Separate all of your steaks into ziplock bags before storing to avoid cooking too much food.
Make almost all of your veggies frozen. (The microwave helps to save time on cooking veggies. 4 minutes max. 2 minutes for precooked Fridge stored meals.)
The Big "Foreman Grills" are the best for saving time in the kitchen. Everything is cooked faster. Like four minutes Max.

A good Trick To save time is to carry an electric Razor everywhere you go in your car and keep a mini bathroom kit. (Toothbrush, Comb, Razors, nail clipers and mouthwash And a couple towels.)
Whenever you Have to save time or not risk transit time getting to a place it can help and just do some grooming in the nearest bathroom. I trust Starbucks Bathrooms.

After awhile it all becomes routine.

The best way to do it is to figure out how much time you need for all of your tasks and set up the tasks in a week form.
I found that if I prepped a week in advance? Everything else falls into place.
Have back up plans to buy time every chance you have in case one activity or another cuts into the schedule too much.

Cut all shopping to one day a week really helps. Gas too. Eliminate as many suprises you can have for your week.

Then go an do it.

Hope this all maks sense and helps.
I'm in a rush to get out of the door.

Good Luck To All.
I'm Done. Stick A Fork In Me.
Peace.