Staying awake (split from Rules)

[ajg]

For me, I haven't been a slave to an exact sleep schedule since pubescence.

Kinda the same boat here. Never had a 'bedtime' growing up, my parents understood that I'd quickly learn the consequences of not getting enough sleep. First big lesson was spending all night reading The Two Towers in grade 4 on a weeknight.

I won't lie, I also got really good at operating on minimal sleep due to a World of Warcrack addiction when I was working tech support.

I say it just takes practice.

[Arkane]

Ehh, I developed this extremely bad (and sad) habit of playing my DS when I was meant to go to sleep, hence making my awake time about 2 more hours at most. The backlight is bad in the way that it screws with my sleeping clock, but however in some circumstances I find myself able to naturally stay awake (even pull an all-nighter)

This morning I slept at about 4am and got up only an hour and a half later.

[rath358]

I found it is easier to stay awake in class if you are a little cold, but not so cold that you want to curl up in a ball. I have had the gameboy/computer/reading in bed problem too, havent found solution yet.

[Walter.Horvath]

I find the best excuses ever to prolong my due dates, which facilitates my natural (and quite horrific) procrastination. I once turned in a project 3 weeks after the due date for full credit... and now I'm getting my teacher to re-administer me tests from last grading quarter, after which I'll receive updated marks I guess I can't come to depend on this forever, though...

Also, I've never taxed myself physically to study, only when I have 'real' work to do...

[Gamma_Metroid]

Whenever I have a project or something, I wait until a couple days before it's due and work on it for most of my free time. If it's still not finished by about midnight, I'll finish the next morning.

I have had the gameboy/computer/reading in bed problem too, havent found solution yet.

I think anyone would find that a problem.

[UnderRock]

My senior year of high school (during which I took classes far harder than I should have) I stayed awake using a giant mug and tea. Often I would add milk and vanilla extract to it. ^_^ This first year of college still included tea, but I mainly stayed up by wasting money on energy drinks.

[frogshee]

I guess what it boils down to is to each his own. </stating the obvious> Unfortunately a lot of what you guys have mentioned will not work for me seeing as I need my sleep long. So I have come to the conclusion that I must just do work during the day and sleep at night! (Revolutionary, I know )

As for staying awake in class, I find that being well-rested does the trick

[Quenouille]

I have a similar question so I figure I wouldn't create another thread:

You have 2-3 hours left before having to get up and show up for (exam, appointment, project due). How do you make sure you don't oversleep? If you're dead tired, somnambulism is the killer here (at least enough to close your four corner-positioned alarm clocks and get back to bed without noticing). Pulling an all-nighter is a solution, but if you expect your day to keep going until well past midnight the next day and having a similar ''get up'' deadline the next morning, you're gonna need that 2 hours of sleep.

I've been very lucky in this regard in that I'm so stressed out about this happening that whenever I do end up oversleeping, my brain concocts some elaborate dream plot where I'm late for this very important thing and something happens to wake me up in shock about 5 minutes after my alarm. While I do think my subconscious is awesome (I have this high-five feeling everytime this happens), I'm wondering how not to rely on this when those schedules are necessary.

[frogshee]

I have a similar question so I figure I wouldn't create another thread:

You have 2-3 hours left before having to get up and show up for (exam, appointment, project due). How do you make sure you don't oversleep? If you're dead tired, somnambulism is the killer here (at least enough to close your four corner-positioned alarm clocks and get back to bed without noticing). Pulling an all-nighter is a solution, but if you expect your day to keep going until well past midnight the next day and having a similar ''get up'' deadline the next morning, you're gonna need that 2 hours of sleep.

I have been late to class due to sleeping through an alarm clock a few times this year and it has always caught me by surprise. I have found that if I am aware that I need to hear the alarm and get up for an extremely important reason, my paranoia of oversleeping gets the best of me and I wake up just fine.
At the same time though, an argument for staying awake might be that 2-3 hours wont save you too much anyway...you will still crash later. Counterargument being that 2 hours is better than none. You be the judge.

[Quenouille]

Well, if I remember correctly from psyc 101, the first 1h30 is straight deep sleep which will give you a majority of your physical energy, while REM-sleep will mainly cover your mental health. I wonder if one could live sleeping twice a day for 1.5 hour with a resilient enough mental constitution. I kind of wanna try this over the summer for a week, but it'll probably ruin my mood and drive me stark raving mad.

Update from this morning: clock in the drawer works perfectly, I woke up standing up with my hand reached out toward where one of my clock usually is.

[rheakith]

Well, if I remember correctly from psyc 101, the first 1h30 is straight deep sleep which will give you a majority of your physical energy, while REM-sleep will mainly cover your mental health. I wonder if one could live sleeping twice a day for 1.5 hour with a resilient enough mental constitution. I kind of wanna try this over the summer for a week, but it'll probably ruin my mood and drive me stark raving mad.

Update from this morning: clock in the drawer works perfectly, I woke up standing up with my hand reached out toward where one of my clock usually is.

Polyphasic sleep cycles are pretty common with military/other government organizations, and if done properly are perfectly healthy, while adding overall awake time to the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

[sio]

Well, if I remember correctly from psyc 101, the first 1h30 is straight deep sleep which will give you a majority of your physical energy, while REM-sleep will mainly cover your mental health. I wonder if one could live sleeping twice a day for 1.5 hour with a resilient enough mental constitution. I kind of wanna try this over the summer for a week, but it'll probably ruin my mood and drive me stark raving mad.

Update from this morning: clock in the drawer works perfectly, I woke up standing up with my hand reached out toward where one of my clock usually is.

Polyphasic sleep cycles are pretty common with military/other government organizations, and if done properly are perfectly healthy, while adding overall awake time to the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

"pretty common"? Linky? I don't think so.

Quenouille -

Best of luck, but do your research first. Even if you can get it to work, you'll be incapable of doing basically anything for at least a week and a half, and you need to get the timing absolutely correct.

[rheakith]

I guess not pretty common, but common enough with a few militaries, scientific studies, as well as all of the blogs to be found where I'd say it's safe enough to go ahead with it.

[ssbookyu123]

I don't really have a probem functioning on 3 hours of sleep and what I do is just get pass the 1 o'clock bump and if I am still awake I can stay awake for all of the night but that shouldn't be done because I ussally crash in around lunch time and that is not fun. Also there is a system that I use and it is to every 2 hours go out side and I roll arund the grass and then eat some pine needles no I'm serous that helps a lot, still trying to fiugre out why though.

[keeperofdakeys]

I don't really have a probem functioning on 3 hours of sleep and what I do is just get pass the 1 o'clock bump and if I am still awake I can stay awake for all of the night but that shouldn't be done because I ussally crash in around lunch time and that is not fun. Also there is a system that I use and it is to every 2 hours go out side and I roll arund the grass and then eat some pine needles no I'm serous that helps a lot, still trying to fiugre out why though.

how did you discover rolling around and eating pine needles helped?

[icenine]

Is there a reason why sleeping 4.5h will make you even sleepier the next day, as compared to sleeping 3h or 1.5h? I'm not the only one with this problem...

[ssbookyu123]

Lets just say I am not the most logical when it comes to lack of sleep also pine needles always perked me up and no idea why I rolled in the grass. Funny I have the same problem I think that R.E.M cycle is more complete? No idea but too lazy to Google it.

[Jorpho]

I have a more pressing question: how do you stay awake during a really boring lecture? Or meeting?

I own a product similar to this. Taseing myself is usually pretty effective.

Two years later, I have finally put this theory into practice. I brought an electric-shock pen with me to a lecture and it proved to be most effective. And the best part is, it doesn't look even remotely conspicuous, unlike some other somewhat eccentric habits I've sometimes adopted. Brilliant!

[achan1058]

Where I am, just opening the window widely in winter works pretty well. Just don't get hypothermia.

[hintss]

how well does licking a 9V battery help fight sleep? *licks a 9V battery*

oh, and sleeping 1.5 hours works better than 2 hours.