i could stay in bed all morning... help!

[Hermione Gainser]

Yeah I think sleep more is the key here hahaha your body says, "I wants it!" and I am a big fan of giving the body what it wants.

It is weird. we call it a blood sugar thing b/c he has the same reaction one has when they have a blood sugar problem but his levels are normal. it's weird.

nomnomnomnom caffeine. I'm with you there.

[morethanjustamom]

My husband is hypoglycemic, needs lots of sleep (9-10 hrs ideally), and cannot get up and work out without a protein shake + banana, fwiw. He has low thyroid too.

[Silence]

I've got an alternate suggestion to what everyone else seems to be saying. Do you think it's possible that you are sleeping too much? I love to sleep, it's my favorite time of the day hands down, I love being all snuggled up in bed, I love naps, etc. That said, I realized I was sleeping too much. When I sleep for more than 7.5 hours or so, I feel more tired and groggy than when I sleep less. I've found my prime amount sleep is about 6 hours or so. I try to be in bed at around 11:30 and wake up between 5:30 and 5:45. I can just jump straight out of bed and really be an awesome morning person. Maybe try to sleep a bit less one night and see how it goes?

This sounds eerily familiar. I often find I'm more tired after 12 hours of sleep than I am after 4. Are you able to maintain enough energy during the day working on this schedule? Just curious as I can see this helping for getting up but I have trouble with being tired all day long as well.

That sleep cycle calculator is really neat. I may follow some of their suggestions.

[Rogue]

Have you tried cold showers? It doesn't help you get up, but it does prevent you from going back to sleep. It was my bread and butter back when I had to get up at 5AM. I would force myself out of bed by an annoying alarm clock and get straight into the shower. For the last few minutes, I turned the water to cold. Very refreshing, though not comfortable. No way to fall back asleep after that. =)

[rumtiger]

I've been having problem getting up at my usual time, so I just got a sleep manager (Zeo clock) and haven't done enough nights yet to establish baseline, but enough to realize I sleep enough time and get an abudance of light and REM cycle, but very little deep cycle sleep, only 9 minutes. This really surprised me since I am on prescription meds that are supposed to help me get deep-cycle sleep. Can't say what helps improve it yet, but think it is a really cool gadget. You wear a headband while you sleep, and then download to computer for analysis. Has the bonus of being able to have alarm go off at the optimal time prior to your target wakeup time.

[maisigh]

I was like that too. All I had to do (and I won a nerdfitness teeshirt for it ) was shorten my sleeps. I made it part of my challenge and did it every day for 28 days. It somehow revamped everything about my sleep patterns and I know now that I only need 7-7.5 hours of sleep to feel FABULOUS. 8 is usually the maximum for me to still feel good. If I sleep more than that, I want to be in bed all day and it becomes a daily thing. I will "need" 9-10 hours of sleep a night and still feel tired. I can't go to sleep too early, and since it is super easy for me to fall asleep at night, I have to make sure I go to sleep around midnight so I can get up between 7-8 am with my daughter. I know how my body likes to function, and that is the most important part of being healthy for me. If you are healthy, stop oversleeping. That's probably all it is.

**Remember, if you oversleep, you WILL feel tired.

[ellystar]

But I do have one of those natural light/sound alarm clocks - it gradually lights up a half hour before your set alarm time. At the alarm time it's really bright and birds start chirping. I really like it cause you don't get that super loud annoying alarm that scares you half the death, and it's nice waking up more gradually like that... but so far, hasn't helped my affection to my bed. haha. Maybe once we get more into summer it'll be brighter outside and I'll tell him to open the curtains Or turn more lights on.

I would be really interested in one of these, where did you get it?

I have my alarm clock on the other side of the room, so I have to get up to snooze it, but I still snooze it and go back to sleep at least three to six times before I actually get up. I think I just love snuggling down into my nice warm bed!

I do this too, but my alarm is right next to my bed. I tried putting the alarm on the other side of the room, in another room, but I always just go back to bed. My alarm won't allow me to snooze anymore after it's been an hour since the first alarm goes off, and some mornings I reach that point, especially on the weekends. It's the same on the weekends and weekdays. I think it's because I find being in bed so comfortable, but I hope it's nothing like not wanting to face the day. I do like my job and don't dread going to it at all. I hit my snooze bar at least four times every morning.

I used to get up around 6am, make my fiance's and my lunches (he gets up at 5:40am and leaves by 6:30am), then shower and get ready and go to work. That was when my commute was an hour and I had to be at work at 8am. Now my commute is 5 minutes and I have to be at work between 8:30-9am. I still get up at 6:15am to make my fiance's lunch (most mornings... the alarm goes off at 6am and I hit the snooze bar twice), but then I often go back to bed. My alarm is set again for 7:15am, but I just hit the snooze bar over and over. I'm lucky if I'm out of bed by 8am.

I really want to stay up after I finish making lunches and work out or do other productive things, but I've only done it a few times since I started my new job several months ago. It's not that I'm too tired either, I honestly think its laziness. I find if I do stay up and do something productive I'll be awake and not tired all day. I was able to do it this morning, and I spent the time reading the Rebel Fitness Guide I recently bought on my iPad.

However, I still feel I can't kick the snooze bar habit I have. Maybe I need a new alarm without a snooze bar...

[Maggie May]

ellystar - I got the alarm as a gift, but I found it on Amazon. I really like it!!

And yeah, I'm with you on hitting the snooze a zillion times. Yes, I'ved tried putting the alarm on the other side of the room. And in another room. I still go back to bed. hahah. So I'm with you there. The past couple nights I've gone to bed a bit later, but I just stayed in bed even later than I normally do. So I think.... I think I just need more sleep. Going to bed at 10pm or so seems to be the best for me... sigh!

[ellystar]

ellystar - I got the alarm as a gift, but I found it on Amazon. I really like it!!

Thanks! I'm going to add it to my Target wedding registry

[Korosia]

Being a teenager (I'm 18) I definatly know this problem! I kept being late for lectures or forgetting things because I was rushing round. One of the big things that I've found has helped is to get up a bit before you need to. For example, I have lecture at 9, so I would need to start getting ready at about 7.45 if I want to eat something and take a nice long shower and all that. So when my alarm was set for 7.45 I would think "I've got to get up to go to lectures", which meant that if I could find ways of shortening my schedul I would sleep in ("well, I don't *need* a shower this morning"!). Whereas now I get up at 7, everyday, for no reason other than becuase thats what I do. I found its helped a lot. I also make sure to do something straight away - I too have found that its a good time for Bible reading. Also, if I really feel like I'm going to go straight back to bed, I'll quickly run into the shower and wash my hair. Not only does it wake me up a bit (especially if you spend the last few mintues will the temperature *right* down!), but it stops me getting back into bed because my hair is all wet.

[InterfaceLeader]

I spent years trying to force myself to get up at 7am. I even managed it for a whole year, feeling horrible the entire time. Then, my friend who is in medical research told me they can tell from your blood if you're a morning or night person. The truth is, I can do on less sleep but I need to go to bed later, not get up earlier. I am not a morning person. Sad thing is, most jobs have earlier start hours than I am happy with. If only they let me work until 1am instead...

[pixieopower]

AH thanks. Just what I needed to hear. I always am trying to "find time" do to a Bible study during the day. Maybe this is a perfect solution.

I do mine when I get up. Its on top of my alarm clock cuz the current book we are doing is HARD and hurts my brain and makes me wake up. I put on some Tobymac - Freq'd and dubbed and that gets me pumped enough to DO bible study. Before I found COOL christian music I would just slack off and not get pumped enough to actually do my workbook. http://www.life1019.com is a great online radio station to wake up to as well cuz its pumped and gets the brain and body moving.

[bryson]

I know a lot of people have commented about sleep cycles and showers immediately and stuff, but I think I'm probably a lot like you in that the half-asleep irrational me convinces the rational awake me that I definitely have time to get back in that comfortable bed for just a few more minutes. Probably the BIGGEST help for me was making sure my room is very warm in the mornings. In the winter I run a space heater on a timer set for 4am (i wake up at 5, leave for work at 530, still not quite used to it after 3.5 yrs) and in the summer I just use the programmable thermostat. It makes the idea of climbing back into bed much less appealing when it would be borderline uncomfortable to get back under the covers, and the idea of a shower becomes much MORE appealing. Once I am in the shower and am in a hurry, I am rational enough to know that I don't have time to get back in bed.

[Blade]

I've got one of these from Amazon and it's definitely helped. The whole bed shakes and it's pretty much impossible to stay asleep. For me, the best way to make sure I STAY up is to walk to the bathroom, turn on the lights, and brush my teeth. Standing there in the bright light for a couple minutes always helps clear the cobwebs out. Then I go back, make my bed so getting back in isn't an option (at least in my head) and start the day. Best of luck!

[---]

<snip> There's a cool website that I found http://sleepyti.me/ and it really helped me!

Forgive me for reviving an old thread, but I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this. I've always been a natural extreme night owl, which means mornings are usually next-to-impossible. My usual wake time is between 10 am and noon. The only thing that has gotten me up effectively is my husband bringing me breakfast in bed (he's a morning lark and loves to cook, so he doesn't mind), but on really bad days, I still roll over "just to get a few more minutes."

However, I started using sleepyti.me the day before, and this morning, I woke up naturally at...wait for it...8:00 am! And I didn't even feel like I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep! So it seems pretty promising!

[Mordechaj]

An espresso machine with a timer, at the bedside.