I’ve always had a problem with going to sleep too late. In high school, it was okay because my mom was there to wake me up if I fell back to sleep after my alarm went off, but now that I’m living on my own, I don’t have that luxury. I was late for class quite a few times this past semester due to oversleeping, and I’ve been late to work quite often this summer, for the same reason. Probably about 50% of the time, I oversleep. Maybe even more, I don’t know.
I never thought it was too much of an issue, that is until last Friday. I was supposed to work 9am-5pm, as usual, but I allowed myself to stay up until 5am the night before. I tried to wake up with my alarm at 7am, but instead I found myself waking up at 11:30am. I got out of bed, went online, told my boss that I overslept a lot, and asked if she wanted me to come in for a few hours. She said I should just stay home and get some rest, so I went back to sleep. I didn’t set an alarm this time, and I woke up at 5pm. 5pm!!
That was a huge wake-up call for me. Not only did I sleep in really late because I went to sleep at 5am, but I slept 12 hours, which I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t already been sleep-deprived from previous nights of too little sleep. (I’ve slept 15 hours before, but that’s besides the point.)
So here’s what I’m going to do about it. I’m going to go to bed by 11 every night. I usually set my alarm for 7, but even then I’m sometimes late, so I’m going to start waking up at 6:30 and slowly get later as I get a feel for how long it actually takes me to get ready. My ultimate goal is to be five minutes early for work every day.
I’m sure it’ll be tough to develop the habit at first, especially since going to bed early means I’ll have less time for the things I want to do. I have a plan for that, too! I just need to separate the things I need to do and the things I want to do. In other words, the things I want to do each night and the things that can wait. I mean, blogging isn’t exactly something I need to do, but I put it on my list of needs for tonight, since it’s been a few days and I don’t want to put it off any longer.
And then, of course, I need to get over the fact that sometimes the things I need to do are not the things I want to do, and that I need to fit them into my schedule anyway. For example, I was supposed to practice singing tonight, but I didn’t. Hopefully the half hour between work and my voice lesson will be enough that my teacher won’t realize I haven’t practiced her stuff all week. I think I’ll focus on scales and arpeggios, which I haven’t done since my lesson last Tuesday.
I got a new pair of running shoes today! I haven’t had any in over three years, so I’m really excited. I always have to run at the gym on an elliptical machine, since my shoes are hiking shoes, not made for running, and could really screw my knees up because they don’t have enough support. Now I get to run outside, which I am going to do starting tomorrow. 
I’m going to enact my new plan: go to sleep at 9:45 (probably closer to 10 by the time I get ready), wake up at 5:45, and run before work!
On a final note, I’ve been playing guitar a lot lately, and I don’t know if you’re into this kind of thing, but I posted an acoustic improvisation as well as an acoustic cover of REO Speedwagon’s Time for Me to Fly to my YouTube channel. Check them out if you feel so inclined. Maybe leave a comment or something on them, too. 
Woah, this totally hits home for me! I have been wanting to go to sleep earlier for quite sometime now. I haven’t been getting to bed real early like I use to. I use to go to bed at 9:30 every night. 10 at latest. Now it is almost midnight and I am still up. This is getting ridiculous for me!
I haven’t ever been real late, but not getting enough sleep really effects me through out the day when it comes to work performance and everything. I get tired really easy and such. I know it is my problem, but I can’t stop from staying up. I just can’t.
I really need to do what you are doing. Get my priorities straight. Right now, after I am done commenting I am going to bed. I want to start going to bed at 10pm that would be nice. It will take sometime, but I know I can do it. I generally wake up at eight, but I want to change that to seven. The sooner, I go to bed, the sooner I will put my alarm clock.
THANK YOU for this post. I am glad (sort of) that I am not the only one who is struggling with this and wants to change. I believe we can both do it if we put our minds to it. Thank you again! <3
I never really had a problem in high school with sleeping. Occasionally I’ll stay up late but I usually always went to bed at a decent time. On average it was around 10 or so? Which on a whole, really isn’t that bad. I lived literally a block away from school so I woke up at 7:30 to get ready; I’m was rarely late unless it snowed or something. Since I’ve been in college, my times are all over the place. Sometimes I’ll sleep early then other days I’ll sleep really late. Luckily I have afternoon classes anyways so it’s not a really big deal but still — not good! I’ve noticed I’m more tired and lazy throughout the day.
It’s good that you understand the problem and are working to fix it! Though mine isn’t much of a deal, it probably could benefit myself more to sleep earlier and get a good nights rest; I’ll definitely stay focused more during class. My eyes typically wander and I find other things to distract me with. Bit bad since I’m paying for classes now — it pays to pay attention. :X
I have trouble to go to sleep early too. And if I try to go to sleep at 11, I just can’t fall asleep. Even though I have to (and have woken up) 6:30 in the morning. Especially now when it’s summer here and the appartment is sooo hot & keeping windows open won’t help because it”s hot outside aswell..
I guess I’m pretty lucky on that department. I sleep late almost everyday but I can’t GET myself sleep in. Seriously, I can go to sleep at 5am and if I know I have to be up by 7am, I’d be up even before my phone alarms. I don’t know, I guess I have a pretty good body clock… or not? I don’t know.
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[...] other night, I read Rachel’s blog post. As I was reading through it, my jaw dropped. This was what was happening to me. I couldn’t [...]
You know you are totally awesome and will make that goal.
*doop doop* Being early for work is something I need to do… I am always five minutes late. I was just talking to a few of my friends today while we were waiting to be served a restaurant – we were discussing the idea of moving your clock forward to ensure you were ahead of time especially with work and school. We then concluded it was silly because after some time you’d actually just keep calculating in your head that your clock is ten minutes late, and it wouldn’t be so effective anymore. All the clocks in James’s house are ten minutes too fast, and he said by now he doesn’t know the real time but all he knows is that the clocks are fast, but there is essentially no point. My friend did say it was effective in making you rush in the moments just after waking up, since your head isn’t quite active. When I put my alarm on early, I wake up when it goes off and then remember that I set it early, so I still laze in bed for a bit.
I’m glad you’re kicking that habit though! I can imagine that sleeping that much and waking up that late (HELLO GEORGINA’S TIMEZONE
) gave you a real reality check. I think the latest I’ve woken up is 1pm… yeah, that annoyed me. 
I don’t have proper running shoes, come to think of it. I have flat slipper kind of shoes, which are soft and comfortable enough. I don’t really run much anyway. I can’t remember the last time I had proper running shoes, because since I was 15 I wore Converse sneakers for sport. Technically though, that blue pair of Converse is part of some ‘Chuck Athletic’ range, and has squishy bits for the heel and arch of the foot. I think they smell though, after wearing them so much. :X
I have a good internal alarm, so I’m usually up before my clock radio even goes off. I’ve only overslept for school twice throughout all of high school (and crazily enough, both times were in the same week). Of course, I’m also the kind of person who needs a ton of sleep to function, so I’m a zombie in the morning most of the time. I would never be able to go to work after two hours of sleep. Even though you missed, it’s probably better that you got some rest.
I’m doing the same thing as you this summer, even though I don’t have anything to wake up for. I just think it’s a waste to sleep for twelve hours when I shouldn’t even be tired. I’ve stopped using the computer at night (although, I haven’t been good with that one lately) and I only read the books I need to for my summer assignments. That way, I don’t lose track of time and can be in bed by 12-12:30. Then I set my alarm for 9:30 and all is well.
I wish you the best of luck with getting your sleep schedule together.
I’m pretty much guilty as charged with the same crime. A couple of weeks ago I woke up 5 mins before I had to be at university for a meeting with my HOD and I felt soooo embarrassed because I was the one who had asked for an extra-long appointment with him, resulting it in being earlier. I’m glad you’ve managed to come up with a plan to tackle this though… cos i know I sure haven’t, and am unlikely to :s
When I got in to university, and live far from my family, I started to manage to wake up on my own. Even with out alarm sometimes. It really helps if you stare at the clock for several seconds and just stare at the current time and the time you’d want to wake up. I’m not really sure if it works on everybody but it did to me. It kinda surprised me at first though.
maybe I should try doing the same thing like you too and start practising or else I’ll be late for work in the future too. I have this insomnia that’s been bugging me. for some reason, I stay wide awake during the night and I can’t help but to feel sleepy during the day. not a morning person indeed. no matter how hard I tried to tell myself to get to sleep early and wake up early, it always fail. ==
I need to practise for it too,lol.
if you reach your goal, tell me the secret recipe about it
Getting a biorhythm going is a great thing, esp. if you can get it to the point where you just find yourself waking up at the right time, about when your alarm clock is going to ring … but you don’t need it to! If you stick to your plan, it should happen. It’s nice to feel vitalized in the morning, instead of being on zombie status haha.
Good luck duders!
[...] kind of dead tired right now. Remember my plan about sleeping early? It’s going alright but it’s two hours past my bedtime now, [...]