tips on regulating sleep - oversleeping / late schedule

Posted by march @severance, Feb 4 2:19am

hello ! ^^💧

for as long as i can remember, especially in recent time, i've struggled heavily with being able to get up and stay up - or even just keeping my eyes open when i do wake up.
ive always been the type to fall asleep for whole class periods, during my hangouts with friends i always end up falling asleep during the day, during movies, or anything, and it makes me sad because i miss out on so much.

i've always had a rough / inconsistent sleep schedule, used to go to sleep between 6-10 am every night. even if i’ve been pushing it back to 3-4 am which is still pretty bad, i still struggle really badly with oversleeping, constant naps, and an inability to get up out of bed. no matter how hard i try, i can't seem to push my sleep back any more.

when i am able to get up to 8 hours, i end up going right back to bed either due to a nap or by rolling over and my eyes feeling too heavy to stay open to even try to get up, which has resulted in me sleeping a minimum of 9 hours every day - which is my lowest if i'm lucky.

for example, if i go to bed at 3am, even with alarms, i can’t even start my day at 12pm and i’ll end up waking up at 1-2pm if im lucky unless i have incentive of some kind to get up. (which even that doesn't work most of the time)

i’ve tried every kind of alarm, i even have a loud tornado alarm that could wake up half of my house but for some reason it doesnt work on me and just makes me wake up slightly anxious before going right back to bed which i’ve had to stop using 😭

on days where i am able to get up as “early” as 9 - 11 am, it always ends in me taking a nap of some kind during the day since i can barely stay awake even if i try after a few hours.
when i have nights where i do go to bed “early” (8pm - 11pm) i end up throwing that away because my body pushes me to wake up anywhere between 2 - 4 am and feel like i’m fully rested even if i know i’m not

physical health wise, i do believe a lot of it is probably because of my inactivity, i only leave my house up to 3 times a month (with most of those outings only being for 4 hours of the day at most) due to severe agoraphobia and other circumstances that i cannot go into, and while i do try my best to work out in my house i don’t know what much i can do,,, 💧 i’ve been trying to save up for an exercise bike or treadmill at the very least with the little money i make

part of me also wonders if it's cause my room is always freezing cold especially compared to the rest of the house - which leads to me further not wanting to get out of bed but i also cant sleep with a heater due to a chronic fear of a fire 🙁

i've always struggled with very bad depression even if i havent been actively "sad" in recent time, i feel as if my sleeping definitely contributes to that - and while i haven't been diagnosed with insomnia or anything of the sorts, part of me is scared that it's some kind of underlying disorder.

ive tried melatonin before at early times, however, it presents the same issue as above and just makes me even more of a restless sleeper.

especially today (as of writing this post) which was what lead to me deciding to seek out some things in the first place - i had fallen asleep at 6am, woken up at 6pm, then stayed in bed for 2 hours, falling right back asleep until nearly 11pm and just leaving me with the realization i wasted an entire day (；_・)

i presume the main point / question i wanted to ask with this post was if anyone has any tips related to this, if there’s anything that helped you with not oversleeping as much or not going right back to bed as soon as you wake up - if it’s anything with my physical health that needs to be looked into or anything else that helped you sleep better !!!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Sleep Health Support Group.

irinig | @irinig | Feb 4 4:58am

Ever tried getting a sleep test? They're administered by neurologists which could be helpful.

csejkio | @csejkio | Feb 6 11:23am

I also struggle with extreme sleep inertia- it is the worst feeling. I do HIIT exercises where I can push my body through uncomfortable and painful challenges. Waking up (when I can actually do it) is harder than anything I’ve ever done, and I feel so awful that I can’t push through it always. I’ve tried shock clocks (Pavlok) two at a time, sometimes it helps a lot and sometimes I wake up hours later with red marks on my arm and I’ve slept through the whole thing. I don’t feel pain or respond to it the same way when I’m asleep or in sleep inertia. Recently I’ve noticed smell seems to reach me in a different way, so I’m trying something new with that. I have like 18 alarm clocks placed all over my room, some I have to climb onto a tall stool to get to. Sometimes I hear them, sometimes I don’t. Ive tried those apps where you have to do tasks to wake up and I just delete the entire app in my sleep stupor. Left to my own devices I either sleep about 6 hours if I go to bed late and wake up late, or 11 hours , if I go to bed early, I still naturally sleep late. I also struggle with depression like you . I have struggled with these problems since adolescence, though I have always been a big sleeper as a baby and kid, but back then I was just considered to be a good sleeper . now I’m a failure, because I have responsibilities that I mess up due to sleeping so much. I also can’t function for like the first 2-four hours of being awake if I don’t have caffeine or tons of sugar or medication. The whole first part of my day is usually sort of wasted due to fatigue. If you don’t go outside often, a happy light might help. I do that every morning and it also helps my depression and SAD. I hope you find relief soon

mersan6 | @mersan6 | Feb 8 12:20am

This topic really hits home for me. I always worked 2nd. shift, 3 to 11. After I retired, my body sort of stayed on this shift, but has since become,for better words, extended, to the point of now being awake till almost early morning, then getting to sleep, which takes me into the early afternoon hours of the day. I've tried to break the habit, but this is one tough nut to crack. I can sleep for a good 9 hours or so, sometimes more, which doesn't help matters, and it is the worst dreaded feeling getting out of bed when I finally do, because I'm still tired. It's depressing because I know the day is wasted with me doing this. I know getting to bed earlier would help, it's just hard getting to that point to do it, I keep trying but always fail.