Want to wake earlier & sleep earlier

[LilacMint]

Waking up in the afternoon is making me feel more depressed and more anxious. I wake up feeling I have missed most of the day. And going to sleep in the early hours also makes me feel bad. I just feel completely out of sync and caught in a cycle. I'm going to take my bedtime medications earlier tonight and try to break out of this. I know I feel better when I wake up earlier. I think I need to develop a night time routine to make sleep easier. Plan is to do this over the next week. Any tips or advice on night time routines most welcome. I think I need to put my mobile phone that has the alarm for the morning, over the other side of the room. To force me out of bed in the morning to hopefully wake me up enough to stay awake. I just switch the alarm off when it's close by to my bed ! I'm usually worried and anxious that I will miss appointments that are set for the morning, so I really think waking and sleeping earlier will help me a lot and any reduction in stress and anxiety can only be a good thing. I suppose it's just difficult when I've been so stuck in this sleep cycle. But I'm fed up with it. Fed up feeling really shattered when I do need to wake up early and I'm tired because I went to sleep so late. End up feeling like a zombie for the rest of the day.

[ziggypiggy]

Same boat. It's really disorienting. It's hard not to shame oneself because society has dictated when one should wake up and be productive. Most people don't have trouble fitting that mold but not all of us can do it consistently. I try to use sleep meds as well to help but they don't always work and often create a hangover effect that adds to the problem. Morning Adderall helps alot for me but I don't process it fast, so no matter how early I take it I am guaranteed no sleep the next night. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. For sure having access to high speed technology doesn't help as well. I can have no sleep for two nights with all intentions of trying to get to sleep before midnight on the third. My brain just doesn't let it happen for some reason. I can't remember the last time I had two consecutive nights of sleep in a row. Frustrating.

[LilacMint in reply to ziggypiggy]

Hello thanks for your reply. Your right about the feelings of shame. I get a wellbeing check at 8 am from support staff and even around them, I've had the impression that I should be up and awake, doing something. Perhaps because they have been awake early and they are now at their work. Very akward. But due to the hangover effect you mentioned I was unable to even sit up ! Never mind talk and do anything. My medication does take effect eventually but there is no telling how long since it seems to change of its own accord for no reason I can find. Sometimes it takes one hour, sometimes 2 hours or anything in between. I can just be lying in bed wide awake waiting for the medication to work its magic and finally feel tired. I can literally be comatose in the morning and even if I wake up, I just immediately fall back asleep. I do hope you find a solution for your sleep issues. I've been awake 24 hours and that was rough. 2 days I can only imagine. I'm making some progress at waking up earlier now so that's something. But having to fight through the drowsiness to stay awake and not go back to sleep. Work in progress.