Procrastination & Trouble Waking Up?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I'm about to start my freshman year of high school, and I'm convinced that it's going to be a nightmare.</p>

<p>My motivation is practically nonexistent, which plays a role in my serious procrastination. </p>

<p>The thing is, I can't fall asleep before 11, sometimes not before midnight, and I'll need to be getting up at around 6-6:30. Then I'm tired, and because I'm tired I want to just crash the second I get home, and that leads to more procrastination, which then leads to staying up late...it's a nasty cycle. </p>

<p>If being tired isn't bad enough, I'm notorious for sleeping through or ignoring alarm clocks. My mind is so muddled in the morning that I can't think straight enough to think "It's a school day, I need to wake up". That is, if I even hear my alarm clock. Somehow, I manage to turn my alarm clock off and back on, thus disabling the snooze button and setting it for the next day, <strong><em>with no memory of doing so or hearing the alarm</em></strong>. Not to mention the times when I do hear it, but I can't comprehend the fact it's my alarm clock...</p>

<p>On many days my mom comes to wake me up, because I sleep through everything...this upsets her, because she blames me for staying up too late. While this is true in part, no amount of sleep seems to be enough!</p>

<p>Needless to say, I am not a morning person. Being able to function in the morning would not only be great for my emotional and physical health, it would potentially enable me to take an extra class in the morning later on in high school.</p>

<p>Of course, that's only half the problem...there's also the procrastinating. I can't seem to motivate myself to get my work done.</p>

<p>I understand how to manage my time-- I've made schedules intended to maximize my time before-- but I can never follow through.</p>

<p>I can't seem to "just do it" when it comes to waking up and doing my work.</p>

<p>Help?!</p>

2

<p>Although it’s pretty normal for teens to shift to becoming night-owls, usually they still have lots of energy.
The tiredness could be causing the procrastination.
Ask your parents if you can get a physical exam, complete with bloodwork. Sometimes lack of vit D, or a low thyroid function, or lack of iron (are you a girl? heavy periods can cause anemia)
Good luck!</p>

3

<p>I just realized that my post says “I am not a morning” when it should say “I am not a morning person”…well, it *<em>is</em> needless to say that I’m not a morning…</p>

<p>Thanks scholarme, at my last doctor visit the procrastinating was mentioned but not the sleep issues.</p>

4

<p>Some other suggestions:</p>

<p>If you are really sleepy when you get home, take a nap. Ask you mom or whoever to wake you up in 30 min. If you wake refreshed you can do your homework in less time and be in bed early.</p>

<p>Do you have a smart phone? I think there are apps that will “track” your biorhythm and wake you up during your lightest sleep cycle. Might help.</p>

<p>In the morning, try to get morning sunlight, specially on the back of your knees. This helps sync your sleep-wake cycle with day/night.</p>

<p>Also, and this might be hard - do an experiment - no electronics after 5pm. Some people think the light from the screen of your computer/phone/tablet even tv can mess up your sleep cycle.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the suggestions!</p>

<p>I’m usually not tired enough to fall asleep, just tired enough that I basically come online for mind-numbing distraction until eventually the “procrastination panic” sets in, lol…</p>

<p>I can talk to my parents about a smart phone app, but right now I’m not allowed to have it in my room overnight.</p>

<p>I’ll try opening the blinds so I get more sunlight, thanks!</p>

<p>I think my technology use is definitely contributing to the fact my ideal sleep schedule is 2 am to 11 am…I think that I could gradually try to stop using it late at night.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Edit: Screwed up on am/pm</p>

6

<p>I’m the exact same way. Since the start of the year, for the first time since I started high school (I’m a senior now), I’ve been going to bed at 9-10:30 every night. I forced myself to go to bed at 9 several days before school started. I don’t allow myself to take naps when I get home, much as it pains me. My day usually consists of school, homework, reading, shower, bed. If you’re like me and an internet addict, my weekends are mostly spent on the internet or with friends, so I find balance even with the super busy weekdays.</p>

7

<p>I’m totally an internet addict, haha! :p</p>

<p>I’m going to definitely make an effort to get to sleep earlier this year.</p>

<p>Hopefully after doing that consistently I’ll be able to think straight in the morning…adding an extra class would be nice but I’d have to begin instruction at 6:45…and I’d have more homework because of it, but if I can kick the procrastinating it shouldn’t be an issue.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

8

<p>Is your alarm clock right next your bed or on the other side of the room? If you usually put it by your bed, I would suggest putting it somewhere that’ll involve you having to physically get up, or somewhere difficult to reach. You could just do this with your phone alarm. I sometimes put mine under the desk so I have to consciously craw down there to turn it off. </p>

<p>Also, it was hard for me in Freshman year as well to get used to the sleep schedule.I know this isn’t any consolation, but I used to half asleep by fourth period. Odds are that you’ll adapt. </p>

<p>As for motivation, I didn’t get really motivated until the end of freshman year. I guess it really helps to have a goal; for instance, I wanted to go to Stanford, go into biomedical sciences, etc. Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever get that far, but the idea keeps me going sometimes.</p>

9

<p>Yeah, I could try to to move my alarm clock around and that could work. </p>

<p>Hopefully I’ll really get motivated later, I never seem to stay motivated for very long. My goal changes a lot, right now my goal is to be an actuary…but that doesn’t really help motivate me to do my history homework, lol…although it temporarily stopped me from procrastinating my math.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

10

<p>Something that really helps me is taking melatonin at night, 30 minutes before I go to sleep, and after I take it, I don’t use any electronics. It helps me to fall asleep faster (like in 10 minutes rather than an hour+). Once I started taking it, it made the difference between 5 hours and 8 hours of sleep for me! :)>- </p>

<p>Also, it might help to plan when you go to sleep and when you wake up to 90 minute sleep cycles. Apparently if you wake up at a certain part of your sleep cycle (every 90 minutes), you feel more energized because it’s the lightest part of sleep. So say you need to wake up for school at 6 a.m., you should go to sleep at 9, 10:30, or 12. Here’s the website for calculating when to sleep/more info: <a href=“http://sleepyti.me/”>Sleep Calculator: Ideal Bedtime & Wake Up Times - Sleepytime;

<p>As for procrastination-- maybe if you set up a routine for yourself of what to do when, you’ll get into the habit of starting your homework earlier. Maybe you could give yourself an incentive to do your homework (for example, you can watch 30 minutes of netflix only after you finish your history homework). </p>

<p>If you start napping when you get home from school, make sure you are napping for the right amount of time! Here’s a guide for how long you should nap: <a href=“How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits”>http://lifehacker.com/how-long-to-nap-for-the-biggest-brain-benefits-1251546669&lt;/a&gt; (I don’t nap so I’m not sure if this works or not, but you should give it a try).</p>

11

<p>I also have this alarm clock app on my kindle. I pick a song (usually one that I hate so I have more motivation to turn it off) and then it gets louder and louder… it also makes you do math problems before you can snooze, so that makes it harder to fall back asleep after you turn it off, haha</p>

12

<p>If you go to sleep at 11 and still feel tired the next day, you’re in for a rough four years…</p>

13

<p>sophianise: Thanks! Those links are helpful :slight_smile: This is probably a dumb question, but where exactly do you get melatonin?</p>

<p>elf4EVA: Precisely, which is why I am not looking forward to high school, lol…going to bed at 11pm a few nights ago was not sufficient for me to easily wake up at 8 am the next day…I’m screwed, aren’t I? I have yet to discover that magical combination of time spent sleeping and time I wake up/go to sleep that makes me feel ready for the day and doesn’t require me to convince myself to get out of bed.</p>

<p>My hope is that if I can get into a better routine that will make waking up easier, and repairing my sleep schedule for longer periods of time might be effective.</p>

14

<p>@DogsAndMath23‌ pretty much anywhere, like a grocery store, amazon, health food stores, probably target…</p>

15

<p>Thanks sophianise! </p>

16

<p>lmao i’m the procrastination king
Only taking 2 APs this year, but I’ve been in school for 2 weeks and I haven’t gotten one night of more than 7 hours of sleep</p>