<p>At West Point I believe lights off is at 12:00am and 5:00am is the wake up call. I have seen/heard of many cadets struggling to stay awake, or are not used to such little sleep of 3 - 5 hours a night. I just want to prepare before, but if I was going to attend West Point, should I get used to those hours before hand? Like should I start waking up a 5:00am and going to sleep at 12:00am to get used to the hours? Or should I just sleep as much as I can, haha :D</p>
<p>I am not sure what to do, probably being tired at school wouldn't be a good thing, but I could get used to it in the summer maybe? Any suggestions please?</p>
<p>Physiologically there is no way to acclimatize yourself to a, for instance, five hour sleep/night schedule. You simply have to be tired. It's a sad truth, but a truth noneless. Your ciracdian rhythym- or your biological clock, doesn't really adjust like it should. The key is just get as healthy as you can now by eating right, getting lots of sleep, and exercising. You will find, however, that the older you get, the less sleep you'll need. Kids and young adults need more sleep than adults. It will get better as you go along.</p>
<p>Okay thanks a lot! That makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>Lights out is at 2400, you're allowed to be up and about AT THE EARLIEST at 0520. </p>
<p>I typically get 4-5 hours of sleep per night. You'll get the most sleep you'll ever get at the Academy while in Beast--7 hours a night. You get used to the 4-5 hours per night really quickly. I nap as much as possible during the day, and spend most of the weekends sleeping. The problem is, the more you sleep, the more academically you sacrifice, so you have to make choices. For example, today I had the afternoon off during Dean's Hour (which gives me two hours before IMs start). I don't have IMs because I'm Sandhurst Support, so that gave me 4 hours off. I'm exhausted, so I had to choose whether to sleep, work on my papers that are due next week, or work out. I ended up working out for an hour and then going to sleep, so I sacrificed Academic time. It's all about give and take here.</p>
<p>Yeah that makes sense. I read in a Candidate book that some cadets try and fight the sleep when they like do there homework or study but that is no use. You will just need to read it over, so one cadet interviewed said that he would set the alarm for 10 minutes and he'd fall asleep for 10 minutes and wake up a whole new person. I think that would be a good idea if you have not thought of it, although you probably have.</p>
<p>Yea, I always just give in to sleep. There's no point in trying to resist.</p>
<p>I tried the 10-minute thing last night. When I woke up, I just kept resetting it for ten more minutes until I looked at my watch and realized it was 4 in the morning. What your talking about is more of a mid-day nap kind of thing, though.</p>
<p>Yea. When you have a class in 20 minutes, but only have 10 minutes to sleep, it won't be a problem. Besides, it's something you have to get used to. Your body will acclimate to it somewhat.</p>
<p>envee06> Yeah well if you have that problem then you'd need to just get used to it, but when your used to it and are determined to do good in class the next day, you won't just set it for 10 more minutes, you get more tired if you sleep 15-20 minutes at a time. Its normal for anyone to go back to sleep right when you wake up, maybe just do a quick 50 push ups and you'll be awake for atleast a good hour.</p>
<p>A tip for anyone going to the academy this summer from west of the east coast. Make up for the change in time zones ahead of time. If you live in Iowa for example, schedule your sleep an hour earlier than normal to adjust your clock (ie if you're going to be waking up at 5:00am at West Point, you want to start waking at 4:00am in Iowa). It'll make a small difference to those of you in the midwest, but for anyone on the west coast, it's a must.</p>
<p>From my experience, napping is the biggest waste of time out there. That being said, I nap a lot...You really cant go longer than 20 minutes because then it messes with your circadian rythm and you get nothing out of it. I'll get done with class and if I're really dying, take like a 20 minute nap then do work. If you do your work during the day, you get to sleep at night, it all works out pretty well. Up until my firstie year, I never went to sleep later than 12 (and I'm not that smart at all) and my GPA was always higher than 2.9. Face it, you're going to be tired the entire time you're in the Army. When I was a CFT2 squad leader, I would go 3 days without sleep. At CTLT, I would go nights without sleep. Then there would be days I did nothing BUT sleep. In the Army, you take sleep when you can get it, but from what I've seen, people who nap all day tend to stay up all night doing work and it usually doesnt help them on their grades.</p>
<p>my thoughts</p>
<p>One of the main things to do is to prevent yourself getting bored.
You can easily get bored on one homework topic, or get too focused on a topic that you have a hard time understanding, and you will slowly droop lower to the desk, then realize that several hours have passed.</p>
<p>It also helps to work with a group, as the active interaction can help prevent your brain from slowing down.</p>
<p>Another thing to help keep things in perspective, is that it is not always worse sleep-wise at West Point. I am currently a freshman at GA-tech, and I get 4-5 hours of sleep most nights as sleeping before midnight is impossible due to the noise created by less-motivated students, and I have to be prepared and at the PT site before 6 each morning, which can necessitate waking up as early as 4:30 some days.</p>
<p>Being sleep deprived is something to expect at any difficult school( with academic credentials in-line with West Point's), especially for students involved in a military program.</p>