I usually fall asleep around 22:30-23 and have to wake up around 6 for school. I’m a night person so I can’t really get to sleep before that. Also, the sound of my alarm is physically painful so I tend to be half-awake a while before it in anxious anticipation. High schoolers (I’m USian) need more sleep than most people, so I feel miserable on less than nine hours and deteriorate throughout the week. Idk how some people do it on even less sleep. My head buzzes and I can’t focus most of the time during the school day. On weekends I used to get 11-12 hours to make up for my sleep debt, but I haven’t been able to since daylight savings time. I can now barely get ten hours a lot of the time, leaving me tired enough to have a strong tendency to go on social media without much energy for else.
Any advice? I can provide more information if necessary.
If you'd like to go to bed earlier but have trouble doing it - try taking melatonin 60-90 minutes before the desired bedtime. It both helps to fall asleep faster and to shift your natural hormone production over a couple of weeks.
Another thing is that you might be setting an alarm for the wrong time. You have different phases of sleep that make up a ~90 minute cycle, though the actual length varies. Ideally you'd want to wake up right between those cycles. Since you said you usually get around 7 hours of sleep, that likely puts your alarm right in the middle of deep sleep. Try setting it an hour earlier and add 10 minutes every day to find a sweet spot, you'll know the difference.
Also naps are sick. Either for 20-25 minutes so you don't fall too deep, or a full 100+ minute cycle (first one is a bit longer than the rest).
And finally sleep hygiene is important. Dim light and screens (better yet no screens) an hour before bed, no big meals or caffeine, preferably a chilly room. Chamomile tea absolutely slaps, too. Sleep well comrade.
I don't have insomnia, I just always feel tired. I'll try the "sweet spot" thing. I find caffeine only increases my natural night time energy, it doesn't help during the day.
I tried setting my alarm an hour back last night and actually got to sleep an hour earlier, but I semi-awoke earlier due to my fear of the alarm. I feel better because I had the time to meditate, but otherwise idk.
The window for you to wake up easily is around 20 minutes. Just keep adjusting for the next few days. Sleep isn't something that can be fixed overnight, it's a very complex process that isn't even fully understood.
Another thing that helped me was to change my framing of the wake-up time. I used to be like "it's 11pm, I have an alarm set for 6am, if I fall asleep right now - it's 7 hours, pretty good. Gotta sleep!". And then half an hour later it's 6:30 left to sleep, then it's only 6 hours. I'd often lay through the entire night like that. And so what helped was to start thinking "I'm getting up at 6, and there's that. Until then I have time to myself, and if I can fall asleep - cool, if not - I'll watch some youtube on my phone, or grab a snack, whatever".
When I stopped treating sleep like this expensive commodity that loses value every moment that I'm awake, and instead started to tell myself that it's just another thing to do, it alleviated a lot of pressure. Fighting yourself to sleep isn't going to work long-term, you're much better off listening to your body and going with it. Even if it means some days you'll have less hours clocked in bed.
Idk if it was a decisive factor, but I feel pretty good today, at least after the first couple hours of school when I was still hazy. Music, meditation and other stuff probably helped.
I’m already half awake for a while before the alarm goes off, so idk. I’ll try the ten minute adjustments and see. I probably think about sleep too much like that. Definitely not watching YouTube, but I like to read at night, I just fear it will cut into my sleep if I do it too much.