overwhelmed at college

**cphilip** · 10-22-2003, 11:58 AM

Your sleep patterns are all outa wack. You gottta interupt this and get them back to something more normal. What caused you to start into this? Whatever that is you need to stop. And set limits. This is one of the reason for high freshmen failure rates. The inability to set personal limits and stick to them

This is what I suggest you do. Tonight about 10pm take two benedril (sp?) and turn all things off like TV and such and go lay down by say 11PM. Set the alarm for 7 and you will start back to a normal pattern. Do this for several nights until you are getting used to it. No stimulants after noon. LIke soda's and such. A beer to calm you late evening is fine. Maybe two. But not past 10 PM

Good luck to you. If you cannot stop what it is lead you to this or get back into a pattern go to the student health center. Don't wait too long. If your not back into a pattern by a week....GO!

**Koosh** · 10-22-2003, 12:40 PM

What did it for me was working nights all summer. After a 42-hour "awake" spree, anyone will fall asleep, wake up for an hour, then go back to sleep until its back in "normal" time...

Are you awake for any reason? Or do you just lie in bed, TRYING to sleep?

But I agree with Phil. No more Caffinated/high sugar beverages. Mountain Dew is basically what gets you through the "nigh shift transition" when your adjusting your body back and forth from days to nights. Drinking lots of it later in the night won't do much for ya...

**darklord** · 10-22-2003, 12:54 PM

Well I stayed up all night sunday night studying, then fell asleep through classes, then stayed up again, made it to class, but last night was just weird, I couldn't go to sleep. I will take some Nyquil around 10:00 tonight. I have to get up @ 7 anyway, so that'll work. Luckily my writing class I've been missing, I've been doing okay in, and he has an extremely lenient late-work policy. But I've been missing my Drawing class (a 3 hour class) twice, which I need to go to (I'm an art student). I can't miss any more drawing class this week, that's for sure (my prof. only allows 6 or so absences, I've been absent once before too)

**cphilip** · 10-22-2003, 01:00 PM

That sounds like a plan. Break the cycle anyway you can. Let us know how you doing.

**dre1919** · 10-22-2003, 01:56 PM

darklord, dude, I was an art major too. Let me hook you up with some valuable advice. Okay, first of all your sleep patterns are all screwed up...but in college, everyone's are. The trick is to not let that get to you and drag you down. My first semester roommate was like that...he stayed up all night and then missed classes all the time sleeping. He eventually dropped out of school! Do not become like this!

Anyway, what I find worked well for me was in bed by no later than 1:00 AM weekdays, and I set my alarm twice (I still do this btw). Let's say I have to get up at 7:30, to be somewhere by 8:00. I'll set my alarm for 6:30, which is obviously earlier than I need to get up. But I find getting up on the initial alarm is harder than hell because I'm not a morning person. So when I get up to turn it off (have it across the room, so there's some physical interaction), I set it again for, say, 7:20 or 7:30. This does two things: one, it makes you have to get up a second time to turn the damn alarm off again (which makes you just that much more awake. You're already up a second time, you might as well stay up.) Two, it provides you a little reward for waking up on time (you get some extra sleep past the time your alarm goes off). The longer you do this, the more you condition yourself to not fall too deep asleep after the first alarm because your mind knows you have to get up to shut it off again.

Remember, most people freak out their first semester. So much change and lack of supervision for the first time is both daunting and hellacious at the same time. For me, college was the best time of my life...especially as an artist. Trust me, when you graduate, you'll miss having the art community you have with your fellow art students there. So try and get things back on track for yourself and enjoy the ride while you're there. Also remember when things look really out of control or ugly first semester, or even first year, they almost always get better. I was in some pretty low spots myself during that time and it always turned around. Good luck, hope any of this helped.

**DaosBeoulve** · 10-22-2003, 02:04 PM

phil, he's a college freshman, I seriously doubt he's 21

I get on these kicks sometimes too, where I can lie in bed for hours and just not sleep. I normally remedy it by just sitting up all night and going to bed at a normal time the next night. Of course, I don't need much sleep anyways, so sitting up all night and staying awake and alert the next day isn't too hard for me.. *shrugs*

Good luck with everything, and try not to get so overwhelmed and everything will work out in the end ^_^

**AutomagRT1483** · 10-22-2003, 02:04 PM

Stay up until 1 - 1:30 at the latest. That works for me. But then again I cant sleep anymore than 5 hours if I tried.

Good luck. Once you find your groove, you'll be set.

**speeddemon** · 10-22-2003, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by darklord
Well I stayed up all night sunday night studying, then fell asleep through classes, then stayed up again, made it to class, but last night was just weird, I couldn't go to sleep. I will take some Nyquil around 10:00 tonight. I have to get up @ 7 anyway, so that'll work. Luckily my writing class I've been missing, I've been doing okay in, and he has an extremely lenient late-work policy. But I've been missing my Drawing class (a 3 hour class) twice, which I need to go to (I'm an art student). I can't miss any more drawing class this week, that's for sure (my prof. only allows 6 or so absences, I've been absent once before too)

Well, I don't know about you, but I never could sleep with Nyquil, it always made me restless and tired as hell the next day. But yeah, like everyone says, get your sleep back in order.

Personally, I think that studying too much can drain you also, and make you more stressed, which tends to lead to worse grades, which then adds to the stress and so on. Now Im not saying don't study, but don't spend all your free time studying every day. Spend an hour studying when you get done with class, then the rest of the day until 10 or so doing whatever, then start studying again (You might need more, but thats my routine). Then when the weekend gets here, just forget school friday and saturday, and pick it back up on sunday.

Now all of that is my opinion, so some people might disagree...but they're wrong and their opinion doesn't count, so don't listen to them

Originally posted by DaosBeoulve
phil, he's a college freshman, I seriously doubt he's 21

And?

**Restola** · 10-22-2003, 02:39 PM

My suggestion: Do a better job scheduling your classes. I made the mistake of picking a 7:45am class my freshman year. In my opinion it is much better to take a lighter class load (say 4 classes instead of 5) and take a light load over the summer than kill yourself with super early classes if you aren't a morning person.

If you schedule nothing before 10am and even if you're out/awake until 4am you can still get 5.5 hours of sleep.

Depending on your major you will probably come to the realization that you will never graduate in 4 years (I'm expected to take 16-18 credit hours for 8 semesters...yeah while working full time?). Lighten your class load, take later classes (depending on your work schedule) a few days a week (it shouldn't be hard to schedule everything on m-w-f or t-th since you're taking a lot of gen ed courses) and you can focus on what you are having trouble with while still giving all your classes enough time. Take summer classes and you'll probably still finish in 4 years.

Another thing. This is not good advice but...Once you get into sophmore classes attendance will likely not be taken. If you schedule the right kind of class first (you'll learn) you can skip it regularly while you recover from partying or studying for a tougher class. Like I said, skipping classes is not something I'd suggest regularly, but with the right class and dedication near exams you can pull A's while doing it.

**PyRo** · 10-22-2003, 03:05 PM

I have classes usually at 8am, and usually go to bed at 3 or 4. I just basically get out of bed, take a shower (wakes me up otherwise I just fall asleep in class) then I find that I can do just fine in class, then when I get back from my classes I go back to sleep for anywhere from 2-4 hours, so I end up getting just as much as the next guy, just not consecuativly.

**speeddemon** · 10-22-2003, 05:53 PM

Well then Pyro, you are weird. If I go to sleep at 4 am, then no matter what, I will miss my 8 am class.

**Cliffio** · 10-22-2003, 06:02 PM

i dont go to bed till at least 3 or 4 every night, im not studying mind you, but im just up

too bad i dont have class till 1:00

it works

**RusskiX** · 10-22-2003, 09:01 PM

Originally posted by Restola
My suggestion: Do a better job scheduling your classes. I made the mistake of picking a 7:45am class my freshman year.

If you schedule nothing before 10am and even if you're out/awake until 4am you can still get 5.5 hours of sleep.

Listen to the Wiseman Restola!

It's all about scheduling. Its very difficult, indeed almost unnatural, to go to bed during college. Part of the whole experience is staying up late and enjoying your freedom. So to compensate, don't pick early classes. My first semester I had a 6:45 am Calculus class, that I attended 3 times total. My grades suffered and I never made that mistake again. Live and learn!

**PyRo** · 10-22-2003, 09:05 PM

Its actually quite normal here to sleep in short intervals for some reason.

overwhelmed at college

overwhelmed at college

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