Getting enough sleep w/ early wake ups

Cadet35

Cadet35

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Jul 11, 2019
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PT is 6 days a week next semester and I struggled getting enough sleep this past semester. I just want to get on here to see if anyone has advice on how to get to bed earlier, especially when things are slightly busy and all of your peers are awake. I usually went to bed around 2200 and got up at 05 but was still exhausted. I’d love to get a solid 8, preferably 9 hours of sleep to benefit my health the most, but getting to bed by 2000 or 2100 is tough.
 
Good luck with that. I believe it’s part of the training. Prioritizing your responsibilities. Perhaps occasionally sleep needs to be a priority.

Napping when you can. Noise cancelling earbuds to get to sleep ASAP when head hits the pillow. Managing your time as best you can (avoid you phone and gaming system) to maximize your sleep. Eat healthy. Exercise. The quality of your sleep is more important perhaps than the quantity. So practicing good health while awake is paramount to the best quality sleep you can get.

When you are able to take advantage of getting away from campus, if you have a sponsor for example, head there for sleep. And when on leave? Sleep. Lots.
 
Building on @justdoit19: Sleep is a result of — but also a product of — good holistic health. In other words, good diet and exercise regimen and stress control all enhance your ability to sleep well, and vice versa. Much research now shows that a major — the main? — culprit of poor sleep is our inability to disengage from our phones.

Look up “sleep hygiene.” It includes a dark room, cool temperature and silence. Not the easiest to achieve in an SA dorm, but can be done with ear plugs, eye mask and light blanket. But perhaps the biggest things: unplug from your phone at least an hour before bedtime, don’t put it next to your bed, and don’t look at it in bed. Again, plenty of research that strongly suggests your phone’s influence on poor sleep. Sadly, this may be the hardest factor for your young people to control. We’re all, to one degree or another, slaves to our phone.
 
Back when I was a cadet...when Dino's roamed the TZo...

We were ALL "MASTERS" of the 10 minute REM nap. Any classroom in Fairchild Hall...between classes...look in...there'd be 10-14 cadets...out. And when class began, all snapped awake and pressed ahead.

We became very VERY good at this.

Steve
 
DD happened to mention yesterday that she thinks professors new to USNA are surprised by how many, and how often, mids fall asleep in class.
 
We were at a farewell/HBD dinner last night for our two Mids. Side note: this was the first time DH and/or I have dined at a sit down restaurant since the Iron Rooster, dropping off our plebe, on June 25th! And that meal was during the first week Annapolis had opened back up to restaurants hosting indoors. With their new protocols (that are now standard). It was all so foreign. Back then....

But I digress. We were talking about how long each of us had gone without sleep. DH recalled his days in Architectures school. Putting the boarders on his boards for his final presentation. Using a parallel bar to draw, he literally started at one end and drew across falling asleep to the other end. Funny. But that was after 4 days, 96 hrs of no sleep. I remember those days. Lots of Mountain Dew and sunflower seeds. Couldn’t do it now if he had to.
 
the above double posted...deleted.
 
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