Changing Sleep Situation/Schedule

Hey everyone

Next week I'm moving out and going to college. Obviously this is a huge change for me as far as my sleep situation goes. Does anyone have any advice as far as how I can make the transition easily and still keep working towards LDing? Unfortunately, I have a roommate so there will be some things I can no longer do. I'll have to find an alarm quiet enough to wake me up early in the morning but not bother my roomie. What's the best way to deal with roommates about this?

I'm sure there are other intrepid oneironauts out there who are living in a dorm situation. Any advice?

My roommate is going to hate me. I will be getting up at 6:00 AM every day. XD

Go to bed earlier, get up earlier. How many days until school starts? When is your earliest class? Modify your sleep schedule in slow, even increments. If you have a week left, and need to get up two hours earlier, get up 20 minutes earlier each day until then. Don't be abrupt about it, or you'll start college on the wrong, tired, foot.

If possible, use a vibrating alarm (a cell phone). If you don't think that'll wake you, use a normal alarm as a "second wave," in case you stay asleep during the silent alarm.

Regarding the roommate situation: assuming you are in the traditional shared-single-room style dorm, waking up your roommate with your alarm and vice versa are pretty much inevitable. Abra mentioned a vibrating cell phone alarm - that could be an option if you are not a heavy sleeper and if you don't mind wearing pants to bed and keeping your phone in the pocket. In most cases, however, you'll just be waking each other up every morning. One of the many joys of dorm life.

As for adjusting your sleep schedule, gradually tapering yourself into the new schedule always seems to be the easiest and most reasonable solution. If you can manage this, go for it. Personally, I've never gotten it to work very well. I always just end up going "cold turkey" on sleeping in. It sucks at first but you adjust pretty quickly. If you want, you can embrace the nap to make up for lost sleep time - but keep in mind that this will make it that much harder to fall asleep for the night. It's up to you.

Oh, and this may be obvious, but try to avoid doing WBTB when your roommate is around. :wink:

At this point Im not sure when I will need to get up and I also haven't scheduled classes yet (we take care of that once we're on campus for orientation!). I suspect my earliest will be around 9, which is fine since I can just get up at 8:30, make breakfast in my apartment (lucky to have a kitchen with the on-campus apartments) and head out. I'm most concerned about the room mate. It's going to make it a lot harder to practice any meditation type techniques, WILDS, WBTBs, or anything. Ughhh not going to be fun.

If this is your first taste of freedom away from home I predict in about two months, LD will be farthest from your mind! The world really does get turned upside down when you are out on your own for the first time! Goodluck!

Thanks for the help. Maybe the new environment help me see a lot of new opportunities for RCs. During the summer I'm at home so much I don't see nearly as many chances to test my state.