Is my sleeping routine unsafe?

[CatchPhrase]

I am 17 years old and I sleep at 6am on weekends. I wake up at around 6pm. The day after that is the same but add 2 hours.
I have no set time to sleep on weekdays so I'll come home from school exhausted and sleep at 4:30pm then wake up at 3am to do hw. I would stay up sometimes 20- 22 hours on end. Right now it is 7:42 am and I am still up. My body gets tired but my mind is awake so it is hard to sleep.
I have grown to hate the daylight because as soon as I see it I feel like I messed up again.
Will I grow out of this? I don't have control of many things in my life so maybe I psychologically rebel by having a nonconformist sleep routine? I heard that people with an eating disorder have similar motives. This guy explains it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CMwdAc1Dzfg

 

[Amused]

..

 

[MartyMcFly3]

On your period?

 

[CatchPhrase]

Sorry for the "." but I could not post earlier because I installed the Noscript firefox add-on. I did not want to type the message twice if it did not work.

 

[Juno]

wow, a pretty bad routine for 17 years old.

wait till you enter college where you'll experience the worse.

 

[FallenHero]

If you have no set schedule, your body is going to adapt to whatever suits your needs. I would suggest making some sort of more rigid routine for yourself in terms of sleep...nothing wrong with going to bed at 4:30 and waking up at 3. But the whole 22 hours up thing shouldn't be happening. Put aside your work and veg out for an hour or 2 prior to going to bed.

 

[Kelemvor]

Regardless of your mental activity, you need to force yourself to get into a normal pattern. Most people function better with at least 6-8 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. If you want to sleep at 4:00 and wake up at Midnight, go for it, but once you get into the real world, that schedule probably won't work for you...

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: CatchPhrase
I am 17 years old and I sleep at 6am on weekends. I wake up at around 6pm the next day. The day after that is the same but add 2 hours.
I have no set time to sleep on weekdays so I'll come home from school exhausted and sleep at 4:30pm then wake up at 3am to do hw. I would stay up sometimes 20- 22 hours on end. Right now it is 7:42 am and I am still up. My body gets tired but my mind is awake so it is hard to sleep.
I have grown to hate the daylight because as soon as I see it I feel like I messed up again.
Will I grow out of this? I don't have control of many things in my life so maybe I psychologically rebel by having a nonconformist sleep routine? I heard that people with an eating disorder have similar motives.

So you sleep for 24 hours?

 

[CatchPhrase]

no 12
read it again.

 

[Juno]

you mentioned the next day so that's 36 hours.

 

[AMCRambler]

My sleep schedule is a little screwy but not quite as crazy as yours. During the week I usually don't go to bed until like 1-2am. For some reason even if I'm tired, if I stay up past 11pm I get a second wind or something and don't get tired again until 1-2am. I usual get more and more tired as the week goes on and sometimes it gets to the point I end up taking a nap after dinner for a few hours one night. Then on the weekends I sleep late Sat. and Sun. to kind of catch up. It's weird, but it's a habit I've gotten into.

I would be worried about staying up 22 hours straight though. If you're driving and you suddenly get tired after being up that long you could fall asleep at the wheel. Other than that, grabbing sleep whenever you feel you need it isn't that big a deal.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: Juno
you mentioned the next day so that's 36 hours.

That's what he wrote but I figure it was a typo.

 

[CatchPhrase]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Regardless of your mental activity, you need to force yourself to get into a normal pattern. Most people function better with at least 6-8 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. If you want to sleep at 4:00 and wake up at Midnight, go for it, but once you get into the real world, that schedule probably won't work for you...

I don't want to.
I hate it.
I'm like a retarded vampire owl hybrid.

 

[CatchPhrase]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor

Originally posted by: Juno
you mentioned the next day so that's 36 hours.

That's what he wrote but I figure it was a typo.

It is a typo. I'll edit it.

 

[CatchPhrase]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Regardless of your mental activity, you need to force yourself to get into a normal pattern. Most people function better with at least 6-8 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. If you want to sleep at 4:00 and wake up at Midnight, go for it, but once you get into the real world, that schedule probably won't work for you...

I used to do that but then after school I would fall asleep on the floor or couch.
My batteries are defective. I need 10 hours of sleep to function properly. That means I get 2 hours less of life each day than other people.

 

[Mr Pickles]

Originally posted by: CatchPhrase
no 12
read it again.

Too much math. Too much Laguna Beach in there, too. You're 17 dude, you're supposed to do whatever the fsck you want and go crazy. Sleep is weaksauce.

 

[FallenHero]

Originally posted by: CatchPhrase

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Regardless of your mental activity, you need to force yourself to get into a normal pattern. Most people function better with at least 6-8 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. If you want to sleep at 4:00 and wake up at Midnight, go for it, but once you get into the real world, that schedule probably won't work for you...

I used to do that but then after school I would fall asleep on the floor or couch.
My batteries are defective. I need 10 hours of sleep to function properly. That means I get 2 hours less of life each day than other people.

No. Thats normal and healthy to be needing more sleep than 8 hours. At 17, your body is still growing and you NEED those 10 hours of sleep. As you age, you need less. Embrace the ten hours, go to bed at 8 instead of 10, and wake up at 6am. Force yourself into this habit...don't be afraid to sleep in either, but more than 12 hours is stupid long sleep time unless you are sick.

 

[paulxcook]

My own sleep schedule was pretty messed up for a while. When I was working at fedex at night and then going to school the next morning I was going through each day on about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. After quitting I got better pretty quickly.

If you just can't force yourself to sleep on a schedule because your mind won't shut up (I know what you mean if that's the case), maybe see if you can go to the doctor and see if he'll proscribe anything or suggest something to you.

 

[TruePaige]

Sometimes when I was 17, I'd pass out.

 

[Deeko]

You don't know the half of it. My senior year of college, when I had a full course load, was working part time, was president of the volleyball team & on the executive council of my fraternity, and had a senior design project that averaged 8 hours/day of work on top of all that...trust me, you don't know what sleep depravation is.

 

[ShockwaveVT]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
My sleep schedule is a little screwy but not quite as crazy as yours. During the week I usually don't go to bed until like 1-2am. For some reason even if I'm tired, if I stay up past 11pm I get a second wind or something and don't get tired again until 1-2am. I usual get more and more tired as the week goes on and sometimes it gets to the point I end up taking a nap after dinner for a few hours one night. Then on the weekends I sleep late Sat. and Sun. to kind of catch up. It's weird, but it's a habit I've gotten into.

Same schedule I've fallen into. Going to bed at 1-2am worked fine when I didn't have to get up until 8:30am, but my current work schedule requires me to get up by 7:00am. Mondays suck, mostly because my body expects to sleep till 9 or 10.

 

[duragezic]

I don't think he is talking about sleep deprivation. Or maybe he is. How much sleep do you average per night OP?

So your weekend is a bit extreme, but what about your weekday? Wouldn't you be in school right now?

As long as you are getting enough sleep, it isn't unsafe or anything, but it is always better to have at least a somewhat rigid schedule.

I used to sleep past 3pm consistently when I could, but I've tried not to do that as much lately. If you have any other things to do like appointments or whatever at places that close around 5pm, it is harder to do those things if you're sleeping most of that time. Plus, I don't like consistently doing that; it makes you look like a lazy burnout. I mean, I'd go to bed at 4am, my dad would wake up for work at 5am, go to work for a full shift, come home, usually nap for a couple of hours, and we'd wake up at around the same time (3-4pm).

 

[Jack Ryan]

Originally posted by: Amused
..

Insightful!

 

[bignateyk]

On the weekdays I sleep from 12am to 7am. On the weekends I like to rebel and sleep from about 2am to 10am. God bless getting old.

 

[rivan]

Force yourself to stay awake for an extra cycle (skip ONE normal sleep cycle) - don't drink any caffeine or other stimulants (this includes any high-sugar drinks). Go to bed the next time you see 9 PM on your clock, set your alarm for 7 AM. Get up, period. Stay up until 9 PM - again, don't drink any caffeine or other stimulants. Rinse and repeat for a week.

I used to work third shift; this is the fastest, reliable way to get back to a day schedule. You'll be falling over tired when you skip that sleep cycle, but after a week of sticking to a solid bedtime and waking time, you'll be in good shape.

On the off chance this doesn't work for you, see a doctor.

edit:

Originally posted by: CatchPhrase
My body gets tired but my mind is awake so it is hard to sleep.

My mind used to race like that sometimes, and it indeed makes it difficult to fall asleep. It's nothing you can't control, however. I got through it by training myself to focus on relaxing; I also tend to be very tense by the time I hit the hay - I'd focus on relaxing muscles a small group at a time - sometimes they'd tense back up after I'd moved on, but I'd just go back and focus on relaxing them again. Next thing you know, I'd be asleep.