Calling all morning people! I can't get up in a morning...I need help!

[MsCorleone]

I am late all the time, I spend most of the night wide awake worrying I won't wake up on time and then I oversleep because i'm so knackered.

I can sleep through multiple alarms and am out of ideas!

I need advice, tips and ideas from all you morning people please

ooo waiting with interest!

Wet are you a fellow night owl?

I jut can't stay in bed when I'm awake. Unless I'm I'll I'm usually
Out of bed within 10 minutes of waking up.

Are you going to bed really late?

don't ask a morning person - it comes naturally to them - they will have no advice - I am one

Umm get help to go to sleep early - calms or something?

Pretend you are 2yo and give yourself a bedtime routine with wind down period?

Hmm. How old are you?

I've never been a morning person but find it harder to sleep in since I hit 40.

have you tried using your phone as an alarm, across the room so you have to get up?

How early do you go to bed? And how early do you sleep? What's your sleep hygiene like - do you have a tv in your room, do you read late so that even if in theory you go to bed at 10, you actually turn out the light at 2am 1? IMO even the most persistent sleeper-in and non-early sleeper WILL go to sleep if you lie in the dark long enough. Try and use the time to have enjoyable daydreams rather than worrying, maybe? have a notebook by your bed so you can write down any worries as they arise?

I found it helped if I left the book i was half way through downstairs - something to get me out of bed. I also found it helped to accept that I was just going to feel like shit for about 20 minutes after I got up - that's just how it is. (More like 5 minutes now ds is older and sleeping better). I can also remind myself that once that 5 minutes is over, i actually feel pretty good

I'm in my early 30's with 3 DC under 6 which is probably the reason i'm out of whack. I work fulltime and struggle to fit everything in.

I do go to bed late and there is a tv in the room. I set loads of alarms and I just have a talent for sleeping through them.

I don't think you're 'not a morning person'... I think you're knackered!

I really would put the tv in the attic/a cupboard, and read rather dull books late at night (Geology is always good - all those billion year timescales and eras zzzzzzzz. Or a biography of an obscure American president - 'The protagonist's grandmother was the toast of Normanton, Illinois, which was a bustling prosperous metropolis of 2,500 souls in 1832' zzzzzzzzz).

could you prescribe yourself a full 7-day week of going to bed at the same time as your eldest child? If it's only for 7 days it might be bearable. You can allow yourself the aforesaid dull books (and a shag if a partner will join in with the new bedtime). Means getting into pyjamas before you start their bedtime routine, brushing your teeth with them etc. just to reset the worry/scared of going to bed/stress cycle.

And buy yourself something treaty for breakfast, a cereal you really like, a pack of pains au chocolat? Tempt yourself out of bed.

TBH I always find one of those cheapy £5 clocks without a snooze button works well as an alarm. If you have too many alarms or snoozes, maybe your brain has realised it doens't need to rely on any one of them to wake up?

I bought my friend one of those old fashioned alarms with the bells on top.....worked for her when she had to get up really really early. They don't have a snooze function and are really loud!!! Try putting it out if arms reach so you have to get out of bed to switch it off. Good luck.

I think you're either a morning person or an evening person and its hard to change once you get into a pattern. I find it really difficult to lie in (not that I get much opportunity these days anyway) but also find it hard to stay up late- 11pm is a late night for me!

I find I have more motivation in the morning and get more done. DP is the opposite and will stay up late working but finds it really difficult to drag himself out of bed in the morning.

Try getting an early night- even if you're sat in bed reading for a while. Agree with Joan- having something to look forward to like a nice breakfast helps.

I am knackered At the moment i'm lucky if I get to sleep before 3am at the moment.

When I do manage to get to get up early I feel much better for it

ok THAT's got to stop - how?

when do you get in in the evenings

what are you doing til 3am

what help can you access?

I always feel a lot more prepared for the day if I've got up and ready without interruptions, so I set my alarm about 45 minutes before DD usually wakes. This means that I can shower, do hair, get dressed and hopefully breakfast in peace - and it feels very indulgent to have that time to myself in the house without toddler demands. Then I can get her ready quicker too, as I'm not trying to sort myself out at the same time. It feels quite soul destroying to be setting your alarm for 6am, especially when you don't have to be anywhere in particular that day, but it is worth it when you're up and about (and if DD lies in, then I get to MN in peace, hurrah!)

I aim to go to bed each night after the news headlines at 10pm, doesn't always work, but if it does I'll get 7-8 hours in bed and resting, even if I'm reading/cuddling DD back to sleep/just laying there thinking of nothing

Good luck

I usually get in around 6:30/7:00 by the time i've finished work and picked all the kids up. Then it's getting the kids fed, bathed and ready for bed.

I'm usually up sorting out washing, ironing and sorting out work. I tend to get in bed around midnight but often don't get to sleep until 2/3am. By that time i'm starting to think I should just get up and get things done. I have in the past just stayed up all night in the hope of resetting my body clock but I just end up more knackered!

I forgot to add that my DH is the sort whose head hits the pillow and he's fast asleep. I take ages to get to sleep. We are both just exhausted

I reckon your brain is conditioned to the particular noise your alarm makes (if you live next to a railway line you eventually don't hear the trains any more theory).I would borrow or buy an alarm with a different noise and put it across the room and force myself to get up and stay up when it woke me(therefore hopefully re-training my response)

You can turn around from a night person to a morning person.I was a morning person for years and got up about 5am and got loads done.Now I watch TV till too late and cannot rouse myself till the last possible moment - so I am planning to turn myself around again as it makes far more sense for me with kids and work.

I lost much of my 20s to poor sleep and oversleeping. I finally got control of things in my early 30s.

I use a lumie dawn clock (it has a daylight lamp on it that gradually comes on before the alarm goes off)
I take high dose vitamin d3 every morning - this and the light help to reset the body clock.
If I can't get off to sleep at night, I use valerian tea/tablets (it's the only thing that I don't get de-sensitised to and it doesn't make me hungover, however I don't take it regularly)

Plus I gave up wheat and other gluten containing grains due to IBS - this had quite a strong impact on my insomnia which was completely unexpected
I have a notebook with lists in it, which helps stop the night-time worrying a little bit.
I set up for the morning (lunch, clothes etc) before I go to bed, which also helps.
I try not to read in bed, don't have a computer or TV in the bedroom.
I avoid caffeine after 6pm and try not to have too much alcohol

Oh and I got into meditation and these special exercises called TRE (Trauma/Tension Releasing Exercises). These have definitely helped, and I should keep doing them more regularly.

The first time I tried the exersises I slept like a baby. They're a bit wierd but they seem to work. e.g. see www.traumareleaseexercises.com.au/

It sounds like you need a cleaner/ironer. Urgently. Do you think you could possibly run to paying someone for 3 hours a week? We're talking £120 a month, could you find that? If your health breaks down you're going to be in a lot more trouble. You have GOT to start getting to bed at 10, maybe a hot bath at 9.30, I think it's absolutely urgent. It may take a few weeks days for you to settle in to the routine, but even if you are just reading or resting, that's better than slogging all the hours, you are going to kill yourself!

At the very least, a tumble drier - you don't need to iron if you tumble dry. Could someone give it to you as a present? Your mum - early birthday present? Until you get the tumble drier, if you are ironing shirts, can you get people into wearing tshirts underneath so you can stretch the shirts out for longer?

Also make your children/yourself take your work/school clothes off when you get home and hang them up - you could all get your clothes ready for the morning at the same time?

I'm feeling really worried about you, this is not sustainable

Ah, bathing. What about not bathing the kids so often? Take them swimming on Sundays and bathe them on Wednesdays? Maybe use some wet toilet tissue for them?? It would cut the bedtime routine a lot.

I fancy one of those lumie alarm clocks mumincov.

joan thanks for worrying about me, I'm fine just a little bit tired

I'm going to try and have a week of early nights. We have a tumble dryer but for some reason we still need to iron clothes. The kids have enough uniform for a clean polo shirt everyday which is great as long as we get it all ready at the weekend.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions