Getting up at 3:30 AM

[guspasho]

Every day. To be able to start work at 5 AM. I have no idea how I am going to do this. Has anyone had to get up regularly at ungodly-early hours? And how did you manage to deal with it?

[PezCat]

Hm... how long are your shifts that start at 5am, and what's your current sleep schedule?  Your best bet is just to adjust your sleep sked to deal with it, but beyond that...

PezCat

[guspasho]

I will be working from 5 AM to 2 PM, a full day. Currently I get up around 7-8 (usually closer to . Of course I'll have to adjust my sleep schedule, more toward going to bed around 8 PM in order to be up early enough, but are there any tools or techniques to make the adjustment easier, or to make the transition stick (rather than suddenly waking up at 8 AM some day and discovering I've just slept through half my shift)?

[PezCat]

Well, I normally work 3:30-midnight, and this week I had to adjust to a 11:00-7:00 shift to cover for an absent coworker.  What I did was two nights before was I stayed up late to tire myself out, then made myself get up early.  Once I was showered I was operational all day, but when I got home I wanted sleep and went to bed early.  8 hours later I was able to actually pull myself out of bed for the dayshift schedule I wasn't used to, as opposed to smacking the snooze button disdainfully.

PezCat

[Panda0_0]

If i get a call back thats when my work hours will end!!!!!

3:30am will be when i get off work.... i hope i get this job....

[EvilMonkey]

I used to have to work at 5am, it sucked, a lot, I only lasted a month.  Didn't help that I was making half of what I make now, and it was manual labor, which I loathe.

[TomtheFanboy]

My shifts start at 7 and go to 4. I have an hour long bus ride to work and a 40 minute walk to the bus stop. I usually get to work early so I can eat breakfast and slowly wake up without worrying about being late (since I'm there). I aim for the bus that gets me to my desk at 6 so that if I actually miss it I'll only be there 45 minutes early.  :wink:

All in all I get up around 4 AM.
The trick is..........go to bed.
Just make yourself lie down 8 hours before you think you need to get up. Even if you can't sleep you'll start to get used to the concept. I usually fall asleep round 9:30 nowadays but at 8 I start thinking "Gosh, I need to be getting to bed!".

Amazing that sleeping earlier means you can get up earlier, eh?

[EcchiSpice]

Man I LOVE my 8 to 5! HAHAHAHAHAHA! IN YOUR FACE PEOPLE! ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS RULE!

(Now, if only I didn't have to get up at 3:30am with Gus to take him to work...)

[zenix]

well ive never done that for a job but i do end up sleeping during the day and being up all night about 50% of the time for weeks at a time
i end up needing to reset myself back to normal hour by eather graduly going to sleep later and later or the hard way stay up 24+ hours and going to sleep at a normal time or the time your would need to ajust sleeping to

[Seraph]

closest I came to taht time was in the military when I had to work 12 hour shifts.  normally, day shifts were about 7 to 4 but when we fell behind, we had to work like 4 to 4.  what was worse was that sometimes, you dun get a warning of this until the very day they need you that early(in which case, I get a call at about 4 in the morning telling me to go to work early).

as for right now.....my sleeping patterns are pretty similiar to zenix's.

[Dustin]

My usual day starts at between two and three in the afternoon until six to seven in the morning.

I'm a night person.

Though, recently, its changed and I have been sleeping at night.