3mo ago

How do I stop sleeping through everything?

Seriously, I sleep through alarms and people calling my name even in the same room.

59 comments

Go to a doctor, get a sleep study done.
- All these anecdotal stories in the thread and this is the correct answer.
  
  15 years ago, I was falling asleep everywhere, even when stopped at traffic lights. Had a sleep study done and have been on CPAP since. That first night on it was the best night sleep of my adult life
  
  What if they're in the US and can't afford health care? I've been to the doctor once in the last 25 yrs.
- no go to the water park and get a waterslide study done

Anecdotal, might not apply to you. I knew a guy like this, was a roommate for a while.
He had a similar issue. He said he would literally set an alarm clock in the opposite side of his room, so that he would have to get up and walk over to shut it off, hoping that would wake him up. According to him, in his sleep daze he would go shut the alarm off and go back to sleep, and not even remember doing it... Crazy.
Regardless, I noticed he drank tons of cheap diet soda. This contains caffeine. He'd drink around one or sometimes two 2-liters of this shit per day, from the afternoon after work, until late into the night, usually gaming.
I told him about the caffeine. He said it made sense, and that also "it might be why he had trouble falling asleep at night"... Fucking DUH.
Long story short. He tried cutting it out for about a week. Mentioned a minimal improvement in being able to wake up, but said he felt like shit the whole time, so went back to his old habit.
He probably felt like shit due to the cold turkey caffeine withdrawal, which I tried to point out. He went back to his old ways.
Anecdotal, but check your diet, caffeine intake and times of day, exercise, consistent sleeping patterns, etc. That's my 2 cents.
- I indeed take a lot of caffeine, I gotta try weaning it off.
  
  You are having a pretty big issue here. Don't try, do. You can wean yourself in just a few days. Or cold turkey if you don't think you can keep to a weaning schedule.
  
  Certainly no caffeine after noon.
  
  Not sure how you get yours, but I've always been a coffee drinker. I cut my caffeine way down by slowly mixing more decaf into the grind when I make the pot. Instead of drinking half a pot or a pot of regular, now I get the equivalent of about a cup or cup and a half if that and it was easy to do.
  If it's soda you could experiment with drinking it from a big cup and doing the same trick mixing in decaf maybe?
  
  I've been there before. I notice it when I develop a tolerance to caffeine and it doesn't wake me up.
  Depending on how much you take, your withdrawal might really suck major. If you can afford to lose a weekend or any 2 day consecutively, go cold turkey those 2 days. You'll lose those days cause you'll feel like absolute shit when the headache kicks in. But then on Monday go back to caffeine but only around half of what you usually do per day. You'll feel amazing getting the caffeine again after the cold turkey weekend, and you're tolerance should go down. This has worked for me in the past.
  Or wean slowly. Whatever works for you.
  Those 2 days suck though. I love caffeine...

See a doctor and ask for a sleep study. You might have sleep apnea, or some other condition.

A few things:
Prepare for sleep sooner, with dim light and a quiet place, and no screens.
drink a bunch of water
don’t set an alarm, but tell yourself when you want to wake up.
It might not work the first time, but after a few attempts it will. Oh, and no food or stimulants within 3 hours of your bedtime.

Maybe some deficiency? Get it checked out.
Do you routinely go to bed in time? Is your sleep environment right?
Do you suffer from depression or another disorder? Get help, if you can.
Possibly try to wake up according to your natural sleep cycle.
Are you on medication that could cause issues?
So many possibilities. A professional might be able to help best.

I tried all sorts of loud alarms, moving my alarm on top of a book shelf. Nothing worked, except an alarm that required some mental load. Found an app which let me set a challenge, solve some math sort numbers, that solved it for me. I am sure there are many options so feel free to pick what you like, but I use the app "I can't wake up" on Android. Started with the free version for years but paid for it a couple of years ago as it has helped me so much.

Sleep until you wake up. See how many hours you need. Then adjust your schedule until you are getting enough sleep. And pay attention to the number of hours - for me 7 can be more refreshing than 8! You may need 9, you want to be waking up at the right point in your sleep cycle, not while you are so very asleep.
I sleep pretty heavy, but when it's time to get up I can. Do not go back to sleep, get up when you wake up. But really, try sleeping until you wake up.
Putting your lights on a timer may work better than an alarm, more gentle so you have time to come to awakeness more naturally.
- I got two hours last night and five the night before. I have maybe slept eight hours once in the last year, and it was after a being up for 36 hrs.
  
  Did 5 hours feel good? Everyone is different. I like 7 hours and cannot nap, it has to be all at once. If you keep waking up at night and feel tired in the day ask your doctor, there may be some cause, not just lifestyle.
  
  Maybe lay off the carnival powder for a bit eh.

A watch that vibrates might help.
- Agreed. I keep my alarm on silent because the vibrations from my smartwatch do a much better job at waking me up than the sound from my phone or an alarm clock does. The sleep tracking features could also help provide some insights as to why OP is having issues to begin with.

Things that have helped me include:
an alarm across the room that I have to get up to turn off.
a light that turns on before that alarm
an alarm app on my phone that can only be turned off by solving puzzles.
having an engaging activity that I want to do ready for me and fit into my schedule
getting up a little earlier so I have time to make a decent breakfast instead of grabbing some trash or just not eating.
a TV set to turn itself on and set to a channel that shows stuff you can't easily get used to (the history channel used to show random documentaries in the morning, no idea what it's like now)
strict discipline about never sleeping in even when I can.
avoiding spending time in my bedroom when I'm not trying to sleep.
setting a reminder to start getting ready for bed
popping melatonin when that reminder goes off if I'm not already tired.
drink water before drinking caffeine.
stop caffeine at least 6 hours before bedtime.
prescription medication in the morning. Not enough to replace all the other stuff, but definitely something that makes a huge difference with my sleeping disorder.

Whilst I sympathise and wish I had any idea, I am so jealous... I would commit murder for a full night's kip
- Heh, you're British

Increase the volume on your alarm. Set it to a ringtone that is less relaxing. Set multiple such alarms, a few minutes apart.
- Actually, sometimes having too many alarms can actually lead to alarm blindness where the person does not really recognize the alarms as important and just subconssciousely turns them into background noise.
  That being said, I still think at least in the short term this is a good idea. In the longer term, do you make sure that you are really well rested? I.e. the 15 minutes of boredom trick? (Do absolutely nothing for 15 minutes. You should get really bored. If you can manage to stay awake even through 15 minutes of boredom, then you are well rested, if not you need more sleep)

Here's a free online course about best practices for getting quality rest. Geared toward aviation but has practical content. https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/CourseLanding.aspx?cID=174
- And if you're already doing the basics, go get checked out.

Same here. One solution is - sleep sooner. Force yourself to sleep an hour sooner than you regularly do. Also, tell yourself before you sleep that you’ll wake up at the same time you usually get up. Say it out loud, not just mentally.
Once you do these, your mind will be alert to wake up sooner and will actually try to wake you up whenever there is a disturbance. Also, the added hour of sleep will help you long term.
There may be loads of extenuating circumstances- kids, work pressure, your spouse wanting to spend time with you. Make a deal with them. Say you’ll pick up extra work around the house or spend more time with the kids or for work. Whatever it takes. In a few months time, you won’t need the extra sleep. But your mind will be more alert.
Hope this works for you. It did for me for the time I did it. Then I slipped and I again can’t wake up no matter what. I do wake up if someone calls me when I sleep sooner though. So that’s nice to retain.

What helps me is that I try to disengage 10 hours before I need to wake up. Usually takes a couple hours before I'm ready to sleep. So I'll just lay in bed listening to music or scrolling through Lemmy.
- I find YouTube playing on my phone with the screen off helps me. Just search for "to fall asleep to" and throw on any several hours long video you like from the results.
  (You can install YouTube ReVanced to enable the option to use YT with the screen off without having to pay for Premium.)

I wish I had your superpower lol
- I mean, I do take a sleeping pill

Have you tried getting a louder alarm clock?
Like plug your phone to a powerful speaker system that reaches 100dB. That should wake everyone.
Doesn't have to be expensive or HiFi, just loud.
May not be an option if you have neighbours tho.
Also, I've noticed that I can sleep through music and vaccum cleaner just fine, but I find certain sounds like TV speaking stressful, so maybe try finding an "annoying" sound.

I do this even after cutting caffeine almost completely.
Got better after I got an Apple watch as I was able to see exactly how long I was sleeping for. Used that information to change when I went to bed. Will still sleep through a apocalypse, but at least I don’t usually oversleep anymore.

I started sleeping in the weekends as much as I wanted and improved my life a lot. Idk why but saturday for example I sleep until 2pm, wake up, have a meal, sleep again form 4 to 6pm, wake up, do something, midnight I go to sleep again until sunday about noon. It's too much BUT I do start the week so much more alert! It improved my work life and my energy. Do I know why? No. Do I think It's too much sleep? Yes But it works

Kind of an excessive option. Join the military. They will train you to wake up to anything. Someone walks near me and I’ll wake up.
- Having worked with the military, the opposite is also true; you'll learn how to sleep literally anywhere (including while standing upright)
  
  lol so true
- Yes, with the world literally on the precipice of war, join the military to solve your sleep issues.
  
  Being a little facetious: solve your sleep problems, get a solid job, and learn how to sit around and do nothing for hours on end while waiting for something to happen. Plus, if you take a rear echelon job, it basically is an office job at that point. Just with a lot more rules. (/s for those that need it)

Lots of great reccomendations here, highly Interested in learning more about U.S. domestic policy? https://www.federalregister.gov/
Want to learn a bit more about international policy and events? https://news.un.org/en/

Always fall asleep and get up at the same time every single day—even on your days off—and eventually your body will start waking up on time on its own without fail. Takes a couple of months of consistency, but once you're in the habit, you practically won't need an alarm clock anymore.
Of course this only works if you have a job where your hours are consistent. If that's not the case, I feel for you.
Also consider a smartwatch (or even just a normal watch with a vibration motor). I find that the vibrations of the watch wake me up better than sound does for some reason. Try it for yourself and see if it help. Also, the sleep tracking features of a smartwatch could help provide some insight as to why you're having an issue to begin with (along with a sleep study, as previously mentioned).
- Always fall asleep and get up at the same time every single day—even on your days off—and eventually your body will start waking up on time on its own without fail.
  As soon as this happened I felt old.

Less weed? If not that, you're probably staying up too late at night. Go to bed earlier than you have been. Get off the screens at least an hour before you want to to go sleep.

It may be that you're tuning out sound, but there are alarms for the deaf. You might look into bed-shaking alarms? You put a puck on the bed and it vibrates the whole thing until you turn off the alarm (in an app or on the box elsewhere).

In addition to a sleep study, talk to your doctor about POTS.

You would hate me.

I forgot to mention one thing... I take sleeping pills.
- You need to check in with your doctor. A prescription drug did the exact same to me a few years ago.
  
  i second this, my first ADHD medicine made me sleep through anything
- Switch to cannabis. Any strain high in in mycrene will knock you out cold without causing issues with waking up. MFused's Super Fog is a good product line for something discreet with a full spectrum high. Or Micro Bar if you want want to sleep well and remain stealthy but prefer your weed to taste like candy.
  Alternatively, you could go all out, invest in a dab rig and start buying wax/shatter/crumble/batter. Or if stinking up the neighborhood isn't a concern, you could just buy buds and roll up some joints the good old fashioned way.
  I suppose your available options all depend on where you live, but cannabis for sleep is something to seriously consider. The only downside is that it reduces REM sleep, but given that you're already having sleep issues, not remembering most dreams and feeling slightly tired in the morning might be a reasonable tradeoff for you.

You're lucky! I can't even sleep through my own damn thoughts

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