Dark Nights/Tiredness/Anxiety

[one_step_closer]

How do you cope with the nights getting darker earlier? What type of lighting/soothing stuff do you use? What activities do you do? My main problem is that I get really tired early on and end up in bed earlier than I want but this was happening when the evenings were lighter too. I've become afraid of tiredness. I have the brightest lightbulbs ever but they don't even help. If I manage to stay up a bit later one night I won't be able to stay up the next night. I don't really know exactly what I'm asking for here but would appreciate some tips or advice or whatever you think. Thank you.

[Auror.]

is there a reason you need to stay up and can't just go to bed earlier when you get tired?

[one_step_closer]

No, it's just that I end up in bed around 7.30pm and it gets me down because I know most people stay up later and it doesn't feel acceptable to me. I get up at about 8.15am and get everything done I need to do so there's not really a problem as such it's just the way I feel.

[Auror.]

are you're looking for advice with how to cope with how you feel about it? or with how to actually stay up later? because it doesn't sound like it's an issue other than just you think it isn't acceptable. or are we understanding wrong?

[one_step_closer]

Both really, although that may seem like two different things. I want to be able to stay up later but if I can't I'd like to find ways to cope with it.

[Auror.]

guess we don't really understand the need to stay up later if it works for you to go to sleep early. why does it matter what others think? might be worth trying to challenge those thoughts. it's okay to pay attention to and go off of your body's natural rhythm. it's actually healthy and something our society tries to program out of us.

we have the opposite issue and tend to stay up very late. it's hard for us to get to sleep before 1-2am lol. things you can try would be having caffeine later in the day, exercising later in the day as that can give an energy boost sometimes, moving positions or places where you hang out, planning a more active or engaging activity like video games instead of reading/watching something, basically all the opposite stuff that is supposed to help with sleep routines lol. also just pushing your bedtime routine if you have one later by 10-15 minutes at a time. you could also try taking a nap during the day if you can.

oh and what we mean by moving positions or places is like, if you normally hang out on your couch and that is where you get sleepy, sit in a chair instead. or get out of bed if that's where you are and go to a different room. or if you don't have anyplace else to hang out, change the position you are in. so if you sit cross legged, sit with your legs out or something. we realised that one might not be as obvious as it is to us hence explaining. the rest should be self explanatory but if not please let us know and we can explain them better.

[one_step_closer]

Thank you. That all makes sense. I just tend to get so anxious about tiredness. I have always had some kind of trouble with sleep and used to spend 36 hours in bed many years ago, getting up at random times like the early morning or the evening. That was horrible and made me extra suicidal so I'm quite sensitive about tiredness and sleep stuff.

[Pi.R^2]

I think Camden makes a valid point about challenging thoughts about comparing yourself to other people. I can see your concerns about it escalating but maybe if you went to bed when you were tired you would settle into a routine which might be more hours than some other people need but bodies be bodies and have their own needs!

I sometimes get what I think is 'fake' tiredness when I get dozy in front of the TV but then when I drag myself up I'm actually fine again so maybe some light exercise (changing rooms, wandering around a bit, doing something more energetic) could be a way of checking if it's 'real' tiredness?