How to maintain a sleeping pattern (especially waking up)

[EarthToKepler]

For the past 4-6 months I've been trying to maintain a sleeping pattern and then start my dream recall and lucid abilities. But I'm stuck at the first phase, sleeping. The longest I've ever had a sleeping pattern was a week (I improved when I thouht I couldn't) But, after a few days/week I'll start having a massively hard time waking up and when I do wake up I'll end up setting my alarm for an hour+ extra and then won't be able to sleep early that next day. Also, I get motivated to maintain a sleeping pattern and like I said before just get up and set alarm for later time Its sooo hard for me to maintain a sleeping pattern Can anyone help me?

[xxPhoebusxx]

What time do you naturally stay up till and how much sleep do you need? Work with your body rather than against it. I need 9-10 hours to feel rested and I'm a night person. So I go to bed at 1 and wake up around 10-11.

[ThreeCat]

Electrical light is the problem. Just sayin.

[cooleymd]

I have been trying just the opposite sleep disruption. The idea is that when you sleep normally you will go into deep sleep for a long while then up to rem etc. But if you shock yourself awake all night you train your brain to fear awakening at any moment, it then quickly dives into deep sleep and then resurfaces to ready itself for the shock of the alarm. Just before the lucid competition I set my alarm for each hour of the night and I actually got lucid that morning and also the next day. This Wednesday night I did the same thing setting the alarm for 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 and 4am and finally for 5:15 am to get up for work on Thursday, then This morning I set the alarm for 8:00 and planed to sleep in. I also drank lots of water to maintain my waking pattern. On Thursday morning I woke at about 38 minutes after every hour, then fell back asleep and woke at each alarm. at 3:38 I woke and never actually got back to sleep. Anyway this morning at 7:10 I awoke from a Lucid Dream tonight I will drink lots of liquids and sleep in until as late as noon (Saturday) if I don't get lucid, but I expect to get lucid sometime after 5:00am then usually I just get up after having been lucid, unless I'm still tired and might even get a second lucid. I intend to try this on the Last two Wednesdays of the month, and to do this next Thursday night before the 3 day weekend. Of course I had to post 3 hours off of work today, and will do the same on the last two Fridays of the month If I continue to have good success, I will try this every week. I choose Wed because that is the night I get the least sleep anyway and am busy until like 9:30 at night and can't possibly get to bed early Lameness: I woke every 90 minutes then every 120 into the morning today but no lucids maybe it is most effective only the first day after disruption, by the end of the month I'll have more attempts

[sisyphus]

Start by looking at your whole day, not just the wake time. If you're going to change anything, you need to narrow what you can control. You might not be able to control when you get sleepy or how you feel in the morning. Not directly, I mean. But you can control what time you turn off the lights (hat tip to ThreeCat) or what time you stop drinking caffeine. This is a personalized process, so you need to look at your own daily routine and habits. Identify the good and bad ones (those habits that help or hurt a healthy circadian rhythm). Then, rather than attacking the bad ones, start first by trying to build on the good ones. Build this as a lifestyle change. With some success are building on the good ones, then you can turn with confidence at breaking the bad ones.

[Verre]

How to maintain a sleeping pattern (especially waking up): Step 1: Get a cat. Step 2: Begin feeding cat at the time you want to wake up every day. Step 3: After habituation, cat will make sure you never sleep past feeding time again. When I was doing a lot of WBTBs I starting feeding my cat habitually at sunrise. Now I have to wake up every day at sunrise and feed him. It works a treat. Who needs an alarm clock? It's difficult to sleep through a gentle but persistent paw in the face...