Waking up early again for clinicals

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I am the biggest night owl. During Christmas break Ive been staying up until 3am. Now school is starting in a week and I have to start waking up early for clinicals (6am!) Any other night owls out there? How do you transition to waking up early or the early birds how do you do it by coping with waking up early? Im getting in a lot of sleep because I know Im about to be sleep deprived!:crying2:

This makes me feel great knowing I am not the only one! My whole problem is I'm so flipping excited because I start my first actual nursing semester on Monday! Clinicals start Tues at 7am and I have an hour drive! I need to find a way to get ready quicker in the morning so I'm not getting up at 5am! Luckily, my husband is a RN now so I don't have to work that much but still, all Christmas break I don't think I've been in bed before 1230am! Good luck to all of you, at least I know I won't be the only one contemplating the snooze button next week! :D

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Specializes in Critical Care-Neuro/Trauma ICU.
This makes me feel great knowing I am not the only one! My whole problem is I'm so flipping excited because I start my first actual nursing semester on Monday! Clinicals start Tues at 7am and I have an hour drive! I need to find a way to get ready quicker in the morning so I'm not getting up at 5am! Luckily, my husband is a RN now so I don't have to work that much but still, all Christmas break I don't think I've been in bed before 1230am! Good luck to all of you, at least I know I won't be the only one contemplating the snooze button next week! :D

Here's what you will quickly figure out about clinicals...no one is going to care what you look like...except that you are clean and professional. I wouldn't waste an hour or however long it takes you to put on make up and all that because more than likely it'll all be gone by the time you leave your clinical site anyway (if you're like me and went to a nursing home they will have it 900 degrees in their rooms and you'll sweat to death). What I do is shower the night before clinicals (we are required to pin our hair back so I don't have to worry about my hair looking good anyway...plus even if you aren't required to pull it up...you're gonna want to). Take a shower the night before...get up in the AM and do what I call the "bird bath"...face, pits, etc. EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST!!! You don't want to faint from low blood sugar your first day! :wink2: GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!

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I always have trouble falling asleep at night. Most of the time I have to take a sleeping pill but then I have to deal with that hangover. So you cant win but only 16 more weeks for me of having to wake up early, then its off to my night owl shift .

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This makes me feel great knowing I am not the only one! My whole problem is I'm so flipping excited because I start my first actual nursing semester on Monday! Clinicals start Tues at 7am and I have an hour drive! I need to find a way to get ready quicker in the morning so I'm not getting up at 5am! Luckily, my husband is a RN now so I don't have to work that much but still, all Christmas break I don't think I've been in bed before 1230am! Good luck to all of you, at least I know I won't be the only one contemplating the snooze button next week! :D

Congrats on your first semester! Good luck to ya!

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Specializes in CVICU/ER.

Just took some melatonin to go to sleep as I have school starting tomorrow.

Good luck everyone.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CRRT,.

I am such a night owl..have been since i was pregnant with my son 8 years ago. I made it through nursing school with the help of an ambien, or two (NEVER before a clinical though). I do not have hangovers, and would NEVER sleep without it..but i have been diagnosed as insomniac and prescribed them. I do not enter REM sleep on my own.

My husband still thinks its in my head..that i can will myself to sleep, apparantly by lying there listening to him snore, all night. This is the topic of many many arguments in my house. Not to mention he trys to "wait me out" by staying up with me, knowing he has to work tomorrow.

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Congrats on your first semester! Good luck to ya!

Thanks! :D

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Specializes in PEDS.

omg i'm the same exact way. I stay up til 5am, sleep til 2..its just crazy lol. I've been taking night classes up until this semester. its the last one and so i have class four days a week, all morning classes. I did what i thought would be best for me. Atleast I leave school at 2pm then head to the library n study for a few hrs after then head home. If i would've stuck with night classes, which start at 5.30pm, I probably would've been sleeping til 2pm, therefore having no time to study. I'll sacrifice my sleep for better grades.

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Specializes in ER/Ortho.

I have been a night owl for as long as I can remember...even when I was a kid. My parents are night owls, and my children are night owls. I think it one of the reasons I am divorced (ex husband was a morning person, and would wake up at 4am, and wake me up too).

It's been a great xmas break. When the kids were off we would all stay up till 3am watching low budget horror movies, and eating junk. I seem to be able to flip back and forth pretty easy. My kids do too. I wont do anything special until the Sunday prior to school starting on Tuesday. I will go to be by Midnight on Sunday, get up by 10 am Monday (MLK kids aren't in school), and go to bed by 10pm on monday so I can get up at 6am on Tuesday for school.

During a normal school week I am usually in bed somewhere between 9pm-11pm on school night. I get up at 6am for a normal class day, and 4am for clinicals on Monday. On Friday nights the kids and I stay up half the night, unless its my once Friday a month that I go out (and then I stay up half the night). I sleep in till noon on Sat, and still manage to get to bed by midnight on Sat night. I am able to get up by 7am on Sunday to go pick my patient at the hospital, and dead tired by 9pm Sunday night so I get plenty of sleep before clinical.

Its tough for us night owls. But like everyone else here has pretty much said I feel more alert, and together at night. I am NOT a morning person.

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Specializes in ED.

Go to bed a little earlier, just think just 4 more months until graduation.

U can do this. JUST DO IT

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Specializes in NICU.

When I was in high school, the only time I could concentrate were the early morning hours, so I usually woke up at 4 am. I usually went to bed at 9 or 10, and then sometimes took a nap in the afternoon. I'm not sure that it will be that easy for me now...

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I am naturally a night owl, but I force myself to have regular hours due to school. However I have had times when I did not sleep for three days straight. This was absolutely horrible. Dr. put me on trazodone, and then amibien, ddnt work. When I took ambien I became very hyper and apparently acted very odd. It didnt put me to sleep, but made me walk around in a type of sleepwalking haze. Now I take gabapentin, neurontin, for sleep. It is an anti-epileptic, but it works to put me to sleep. If I do not take it, I will simply stay awake for days-I do not know why:confused:

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