I'm homeschooled and am having trouble getting myself up in the morning?

Question

I am homeschooled and my school schedule is not very strict, not like "8:30 - Algebra", it's more whenever I wake up, and I'm a pretty independent learner, so I get most of what I need from text books, occasionally asking for help. Because of this, I don't really HAVE to get up in the morning, so I stay up somewhat late (12, 1:00am), and being a "growing teenager", I like to get my 9 - 12 hours of sleep. Can you help me with any ways to encourage myself to go to bed earlier and get up earlier???

Answer 1

Yea, do your algebra at 9 pm and let it give you nightmares.  That'll wake you up early!

Does it MATTER what time it is in HOMESCHOOL

If you work best at 1 AM does it matter!

That's the BEAUTY of homeschool, you can sleep til 12 and work til 2 AM

What is the problem

WHY are you basing LIFE on 8:30 to 3 pm

Don't you know some jobs start at 10 PM and go to 7 AM

The idea is to DO the work, it's a NOT about CLOCK WATCHING.

Answer 2

Well hun its all you.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can make your own schedule and it's relaxed. Just as long as you get your work done it doesn't matter much in my opinion.

Just try really hard to design a schedule and stick to it!

Turn off the phone and computer and hit the hay!

Also, if you wake up earlier your body will want to go down earlier b/c you're so tired and you'll sleep better. Try waking up earlier than shower it'll wake you up for sure...then well start your day and end it reasonably early.

I'm homeschooled and a teen so I know exactly what its like.

You can do it!

Good luck!

Answer 3

Do you have a physical education in your homeschooling program? If not try finding an exercise that you like and use that as your 8:30 morning start. My daughter Gets up at 6:30 evey other morning and swims laps. If you do something like that it will get you going in the morning and you will be able to go to sleep earlier in the evening. On the Plus side you will stay in shape and have more energy. Good Luck

Answer 4

I had a bad wreck when I was 13 and had to be homeschooled while in traction.  I could not force myself to do homework either.  I slept it, watched way too much TV and did NOTHING.  You know you have a problem, but as a teenager, you can't fix it yourself.  I would ask your parents or homeschool teacher to be harder on you; make you get up in the morning.  Join a gym, go to arobics at 6AM or something like that, so you have to get up.  I would think getting up is the hardest part.  

One thing that works for me is putting my alarm clock on the other side of the room.  When it goes off, you have to get out of bed to turn it off.

Answer 5

Here's what I would do

STOP GOING TO BED @ 12- 1 am, and set your alarm clock.  The average human only needs about 7-8 hours of sleep.  I don't know where you got 9-12 hours.  I think you might be confusing what you want, with what you actually need.

Answer 6

You need to discipline yourself. Set your alarm clock for a time you want to really get up in the morning. Stop going to bed so late. If you go to bed early, you get up early. If you don't feel tired before going to bed, pick up a good book to read in bed and sometimes you will get sleepy and fall asleep. So, if you go to bed around 10pm, you will still get enough sleep and get yourself up at 8 am instead of getting up at 11 am or 12 pm in the afternoon.

Put it this way. If you had a job and you needed to be at work at a certain time, lets say 8 am. Will you still be going to bed at 12 or 1 am? No, because your boss expects you to be at the job at 8 am. If you are not there, you will probably get fired from the job. What I am saying is that home-schooling is important just like a job. You just need to discipline yourself by looking at it that way. No more going to bed so late. I challenge you to stick to it too.

Answer 7

Sounds like things are going great with your studies as you are already an independent learner!  You are right, teenagers do need more sleep than adults.  Studies have also shown that teenagers brains are not compatible with early rising and school work.  Having school start so early is not good for the students...it works against them from the start.  I would say that there is nothing wrong with you sleeping in.  You don't need to be somewhere.  And you are able to give your body the rest it needs.  However, if you want to be up earlier, than that is a different story.  Like what was previously mentioned, exercise is great.  It can help you get to sleep easier at night, and sleep better.  Also, having a regular schedule is good for the body.  Try to go to bed at the same time and rise at the same time...even on weekends.  Your body will eventually adjust and expect this.  That doesn't mean its always easy.  To start, you could try going to bed thirty minutes earlier each night, until you are going to bed at the desired time.  Just don't take any sleep aids, as they will not help train your body and will do more harm.  They are only for short term problems, not long term help.  

So...through my ramblings I mentioned exercise to help get to sleep...just don't exercise in the evening as your body may not be ready for bed when its time.

Set a schedule and try to stick with it.  

Another suggestion would be to make a morning ritual...something that you look forward to and will gladly get up for.  Some examples would be, yoga, morning walk, maybe even cranking up the radio and dancing around your room to get you going in the morning.  

Hope you find the answers for which you are looking.  Just remember to do it because YOU want to, not because you feel you should.

Answer 8

You may actually just be in a normal teen sleep cycle. If you aren't doing any stimulating activities around 9-11pm (things like being on the computer, playing games, watching really good movies, etc.) and just aren't tired, then you probably just have 'the teen sleep cycle'. It's so common that I've heard of one high school that changed it's schedule so that students didn't come in until 9:30 or 10am--but they stayed a little later, of course. :)

Now, if you really want to change your sleep cycle, it can be done, but patiently. First, you need a good, relaxing routine. The same routine each night. A routine that lasts a good hour and is solely focused on preparing you for relaxation and sleep. This might include having a nice bath, then putting on pj's and having a light snack, then brushing your teeth and reading for half an hour. NO excitable music. NO computer. NO talking on the phone. Nothing that is going to keep your brain going, trying to pump adrenaline in your system so you don't feel sleepy.

The first while, go to bed 15 minutes earlier than you are used to. Set your alarm so that you don't sleep longer than 10 hours. You really shouldn't need more than that, even at your age, and if you are regularly sleeping 12, it either means that you are overtired by the time you are getting to bed or you are oversleeping. Either way, it wreaks havoc on your sleep cycle.

Maybe do this for 5-7 days. Then, move your bedtime another 15 minutes earlier and set your alarm 15 minutes earlier. Do this for 5-7 days again; it'll depend on how well you are falling asleep. Then repeat until you've hit your desired sleep/awake times or when it seems obvious that you aren't going to change your sleep cycle any more.

Whatever you do, do NOT stay in bed waiting for your alarm if you wake up after 8.5-9 hours. You can really s***w things up that way, even if you feel tired. Just force yourself to get up, have a coldish shower to wake yourself up and do 30 minutes of work before breakfast. You'll have your breakfast feeling good about the day because you've already accomplished something.

Answer 9

Why?

Why do you need to go to bed earlier and get up earlier? Are you missing out on anything YOU planned? Are there community events you want to attend and cannot because you need to sleep? If there was something important that you could not control the time of (concert, program, get together, field trip) could you get up?

I'm asking these questions because it seems that you still have a lot of mainstream ideals in your head, you THINK you have to get up early, but in reality you don't. People who live by their own schedules are usually able to adjust those when something MEANINGFUL is going to happen in their lives, a conference, a job, a party. If you are trying to adjust your schedule just to fit into someone else's ideal of when people should be awake and asleep, it's going to be much harder. If you had a job, then you'd probably get up for that, or else you wouldn't get paid, right?

Schedule field trips for later, do your work when you want, plan doctor/dentist appointments in the afternoons. Revel in being an independent person who doesn't live by the 'musts' of society. If after all that, you still feel that you have to seek someone's approval by getting up at a certain time, then plan something for first thing each morning, something YOU look forward to, a special breakfast, the news, a walk with friends as they head towards school. A few mornings of getting up early and you'll likely be more tired.

But there is no greater moral character by getting up at sunrise, people aren't healthier, wealthier or wiser and what's the point of the worm? Adequate sleep is enough to keep you healthy physically and mentally, and it doesn't matter what time you get it. In this day and age, people work from home/office at all hours of the night, across the globe! Third shift workers, whether nurses, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, you name it, all make more money (usually twice as much!) after 5pm than they do before.

Answer 10

Most teens go through that time, turning night into day.

Just make sure that you do get enough sleep, and do some of your school work later in the evening.

Schedules can be adjusted, and learning to be flexible is an asset as well.

If you'd like to train yourself to be in a routine, try a set bed time, stop all stimulants like TV about an hour before going to bed.

Get a BIG alarm clock (baby, or big Ben), and put it on the other side of your bed room so you have to get up to shut it off.

The trick is to make yourself stumble out of the bedroom, and not go back to bed. ^_^