Sleeping too much and need to make adjustments

[Ryukil]

So, I've been working online as a freelance writer...if you were around for my posts a few years ago you may remember the infamous "contaminated" writing account. I have one now, that's contaminated, that I started up while in therapy, and I'm still using it. I've basically told myself that I will never, ever delete this account - the contamination will be with me forever, because screw it, I'm not going down that road again and wasting more years of my life.

But since I don't have to get up early for work or school, I'm sleeping in way too much. For one, as I'm sure you all know, OCD (and especially facing it head-on) can be pretty exhausting. Secondly, I think I'm sleeping as a way of avoiding having to deal with OCD.

For example, last night i went to bed around 1 AM I think, set the alarm for 9 AM. I got up when it went off, reset it for 11. Messed this up though, think I set the time forward 2 hours instead of the alarm. Yeah, I'm using a real alarm clock as I don't have a smartphone. Anyway, I didn't get up until like 10 minutes before 2 in the afternoon. Meaning I was in bed for at least 12 hours. Usually it's not this bad but today it was.

I even moved the alarm clock outside of my room so that I would have to leave the bedroom to shut it off, but even that's not working. I'll get up, maybe set it for another hour or two, then go back.

I guess all I can do is somehow make sure I get up.

Getting up too late is bad for a couple reasons...I'll do less writing and earn less money, and I probably won't do as many exposures. I might have the attitude of "I'll do better tomorrow with exposures," but tomorrow never comes.

My old patterns of putting things off are still here with therapy...as a result my therapist asked me to put a note on the wall saying "avoidance is not an option," hasn't helped too much though. I still want to give myself credit as I'm doing things I have not done in a long time, like the writing account, but I could definitely be pushing myself harder.

Anyway...how do I force myself to get out of bed? I was even thinking of throwing the mattress on its side or something so it's more difficult to get back into bed. Haha. Could lock the door behind me but then I'd have to pick it every night.

[Closed for repairs]

Not wanting to sound like your mum,

But go to bed earlier!

1 hour ago, Ryukil said:

But since I don't have to get up early for work

But you do have to get up for work. Freelance work still has to be done.

If you managed to get up in time for school go back to doing what you did then.

If you always struggled to get up, then  maybe  don’t worry about the timing and just make sure you have some kind of routine.

A lot of freelancers find that it helps to “go to work”  set aside a period of your day for work with breaks and lunch at specific times and have an end of day.

Even If you don’t have enough paid work to fill a  9 to 5 , write something or do admin.

Freelance is hard,  I know I’d end up sitting around doing nothing.

But it has loads of pluses,  and I’m sure you will work out how to get organised.

Good luck.

[dksea]

2 hours ago, Closed for repairs said:

Not wanting to sound like your mum,

But go to bed earlier!

Keep in mind that not everyone is a morning person. Some of us are naturally night owls.  I'm far more productive in the afternoon and evening in the morning.  When left to my own devices I feel my best when going to sleep around 2 am and waking up around 10 am.  I still get 8 hours of sleep but it better suits my natural flow.  Going to bed earlier CAN be a solution for some people, but its not right for everyone.

 

4 hours ago, Ryukil said:

I even moved the alarm clock outside of my room so that I would have to leave the bedroom to shut it off, but even that's not working. I'll get up, maybe set it for another hour or two, then go back.

I guess all I can do is somehow make sure I get up.

Aye, it can be tough to get up in the morning when you don't have something forcing you to (like work or school).  I would say that if you are getting around 8-9 hours of sleep a night, don't worry TOO much about when you get that sleep if its not interfering with your ability to live your life (i.e. earn a living, socialize, etc.).  And if you have the occasional day where you get 12 hours of sleep, well maybe you needed a little extra rest, that happens.  However, it is recommended to keep a regular schedule of sleep, i.e. going to bed and waking up at the same time most days, so it might help you to do take some steps to get on a more regular schedule.  Unfortunately its mostly going to involve making choices and forcing yourself to do things.  You need to basically get in the habit.  It will be difficult at first, but if you do it for awhile it should become routine.  One recommendation is to start with a fixed bed time.  Avoid giving yourself any allowances or excuses and stick with a fixed lights out, in bed by XX PM/AM every night for awhile. Once you do that you may find its easier to wake up in the morning.   As for the morning itself, I have found that even something as simple as moving from my bed to the couch/sofa in the morning after my alarm goes off makes a difference.  I don't need to start doing anything productive, usually its just looking at my smartphone/tablet/laptop but at least I am UP both awake and sitting up rather than laying down.  Basically unless its for sleep you should try not to spend time in bed (well okay there are SOME non-sleep activities that bed would also be ok for ).

In the end I think this is just going to have to be a mission of stubbornness on your part, of setting some goals and rules and sticking to them until you form new habits.  Good luck!