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Definitely practice waking up early and going to sleep early for a significant amount of time beforehand. Then on the night before the exam the overwhelming feeling of "I'm tired, it's time to sleep" coming from your body will definitely help overcome the nerves.

Also, push the thought that tomorrow is test day out of your conscious mind. Of course, still remember it is sortof so you don't miss the exam, but just drawing my mind to other non-stressful things proved effective in keeping my nerves from overtaking me and affecting my performance.

luckystar84 wrote:I slept fine 2 nights before (woke up @ 2PM), but that might've compromised my ability to fall asleep the night before. I got only 3 hours of sleep, and I'm not a coffee person. I just ate a ton of energy bars and splashed water onto my face. Anyone else here struggle to get sleep and see their Oct performance suffer for it?

I intentionally got less than 6 hours of sleep the night of the 3rd, and got up at 530AM on the 4th then worked out, ran errands, and just did stuff all day. By the time bedtime rolled around, I was ready to sleep like a baby.

But what you experienced is definitely not uncommon.

JWP1022 wrote:

luckystar84 wrote:I slept fine 2 nights before (woke up @ 2PM), but that might've compromised my ability to fall asleep the night before. I got only 3 hours of sleep, and I'm not a coffee person. I just ate a ton of energy bars and splashed water onto my face. Anyone else here struggle to get sleep and see their Oct performance suffer for it?

I intentionally got less than 6 hours of sleep the night of the 3rd, and got up at 530AM on the 4th then worked out, ran errands, and just did stuff all day. By the time bedtime rolled around, I was ready to sleep like a baby.

But what you experienced is definitely not uncommon.

I did almost the exact same thing. I purposely got up early (~5am) the day before the exam and by 10pm I was exhausted and asleep. Woke up naturally without an alarm at 6:30am, and felt absolutely refreshed and ready to dominate the exam.

I woke up twice I think. The first time I believe there was some homeless asshole screaming outside. Second time was from my very first LSAT nightmare, literally the first time I ever had a dream about it I was ready to go the next morning, though. Drank my over caffeinated cold brew coffee, which helped me during my early morning PT's. I've noticed through the years that I am not a morning person, but when I wake up with something really important to do I seem to have no problem waking up focused and ready to go.

I had diarrhea all night and slept about 2 hours Damn you KFC

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Terribly. I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept for about two hours (one REM cycle), and then drifted in and out of sleep until 5:30 a.m., when I decided to just get up.

I drank a cup of coffee and shot of espresso with breakfast though, so I was plenty alert for the test.

iamgeorgebush wrote:Terribly. I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept for about two hours (one REM cycle), and then drifted in and out of sleep until 5:30 a.m., when I decided to just get up.

I drank a cup of coffee and shot of espresso with breakfast though, so I was plenty alert for the test.

Your picture is offensive. I have a cat

kingkeith wrote:

iamgeorgebush wrote:Terribly. I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept for about two hours (one REM cycle), and then drifted in and out of sleep until 5:30 a.m., when I decided to just get up.

I drank a cup of coffee and shot of espresso with breakfast though, so I was plenty alert for the test.

Your picture is offensive. I have a cat

Had to down some melatonin to hop into bed around 10.

...like a baby... I had a nice long workout the day before that had me out like a light at 10pm

I slept well for the first time in a bout a year.

I think this is an often neglected area of preparation. You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation) but be careful with supplements or drugs that you haven't tried before PTs already. I took some melatonin, for example, but I knew ahead of time that it didn't make me drowsy the morning after, while for some people it does seem to have that effect.

Also, I think both the night before AND the night before that are important, you should have two full nights of good sleep if you can get it, and you can if you work toward it. I found exercising in the morning helped me, as did getting to bed at least an hour before I actually needed to be asleep and just laying there focusing on my breathing as long as it took.

First time I took the LSAT, I slept terribly. Maybe 3 hours of sleep in total.

The second time I took it, I got over 8 hours of sleep. I had adjusted my sleep schedule about two weeks prior so that I was getting up early.

iamgeorgebush wrote:Terribly. I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept for about two hours (one REM cycle), and then drifted in and out of sleep until 5:30 a.m., when I decided to just get up.

More or less the same here. I was excited that I was falling asleep so early but then....I just got up at 3AM out of anxiety and never went back to bed. Eventually I just put on ESPN and laid there.

I should note that I adjusted my sleep schedule a few weeks before the test. Didn't matter due to being so eager.

McGruff wrote:You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation)

People take baths?

jk148706 wrote:

McGruff wrote:You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation)

People take baths?

Heck yes - warm baths can slightly rise body temperature and get you a good nights sleep quicker

RCO2012 wrote:

jk148706 wrote:

McGruff wrote:You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation)

People take baths?

Heck yes - warm baths can slightly rise body temperature and get you a good nights sleep quicker

I'm actually pretty sure this was part of a LR stimulus.

RCO2012 wrote:

RCO2012 wrote:

jk148706 wrote:

McGruff wrote:You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation)

People take baths?

Heck yes - warm baths can slightly rise body temperature and get you a good nights sleep quicker

I'm actually pretty sure this was part of a LR stimulus.

Definitely part of an LR stimulus

Took a couple of Vicodin, and drained a few bottles of wine.

I COULD NOT SLEEP. Kept twisting and turning the entire night. Couldn't even doze off properly and kept sweating. You know, that cold sweat that you get when you sense mortal danger. In total, I probably had my eyes shut for a total of 1 to two hours that morning of October 5th and most of that was me trying to force myself to go to sleep but to no avail. I'm so upset too because I found the test relatively easy and if I did poorly, that lack of sleep certainly played a part.

To any future LSATers, do yourself a huge favor and work out vigorously (but not so vigorously that you injure yourself) for two to three hours on the evening before your test and then you should be able to sleep.

CVS-brand natural sleep aid super unnaturally early (9:00 or 9:30pm) 3-4 days before the test to get me used to the schedule. No holdover sleepiness/drowsiness for me. Fantastic for getting jetlag out of the way, as well.

The day before the test - no caffeine at all, long run to tire me out, mind-unengaging movie at about 7pm-ish ("Now you see me"), fell asleep at around 10pm. Was up fresh at 6:30am.

McGruff wrote:I think this is an often neglected area of preparation. You should have at least a few PTs where you enlist a full ritual the night before that will mimic your gameday method. Use whatever tricks you have (tea, bath, meditation) but be careful with supplements or drugs that you haven't tried before PTs already. I took some melatonin, for example, but I knew ahead of time that it didn't make me drowsy the morning after, while for some people it does seem to have that effect.

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