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Retakers/anyone with any wisdom or knowledge on how to best deal with the fact that we are likely going to be very stressed and not getting much sleep the night before - what can we do to minimize the amount of sleep we lose due to stress, anxiety, etc and how do we best handle not getting enough sleep if that's what it comes down to?

Thanks.

Worrying about having insomnia has been shown to sometimes cause insomnia. Staying on the getting up test day early routine for the last week should be good enough to be ready to fall asleep when you need to the night before. Didn't you start getting up early and going to bed early for test day a few days ago? As long as you stick with that routine all week you shouldn't have trouble falling asleep at the right time on Friday since you've been doing it all week. Part of getting into the routine includes figuring out de-stress activities to do in the evening to wind down before bed so you are not stressed.

Jeffort wrote:Worrying about having insomnia has been shown to sometimes cause insomnia. Staying on the getting up test day early routine for the last week should be good enough to be ready to fall asleep when you need to the night before. Didn't you start getting up early and going to bed early for test day a few days ago? As long as you stick with that routine all week you shouldn't have trouble falling asleep at the right time on Friday since you've been doing it all week.

Hey Jeffort! I have! But, the stress and anxiety is very real and has been. It's kept me up before and although I'm hoping that sticking to test day schedule throughout this week has been and will help me, I want to be prepared for the worst as well.

Edit: just saw your added suggestion - I'll try that. Might go bike riding to clear my mind (unless you suggest against physical activity the evening before).

Yeah, you have to figure out some stress reduction activities. Moderate exercise like riding a bike is a good way to go, that's what I did with the lifecycle in the fitness room where I lived most nights leading up to test day. It really helped, and don't wait till night before test day, you need to figure out nightly stress reduction stuff every night this week. If you have the option available, sex is good too!

For me, lying in bed with my GF knocks me out, since it relaxes me.


I think the best way is to sleep around 4 hours two nights before, so you'll be tired the night before. Kind of risky though, since if you can't sleep the night before, you'll have 2 consecutive nights of poor sleep.

I don't know about you but doing squats and heavy lifting, followed by running knocks me out. The only problem is I need more than 8 hours of sleep after and I feel super groggy the next morning.

The stress is the biggest part. Don't worry about it and you'll sleep better (easier said than done).
I slept 4 hours the night of my first exam. I did fairly well (well enough that I wasn't worried about my retake). The night before my retake, I basically didn't care and slept like a baby.

So yeah. If you have a decent score to fall back on, that'll help with the stress.

As long as you get plenty of rest during the rest of the week, you'll be fine even if you don't sleep well on Friday night. (Before my LSAT, I woke up every hour/two hours because I was so paranoid that I'd sleep through my alarm!)

Since you've already started going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, you should be fine; I wouldn't stress about it. Exercise on Friday can definitely help, but be careful not to do more than you usually do - you wouldn't want to be sore or exhausted from your workout on Saturday morning.

BPlaura wrote:As long as you get plenty of rest during the rest of the week, you'll be fine even if you don't sleep well on Friday night. (Before my LSAT, I woke up every hour/two hours because I was so paranoid that I'd sleep through my alarm!)

Since you've already started going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, you should be fine; I wouldn't stress about it. Exercise on Friday can definitely help, but be careful not to do more than you usually do - you wouldn't want to be sore or exhausted from your workout on Saturday morning.

Yeah, I wasn't as much worried about sleeping through the alarm - more that I would (wake up in middle of the night and) stay awake until it would ring, but that's a concern, too. lol

And about being sore, you're absolutely right. I was considering swimming since I know that swimming always relaxes me (more than any other exercise/activity), but if I do I will make sure to keep it very, very light.

Great advice, thanks for your insight.

I downed a warm glass of milk around 9:30 and was about by 10:15. Melatonin helps too.

I used melatonin. Also try to sleep starve yourself two days before. That way you'll feel sleepy the night before the test. If test is on Saturday, go to sleep at like 02:00 AM on Friday, and wake up around 06:00 AM. You'll have only 4 hours of sleep. Then Friday night, you'll be able to go to sleep at like 09:00 PM.

meegee wrote:I used melatonin. Also try to sleep starve yourself two days before. That way you'll feel sleepy the night before the test. If test is on Saturday, go to sleep at like 02:00 AM on Friday, and wake up around 06:00 AM. You'll have only 4 hours of sleep. Then Friday night, you'll be able to go to sleep at like 09:00 PM.

Generally works for me, but could it have some negative effects? Obviously regularly sleeping 10-6 or something like that is preferred.

Wake up EARLY the day before the test. Make sure you get a long day. Get lots of exercise that day. Go to the gym and go hard. Go for a run. Use up that energy. If your test is on a Saturday and you stay up late on Thursday, waking up at noon on Friday, you won't be able to get to bed early. Wake up at 6 AM on Friday morning and get an active day in.

PalmBay wrote:Wake up EARLY the day before the test. Make sure you get a long day. Get lots of exercise that day. Go to the gym and go hard. Go for a run. Use up that energy. If your test is on a Saturday and you stay up late on Thursday, waking up at noon on Friday, you won't be able to get to bed early. Wake up at 6 AM on Friday morning and get an active day in.

Good stuff. I moped around the day before Oct, did four sections total (unrelated sections, so not a PT) and tried to listen to calming music. Your suggestions make more sense than that.

Get used to waking up early. I've been sleeping earlier and setting my alarm for 6 AM.

Also, try melatonin. If you're going to use melatonin, make sure you try it now to see how it affects your body and sleep.

didn't take sleep meds or anything like that...so can't help there

But i dunno, i just told myself that (1) I had done what I could to prepare and that I was ready (2) it's not the end of the world if you don't do as well as u want, u can retake (3) getting a good night sleep was imperative to doing well...so i forced myself to stay calm.

Slowly drift to sleep while reading a book or watching a show/movie you enjoy. Don't think about the LSAT the night before.

Wake up early (the adrenaline will get u up early), eat a good breakfast, go to the bathroom and all that, listen to some pump music, make sure you have everything you need in your ziplock bag, and maybe do one practice problem from each section just to get your brain humming.

Ultimately the best way other than sleep meds to reduce night-before-stress is to do everything u can to be prepared (this includes driving to the test site at least once beforehand so it's familiar to you)

Just relax. It's 100-101 multiple choice questions. The answer is literally right in front of you, you just have to find it.

Don't worry too much. We've got this. You're not going to do considerably worse than what you are PTing.

If you usually have some form of caffeine every day, avoid it on Thursday and Friday if at all possible. If not, try to cut the level of consumption.

xmking07 wrote:If you usually have some form of caffeine every day, avoid it on Thursday and Friday if at all possible. If not, try to cut the level of consumption.

Ehh, I would recommend against this. It's not a good idea to dramatically alter your consumption of drugs your system is used to right before test day, especially if you are used to having caffeine everyday. Just moderate consumption so that you don't over or under do it before the test and leave your brain in a state for taking the test that it is not used to functioning well in.

meegee wrote:I used melatonin. Also try to sleep starve yourself two days before. That way you'll feel sleepy the night before the test. If test is on Saturday, go to sleep at like 02:00 AM on Friday, and wake up around 06:00 AM. You'll have only 4 hours of sleep. Then Friday night, you'll be able to go to sleep at like 09:00 PM.

+1

3-5mg should be sufficient unless you're a big hoss (You can't overdose on it). Don't make Friday the first night you take it because it'll knock you on your ass the first time. You don't ever feel the sleepiness onset.

Another option which I halfheartedly recommend is 50 mg of Benadryl because it sometimes gives you the "hangover" feeling where it's hard for you to wake yourself up an function. You feel the sleepiness onset with Benadryl.

SecondWind wrote:
Another option which I halfheartedly recommend is 50 mg of Benadryl because it sometimes gives you the "hangover" feeling where it's hard for you to wake yourself up an function. You feel the sleepiness onset with Benadryl.

I didn't realize that Benadryl could have that effect. I think I will take some tomorrow night as a test run.

blackbirdfly wrote:

SecondWind wrote:
Another option which I halfheartedly recommend is 50 mg of Benadryl because it sometimes gives you the "hangover" feeling where it's hard for you to wake yourself up an function. You feel the sleepiness onset with Benadryl.

I didn't realize that Benadryl could have that effect. I think I will take some tomorrow night as a test run.

Disclaimer: You can't buy the "Non-drowsy" Benadryl and expect it to put you to sleep. You have to buy the regular kind, or better yet a generic of the regular kind.

I'm a chronic insomniac(at least until I find a sleep pattern), so it has been hard to fall asleep at 10 pm these last two nights(that DH stayed up until 11:30 pm didn't help either). What's even worse is that once I wake up at night, I can't fall back to sleep(like last night. Woke up at 4 am because of a full bladder, and tossed and turned until 6 am). I operated all day with 4 hours of sleep(I don't use any caffeine; it gives me headaches), yet, I still can't fall asleep.
I'm drinking a glass of wine now. That usually gets me KO for the entire night. Here is to hoping for 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep.

Turn off the computer early and do some chores. Take melatonin and read a boring book an hour before you want to get to sleep.

Play Drackedary with Palmela Anderson to relieve the tension, and sleep like a baby.

Girlsinyogapants.com

Wrong Marx wrote:Play Drackedary with Palmela Anderson Handerson to relieve the tension, and sleep like a baby.

FTFY