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Related Discussions
How to Become a Morning Person
Lilhannah1345
Alum Member
Hi guys,
I'm sure the answer to this question is pretty simple (just wake up earlier regularly) but I'm very much a night person and even after a month of waking up at 6am trying to force myself to be mentally active earlier in the day, I still can't write a PT until 11 or noon at the earliest. I just wrote the June 2017 exam and am retaking (set to rewrite in December), but I'm seriously considering deferring law school an entire year to be able to write in June again for the sake of time. Is this extreme?? Should I just wait it out and see if I can adjust??
I should also mention I was PTing in the 166-172 range before getting a 158 (mostly due to test anxiety). So I feel like more time could be beneficial for the sake of my score anyway?
Any advice from reformed night people would be appreciated!
Comments
I think being a morning person or not is somewhat genetic, at least from what I've read. I suppose you can try the normal advice of going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, but who knows if that will work. I just think eventually you'll get used to it if you keep it at it. I think you should wait it out and see if you can adjust.
I've also read about people resetting their circadian rhythms by staying up for 48 hours straight in hopes that they will be able to fall asleep earlier at night and wake up earlier as a result.
Have you tried doing a light workout in the morning? Sometimes that is enough to get the blood flowing and wake you up a bit. Don't have to run 80 miles or anything, but a quick dog walk or jog might help out.
I think your decision to postpone should be based around your confidence with the test and PT scores and less with time of the day. But if you really feel like there will be an impact, postponing never hurt, it's just more time to study.
Am currently facing the same problem. I usually go to bed around 3am - 4am. This week I'll be forcing myself to get up ~6am and do work by ~7-8am to prep my brain for the LSAT. While I think people like you and me may be genetically coded as night owls, I'd believe enough discipline and willpower could overcome that heredity (atleast until test day!).
I've never been a morning person but idk, I eventually just got used to it. To me, a 9am class was terrible, but since I was kind of forced to have classes at that time, I guess I just got used to it after hating doing anything before like 10 or 11 lol
That used to be me in college, and then I took a job that was a 45+ minute commute, with a 5:30 am start time (wake up at 4:15, get ready and hit the road by 4:45). It was brutal for a few weeks but ever since then I've consistently woken up at, or before 7 am (even on weekends when I have no plans).
For anyone having issues being a "morning person", start now. Not in a few days, not next week, not the week before the test. Start tonight. If you can't go to sleep, literally lay in bed starring at the cold, black walls until you do fall asleep. The number 1 lie I hear is that people go to bed and just "can't fall asleep". That's not true.. you just killed time on the internet for 3 extra hours, you didn't even try to sleep. Trust me, I went through it too. Have some self control. Don't look at your phone, don't watch youtube, don't read reddit, don't text, don't watch tv, don't play xbox. LAY IN BED, IN THE DARK, WITH NOTHING TO DISTRACT YOU. You will eventually get bored and fall asleep.
Wake up at 7 am and take a cold shower, go for a jog, ride your bike, anything that gets your blood flowing. Eat breakfast and do something fun to reward yourself. Play video games. Read reddit. Read the news. Do a puzzle. Whatever floats your boat. Hopefully that "something" will stimulate your brain and you should be ready for your LSAT warmup. Do a LG, do a RC passage, do 10 LR questions.. THEN, you should be adequately "warmed up" and can start studying or PTing.
Make whatever you choose into a routine. Slowly start waking up earlier and earlier until you can do your "warmup" with enough time to be at the test center for the real LSAT. It will be hard, but the sooner you start the better.
Agree with the above. I've been working my way slowly to getting up at 5 (at 5:10 now) by adjusting my alarm back by about 10-15 minutes each week. Something crutial for me is no naps. It's kind of awful for a while, but to be properly tired at night it helps to not sleep during the day, at least until a few days after you've switched your alarm. It's no kind of fun, but stick with it! It gets better - kind of like the LSAT
I concur with @LSATcantwin a light workout when you first roll out of bed could force you to wake up. Also, I like to take half a melatonin if I'm buzzed and can't go to sleep early. Usually knocks me out with in 30 minutes.
I wake up around 6:30 every morning no matter at what time I was able to fall asleep the night before (sometimes, I toss and turn for a while). I just think that the night before the test I might not be able to sleep that well, so I want be ready to test no matter what. As @tringo335 says, melatonin really does help to fall asleep. A 10 mins meditation session can help get rid of the day's anxiety and prep for a good sleep.
To wake my brain up in the morning, I start by washing my face with cold water. Then, I drink a large (ok, extra large) coffee and eat breakfast while doing some old LR questions (this really wakes me up lol). After, I usually go for a 5-10 mins walk in the neighborhood to get some fresh air and come back to start working on the LSAT.
I find that sticking to a routine will help your brain adjust and eventually be awake whenever you want it to be awake. Allow yourself a good hour and a half before starting PTesting/studying.
One last thing, don't check your phone too much. I check it once in the morning before studying to see if there's anything of importance. If not, I respond to messages/emails etc in the evening once I'm done with the studying. I just don't want to clutter my brain with a million things. I understand that this might not be possible for people who work/have kids etc though..
Good luck!
Just took my earliest PrepTest ever at 9:00am. Actually went really well! I woke up at 6:00am. I think the earliness really just gets you if you are still groggy from waking up, but if you give yourself enough time to be awake (drink a coffee, watch some YouTube videos, etc.) then your mind isn't as foggy and eyes not as tired.
If I were to wake up at 6:00am and take a PrepTest at 7:00am, the story would be different. At least for me, it appears letting your mind get used to being awake (lol) helps to overcome the earliness of waking up.
Super extreme morning person here. I have no clue how you people can stay up past 10:30 PM. My brain ceases to function at 9:45 PM PST.
This is exactly how I feel. Naturally, I sleep in till about 3pm and get tired at 5 or 6 am so the LSAT, work day, and classes are at the wrong time.
But, every day I can override it again. I force myself to sleep as unnaturally early as I can bear, wake two or three hours before I have to be fully alert, and make sure I am mentally and physically active for those couple hours. This staying active was really easy on my first test day when I woke up for the first time in months before my alarm by a few minutes, paced nervously, did my planned practice problems, ect.
Agreed with the commentators above. I also moved my schedule around for the LSAT - currently waking up at 6am with no problems but I'll have to move that to 5:30 in a week to allow for a proper warm up on test day before driving to the center.
I love coffee and caffeinated tea. Had to stop drinking so much of it. I limit myself to two cups of coffee in the morning and I can have tea after 2 or so. You really have to be strict about that if that's an issue. Also, don't drink alcohol. It totally fucks up your sleeping. I hear people say that it knocks them out but I'm skeptical, if only because whenever I drink even a little bit (okay not one or two glasses of wine but anything more than that) I don't rest as easily. Another thing is you should not be using screens at least a half hour before you intend to get in the bed and turn the lights off. Read before bed. Half an hour is all you need in my opinion.
You can do it! I've seen it happen.
I love being a morning person as well! I went from being a 9am person to 6am person. You get SO much more done.
EXACTLY! I'm bored by 8am on some days because I've finished a majority of my work for the day
+1000. I've been waking up at 5am for years and I get so much done before work. Studying, work, laundry, etc. Having a few extra hours is absolutely life changing. Nothing better than the feeling of being bored by the time most people are just waking up!
Early birds are gettin those worms
@Freddy_D that's why I like you so much. I'm the exact same way to the extreme. Up early, do my work, done by 9am. Chill the rest of the day and in bed by like 9pm haha
Haha that's the story of my life. I'm a grandpa at heart
The early bird may get the worm, but the night owl's diet consists of mice, rats, moles, squirrels, rabbits, spiders, frogs, lizards, small birds, and even skunks.
touché
Night owl by preference here. I've been forcing myself to be a morning person for years. Set alarms to keep yourself from dilly-dallying, lolly-gagging, and loafing around. My phone goes off about a dozen times before noon every day to tell me what to do. Wake up, get up, walk the dog, jog, make coffee, shower, feed the dog, eat breakfast, warm up drills, etc. Maybe it's a bit silly, but it keeps me on task, and staying on task has been the key for me. It takes weeks to adjust to, but pretty natural for me now. I also bought lights that I could program to turn themselves on. It's way harder to get up in the dark.
I have to be at work by 7 a.m. so I get up at 5:30 every day and drill LG for an hour. Every day. If I can go -0 on time while being half asleep, I'm happy. I credit part of my change from -9 on LG to -0 to this. I'll probably start integrating LR drills this early too.
I HATE waking up early. But, practice makes perfect. I'd much rather suffer now than when I see my score!
Also, does anyone know if we can bring coffee on test day? Can I bring my Yeti with coffee in it? Do I have to use a clear plastic cup to bring the coffee? I mean I'll do anything to bring coffee... Did I mention please let us bring coffee? Lol
Ugh I so need to make putting down my phone a habit.
Set a 6am alarm clock every day even on weekends. The first week you'll be violent towards the snooze button. Get an ACTUAL alarm clock and make sure it's away from your bed, forcing you to get out of bed. That should do the trick.
Oh and drink a cold glass of water when you wake up, takes your body some extra energy to warm that up.
Are you guys that are working full time all studying in the morning? I've been studying at night, and it goes well, but certainly makes it hard to wake up early. Maybe I've been doing this backwards!
Yeah, my mind is so much more fresh studying in the morning. So I usually try to do as much as I can before work. You'd be surprised how much a cold shower can wake you up, haha. In actuality I end up trying to do about 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours per night. I try to also do an LG section on my lunch break too.