Seeking Advice and Some Raising Rainbow Stuff · 10:57pm Aug 10th, 2014
Alrighty, so...
In a week, it'll be the night before school starts. I'm excited, and I'm sure most who are entering a new grade this year are. There is one problem, though... Yours truly has been staying up to midnight, one in the morning, and occasionally, beyond. During the school year, I usually pass out at eight and wake up at three in the morning. You see the problem here, right?
Basically, I want to know if you guys have any advice on how I can fall asleep quicker and wake up earlier, while being able to make it a habit. Any advice will help, I just really need to get in good sleeping habits to make the first few days not as painful. Also, I don't drink coffee, so that's not an option.
Now, for some Raising Rainbow stuffs. To start, let's have something cute: 
This is what Dreamscape looks like. Alright, I didn't imagine him to be this freaking adorable, but the colors, mane style, and other things are all how I imagined them to be. The only thing left out, is I imagined his cutie mark to be turning factory wheels, but bread is good enough. At least, I think it's bread.
Now, the other thing is the fact I don't know what the buck I'm doing with my newest chapter. I'm around 6,200 words in, yet I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing with the rest. I'm halfway through, and my mind's circling with ideas. I just can't seem to find anything I entirely like. It's making me a bit angry and frustrated. Maybe I'll take a short break and work on something else for the time being. Heck, maybe I'll go for the indirect prequel to Raising Rainbow. Yes, I know I already made New Discoveries, but I'd like to do a story about how Rainbolt and Firefly first met. I planned it around five months ago, so maybe I'll actually get to it... (I did start it at a time, but it got lost in my old computer and I haven't tried making it again since).
Also, there's some Moonstruck/Blue Moon art I'd like to show you guys, but will probably add in the next chapter, so... yeah.
-Pizzema Forte
In regards to developing good sleep habits, since there is one week before school start, start sleeping the way you want to sleep for school now. Since that will be rather difficult the first week (and beyond), here are a couple of rules.
1. Go to bed at eight, no exceptions, and start immediately. As horrible as the first night is when you start this, you just got to push through and keep to the same schedule.
2. For waking up at 3—I think seven hours isn't enough but that's my opinion—use a loud, obnoxious alarm clock (preferably one without a snooze button)
3. Two hours before 8, do not use any electronics whatsoever. The reason is that because of the common LCD, you are constantly hit with blue light. This is important when considering the fact the sun gives off the most blue (high intensity) light at sunrise. The human body as such has developed a waking up mechanism that is highly attuned to blue light. Bottom line, no electronics after 6, keep regular light use low, and falling asleep will be no problem
4. Finally, (and I'm not kidding about this) since you want to consistently wake up at 3, turn on the lights immediately and play some sort of video game (or get in some sort of screen time). This will make "waking up" faster and develop the time schedule for the morning.
I hope this helped
Sincerely,
Mac349
I wish I had good sleeping advice other than lay in bed in your pre-set hours no mater what. As for you side story, if you want to work on it instead I the main one, go ahead, just don't forget the main story at times. I do it all the time.
2359356
But... But... My sixth favorite show comes on at eight tonight.
Knowing me, I'll probably go to bed at 8:30. It's only tonight, but I think 8:30 is better than 9:00, 10:00, or midnight, for that matter.
I have an alarm clock my mom gave me that plays song from Grease. Is that loud and obnoxious enough? Also, it does have a snooze button, so that'll be a bit hard to ignore, but I'm sure I can do it.
Well, it's around 7:30 at night, so I suppose I already blew that opportunity (again, I'll start tomorrow), but on a normal day, would it be acceptable to play/practice violin within this two hour period? I know some people say you shouldn't be too active before bed, while others say you can. Playing violin isn't as intense physically as it is mentally, but will it leave my mind too active to sleep?
I do that anyway. Also, I really don't choose to get up at three in the morning for school. I have to be on my bus by 5;45, so the latest I can get up is 4:30. If I want time to wake up, make breakfast, eat, shower, do hair/makeup, get dressed, catch up on studying/homework, write, or do anything that seems important that morning, I have to be up with enough time to do those things. Also, it's nice to know if I need to sleep in, I can (even though it can be dangerous).
So, yeah, thanks for all the advice! My mom's also getting some sleep aids to help me over the next week (but I really don't want to have to use them if I don't need them). Surely, those will help, and I'll be back in routine eventually!
Try to get some excersize in in the early afternoon, the when you do go to bed at 20:00 don't have a TV or anything on. Getting up at 03:00 will eventually make going to bed at 20:00 easier once your body adjusts to that schedule. Also not a bad idea to do some light excersize when you first wake up to help you wake all the way up. Also if you want to sleep well at 20:00 you're going to want to eat at like 17:00 at the latest.
2359398
What kind of sick and twisted school do you go to that makes you get up so blasted early?! You get on the bus at a quarter to six? Holy crap! When I was in high school, I didn't wake up until six, get on my bus at seven, and school started at 7:40. I wish I had some helpful advice for you, but I just go to bed when I have to and fall asleep some random amount of time later.
~SolidFire
2359420 My school starts at 7:05, so...
Sucker.
My school doesn't start until September.
Welp, I remembered my sleeping schedule during school years was going to bed at 12, check my phone in pitch black till 1:30, then wake up at 6:30 feeling my eyes dying a little every day. It's been at least 3 years since I've felt the joy of waking up fully refreshed.
I don't think you need to worry too much about sleeping schedules, in my opinion, as long as you force yourself to sleep in the way you want for a couple of days and calm yourself about school starting, your mental clock should adapt itself. Though, I've never tried to finetune my sleeping schedule since I know I've long been without one. (I once read through every chapter (available during that time) of FoE: Project Horizons in 10 days, by staying up with my phone in pitch black reading until 5 in the morning. I'd sleep for an hour just because, and then go to school with feeling incredibly sick. I felt stupid but somehow achieved something.)
2359464 Mine's October.
Well I'm three chapters behind at the moment because I'm trying to catch up in another story at the moment so I cant in my right mind comment about that.
But as far as sleep goes, my tired and true method is to just go to be two hours earlier each night.
! hour to just lay there and try to sleep, and another to actually fall asleep in.
So say you are normally going to bed at 3AM.
Go to bed at 12 and be asleep by 2.
Then the next night you go to bed at 11 and so on.
Yes I know my math may be a bit off or confusing but that's what you get when you are a D student.
Hehe, we can always change it to be turning factory wheels later :)
At the moment it is actually a book and quill, the same cutie mark as your friend's OC, before we found out that we had commisioned the wrong Dreamscape :P
http://www.wikihow.com/Fall-Asleep
Here is a long article on how to fall asleep. hope it helps
EDIT: it has pictures
Very nice dreamscape picture
If I have any advice its change pillows, even the order of them
Sometimes a switch between a firm to a softer pillow, or the other way around, can make all the difference
Best of luck and such things
-Dawning Dusk
I've never had luck suddenly changing my sleep schedule. I'd recommend a more gradual change, getting 7 hours of sleep each night. the first day or so is fluff anyway (or at least it is whrre i am) so i wo Yuri ldnt worry to much about being tired the forst day. It sucks that your school starts that early, my high school didn't start until 7:50. Now that I'm in College I choose my own schedule, last quarter my first class was at 11:00.
This will sound bizarre, but I use hypnotism. A good friend of mine tried it on me once, and it worked wonders. Honestly, find a few good friends and ask their advice. It's different for ever person how they fall asleep.
My personal advice -
Hypnotism
Music
Generally happy or relaxing thoughts
Absolutely no dwelling on story ideas - Those keep you up until 4 am.