Sleep management

[Elaclaire]

After many hours of play, I've become more or less familiar with most of the game's mechanics. However, regulation of sleep patterns still remains a big problem for me.

In the case when the character does not experience any serious physical activity during the day, no big problems arise - I send the character to bed at 22.00 and he wakes up at 6.00 without the help of an alarm clock.

However, if for one reason or another the character is forced to go to bed well after midnight, then the entire sleep pattern instantly collapses. Without an alarm clock character will sleep until the middle of the day and then will not want to sleep for half the night without sleeping pills. And of course later he will want to sleep in the middle of the day. Attempts to get up on an alarm clock result in the character not getting enough sleep and starting to want to sleep during the day.

If, in addition to everything described above, the day was full of different physical activity, then the character gets tired even faster. Accordingly, drowsiness sets in much earlier. And here a big problem arises with how to return everything to normal.

If sleeping pills more or less help put the character to sleep even when he is not yet tired, then vitamins seemed to me a rather weak means of maintaining vigor in the middle of the day. Sometimes, even if you start taking the vitamin literally immediately when the drowsiness symbol appears, you have to eat almost the entire package so that the character does not fall into drowsiness again after just a few seconds. And that's assuming he doesn't have to fight.

I tried to arrange for the character to take a nap for a couple of hours during the day, but such a measure is not always feasible, since other negative factors can be added on top of drowsiness - from hunger to the attention of a crowd of zombies.

So I'm wondering how you regulate your character's sleep patterns? And what measures do you resort to to return this regime to normal if for some reason you had to break it?

[Jethro]

I do recall this being a slight problem for me too. Usually, once my dude gets to the point where his sleep cycle is messed up, I’ll go out and do whatever till he gets sleepy, then just head home and read until 22:00 and let him get exhausted. Then sleep till 6am and he’s kind of “reset” for a few days until I end up breaking it again because he’ll be up late for some reason.

Keeping your character on a strict sleep schedule seems quite important to get the most out of your days. And I hate it when I get tired at like 1pm while I’m out bashing skulls.

[Krazzy K]

I've had a similar issue now then. Early on I did believe that one the most important items was a digital watch. Due to what you're describing plus my first few play throughs I was always waking up in early morning hours.

That said either a rough day or damn night terrors, if my char was off his schedule 22 or 23 to 6:10 gotta have the snooze lol. One easy thing to do is go out forging if you can.
I may be wrong but it seems going around crouch forging eats up your energy.
So do that for a while take a nap (<>2hrs) on the couch( mainly due to average rest benefits) again maybe it's just me. Will at least make your character able to sleep close to the normal time again. May take another day to get completely on track.

[VANGUARD]

There are some tools to manage your sleep.
You already know about the alarm clock/watch.
Alcoholic drinks like beer or wine or sleeping tablets (don't mix with alcohol) will make your character sleepy real quick.
Doing exercies also builds fatigue.
Coffee, tea, and vitamins do the opposit and reduce fatigue.
It's always handy to have some of the items stashed away just in case.

[WalkingMeat]

If you want to get sleepy on demand, start digging for worms with a shovel. That method might even be faster than taking sleeping pills and you get a nice snack as a bonus :D

[Kryzx]

Exercising can fix your abnormal sleep patterns since it tires your character out faster if you do it consecutively through the day. Set an alarm for the time you want to be up by if you want, although there's not much reason to after the first week once the TV broadcasts (Life & Living) are finished.

I would just do sit-ups though if you're not interested in leveling fitness or strength stats. That way you can still go out and fight zombies the next time you wake up. The exercise fatigue will severely decrease your melee damage if you try the other exercises that focuses on your arms, not to mention the severe pain/agony, but that can at least be mitigated with painkillers.

Otherwise, I tend to just kind of ignore being tired if the moodle comes up very early in the day and I'm just doing things around the base or reading books with no plan to go out to fight. It's only when you get your fatigue level up the the 2nd-to-last to last moodle level is when I call it bed time, since your character's stamina will barely recover at all. Obviously, do NOT do this if you're out fighting with melee weapons. As soon as you see the initial tired moodle, either GTFO, down a whole bottle of vitamins, or devour some coffee when it's safe if you need to stay out longer.

[Animalman]

Excersize can help sleep but will take hours and comes to consequence of dealing with fatgiue

Alcohol makes u tired. For vitamins don't bother unless u crack how to use them.
I use them effectively to buff a security guard who has all the sleep reduction perks. So he is only needs like 4 hours ever. He can go a while without sleep. and is hard to make him sleep if i have time to kill. exercise hasn't actually helped but i do it anyway. Because if he is not tired enough he can't sleep anyway. So it can't be brushed off so easily. Anyways i benefit from Vitamins on the security build. but most other games they are too heavy a carry and too little to be meaningfully effective. Unless i am that moment in somebodies bathroom bandaging up.

I would say Alochol would be the way to go in the absence of sleeping pills.
Its a huge hit for a character who has no sleep reduction perks. You might try sprinting or going for a jog a few times if there is none of the sleep aids available.

Say u just woke up at mid day or soemthing
you can wake up and drop a beer if you want;
drop a beer at 6pm with dinner. So it has time to deplete some energy

[Armagenesis]

Personally, I don't care about sleep schedule much.

If my character oversleeps, then that day will be spent doing something in and around my base or somewhere close. So later that day, I can sleep early or on schedule.

If they can wake up early, around 5 or 6 in the morning, then I will go out to either clear out an area or loot said area. On specific situations, I will go out chopping wood or walling off that specific area instead.

[Kanarek]

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Personally, I don't care about sleep schedule much.

I take things further: I don't care about it basically at all. Vitamins are quite powerful when combined with the positive trait reducing drowsiness increase rate. Coffee is basically a free day without sleep (considering Thirst and Unhappiness aren't a problem for you in your current situation). For a mod thing, energy drinks can save one's skin due to stamina replenishment on top of reducing drowsiness directly.

Anyway, unironic congratulations to you all people who are this organised to keep a schedule in a video game.

Edit: I forgot to answer the original post. Everything goes as I would expect, the game works just fine. I think I won't repeat the answers other people gave you as I agree with them and have nothing more to add from myself. Maybe except that I've always played without a sleep schedule and never found it to be an issue for me nor my playstyle.

[Elaclaire]

Thanks to everyone for the answers, although as I understand it, most have a problem with making the character want to sleep. In my case I usually encounter the fact that even without negative perks, my character quickly slips into constant drowsiness in the middle of the day.

Just in case, I play on apocalypse, without any mods. And I’m unlikely to start using mods in the near future, because even after 100 hours of playing I continue to behave like a complete beginner. So for me, the basic version of the game will not soon exhaust its entertainment potential.

[Animalman]

Yeah so waking up too early can have a negative to your energy.
You ever woken up on the alarm and the character instantly drops back into drowsy?
So have i. Even after a few hours out
Yeah you have to take the long sleep session on the chin. Without an alarm. and without a schedule to fully replenish.

The Darkness of night can be an issue for some builds so having a sleep schedule is preferential. Coffee and Vitamins will help that situation. Because without power in some places at some weather conditions can get very dark without Cats Eyes.

So basically.

If you went to bed late, and set an alarm and got less than like 6 hours in bed you will wake and probably drop back into drowsy.

[VANGUARD]

Originally posted by Elaclaire:

Thanks to everyone for the answers, although as I understand it, most have a problem with making the character want to sleep. In my case I usually encounter the fact that even without negative perks, my character quickly slips into constant drowsiness in the middle of the day.

Just in case, I play on apocalypse, without any mods. And I’m unlikely to start using mods in the near future, because even after 100 hours of playing I continue to behave like a complete beginner. So for me, the basic version of the game will not soon exhaust its entertainment potential.

Another thing is heat.
Having too much insulation from clothes during warm seasons can cause your character to overheat often and sweat as a result.
This also builds up fatigue, so if you like to armor up try to look for clothes with little insulation.

[Kanarek]

Originally posted by Elaclaire:

Thanks to everyone for the answers, although as I understand it, most have a problem with making the character want to sleep. In my case I usually encounter the fact that even without negative perks, my character quickly slips into constant drowsiness in the middle of the day.

I have sometimes problems with getting my character to sleep, but that's when he or she is injured and suffers from pain. Sleeping tablets or painkillers help with that (at worst alcohol). And I admit I play without the lethal infections, I prefer that way.

It makes sense to get drowsy quickly in a zombie apocalypse. The player's character is, I presume, often walking around and carrying a lot of stuff, doing a lot of stuff (including combat), and living in a constant state of danger.