Having a baby did the trick for me, but there are probably more convenient ways to alter your sleep patterns. One of my colleagues uses an app called Sleep Cycle, that monitors your breathing, and wakes you up within a certain time window, at a point when you are sleeping lightly, so getting out of bed is less of an ordeal.

Thank you for the advice. I'm currently investigating the faculty members' papers and bios to get an idea of who I would be happy to work with, before taking any further steps.

Thanks for the input. I guess it will be better to wait and have a chance to get to know the people concerned rather than pushing for an early decision. It's just rather unsettling at this point, and I feel that I don't know enough about the whole process to understand the pros and cons of seniority in a supervisor.

I'm due to start my PhD in 3 weeks time, but received an email from my supervisor a couple of days ago to tell me that they have just been offered a job elsewhere, and my project is now off the table. The university are still going to honour my offer of a studentship, but I don't know for what project or who my supervisor will be.

My 2nd supervisor (who I haven't met) is apparently 'very keen to work with me', but they are a post doc, and reading between the lines, I suspect that they will be my de facto supervisor, while somebody more senior will be a nominal 1st supervisor. I may be reading too much into this though.

Another alternative suggested is that I join a completely different group, but none was actually suggested. For the moment, it's being left for discussion once I arrive.

Has anybody else found themselves in this position before, or have any advice on how I should handle this?

Have you considered a Career Development Loan?
https://www.gov.uk/career-development-loans/overview