If there's anything that college students always want more of, it's sleeping. I can fully speak to that wholeheartedly; ask me anything in the morning and it'll always be "I can't wait for bed." Especially nowadays where the semester is drawing to a close, most of us are crammed and busy, losing all of the great sleep that we need.
Most college kids actually don't get that much sleep. On average, most college students get 6-7 hours of sleep per night. That is generally less than required for most people our age to need to function; health classes weren't lying when they said that your body needs 6-10 hours of sleep.
But, there's one thing that prevents us from gaining those much needed sleeping hours: life. We all understand that if we could, we would wish for a longer than 24 hour day so that we can achieve everything that the world has to offer for us. But staying up to go out, or to cram for all of the activities that we have planned throughout the week and the day. College students are naturally more stressed than most with all of the things we do. Lacking sleep does a lot to you more than you can ever imagine actually: sleeping is the one thing that we shouldn't avoid in this world, and according to an article on Cleveland Clinic we are the only mammals that willingly delay sleeping.
1. Sleep is important as heck.
Just think about it: a restful night sleep with no problems at all. Sleep restores your energy and makes you actually better body and mind. When you sleep you restore your body of energy, make your brain actually settle down and help make new pathways for areas like learning to develop and help you fight off common infections. I can usually tell when I'm starting to get sick because I haven't been sleeping that much. In college we strain our brain a lot with everything that we do and sometimes taking in proper sleeping, and a constant sleep schedule is a good thing.
2. Sleeping works well with your grades.
Like your body needs restoration, so does your mind. Lacking sleep makes you tend to lose focus; there has been a link that sleep deprivation to GPAs, because sleep deprivation affects concentration, memory and the ability to learn. By managing your time, and not pulling a lot of all nighters your brain will stay focus for the next day. Usually, all nighters have varying opinions, but most of the time information is not crammed into your brain, losing its willpower as the day goes on. It is stated that being up 16 hours straight decreases your performance as the day goes on, so all-nighters aren't suppose to be able to work, because naturally as a person we should sleep.
3. Naps are fun, but you might be doing them wrong.
If you're like me, a twenty to thirty-minute nap does not cover the sleep that you need. Studies show the taking naps longer than that actually affect your sleeping at night, disrupting your natural sleep cycle. Keeping a nap that is twenty to thirty minutes actually does better than sleeping for like four hours a day.
4. Keep away from the distractions and the stimulants.
We live in a modern age and we are in college. There are so many things around us that keep us away from sleeping. Avoiding coffee, alcohol and other stimulants before bed can actually make sleeping easier. Also, before going to sleep try to say off of technology at least a half-hour before falling asleep. There is a coloration between the thought of technology and the light emitted from things like computers and cell phones that affect how long it takes us to sleep. Because we have the ability to literally be on our phone 24/7 and have it easily accessible to us, we take that for granted. Trying to minimize your sleeping distractions just isn't about putting away the technology and the coffee, it's about establishing a routine. Waking up and falling asleep at the same time, not catching up on sleep over the weekend and keeping a good meal schedule all help with a good night sleep.
5. Know when you are ready to sleep.
Commonly, and I mean most of the time, people live in their bed. Your brain actually psychs itself out if you are always in your bed, and won't be able to tell if it is tired or not. Therefore, it is suggested to only use your bed for sleeping and well....only sex. Watching TV, eating, and studying all psych out the mind into thinking that your bed is only used for these things. When you are ready to sleep, only go when you are relaxed and when you are absolutely ready to fall asleep. Stressful situations sometimes can cause you to be awake; on average it should only take a person 10-15 minutes to fall asleep, if you can't after that immediately get up out of bed and do something. Exercising is a good way to get your body to relax, but mostly not being in bed when your awake helps out more.
Hopefully some of these things can help you gain a better night sleep. I'm going to go take a three hour I mean thirty minute nap to make sure that my brain is ready to kick the end of the semester's butt. Happy sleeping!
