About two weeks into my junior year, I received yet another email from a group on App's campus inviting me to sign up for something. The email was an invitation to register for different studies the economics department would be conducting throughout the year. The email also stated that participants would be compensated for at least some of the studies, so of course I registered myself!

The plan the first morning was to make it to the 7:30 a.m. yoga class, but Eric did not wake up feeling as refreshed and rejuvenated as I did. Instead we went to the gym closest to our dorm at about 8 a.m. and still had plenty of time to shower, have breakfast, and be at our first classes.

I never really felt groggy throughout the day, and I maintained a pretty great mood for longer than normal. I am also currently on a health kick (I had a minor scare that I was on the way to my "freshman 15" as a junior) so I am drinking over my recommendation for water most days and keeping track of what I am eating (not to deprive myself, but to just see what all I am putting in my body and what is missing from my diet). Also, I hope to work in exercise most days, and I already walk a lot... so I was not sure how these other aspects are affecting my results (mood-wise) but I felt like in the end, I was going to come out of this with pretty great results.

Friday, 9/2/2016

Time in bed: 11:45 p.m.

Time out of bed: 7:57 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 7:52.00

My grandparents visited Boone this weekend to celebrate Labor Day, so I was nervous about how their presence and our activities would affect my sleep study. Having people visit definitely kept me more stressed than usual; I felt like an activities director! I knew that having them here and being as stressed out as I already was would not make for a good few nights of sleep.

Saturday, 9/3/2016

Time in bed: 11:15 p.m.

Time out of bed: 7:30 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 7:45.00

Towards the end of the day I was pretty tired, just because we walked around basically all day - a morning spent at the farmer's market plus an afternoon of visiting all of the Mast General Stores, spending time at Tweetsie Railroad and an evening at Mystery Hill. I also stayed up late playing cards and talking with my grandparents, so going to bed on time was a challenge.

Sunday, 9/4/2016

Time in bed: 11:55 p.m.

Time out of bed: 8:05 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 7:45.00

My body also seemed to reject having eight hours of sleep - it was really impossible to sleep that long. I also had church this morning, plus Eric and I were trying to get ready earlier so we could grab breakfast before we had to pick up my grandparents at their hotel, so my sleeping time was very constricted.

One of our friends from Campbell visited Eric, my sister, and me for the evening, plus Eric and I spent the later part of the night watching a movie in my sisters’ room before walking back to our dorm. I was pretty tired when I finally made it back to go to bed, mainly because it was already pretty late.

Monday, 9/5/2016

Time in bed: 12:00 a.m.

Time out of bed: 8:27 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 8:22.00

Since we had no school today, I didn't really have a need to be up too early, but my body called it quits before I even hit 8.5 hours in bed. So I spent the early morning tidying in my room, waiting on Eric to wake up.

We basically had to create things to do for the day because neither of us had anything going on, so we ordered a pizza (shout out to Papa John's!) and had a super cute picnic lunch on Sanford Mall. Afterward, we pretended to read for our Comm class while we laid in our ENOs... but who can really concentrate in an ENO? (I may have dozed off a little, but shh! we weren't allowed to nap!)

Later that evening, Eric and a friend of ours from home decided to go to the gym and spent some time on our arm muscles, which completely wore me out (arms day is my least fav day)! Even though I did very little today, I was still pretty exhausted at bedtime.

Tuesday, 9/6/2016

Time in bed: 12:19 a.m.

Time out of bed: 8:40 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 8:06.00

In general, Tuesdays are pretty easy days for me as I always have one class from 11-12:15 p.m. then nothing else until my second (and last) class from 6:30-7:45 p.m. This afternoon, we spent an hour or so in the gym working out our leg muscles (leg day is my fav day) and Eric and I walked around campus a bit to hit our step goals for the day. I was definitely ready for bed, plus... IT WAS THE LAST NIGHT!

Wednesday, 9/7/2016

Time in bed: 12:20 a.m.

Time out of bed: 8:45 a.m.

Total Time asleep: 8:15.00

Woo! It's Hump Day! No more wearing two watches (one on each arm, like the loser that I am because I couldn't go a week without seeing my daily steps)! As I finished each class and each task of my morning and early afternoon, I was one step closer to being finished and I was beyond excited.

The final part of this study was not really what I had expected it to be, which made me uncomfortable at first, but once I better understood what was being asked, I relaxed and finished the tasks as best I could (this is all I will say, I am not sure if this is secret or anything).

Final thoughts?

After this study finished, I noticed myself naturally allowing more time to sleep and trying to get as close to eight hours as possible. As for any other changes, I have still remained active to meet my prior health goals and I know that having ample sleep is helping my energy in the gym. I started paying attention to the times I am eating or drinking things (especially coffee or soda) later in the evening and trying to cut back on that. I also still have not had a real nap since beginning the study... but I may need to change that soon as my class workload picks up ;)

To say that I recommend everyone sleep 8-hours every night would be a lie - I recommend that everyone sleep the amount that their body needs each night. For me, I would say this looks like something in the 7:45.00 to 8:15.00 window. Once you find out what leaves you feeling the most refreshed, stick to that! And when your body really wakes up, even if it is before your alarm, go ahead and get up and start moving! If you try to go back to sleep or just keep laying there, odds are you'll be pretty groggy when you finally wake up.