Spring Quarter is here, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming.

Now is the perfect time to start thinking about goals for this quarter, or even goals for the summer. One goal that I am working on is the goal to become more of a morning person. During the first two quarters of this freshman year, I stayed up on many occasions until midnight or later working on homework. From those other college students that I have talked to, this seems like a common occurrence. Sometimes it might seem impossible to break the cycle of going to bed late and waking up early. With college students' amount of stress and responsibility, it seems like we do whatever we can to get it all done, and in order to do that the first thing that often is kicked out of taking up time is sleep.

As for me, anytime I could sleep I seized the opportunity and got every minute in bed that I could. This certainly didn't help me be very productive and often messed with my sleep schedule even more than it was before. Additionally, this didn't seem to help me in my pursuit of the necessary energy for the day. I was consistently drowsy for a lot of the day and found myself taking short or long naps every day. While I wanted to do things like exercise or play music, or any other free-time hobby, my lack of enough sleep always superseded that.

My solution to all this actually came from my psychology class I am taking this quarter. In regards to sleep cycles and habits, my professor told us one day that it took 3 weeks to change a sleep habit. My professor went on to explain the benefits of different sleep cycles, but what really stuck with me was the little amount of time required. If all it took was 3 weeks to fix my landslide of sleep deprivation, why not just try it?

I began to go to bed even just half an hour earlier and waking up fifteen minutes earlier. While there have been setbacks such as sudden events that require waking up earlier than planned or staying up late, overall the goal has helped me more than predicted. I am only on the second week of this goal of mine, and already I have realized an increase in my total energy, as well as drive to get up and exercise or push through the afternoon lull and finish that essay that is due tomorrow.

I would highly suggest at least a reevaluation of people's sleep habits for those of us that are working through the stresses of college life as well as anyone else out there that feels like they are in constant search for just a bit more rest.

Happy sleeping.