Out of all the unhealthy habits and bad choices I’ve seen in college, not sleeping is one of the most common. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” “Who needs sleep?,” and “Sleep is for the weak” are all things I hear every day on campus. For somebody who loves sleep, hearing this is just a little sad. If there’s one thing I do right in my life, it’s that I get seven to eight hours of sleep every night, which still is not the recommended amount, but it’s pretty good for a college student. So trust me, it’s possible to do and I’ll try to show you how.
Figure your life out.
Not quite your whole life, but at least the next week or two. Keeping a schedule of more or less what you’re going to be doing every day is super helpful for staying on top of things and getting to bed on time. It doesn’t have to be strictly hour by hour, planning every second of your day. It’s just a general plan for what to do every day so you’re not saving things for the last minute or jumping around too much. Whether it’s digital or on paper, just come up with a general plan for you week. Set your day up the way that seems best for you and decide on a time to go to sleep and a time to wake up. Sticking to this plan is the most important part.
Shut down the social media.
This is one I’ve yet to conquer, but I know I should. Doing a one-hour homework assignment easily turns into three hours when you’re checking Snapchat every 10 minutes. Most people work on their laptops so it’s so easy to get distracted and open another tab and scroll through your Facebook. When it comes to your phone, though, you can just put it away where you won’t hear it vibrate and the temptation will be far less. So what does this have to do with sleep? If you followed the above suggestion to make a schedule, but find that everything is taking twice as long as you thought, you’re probably not going to want to go to sleep at the scheduled time.
If you want something done right, do it yourself
Group study is great. You learn things you didn’t know and you solidify your knowledge by teaching it to others. Yet there’s a difference between that and studying in the same space. Your friends are probably the second biggest distraction, the first being your phone. Everyone knows how easy it is to get off track once someone starts a conversation completely irrelevant to schoolwork. The result is the same as number two. You start talking to people, and you realize that you’ve been on the same slide for half an hour. Save the social activities for a study break or for the weekend and find your own space to work alone. Again, making sure you get your work done on time is crucial to going to bed at a healthy time.
Learn to say no.
There are times when you do get your work done, but you still go to sleep way past due time. It’s those days when your whole squad wants to hang out together. Sure it’s great to be up late on the weekends when there are no obligations in the morning, but during a weekday it’s very counterproductive. A chill session until three in the morning is not worth the fatigue you’ll feel when you have to wake up at nine. So know where your priorities are and learn to say no when you should.
No late-night snacks.
Late-night eating is so common in college but it’s really unhealthy for many reasons. Other than gaining the weight, eating late at night can push your bed time even later. Food is energy, so eating really late is going to make you more awake and less likely to go to sleep on time. A good rule is to not eat past eight at night. It doesn’t have to be that exact time, as long as you don’t eat within three hours of your bedtime. It’s good to let everything digest so you can wind down and actually feel tired when it’s time to sleep.
Getting a good amount of sleep pays off short term and long term. Improving memory, better concentration, more retention, a better immune system, and more. Sounds like something a college kid would want to have in their life. Sadly, many college students risk feeling like crap afterwards just to cram in more information. The reality is that you’ll be better off sleeping for a good amount of time rather than getting a few extra hours to study. So just try sleeping right for a few days!
