Living in a society where time is money, many things often get overlooked. Family, personal hygiene, even sleep can get pushed to the back of our minds. The average college student only sleeps six hours a night. If we spend all this time trying to juggle classes, school activities, and sports, that require an immense amount of physical and mental energy, why are we not making sleep a higher priority? Sleeping is an important body process that helps heal, restore and protect our mind and body.
Every year there is an entire week dedicated to educating people on the benefits of sleep. Being a student, an athlete, a sister, and a writer can get stressful, on lack of sleep it can be downright impossible. So, I decided to take the sleep week challenge, and document what I found to be helpful in improving my sleep.
Day 1- Make time for sleep
My busy schedule does not always allow for the full eight hours a day that is recommended for people my age. This step is the hardest, it requires a lot of planning and prioritizing. With better sleep, you can be more focused and energized during the day, which inevitably frees up more time. My roommates were not too happy when I told them my new bedtime.
Day 2 - Do not eat right before sleep
Seriously. No snacking. No late night binges on ice cream or potato chips. I understand that hunger pains are not exactly library-quiet, but there are better alternatives than the snack machine. It just takes a little planning. Bring snacks with you that give you energy, without keeping you awake all night. Great choices are cherries, almonds, bananas, and even dry cereal. All are easy to grab in the morning and take with you.
Day 3 - Power down to recharge
Before going to sleep, remove your electronics from the vicinity. This is a very good habit to get onboard with, whatever social media update that happens can wait until morning. Sixty-four percent of people say they sleep with their phone in their bed. I did not know how much my phone influence my sleep until I started counting the hours I was spending on it right before I went to bed. To think, all that time I could have been sleeping.
Day 4 - Create an inviting sleep environment
As hard as it was in a small college dorm room with a small uncomfortable bed, I tried to make it work. I have plenty of pillows blankets. I even borrowed a body pillow for the week to see if that helped. It did, I would definitely recommend them. Also, making sure the lights are out really helps. Some people can sleep with the lights on, but it puts strain on your brain trying sleep like that. It is almost like doing a hard shutdown on your computer, it will do it, but it is not happy about it. Remember to remove your phone too.
Day 5 - Perform a bedtime ritual
Consistency for the first week or so is a helpful way to signal to your body that it will sleep soon. I admit this was really hard, trying to plan out my night without doing extra things right before bed. I found it really helpful to use an actual alarm clock. It was a good night time ritual to tell my body it is sleep time, and it will prevented me from bringing my phone to bed.
Day 6 - Write it all out
I know this one sounds silly, and may be very time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be long. A few minutes in the morning when you wake up and just before sleeping. Writing out your worries from the day can help ease your mind and writing what went well can leave you feeling good about each day. In the morning, write three words. One to describe how you slept, the second to describe how you feel right that moment, and the third for how you want your day to be. For example, sound, awake, and productive.
Day 7- Pause and reflect
Reread some of the things that you wrote about your sleep and see if there are any changes in your morning mood or perspectives on life. Take time to reflect on how the week went: positives versus negatives, what to do next time, how you are going to tell everyone that the sleep week challenge changed your life. Or made your roommates very unhappy.
When March 6th comes around next year, I encourage everyone to take the national sleep week challenge and see how much a better night’s sleep can influence your daily life.
