On certain school days, I can assume that we all feel like taking the day to just sleep. What our bodies are telling us is it is lacking sleep. We wake up excited for the day to end so you can get back into bed. We find the yawn to be the most contagious trend on campus. I myself was having a hard time to stay up during one of my classes. 

In this class, I thought to myself “ I can’t be like this during class”. Lack of sleep has been correlated to poor grades by many research. Sleep impacts our lives in more ways than we know. As we finished up midterms week, we were left with a great deal of fatigue. 

There can be a number of reasons a student doesn’t get adequate sleep. Staying up late is the obvious one. Studying, finishing up last minute homework and readings are all definite reasons for sleeping late. Another reason we don’t get enough sleep is because we just don’t go to bed early.

 I don’t mean early as in 9PM. But you should plan out your at least eight hour sleep. If you know you should be up for class or a meeting by 11 AM, it would be smart to sleep at least by midnight. If you have that awful 8 AM class, you shouldn’t be sleeping at midnight but more around 10:30PM. If you get your body on a routine, it will become easier to wake up and feel more refreshed in the morning. 

Research shows that an average college student only gets around six hours of sleep each night. It is important to try to get out of this habit and maintain the eight hours sleep schedule. 

It is understandable to have those days where you truly need to work all day to meet a deadline as this happens to all of us. To do so, we consume tons of caffeine to fuel our bodies sided with unnecessary junk foods. However, this cannot become a habit. Not only is this not healthy but you are losing important sleep. When we sleep, our bodies and brains are still working. While we sleep, our brain takes in all of the information it consumed throughout the day and transfers it into long-term memory. This is why pulling an “all-nighter” to study isn’t successful most of the time. The information you are trying to remember doesn’t have enough time or energy to retain it. 

Having good sleep hygiene will improve your overall health as a whole in which impacts your academic performance. Creating a healthy sleeping environment is essential. Some ways you can do this is by turning off all blue light sources before bed. Try not using your phone. This is definitely not an easy habit to break. Yet, blue light is probably why you’re not sleeping as fast as you would like to at night.

Being aware of your daily routines can help you prepare for a good night’s sleep. Try to exercise and keep yourself busy throughout the day. The more you move the more likely your body will want to fall asleep at the end of the day. Everyone is different which means your body will tell you what it wants. In college, taking care of your body is obvious but don’t lost sleep over it.