During study terms and school hours, the one thing I’ve seen fellow students complain about the most is the lack of sleep, whether it be from the excessive amounts of homework and assignments, overbearing stress, terrible midterm and exam scheduling, etcetera etcetera. A thought that comes to everyone’s mind is sleep. Now here are a few tips to try to bring back your sleep schedule and also to get a better, more well-rest sleep.
Finish your homework before going to bed. As obvious and annoying as it sounds, finishing up your homework after you’ve come from school or classes would benefit you in the long run. If you think about it, starting your homework at that time would require less effort since you’re fresh from the learning box. Moreover, it should only take a few hours to finish and then you’re free to do as you please for the rest of your day, whether that means video games, Netflix or going out with friends. But I can already hear that voice saying “But I’m tired”, which makes sense from all that learning done in a few hours. In that case, take a short nap (20 minutes to tops an hour) so that you’ll be refreshed for when you begin your homework. The main reason I write this is because you’re stress free, in terms of homework, for when you go to bed. Thus, you’re not stressing about not having your homework done for the next day. You’re also not cutting into your sleep schedule. Therefore, by finishing up your homework earlier in the day, perhaps when you come after school, you’ll have a sleep that is homework-stress free and not cut short.
Make your bedroom a comfortable sleeping environment. When I talk about comfortable it’s not to include more blankets and pillows in an attempt to make your room hazard-proof; it’s to make sure your room has the necessary environmental conditions that make sleeping an easy and interrupted task for the brain. This would include having your bedroom at a temperature range between 15-20C. It’s a cold temperature to have your bedroom at, but your body temperature goes down while you’re sleeping and then increases towards the end of your sleep as a wake-up signal. That’s why it’s uncomfortable to sleep in a warm bedroom (if you’ve ever wondered). But in a cold room you can use as many blankets as you need and want. What you could also do to improve your bedroom for your imminent beauty sleep is to limit as much internal and external light as possible. Even the slightest indication of light can interrupt the sleep hormone melatonin since it’s a light sensitive hormone produced within the brain that controls your sleep and wake cycles. This is the hormone behind your body’s internal clock. Example: Sleeping with a bright screen on within your bedroom will signal to melatonin that there’s ‘light’ outside and will therefore not allow your mind to delve into the ‘deep sleep’ cycles, even though you’re physically sleeping. Therefore, the resulting sleep quality is ‘light sleep’, which doesn’t leave you well-rested. So by having a bedroom with a good, cool temperature, as well as it being relatively light-free, it’ll let you have a well-rested sleep. This is something you’ll need for school.
No electronics before bed! Alright, so I’m definitely guilty of this. Before I go to bed I take my laptop with me and check for any last-minute emails or notifications I may have gotten or cram any tasks I have let for any game that I’m playing at that time. Point is, I have my laptop with me, which creates excessive light in my bedroom and distracts me from getting any sleep. This is due to the blue light electronic devices give off, which make the brain too alert for sleep. And, let’s face it, electronics give us an excuse to stay up later, or rather cause us to go to sleep in the middle of the night because of distractions. Instead, turn off your electronics an hour or so before going to bed and do something simple like read a book. This way your brain won’t be overly active before going to sleep as it would be if you were sending a last-minute text to a friend. So if you want to wake up well-rested for tomorrow morning, be sure to turn off the electronics before you go to sleep.
These are just a few tips to help you combat the sleepless blues and reset your sleep schedule, especially if you’re struggling with sleep. So remember, if you want to get a goodnight’s sleep be sure to finish your homework before going to bed to decrease stress, make your bedroom a comfortable sleeping environment to allow melatonin to work its magic, and have no electronics before bed in order to not have an overactive brain before bed.
Now your teachers and professors will see you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed each morning!