--Original published at Caitlin's corner

I opted for Option 2 for this first impression post. We all know how important sleep is, especially when combined with stress from our course work load, maintaining relationships, and making an income or working on our professional portfolios. Overall, I have a really hard time sleeping with noise and light, so I try to use a sleep mask and keep all music off when I go to bed. I honestly feel a huge slump around 4-7 pm every day, whether thats from lack of good nutrition, coffee, not enough sleep, or stress, it really can affect my sleep schedule for the night. If I decide to nap then, I wont be able to sleep as well and I won’t stay asleep either. However, if I can make it through the day, (all dayers are hard) then I will naturally start feeling sleepy around 9-10 pm. My roommate and I are very good about not staying up late, we generally have the same schedule every morning so it makes getting up easier. If I fall asleep on or before 11 pm, I find that I will always wake up anywhere between 4-6 am. I don’t mind waking up so early because I feel very refreshed. I usually lay in bed for a bit or go get ready immediately. I use to have problems with staying up too late or not being able to wake up on time, but this year I have been very good about getting around 7-8 hours a night. In the summer, I naturally woke up around 7-8 and would feel naturally tired between 10:30 and 11 pm and I would just keep that cycle going. In college I have kept the same cycle going as much as possible. I also try to stay off of electronics at night because the light will make my eyes more awake, so instead I usually have some reading I have to do before class in the morning/afternoon, so I will just read instead. Reading will make me sleepy very quickly. I find it also quite effective to stop drinking caffeine after 5 pm, that way I am not wired before bed. I feel pretty happy with my sleep overall, I just wish I could stay asleep longer sometimes, but my body usually knows when it’s gotten 7/8 hours of sleep and that’s all it wants. If I try to really sleep in past 8:30-9, I will feel very groggy and just want to sleep more, so I try to avoid that at all costs, but some days it is really nice.

--Original published at Site Title

I definitely agree with the idea that most college students are sleep deprived. At college, it almost feels like sleep takes a back seat to just about everything else which is not healthy at all. That’s just the way it is though, there is way too much to focus on and still get enough sleep every night. I try to put an emphasis on getting enough sleep each night but it does not always work out. Currently, I’m probably getting about 6 and a half to 7 hours of sleep each night. From what I’ve heard, 8 hours is the ideal amount of sleep so I’m about an hour short. The lack of sleep does not affect me during the day so I do not see it as a problem. One sleep habit I am trying to change is looking at my phone right before bed. I’ll always find myself either on social media or watching shows for a while before bed. This can get really bad during times when I’m binge watching a show on Netflix. I will stay up an extra hour or so sometimes just because I want to keep watching. Not only does this take away from my sleeping time, but staring at the screen can make it harder for me to fall asleep. Because of that, I am making an effort to cut down on my phone use before bed. I think 6 and a half to 7 hours of sleep is a realistic goal for college students. College can demand a lot out of students so a full 8 hours of sleep seems unrealistic to me.

--Original published at alanaspsy105blog

Sleep is something all college students seems to lack. During my freshmen year, my time management skills were lacking so I was always up until at least one in the morning and I would only get about five hours of sleep a night. I always felt run down and got sick a lot that year. This year, my sophomore year, I knew that I had to work on my time management skills so I could get more sleep. It does help that I do not have any 8 AMs this semester; I had 8 AMs everyday both semesters of my freshmen year. It was rough, but I got used to waking up early. Even though I do not have any 8 AMs this semester, I still get up early and go to the gym at 7:15 every morning before my 9:30 class. In order to be able to wake up this early every morning to go to the gym, I know that I have to go to bed at a decent hour. This also means that I have to do my homework earlier in the day and not procrastinate. I have been trying to go to bed at 11-11:30 every night so I get about eight hours of sleep. I think seven to eight hours of sleep a night sometimes seems like a lot for a college student, but I have learned that I personally need that amount of sleep to be a functioning human being the next day. On nights that I fall behind on homework and have to stay up later than normal, I try to take a nap sometime the next day or I go to bed earlier the next night.

--Original published at Ashley's Psyche

Ever since I was in middle school, I have had a terrible sleep schedule. In middle school, I went from getting the standard eight hours of sleep to getting about six hours of sleep per night. I would go to sleep at around midnight and I would wake up at six in the morning to get ready for school.

Although the standard of six hours per night seemed to work for me then, the hours I got to sleep per night decreased even more when I moved onto high school. In high school, I went from getting six hours of sleep per night to alternating between four to five hours per night. I was stilling getting up at six in the morning; however, I was finding it harder to go to sleep at midnight due to assignments I would stay up doing. The tactic of going to sleep and finishing the assignment the next day when I woke up did not work for me, as the anxiety I had over not completing the assignments I needed to would keep me up anyway.

This trend has only seemed to increase and worsen as I have started my college career. I have messed up my sleeping schedule so badly that the most sleep I am getting is four hours per night, and the least amount I have been able to run on is about one and a half hours per night. This lack of sleep is mostly due to the amount of essays and assignments I receive as an English Education major. Even when I may not have many assignments due on a specific night, I still will not be able to go to sleep earlier as I have now conditioned myself to staying up into the early hours of the morning.

Sleeping anywhere from one and a half hours to four hours per night is clearly not a healthy habit that I have. I believe that most of the memory problems I find myself having can be largely attributed to my lack of sleep, as I am not allowing enough time for things to be stored in my long-term memory in my sleep cycle. I believe my lack of sleep is also affecting my ability to focus in my classes, as I find myself struggling to pay attention to my professors on the days I only have one and a half hours of sleep; this is clearly an issue that I should attempt to fix quickly, before it majorly begins to affect my academic performance.

Realistically, I believe that as a college student, a realistic goal for sleep per night is five to six hours. Although eight hours would seem ideal, I do not believe that juggling my job, school work, and my social life would allow me to get that many hours. In order to improve my sleeping habits and attempt to get those five to six hours of sleep every night, I need to make more of a conscious effort to not procrastinate and refrain from using technology and doing other distracting tasks at least a half an hour before I plan to go to bed. I think it would also be beneficial if I set more of a standard time to go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, rather than going to sleep and waking up at different times every day.

--Original published at Site Title

My sleep habits this semester are nowhere near as strong as I’d like them to be. As a commuter, my living space as well as both of my jobs are off campus, and taking 18 credits means my schoolwork demands staying up late every night and studying for every minute of free time between class. I wake up at 7 am each day and go to bed after almost always after 1am. At best, I get about 6-7 hours of sleep each night, which is not healthy for my lifestyle. To keep myself awake to study, I often go to the gym for an intense hour-long session before I sit down at my desk for the night. Sleep is critical for muscle recovery, but I am unable to fit in enough sleep, so I’m putting my body under stress and days of soreness without proper healing.

In addition, my focus and alertness are constantly hindered by my tiredness. I do not consume caffeine any more than once a week, as it tends to keep me from falling asleep later when I need to. Overall, my sleep habits do not work well with my level of physical activity. To improve my sleep habits, the best thing I personally can do is take time off of work to complete schoolwork earlier in the day and get to bed at a more reasonable time. I think 8-9 hours of sleep is almost unattainable for college students, despite the fact it’s what we should all be getting. I would say between 7-8 hours of sleep each night plus a nap later in the day would be the most effective and realistic plan.

--Original published at BillardnBlog

Sleep is much needed for a college student in order for them to work through their incredibly busy schedule. Although, many take on the mentality “sleep is for the week”. Students stay up late then wake up early the next day numerous times in a week. This tends to be a poor cycle to follow as it does not allow students to focus and learn effectively in their classes. A well known fact is the proper amount of sleep one should have is at least 8 hours per night. This is difficult for many college students trying to balance their work assignments, social life, extra curricular activities, or sporting events. I’d believe the amount of sleep a student should try and reach is at least 6 hours of sleep. Maybe on the nights their most busy they would get small amount of hours to sleep, but other nights taking the time to go to bed earlier and gain a few more hours.

My current sleep habits are not what I wish they would be. Typical nights I am in bed between 12-1. With my schedule I have 8am classes everyday, so my alarm is set at 7 o’clock every morning. I normally get 6 or 7 hours of sleep per night. I know that these are not healthy sleeping habits due to how tired I can be the following day. Its harder to focus and participate in classes. Although, getting to sleep at a reasonable time is sometimes difficult because I am involved in a sport. Everyday the team has a practice afternoon or night. Some nights we wont get home from an away game until 10 at night, then I’ll have homework to do after.

There are ways I have been trying to use in order to get more sleep. Through the soccer department, I have to log in 4 “study hall hours” every week. I try and utilize them to get ahead with homework, reading, or notes. Especially if I know I have a soccer game coming up that will take away most of my time or studying. Another way I could help myself is using the free time I have between classes on some days to work on upcoming homework so I won’t have to spend that time later in the night. This will all help me get to bed earlier and gain more hours of sleep. I hope I am able to plan out a better sleeping schedule because I do know if I or anyone continues with a poor sleep cycle, there are higher consequences. There are higher levels of fatigue and poor health. Even becoming sick with something such as Mono or Epstein Barr.

--Original published at Site Title

Sleep is a very important, getting enough of it is a key part of living a healthy life. Most college students definitely struggle with getting a healthy amount of sleep. Some might sleep too much, but most sleep too little. Not getting enough sleep and sleeping too much are both unhealthy for the human body. The amount of sleep that is considered healthy depends on your age. Teenagers and young adults should be getting about seven to eight hours of sleep every night. I always feel my best when I get exactly eight hours of sleep. When I get too much sleep I wake up tired and feel out of it all day. Sometimes it is hard to get eight hours of sleep when you have three papers due in one week and test at the end of the week and quiz the next day. There is a lot you have to keep up with in college and sometimes that might result in sleep deprivation. Being a collegiate student athlete makes it even harder to get sleep. Keeping up with school work and being fully committed to the sport you play might also effect the amount of sleep one is getting. I always try to get eight hours of sleep or close to it. This semester, I was lucky enough to not have an eight AM class. I have a 9:30 class two days out of the week. I could go to sleep at 1:00 and still get eight hours of sleep. I believe eight hours of sleep is a realistic goal for college students. Most of the time, the reason why college students are not getting the correct amount of sleep is procrastination. Procrastination is the main cause of sleep deprivation in college. Some of us might not have this problem but most of us do. We let all of our work pile up until we have to do it all that night. So we’re frantically studying and doing homework at two o’clock in the morning instead of getting a proper amount of sleep. I try not to procrastinate, but when I do it usually results in sleep deprivation. College students can improve their sleeping habits by staying on top of their school work to prevent procrastination. Your body tells you when it is tired. Don’t fight that fact that you’re tired, go to sleep at a reasonable time so you can be ready for whatever comes your way the next day.

--Original published at MentzersBlog

Russell Foster  on Ted Talk outlined three reasons on why we sleep. I chose to agree with his one option restoration against the other two, energy conservation and brain function. In restoration there  has been proof of genes that only turn on during sleep and that is only associated with restoration. Your brain behaves like a muscle when it comes to sleep. When you workout you need a full nights of rest for your muscles to recover. The brain needs to do the same; restore, replace and rebuild over the night. Without these three orders the brain won’t be able to be refreshed to go back to work. This the same as when you workout the somebody part everyday for a week. If you do this your muscles can’t be recuperated and will not grow correctly. Overall Russell Foster explained everything, but restoration  stood out to me and has been proven and makes the most sense.

--Original published at Em

I chose option one because I though it would be more interesting. Russell Foster’s three prominent arguments are restoration, energy conservation, brain possessing an memory conservation.

Restoration means that when we are asleep everything we use during the day we need to recover. This theory goes in and out of “style” and is in style right now.  The energy conservation Idea is not very good because the difference between calories is 10  between being awake and asleep. This is not a very valid theory. Memory processing is that when you are asleep the mind needs to sort the memories and process the days memories. The mind is three fold more effective after sleeping. Again there is not one proven reason just evidence that sleep deprivation reduces creativity and concentration. I was also particularly surprised by the fact that Ghrelin is produced if you have 5 hours of sleep of less a night. Ghrelin increases appetite.

I think the restoration and the memory conservation theories make sense. The restoration theory is logical because the brain uses a lot of energy. Recovery and rest are necessary for any muscle.

The memory processing approach argues that during the day your mind takes in so much that it needs time to sort whats important. It seems logical to me that during the night your brain would have all its energy to commit to sort through the vast amount of information. Some memories go to long term memory. The encoding process allows for later retrieval. In conclusion there is no one theory.

--Original published at Site Title

Many college students often feel overwhelmed with work and have trouble with time managing.  I frequently found myself my first year of college spending late nights doing school work or studying for exams.  It was difficult for me to get to bed at a good time or to get what I viewed as enough sleep.  I believe the average amount of sleep a human should get is 8 hours, but an individual may need a little more or less.  I have gotten better recently with managing my school work so that I have been sleeping roughly 6-7 hours a night which I think is a pretty decent amount of sleep.  I also tend to be on my phone before I fall asleep which probably isn’t good for my sleeping schedule and should be a habit that I change.

I think around 6 hours of sleep or more is a reasonable number for college students who are swamped with school work and social lives.  It’s hard to balance it all and get accurate sleep but I do see the importance of sleep and believe steps should be taken to strive toward the ideal goal of the average 8 hours.  The brain restores and builds on what we learn during the day so sleeping can be just as important as studying for a class.  If you don’t get good sleep everything you have learned won’t be retained.  Neural connections of important things strengthen when we are asleep that being sleep deprived won’t allow.  I believe winding down would help benefit me to fall asleep instead of just jumping from doing school work right into bed.  I also have a bad habit of needing to sleep with some kind of light (I think its due to my fear of the dark) that probably isn’t aiding the sleeping process much.  Keeping an organized list and planning out homework, school events, sports, and sleep can also help me to recieve all the benefits from a good nights sleep.