--Original published at MaddieHinson

Personally, throughout college I have had very different sleep habits than the rest of my friends. Pretty much every weekend, I have work at Starbucks at 5 in the morning. This was going on both freshman year and sophomore. My routine then would be, I would go out with my friends on Friday and Saturday until about 1 am, and then wake up around 4 to go to work, until I got off at 1pm. Afterwards, I would nap until like 5pm, and then do the whole thing over again. My friends never understood how I functioned during the day, but it was just what I had to do, and I survived. However this year, I have been spreading out when I work in the mornings to about every other day, and that way I don’t have to play “Catch up” after the weekend is over.

I know that my sleeping habits are different than a lot of people in college, especially if they don’t have jobs on the weekend mornings, but it has just been something that I have adjusted to and my body is used to it. Personally, I still take naps here and there and I think it’s fairly healthy. The unhealthy part about it is that I will almost always drink coffee in the morning and even throughout the day to supplement for when I am feeling tired. I don’t rely on it, but it’s just something that mentally makes me believe that I have more energy to get through the day.

Honestly, everyone is different, and I don’t think there is a set amount of time each person should sleep every night. I believe that you kind of have to monitor yourself, and factor in, how busy your day is. For instance, on Tuesdays, and Fridays, I know I work early in the morning, but I also only have one short class in the afternoon. For those days I don’t feel like I need the full eight hours of sleep to be able to function. If I don’t sleep well the night before, then usually I’ll try to sleep a little more the next night, to kind of supplement for it.

To improve my sleeping habits, I could probably stop watching Netflix right before bed, I know the screens aren’t great for your quality of sleep. I also sometimes stress about what I have to do the next day, and that really effects my dreams, and how “awake” I am during my sleep. To fix that, I should just take a few minutes and clear my mind and not worry about what the next day has in store.

--Original published at Grace's College Blog

My current sleep habits are poor, to say the least. I am often so tired that, in order to get through the rest of the day, I have to take about an hour nap after classes. I often go to sleep around 2 a.m. and wake up around 9 or 10 everyday. Most nights before I go to bed I lay down and watch TV until I am tired enough to go to sleep. And after, it will usually take me about an hour or more to actually fall asleep. I also sometimes drink coffee late at night.

I don’t think my sleep habits are necessarily the healthiest, but I am still getting about 7 or 8 hours. I think if I were to not watch TV directly before bed I would have a much easier time falling asleep. I also think working more during the day and not napping so much would help when trying to fall asleep at night. I have been working on improving on amount of naps per week by keeping myself more occupied during the day by going to the gym and working on homework during the day instead of late at night. This way I can go to bed knowing that I was productive during the day. This would help to reduce the amount of stress I feel on a daily basis as well. Improving the quality of my sleep would greatly increase my academic performance and stress levels.

I think a realistic goal for amount of sleep for college students is about 7 hours. This requires improving your time management skills. You have to balance eating meals, social time, time spent on academic work, and sometimes athletics. This is definitely a possibility, but it takes a lot of work to manage your time wisely.

--Original published at Jess Principe's Blog

In my opinion, healthy sleeping habits are often disregarded by most people. Even those who try to be healthy by eating a smart balance of nutritious foods and get plenty of exercise, often leave a healthy sleep schedule behind. I personally try to aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night and typically get in that range, however on the weekends that can sometimes diminish from being out late with friends and not sleeping in much the following morning. I do not function well without sleep, I feel irritable, unenergetic, and groggy if I get anything less than 6 ½ hours for more than two nights in a row. In addition, I rarely nap during the day, so getting the 7-8 hours at night is what I always try to aim for to be my best self.

Most college kids that do not have a healthy sleep schedule and say it is because they stay up late every night doing work, probably are just not managing their free time very well. Time management is crucial, especially if you are participating in additional clubs or sports on top of the academic workload a college student receives. There is definitely time in college to do fun and social things, especially on the weekends, however, the amount of time available to do social things, get school work done, and sleep at least 7 hours on weekends will depend on how well you manage your time during the week (monday-friday). I think a logistical goal for a college student is 7 hours at least every night. If one can’t maintain that, they may just need to re-organize their day to day schedules and manage their free time a little bit better. As a student athlete, practice time, lifts, and missed classes every once in a while due to games causes me to plan well in advance for my school work and every day to manage getting homework and studying done before and after practice time. These time management skills that I have acquired in high school and throughout the rest of college, I certainly will carry with me throughout life to try and always get a healthy 7-8 hours of sleep per night to be successful and live well during the day.

--Original published at NataliesCollegeBlog

When I first came to college, I had a goal to go to bed at 10:30 every night. This goal has never happened and a different routine happened instead. My actual sleep schedule currently is to go to bed at 1am, wake up around 8:30am, take a 2-3 hour nap once my classes are done, and then go to track practice. After evaluating my sleeping habits through the first semester, I have realized how unbalanced and unhealthy my sleep schedule truly is. Even after I take a nap, I still feel tired and do not feel like doing anything until later in the day. Another part of the problem with college students and sleeping is that you have to share a dorm room with a roommate as well. Sometimes your roommate might need to stay up later than you do to study and this can also affect how much sleep you get too. Overall, staying up late to cram in studying and homework has really taken a toll on my sleeping schedule.

Eight hours of sleep is ideal for everyone, but for a college student 5-6 hours is more realistic. The reason my sleep schedule is not healthy is because of one thing: poor time management. I like to push things off until the last minute and this is why I stay up to late doing school work. Doing school work during the free time I have in-between classes is something I am going to try to do this semester. I will keep this goal by forcing myself to go to the library in-between classes, rather than going back to my room and taking a nap. This will hopefully help me get work done earlier in the day and allow me to go to bed earlier.

--Original published at Zach Nawrocki's Blog

I am currently in my second year of college and I have learned a lot about my sleep schedule and how much rest my body needs each night to feel fully awake and focused during the day. In my first year of college my sleep habits were all over the place. One night I would go to bed at 2 or 3 a.m. and the next night I would go to bed at 10 or 11 p.m., this took a major toll on my body. Since my sleep pattern was so messed up from going to bed early one night to going to bed really late the next night I never really felt fully awake during the day and it showed in how I performed on tests and overall in class. I did this irregular sleep pattern all of my first year of college.

For my second year of college I have gotten a lot better at controlling my sleep pattern and having a more regular sleep schedule. Now the latest I have gone to bed this year has been 1 a.m., which has only happened 2 or 3 times. I mostly go to bed around 12 a.m. and get up around 7:20 a.m., this means that I get around 7 hours of sleep per night usually. Considering that I am a college student I feel that 7 hours of sleep per night is a good amount of rest. My body also feels a lot better during the day and I feel more motivated to do homework rather then go back to my bed and take a “short” nap which most college students do.

I consider 7 hours of sleep a sufficient amount of sleep per night for a college student considering the amount of homework that most students have and also a social life. One way that I plan to improve my sleep habits is to tighten up my sleep pattern a little more so that I consistently go to bed around 12 a.m. Lastly, I plan to turn off my phone early so that I am not laying in my bed watching YouTube or messing around on social media right before I go to bed.

--Original published at Emily's college blog

As I head into the second half of my second semester of college, I would have to say that my sleeping habits have not yet become unhealthy.  I try to get at least seven or eight hours of sleep each night or even take twenty-minute naps during the day.  I would say this is a good, healthy amount of sleep for a student in college. However, since I do not have an 8am class this semester, I find that I am going to sleep much later and waking up later.  Even on the weekends, I find myself not wanting to get out of bed until about noon because my body has become used to sleeping in that late during the week.  Now I am uncertain how I managed to get up for my 8am every other day during the week last semester or how I managed to wake up at 6:30am everyday last year.  Of course, it only seems unmanageable now because I am going to sleep much later than I was when I had to get up at those earlier times.  

A realistic goal for amount of sleep per night for a college student should be at least eight hours.  This allows the brain enough time to process everything that a student studied and learned the day before.  To improve my sleeping habits, I want to start going to bed earlier and getting up earlier in order to get more done during the morning and early afternoon.  I can achieve this by putting my phone down earlier in the evening and staying away from sugars and caffeine during the second half of the day.