--Original published at Jenna'sPSY105blog

For this week’s first impression post, I decided on prompt four, which discusses sleeping habits. As a college student, I find it very hard to find the perfect balance between academics, sports, and maintaining a social life while still getting a good amount of sleep each night.

Personally, I have a very weird relationship with sleep. I love it, but I’m always tired no matter how much of it I get- and I don’t drink coffee so that doesn’t help. As embarrassing as it is, this results in me taking multiple naps periodically throughout the day. Freshman year in college when I was out of season for volleyball some days I would take up to three naps in one day. I would stay up late doing homework and then get 4 or 5 hours of sleep until I had to wake up for my 8 a.m’s, then would come back from class and go back to sleep until lunch time (if I woke up for it). If I had another class that day I would sometimes go back to sleep until then, but if not a lot of times I would take a nap before dinner. Sometimes at night when I’m studying I feel myself dozing off so I will set an alarm to take a 20-30 minute nap and then wake up and continue studying. On the weekends or days that I don’t have class, I’ll typically wake up around noon, so half of day is gone before it has even started. These are very bad, unhealthy habits to have and I need to break them this year.

I feel that there is a very easy solution to break my bad habits because they really are just one big cycle. For starters, I need to stop taking naps and rely on getting a good night’s sleep to keep me energized throughout the day. Having a normal sleep schedule will regulate my internal body clock and maybe I won’t be so tired all of the time. If I stop taking so many naps, then I will be able to get more work done during the day so that I can have some free time in the evenings so that I can hang out with my friends and maintain a social life, and then go to bed at a decent time instead of staying up all night doing homework. If I do it right, this will ensure I get enough sleep each night, and that is my goal for this upcoming school year.

 

 

--Original published at Tiffany'sCollegeBlog

For the chapter 3 first impression, I chose to talk about option four. I have noticed that the older that I get, the more I worry about my sleep and if I do get a “normal” amount at night. I have many things that can delay sleeping at a normal time and one of them happens to be this class. I spend hours and hours doing work just to find out that there is more so my summer schedule sleep is non existent. For example, last night, after doing a midterm for the other class and going to work for 6 hours, I came home to find out there were 4 lectures and in order to move on you have to listen to them all. So finishing about 5am, I had a quick nap, just to get up and mosey off to work again for another 6 hours, and I’m still awake. Lets not forget to include getting ready for work and traveling to work etc so in reality, it’s about 9 hours. My sleep schedule varies on a week to week basis. Sometimes when I can manage to get my things done, I can go to sleep at a normal time. When school starts, practicing and concerts begin and everyday piano and ear training happens and I begin to run out of time and then I stay up to make up for it and can’t get caught up. Typically, I tend to be a normal sleeper, one who wakes up to an alarm and can hear things but also block it out. But when I get into a bad schedule, I normally am a heavy sleeper and can not hear anything. I also am so heavy of a sleeper, that last semester, I ACTUALLY SLEPT THROUGH A FIRE ALARM AT LIKE 1:30 IN THE MORNING. I really don’t think that my habits are healthy because I don’t have a particular amount of sleep that I get every night. It’s roughly 4-8 hours, if I can manage that. A realistic amount of sleep for a college student would be roughly 6-8 hours. I think that each student should be able to withstand a little amount of light and noise but other than that, everyone should be courteous of others sleep schedules. 

--Original published at Kirsten's Kreations

For this post I opted to do option four. I chose this one because I have recently noticed the older I get the more different my sleep habits are and they are not changing for the better. I honestly don’t believe my sleep habits are good but they aren’t the worst either. I have grown to be an extremely light sleeper. It is so bad, my cat’s tiny bell on his collar can wake me up through the noise of 2 fans, the air conditioner, and the door being shut and locked, will wake me up. It is getting to the point where I have to put ear plugs in when I am home because the sound of my dad getting ready in the bathroom on the other side of my bedroom wall will keep me awake until he leaves for work. This curse has caused me to lose quite a few hours of sleep at school because of my roommates having coughing fits or because of other students having the t.v. too loud below us. Also, I have problems sleeping when there is light in the room so I have to use black out currents or use one of my many pillows over my face to block out the light. If there is noise and light mixed together I cannot fall asleep. On the other hand, I know if I have less than seven or eight hours of sleep I cannot function throughout the day. This is what is good about my sleeping habits because I will always go to bed when I know I will get the sufficient amount of sleep I need.

I don’t think it is health for students to not be able to sleep through noise or light. It is definitely healthy for students to get no less than 7 hours of sleep because any less than that their body would not be able to recharge correctly. A student should also be able to sleep through some noise, not an amount where the neighbors are blasting music, but enough that the sound of their roommate rolling over in bed doesn’t wake them up. The should also be able to sleep with some light, light the hall light shinning through the door, but not the overhead light shinning directly upon them. Someone with those sleeping habits would have better success with no sleep deprivation than someone with habits like me.

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

For this chapters prompt I picked option 4 regarding how college students sleep. When looking at my own sleeping habits in college I have several things to prioritize. With classes, volunteering, work, social life, and playing a sport, my sleep habits normally suffer as a result. This coming semester I have 5 classes to take equaling 20 credits. I have three business classes and two intensive social work classes. Part of my social work requirement is 40 hour service learning for the fall semester. To try and have a healthy sleeping schedule I have organized my service learning for before I begin practice for winter track. I have myself finishing my volunteering in the first 5-6 weeks of the school year. This will help with maintaining my schedule. The majority of my classes are on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s which is also when I work. I will be working or in class for roughly 12 hours on those days while I have service learning on M and W along with only 1 class. On these days I will be able to accomplish all the work I need for the current week along with the following week. My social work classes are pretty good with having set assignments where business has several ‘pop-up’ work which is hard to plan for in advance. Knowing this, I am able to prioritize and have my homework for my social work class completed for two weeks ahead of schedule. When my work is completed I can focus on working out, work, social life, and this balances my sleeping schedule. For this semester I am striving to get 6.5-8 hours a sleep a night.

Currently I am working a lot. I have work normally from 7:15-6 and either come home and work on psychology homework or go straight to babysitting. I have already taken one summer class and the balancing with statistics was easier to manage but it also led to mild procrastination since I didn’t have to complete homework until 11:59 as it was due at midnight every other day. My sleep schedule for the summer has me aim to get 8 hours of sleep a night. I normally come home from work, eat quickly, do my homework for the next day, shower, finish my homework and study, and aim to go to sleep around 10 and wake up at 6am. The system I had at the beginning of the summer had me sleeping 8 hours every day and I am currently adjusting to it now.

This coming semester I hope to reach my goal of 6.5-8 hours of sleep per night since there is a large difference I notice when I don’t. The major notice I feel is struggling to wake up. Sometimes I get to go to sleep at 9:30 rather than 10 and it is a huge difference similarly to if I go to sleep at 11pm rather than 10. I also find that napping may help but I try to avoid it so I can accomplish my work early and then go to sleep earlier rather than procrastinating work in general by napping.

--Original published at CatherinesCollegeBlog

I chose option four about college students and their sleeping habits for this post. My sleep habits have changed since I started college, at first becoming much worse, but then improving exponentially. During the first few months of my freshman year, I took some time getting used to the amount of work and activities I had to somehow fit into each day. Since I am on the women’s soccer team for our school, right from the start I had to balance practices and games with classes and clubs and my social life. It was difficult at first, as it seemed that I never left enough time for myself to complete the amount of work or studying I wanted to for my classes. In order to finish assignments and study to a point of confidence in the material, I would stay up too late, sometimes even all night. I definitely saw the negative effects that sleep deprivation had on my body, my energy, my patience, and my capacity to learn during class those days after getting no sleep. A few times the exhaustion was so extreme that I would become sick because my body did not receive enough time the night before to recover and prepare for the next day. I realized I would not be able to last with these habits for the rest of my college career so I made some minor changes that made the biggest difference. Since time management seemed to be an issue in terms of completing coursework on time, I tried to organize my classes and their assignments into a planner. This allowed me to see when my busiest days or weeks were going to be, which helped with planning my other activities. Laying out all of my coursework in an organized calendar helped me recognize exactly how much time I would be able to devote to certain assignments, especially when I had soccer practice or club meetings labeled on that same calendar to show my entire schedule. I also placed more of an emphasis on getting the sleep I needed. My soccer coach consistently emphasizes that we must get at least eight hours of sleep each night, so I made this a priority. I continued to remind myself about how much worse I would feel the next day or two after a night of no sleep, and that it was not worth it to stress about a small assignment or hang out with friends for just another hour. Without enough sleep, I am practically useless the next day. I have no motivation to participate in class, my coordination is off during practice, I have very little patience with friends, and my overall energy is lacking. These consequences from a lack of sleep were just not worth it to me. I believe that with enough prior planning, eight hours of sleep per night is a realistic goal for college students. There will still be those occasional nights when perhaps a professor surprises the class with a quiz the next day that they now must prepare for. I think it is important to just remember the importance of physical and mental health, and to make sure these aspects are not compromised repeatedly because of assignments that do not make that much of a difference in the long run.

--Original published at Kealey's PSY105 Blog

Something that my friends and I can typically all agree on is we feel tired. I am used to it now and I think many other college students have accepted the feeling of constantly craving coffee and/or a nap. What many people do not realize is that having a social life while being a full-time student is extremely important. Having that time to let loose and unwind with peers is a much-needed stress reliever to cope with the pressures of academics and other commitments, but it is often the first thing people will try to cut out of their schedule. Usually socially receding makes me less happy than being tired does, so I try to devote at least some time to my friends and family. In turn, sleep is typically what I will sacrifice to make the most out of the time I have.

During the summer, I work a lot of nights and do not get home until about 10 pm. After I get settled, eat, and prepare for bed it’s after midnight. I wake up at around 8 am every morning to go to the gym, do homework, run errands, and get ready to leave for work by 1:30 pm. That gives me close to 8 hours of sleep tonight, which is my goal. However, during school I was able to wake up much later and go to bed as early as I wanted. With the schedule I have now, I can never “catch up” on sleep if I have a late night or early morning. I never really have problems sleeping through the night because I am so tired and physically worn down at the end of a late shift. The amount of time I spend working is just a little less time than I think I spend doing homework in a week during the school year. I depend on caffeine a lot, to the point where I get very bad headaches if I do not drink any coffee in the morning. I would like to be less dependent on caffeine and start drinking more water. These changes would make me feel more rested and alert, and probably more productive with how I spend my time during the day. I consider myself to have generally healthy sleep habits, though I would like to be able to go to sleep earlier or sleep in later some days when I need to catch up.

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression post, I chose to talk about my own personal sleeping habits. I know that I do not nearly get as much sleep as I should. In high school, I was playing sports year-round. Whether it was three-a-day field hockey sessions all day or early morning lacrosse practices, I was not getting to bed at a time that I know is recommended. After sports games and practices, I would then have to come home and do my homework. Typically, I would work on homework for about an hour to three hours a night. Between the hectic schedule of ending late night games, eating dinner, and finishing homework, there were nights I would not get to bed until midnight or later. After a late night, I would then have to wake up around six in the morning. I know that getting an average of six hours of sleep a night is not healthy for a student or someone who is doing exercises, but unfortunately that was how I had to manage to get through school with sports and other social events.

 

A realistic goal for me to have for amount of sleep would be about eight hours. To improve my sleeping habits, I could start to put down technology earlier. I know that being on a cell phone or computer can make it harder for you to fall asleep, so cutting back on nighttime technology use could help me get to sleep faster. Another habit I could improve is sticking to a bedtime routine. I could start to come up with a routine in the nighttime to wind down and get myself ready for bed. Finally, I could make a schedule of when to go to sleep and when to wake up. This could help me to get a regulated night of sleep and actually stay asleep through the night. There are more than likely other habits I could improve on, but these are the most realistic for myself to follow through.