--Original published at Sierra's College Blog

For this week’s first impression post, I have chosen to discuss about sleep in option two. It is known many college students lack the right amount of sleep in order to study, work, and have a social life. Commitments, deadlines, and being a well-rounded person in society are all factors affecting the amount of sleep college students receive each night.

As a college student, I know and have been told the importance of getting a good night sleep the day before an important game or a big exam. Even though I have been told this multiple times, I find it hard to stick to a sleeping schedule. When I am playing field hockey in the fall, I do not sleep at night, but instead I take naps throughout the day. I will take a few naps throughout the day and night, and then get up to finish homework, go to practice, and eat. I found it hard to sleep, knowing I have multiple projects and assignments to complete. With field hockey over, I now sleep at night for an average of six to seven hours. I usually do not take naps unless I barely get any sleep the night before.

Looking at my sleeping habits, I believe my current sleeping habit is healthier than when I am playing field hockey. I think I am able to get a good or average amount of sleep each night, even though I always wish for more. I do not think my sleep habits are healthy during the fall; however, the routine works for me. I believe I am more tired during the fall, but I am still able to have a life, play the sport I love, and achieve good grades.

I believe a realistic goal of sleep for college students is about seven hours. Many students receive less than this amount; however, I believe it is very difficult to receive more than seven. The difficult curriculum, high standards, social life, and work all have major influences on why college students cannot get the right amount of sleep.

With all the factors influencing sleep habits, I believe it is difficult to improve my own sleeping habits. Outside lectures and practices are mandatory for some classes, and these are held late at night. Even though I am not able to change everything affecting my sleeping habits, I believe I could try a few new techniques. I could try waking up earlier and falling asleep earlier, when possible. I could work on large projects in little increments, instead of finishing up a week before it is due. Lastly, on some of the weekends, I could stay in and catch up on sleep or even work on projects for the week ahead.

I believe sleep is extremely important for college students; however, there is just not enough time for college students to get an adequate amount of sleep each night.

--Original published at Anneka's Blog

Sleep. It is something everyone needs, but it is something that evades us all. Eight hours of sleep is the general concensious for healthy living with teenagers needing more to help support growth. Sleep helps recharge the body and solidify memories. Without proper sleep, the body may not be able to function at full capacity.

I admit, my sleep schedule is horrible. I have grown accustom to being a night owl. It started in high school with the increasing amount of homework my junior and senior year. Being a perfectionist didn’t help nor did AP Calculus. I was up constantly ranging from twelve to two in the morning and waking up at 6:15 AM for school for a range of three to six hours of sleep each night. It had consequences and although most days I was able to function, I was tired at points in the day. My summer schedule ingrained my late nights more in my brain. I would be up late doing projects, art, or watching TV shows then sleeping in.

My college schedule is not much better although I do sleep a bit more. With the greater amount of classes I have (eleven) in comparison to the average college student (four-five) I have a significantly larger homework load. I have been typically going to bed from twelve to two (more on the two AM side this semester) and waking up at eight or 6:50 AM depending the day of the week for classes. Although I attempt to go to bed as early as possible, I always feel that there is something else I should be doing. In addition, I have been having difficulty falling asleep quickly and it can take from 20 minutes to over an our to fall asleep at times.

I think trying to get at least seven hours of sleep with an range of six to nine hours is an attainable amount of sleep. I want to be able to complete my studies, have some social time, but also get enough sleep. I have been actively trying to fix my sleep schedule by doing as much homework or any important task as I can during any small break I have between classes. This way, I have less to do at night. I also have set times of when I want to do daily tasks such as practice the piano or dinner to set limits for myself and have a more set schedule. This helps organize my time better. I have found that organization is KEY for college especially being a music therapy major. I want to try to limit by breaks that I take between studying by not checking my phone too often. Additional methods I want to try is to limit the time it takes me to get ready for bed and phone usage in bed, and try various relaxation techniques and lavender essential oils. As I get a more secure handle on my homework I want to set a time to stop all work and go to bed. Although there is always work to be done, I need to tell myself that it is okay to just sleep.

--Original published at Emily's Blog

If you were to ask a college student how they were feeling on a given day a common response would be “I’m tired.” When asked why, the student may respond with the excuses of a huge project, paper, social issue, or the inability to sleep. I have many friends who get about three hours of sleep at night and they admit this is a normal trend in their daily life.

My current sleeping habits are not ideal. I tend to sleep about seven to eight hours a night, but I still wake up feeling tired. It is very frustrating for me because I try to prioritize sleep as I understand it’s importance. I do get a “second wind” at night because I tend to be more of a night person. Also, if I am up past a certain hour, it takes me a long time to fall asleep. I have tried taking hot showers before bed which does seem to help. Also, drinking water when I wake up makes me feel more awake and ready for the day.

I also seem to get nightmares about once or twice a week. The nightmares mostly consist of subjects I have talked about during the day and they are easily interpreted. It is simply annoying to me to not get good rest because I am having these nightmares.

I believed the ideal amount of sleep for a college student was eight hours, but I was told by Dr. MacFarlene about seven and a half hours of sleep is the ideal amount. I look forward to understanding why this is. I assume it has something to do with sleep cycles and the importance of not waking up during one of the cycles which will make you more tired.

I think I can improve my sleep patterns by going to bed at the same time every night and waking up at around the same time every morning. I also believe doing relaxing tasks before I go to bed will be helpful such as reading (not for school), coloring, or taking a shower. Another important point would be not drinking coffee in the late afternoon as this could result in keeping my brain more activated from the caffeine.

--Original published at Collin's Blog

My current sleep schedule is pretty bad. Normally I try to get all my work and studying done before I go to bed, so I would go to sleep late and then get up for my 8 am classes every day. I have a very busy schedule during the week, so I hate putting off my homework for too long because I would end up procrastinating and end up doing homework the night before it is due. I try to take naps during the day though to try to catch up on lost sleep, but most times it just makes me more tired for the rest of the day. Overall, I think I have a bad sleep schedule, but being a college student makes it difficult not to be sleep deprived.
A realistic goal for college students should be 6-8 hours of sleep a night. I would think that busy nights it would be acceptable to only get around 6 hours of sleep as long as you are getting adequate sleep throughout the rest of the week. I think one reason college students do not get enough adequate sleep is because we tend to wait to do homework and assignments for class the night before it is due. I know I do this occasionally and will end up working until 2-3 am just to finish everything. Also, I think a lot of students are sleep deprived during finals week, trying to study for long hours and not going to bed until they are sure they know the material.
I can improve my sleep schedule by regularly finishing my work ahead of time, giving myself more time at night to go to bed earlier. Also, I heard that looking at your cell phone or any lit screen before sleeping is supposed to affect your sleep as well, so I can try to break that habit because it is probably also affecting my sleep.

--Original published at Rachel's Blog

As a college student, it is important to maintain a healthy balance between school work, friends, outside clubs, and taking care of yourself.  One of the main concerns with college students is that they do not get a proper amount of sleep at night.  Overall, I would say that my current sleep habits are fair, but there is still room to improve them.

Right now, I usually am in bed by 11:00-11:30, sometimes later, but I usually do not fall asleep until after 12, which means that I get roughly 7 hours of sleep, and sometimes less because I have an 8 a.m. class every morning.  I think that this is a realistic goal for college students considering  some people are involved in sports, clubs, like to go to the gym, and other activities of interest.

My goal to improve my sleeping habits are to be in bed by 10:30 because now, some mornings I wake up and feel like I cannot function because I am exhausted.  Usually it is because I am up late studying or finishing homework, and I do not like to go to bed until I am finished all of my homework and complete everything that I had planned to do that day.  Most days, I plan out everything I have to do that day and what homework needs to be completed, but sometimes I do not follow the schedule and will take more time on a specific assignment than planned, or stay a little longer at dinner with the team, but it is okay to get off schedule once in a while.

To improve this, I will try to complete my homework faster and on days where I know I will have a lot of homework, I will make a specific schedule for that day including times to start and end things.  Also, I will try to finish as much homework as I can, but if I do not finish it all, I will go to bed instead of trying to finish it.  This will be beneficial because I can always finish the assignment the next day, and I will learn to keep myself on a schedule and hopefully I will not be as tired during class, not interfering with learning.

--Original published at Manda's College Blog

My sleeping schedule is pretty bad. I have a diagnosis that interferes with my sleep so I have to take medicine to help me go to sleep though it doesn’t always help. I usually get 3-4 hours of sleep a day and take naps if I have a two hour window of free time, but it actually makes me more tired during the day. I also feel guilty if I take a nap because then I believe that I’m wasting time and missing out on things I need to do.

I believe I do have the time to get a full 6-8 hours of sleep but medically I am unable to. My schedule consists of waking up early to do my two hour of crossfit training then I go home shower and go right to class followed by taking care of my family such as cooking dinner, paying bills, and doing the typical things a home owner does while worrying about getting my assignments done and finding time to study. I always think because of how tired I am during the day I would be able to sleep really good but it’s never the case. I get really irritable, stressed out and almost feel overwhelmed and I feel like my workout routine would be better if I wasn’t so tired.

My eating habits aren’t the best at times and I feel that if I was more consistent with my eating it could probably make a difference. I was always told that if I didn’t nap during the day it would also help me sleep at night but I’ve tried that once or twice. My mood probably makes a difference as well, because of my stress and feelings of being overwhelmed I can see how that would be something that would keep me awake.

--Original published at marybraun99

For most college students, especially as you move further along in your academic career, your sleep starts to take a back seat. Many people struggle with sleeping too little, or sleeping when they should be doing important work. It is usually said that it is important to maintain a healthy sleep cycle, and go to sleep around the same time every night. As most of us know that is almost completely unrealistic. It is hard to maintain a sleep cycle that is followed every night. We tend to stay up late catching up with friends we feel we haven’t seen because we have been doing work, or we stay up because we are doing work.

I think a realistic sleep schedule would be around 6-8 hours per night for a college student to remain healthy and not over do themselves.

I know, however, that I sleep whenever possible. I usually go to sleep around 11, to maintain a good sleep timer, but I will sleep until 12 or 1 the next day. When I have class at 9:30, I will take naps whenever I can. I think that being in college has made so many of us over tired. I know I always used to like to sleep in, but I would never nap for 2-3 hours a day after getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep that night. It makes me realize that when I try to stay up later I am getting extremely tired and feel like I can’t stay up. I know that this is extremely unhealthy and there should be ways to keep myself active so that this does not affect me in the long run.

I believe that if I can try to get 8 hours of sleep per night, and force myself to wake up and become active and do things throughout the day, such as a job, or doing something that will wake me up and keep me up it will be a huge help. Not just laying in bed all day, watching tv or doing something that will just make me tired is something that I believe I need to change.

I know it usually opposite for most college students, but my roommate, my friends and I all love to nap, so we just get together when we are not sleeping!

--Original published at Melissa's Blog

Everyone always stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but us students struggle because we have so many obligations. For me, it is extremely hard to do my assignments, call family, socialize with friends, exercise, participate in clubs, and go to sleep at a decent hour. In between classes and meals, I continuously do homework, yet I still find myself struggling to go to bed at a reasonable time. The main problem is how long it takes me to complete my assignments. Since I am slow at reading and typing I never finish all the homework that I planned and wanted to get done. As a result, I routinely stay up late to finish the assignments I failed to get to earlier in the day; late meaning past 1 AM. Then, I wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning, getting around 6 hours a sleep.

Going to bed this late is a new obstacle that I face. Last semester I went to bed around 11 every night and felt refreshed in the morning. Also, my energy would last well into the day and evening, so I was always eager to go to the gym. Now, it is much harder to get out of bed and ready in the morning, and I haven’t gone to the gym as often. My goal is to go to bed earlier, however, my current courses have more assignments than last semester. I need to be more proactive on my assignments by working ahead, and I am going to try to complete them quicker. I know I currently have poor sleeping habits, but I am striving to go to bed earlier every night. My goal is to go to bed around 11, so I get 8 or more hours of sleep again, which all college students should aim for.

--Original published at JD's Blog

My sleeping habits are not very good at the moment. I will be the first person to tell someone that. Right now I get around five hours of sleep on average. That is definitely not healthy at all. Between staying up super late to study with friends or by myself. Sometimes I forget that I have work do or have to watch a video that was longer than expected and write a reflection or take a quiz. Usually I am up late working on Organic Chemistry with some friends trying to decipher what the heck our teacher assigned us. Even though all of these things do not take a ton of time. If one leaves them for last minute or gets distracted, they can easily add up to a few extra hours of work. On average I usually get into bed and fall asleep between 1:00am and 2:00am. Now on certain day this is ok, because my first class the next day does not begin until twelve thirty. However, when I have an Eight am, this habit definitely bites me in the butt. I Have often used to it by now, but sometimes I feel myself getting tired in class and therefore not being able to retain as much information or pay as much attention as in should be. A nap after my 9:30 usually helps, but I really need to make a change. I should start improving my sleeping habits by making a better schedule for myself. I should try to be in bed by twelve, twelve thirty the latest. This way I can at least get 7 hours of sleep under my belt for the incoming day. I should really push to get six or seven hours of sleep rather than five or even four some nights. Hopefully learning some new information on sleep will help drive me to make the necessary change in my everyday sleeping habits.

--Original published at Miguel's College Blog

My sleep habits are pretty bad. I know that they are bad too. I understand that as a college student, I should be getting about 8 – 9 hours of sleep regularly. I also understand that it is recommended that we should be implementing some type of workout 2 – 3 times a week to keep our heart healthy. Even with those things in mind, I still go to sleep late and get 5 – 6 hours of sleep and workout 2 times a week (on good weeks). It is not that I do not want to go to sleep early and that I do not want to workout, it is that I rarely have the free time to do so. My schedule is packed with classes, I have to eat at some point, and I have work that I need to get done. When I do have free time, I have to debate what I should do with this free time (I usually take a nap because I lack sleep). On the weekends I try to catch up on the sleep I have deprived myself throughout the week by sleeping in, effectively keeping me up later in the evening. Then the cycle repeats itself. I know that my sleep habits are pretty terrible yet for some reason I cannot seem to break it.

As a college student, I really try and strive for at least 8 hours of sleep, passing up other work so I can get some sleep in, but realistically 5 – 7 hours is what in most cases is normal. To improve my sleep habits, I know that not taking a nap if I am not extremely tired will give me some extra time to get things done. Also, writing a task list has been helping me organize what I need to get done each day so that I can actually feel accomplished and not overburdened.