Tag Archives: Sleep

Week 9 First Impression Post

--Original published at Site Title

For this weeks first impression post, I chose to discuss the less than optimal sleeping habits that most of us college students possess. We are constantly juggling so many different things, that we are left with no choice rather than to stay up late doing work, just to wake up early to resume that work.

Personally, I feel that my sleeping habits could be worse, but they could also be better. While I do manage to get into bed at a reasonable time most nights, there are usually one or two nights a week that I find myself staying up much later than I should be, and I can certainly feel the consequences of doing so the next day. However, I overall feel that I have relatively healthy sleeping habits. My goal for each day is to be in bed by midnight, and to wake up around 8 am. Therefore, I usually get the recommended 8 hours of sleep during normal sleeping hours, and for that reason I believe that my sleeping habits are pretty healthy, especially for a college student. However, they are not perfect and there are many things that could be done to improve them.

Many college students may feel that getting 8 hours of sleep at night is not a reasonable goal. For some individuals who have taken on busier schedules, this may be true. However, there are still things that can be done to help college students get as much sleep as they possibly can. There are two particular things that  I have done in order to help me achieve my goal of getting 8 hours of sleep each night. A major thing to help with this is having organization. If you have a set schedule of everything you have to do for the day, you are less likely to waste time. This means that at night instead of worrying bout doing the work that you’ve put off all day, you can go to bed. Another thing that you can do is avoid distractions. This may mean avoiding them throughout the day when you’re trying to get your work done, or this may mean putting your phone away at night when you’re ready to go to bed. Doing these two things is a great start at improving sleeping patterns.

First Impression Week 9

--Original published at Madison's Blog

College students often have to sacrifice well needed sleep in order to maintain a social life, get homework done, study, eat, and exercise daily. All these activities cuts into the nighttime, when sleep should be the main priority. For me, I need to sleep at least seven hours a night in order to be fully functional the next day. I have 8am classes four days a week, so the early mornings highly influence my nightly routine. I make sure to be in bed, or getting ready for bed by 11:15pm. If I push my limits and stay up past midnight, I will be too tired the next day to be awake and tentative in class. I am not a huge nap-taker, so my sleep at night is my main rest time. I know other students who are awake all night, and maybe only receive five hours at night or less. I personally cannot do that, my body will not run on that little of sleep for very long. I try to offset my nightly studying by doing as much homework during the day as possible. This allows me to get all my needed work done, but also not delay my sleep schedule. I can improve my sleep habits a little bit by making sure the room is completely dark when I try to sleep, since darkness is easier to sleep in. My roommate stays up later than I do, so I am used to falling asleep in a fully lit room. The lights make it harder to relax and calm down enough to fully fall asleep, so that is something I can work on. I think for a college student, sleep is key to success. Nobody can succeed while being sleep deprived, since it weakens your immune system. Sleep is essential to life, and for a busy college student, I think the more sleep the better. I set a strict sleep schedule for myself, and I function well during the day. For others, I think setting a strict sleep schedule for yourself is a goal to keep. Even if you need to stay up late to do work, if you get your body into a routine, the transition from work to sleep will be easier.

First Impression Week #9

--Original published at Nadia's Blog

It is very well known that sleep is important and a necessity to remain healthy. Inevitably a typical college student most likely lacks the recommended amount of sleep. For most individuals getting a full 9 hours of sleep a night is not a realistic goal. With balancing classes, homework, studying, activities and socializing, sleep tends to get pushed aside. Personally I never realize how much a lack of sleep will affect me until I have to wake up the next morning.  Most students have classes all day, not allowing them to start their work until the midafternoon. During this time it may not be possible to do work, because students seem to be tired after a full day, or they have a prior commitment to another activity. This pushes off the work that needs to be done, which further prohibits the time they will go to sleep.  Personally I believe that I started off with good sleeping habits my first semester, but they have progressively gotten worse.

I typically do my homework and studying as soon as classes finish, this way I don’t have time to get unmotivated or too relaxed. I found this very helpful, because if I was to lay in bed for an hour and then do my work, I would have a much more difficult time getting up. This also makes it possible for me to get to bed earlier rather than pushing off my work to do later. Over the course of this semester, my work load has gotten heavier which has changed my sleeping habits. Now days I won’t get to bed before midnight. This leaves me with getting only 7 hours of sleep a night, since I have an 8 am every day. On average I sleep 6-7 hours a night which has definitely put a toll on my body and mind. Even when I do decide to go to bed around midnight, it may take a while to actually fall asleep since living in the dorms is not the quietest.  One thing I am trying to avoid is going on my phone before bed. I tend to check my phone and reply to people right before I go to bed, because it seems to be the only available time I have, but this often gets me distracted and I can get lost on my phone. This would most likely improve my sleep habits by calming my brain down before sleeping.  Overall it seems to be an unrealistic goal to get a full 8 hours of sleep every night for a college student who is trying to balance a variety of things.

Week 9 First Impression Prompt – Sleep

Hand writing on a notebook

 

Regardless of which option you choose, please use the tag “Sleep” on your post. The first impression post will be due at the start of class on Monday, 3/12, and the refinement post will be due at noon on Sunday, 3/18.

Option 1:

In this TED talk, Russell Foster outlines 3 prominent theories about why we sleep. Watch the talk and argue for the theory you find the most convincing. Make sure to explain your thoughts about the credibility of each of the three theories.

Option 2:

College students are often heavily sleep deprived as they sacrifice sleep in order to study, work, and/or have a social life in addition to their academic commitments. Assess your current sleep habits and how healthy you think they are. What is a realistic goal for amount of sleep per night for a college student and how can you improve your sleep habits?

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Week 7 impression post option 2

--Original published at Site Title

I definitely agree that young students and children are not getting enough sleep and it is slowly but surly affecting their health and their daily life.  As a young adult, your supposed to get about 9 to 10 hours of sleep every night. But for most people including myself, that is not accomplished. Many hobbies and activities now days get in the way of sleep such as, cellphones, studying for an exam, or maybe you just have so much anxiety that you can’t fall asleep. One thing that I didn’t know that I found very interesting while listening in class is that your not supposed to lay in your bed unless you actually want to sleep or need to sleep. Hearing this was a game changer for me because I’m constantly in my bed because I live in a dorm room. There’s not very many options for me to choose besides my uncomfortable wooden chair. But after hearing that I’m not making efforts to not lie in my bed, or not sit near the end where the pillows are. I now study and do my work at the very end so my brain doesn’t think that it’s nap time. I have a very hard time allowing myself to fall asleep at night because of the amount of food I eat during the day and how late I wake up on the weekends. I hardly eat at all during the day partly because of my medication but partly because my body is so used to eating food at night. This is one of the main reasons why I’m up so late. But I now am trying to make efforts to go to bed on time and eat meals at a normal time throughout my day. So far this week was the most interesting to me because it helped me learn how to sleep better and things that I can do to improve my sleep habits in the future. And if there was anything that I would recommend to a student or a high school student, it would be too try to go to sleep before 11 P.M. at night.


First Impression Sleep

--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.


Week 7 First Impression Posts: Option 2

--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.


Week 7 First Impression- Sleep

--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.


Wait…Sleep is a Thing?

--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.


First Impression Post – Sleep

--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.