--Original published at AlexisPattersonBlog

I would say my sleep habits vary. Being a college athlete has taken a toll on my sleeping patterns. With traveling away to games and not getting back until late at night, and having to find the time to do small things you need to get done and get adequate sleep for your classes the next day makes things hard. I used to be real enforcer of the 8 hour rule. I was convinced that if I got at least 8 hours or close to that, then I would get a good amount of sleep to function the next day. I know we have been told otherwise, but I do believe that 8 hours is a decent amount of time to have at the least.

Everyone is different in class schedules at school, so the time that people need to be up in the morning will vary. People also have different personal lives. Some people like to get up and get dressed nice in the morning and have a sit down breakfast before their 8 am class. I am the person who will roll out of bed at 12 for my 12:30 class.

I find that I can improve my sleep habits with minimizing the amount of time during the day that I am laying around doing nothing and I can start to do more that way I am not cramming it in at night. I also like to watch tv at night and do my homework after, and another option would be to do the work and then watch tv before bed.

--Original published at WilliamsCollegeBlog

Since I’m currently in my sophomore year of college, I have had to adapt to multiple sleep schedules. Each semester I usually must change when I wake up, but I usually try to go to bed around the same general time no matter the situation. I try to be relaxing in my bed around 11 and asleep by midnight. This semester the earliest I wake up is 7:30 and the other days it is a little later or I do not set an alarm and just wake up when my body is ready to. My general rule is to try and get seven hours of sleep and nine hours is the maximum amount I will normally get. Throughout these first couple semesters, I have had sleep schedules which worked right away and others where I needed to adjust when I go to bed in order to get optimum sleep. From this, I can tell I have changed my habits for the better and can notice differences compared to last semester in how I function in other classes.

I would think a healthy amount of sleep for any college student would be around seven hours of sleep. If a random student goes to bed by midnight and have an 8:00 am morning class, waking up at 7:00 and getting seven hours of sleep seems reasonable. Overall, I believe my sleep schedule is generally good. I should reduce the amount of time I am on my phone before trying to fall asleep. I have had nights where I am restless and can remember being on my phone later than I intended to. This will allow for my body to be in a better state when trying to sleep earlier.

--Original published at Olivia's College Blog

Poor sleeping habits can be detrimental to other areas of daily life, like academic success, and mental and physical health. Before experiencing college life, I heard many older family members and high school alumni claim that “The three branches of college are social life, academics, and sleep. If you want to be successful you have to choose two of them”. I figured this was an exaggeration, just highlighting the fact that college requires a lot of time management. I’ve learned that college is in fact extremely demanding of my time, but as long as I am mindful of the time I dedicate to each of those three areas, I can manage.

Throughout my life, I’ve had sleeping problems that have made it difficult to have consistent and deep sleep. For that reason, I have always made sleep one of my top priorities. I know that sleep deprivation can make it very difficult to perform in regular tasks like exams or athletics. In an effort to stay on top of how much I sleep, I keep a sleeping schedule and aim to fall asleep and wake up at the same time each day. Over the years I found that it helped my body fall into rhythm which facilitated falling asleep and waking up. Additionally, I have learned how to get a better sleep by eliminating naps. During my first year of college, I took daily naps to decompress, relax, and break up homework during the day. I would oversleep and sometimes sleep hours on end, which made it nearly impossible to fall asleep at night. Having some experience in college has helped me understand what my body requires for the best sleep.

I’ve never been one to pull all-nighters doing homework or cramming for exams. I feel that I do best when I am rested, so I find more comfort in having a good night’s rest as opposed to studying in the early morning hours before an exam. I typically sleep a minimum of 8 hours a night. As an athlete, I think I should get more than 8 hours, taking into account the excess of calories burned and the exhaustion I feel at the end of every day. Overall, I think my sleeping habits are healthy and I plan to continue making healthy sleeping habits a priority.

--Original published at Victoria's Psych Blog

Sleep is something that I am currently struggling with. Although it has been something that I have always had an issue with, it is much different now. In high school, I would fall asleep around 1 am working on schoolwork because of my busy schedule. The past summer before college I started having symptoms of arthritis and I was always tired. A walk across a parking lot made me exhausted and I barely could stay awake. At the end of the summer, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. PsA is an autoimmune disease where my immune system attacks healthy joint; therefore, my body is always working harder than needed. This led to a drastic intake of sleep and my first semester of college was rough. My first year seminar met at 8am and I missed almost 2/3rds of the classes. The average amount of sleep I get each night is eleven hours. It was hard to juggle my classes and schoolwork and go to bed at 9pm each night. It was impossible. This semester is easier going to class, but I still sleep at least eleven hours every night. On the days that I do a lot of walking, I will sleep at least fourteen hours. I am unsure if I am able to say if my sleep is healthy. My increased sleep is help my body heal and reenergize itself. Yet, my social life is lacking because of it as well.

An average college student should get at least eight hours of sleep, at least that is what I have been told. Like I learned in class today, everybody has different needs. I think that sleep would be improved if students learned to manage time better and make a schedule for doing work. All electronic work should be done before paper work. That way the blue light of the computer will not affect melatonin levels in the body. Between classes is also a good time to review flashcards and other study tools. Studying and homework should be done in natural or soft lighting. Students shouldn’t stay up late doing work anyway because of how memory works. Information retention works better when you get the right amount of sleep. fff

--Original published at JanellesCollegeBlog

My sleep habits have changed drastically since I came to college. In high school I was in bed most nights by 10 and then woke up in the morning around 6:30 for school. On weekends I went to sleep later, around midnight, but only slept until about 9 in the morning. Therefore, even though it was different hours I was getting about the same amount of sleep on the weekends as the weekdays.

Since coming to college, I usually go to sleep around midnight and wake up the next morning between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on what classes I have that day. When I go to bed at midnight I usually do not fall asleep until about 12:30. This is different than high school because I am only getting 7 hours of sleep during the week now. Most weekends I stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. hanging out with friends. Instead of getting up at 9 on weekends, I now wake up much later, most times around 11 a.m. I think of the weekends as a way to catch up on sleep I missed during the week. I do not think this is an effective or healthy strategy. I think sleeping in late on weekends makes it much harder for me to wake up for my 8 a.m. class on Monday.

I think a realistic amount of sleep for a college student is 6 hours per night. By the time students are done with classes, homework, athletics, or extracurriculars it is much later than some people may think. Despite this, I think I function best with at least 7 hours of sleep. If I get less than this I tend to feel slow and cannot focus in classes as well.

A bad habit I have is showering late at night. I know this is not good for me as it wakes me up instead of making me tired. I also go on my phone right before going to sleep which I know is not good. To improve my sleep habits, I will try to shower earlier at night and not be on my phone right before I go to sleep.

--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.