Frankly, sleep is a massive challenge many students struggle with for a variety of reasons. Sleep is incredibly important and can affect your energy levels, your mood, memory, ability to concentrate and other areas of your mental and physical health. Even before the pandemic, many students spent a significant amount of time trying to fall asleep and were not getting enough. Since many students have trouble falling asleep, what can they do to help?
Data from the 2019 National College Health Assessment shows over 56.2% of college students typically take over 15 minutes to fall asleep, while many others taking over 30 minutes. From this data, it becomes obvious students have a hard time even starting to sleep. So, what can you do to address this problem?
Some strategies you can use are stretching before bed, making the room as dark as possible, going to bed at a consistent time every night and staying away from screens for about 30 minutes before going to bed. If your ability to sleep is poor, it may help to employ some of these strategies. There are also many other methods that could help. Other strategies I see friends using are things like going jogging at night to relieve stress, mindfulness mediation, listening to music before sleeping and more. All of these are good; if it helps you sleep, that is great.
Another problem students face is the amount of sleep they get. As students we have a lot to do, often making us stay up late and wake up early. Many students do not get enough sleep because of this.
The 2019 assessment data shows 42.5% of college students get an average of fewer than seven hours of sleep reported over a two-week period. We have a lot to do, but as I said before, sleep affects us in a lot of ways and it can negatively affect us if we get an inadequate amount.
The most effective way to get more sleep is to make time for it through time management and scheduling. Scheduling can happen in a variety of forms, such as making a to-do list, having a daily routine for each day and blocking out time. Another method is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for 25 minutes, then taking a short break before working for another 25 minutes.
There are many methods out there for scheduling, and not every method works for every person. But utilizing a scheduling method can help us create time for sleep by setting a fixed interval for sleeping. Following a schedule also has the bonus of adding consistency and helping us keep on track with work.
Overall, sleeping is difficult with so much to do and worry about. NCHA data backs this up by showing that college students struggle going to sleep and getting enough. But we can work on improving these through a variety of methods. Consider utilizing them, since sleep impacts so many areas of mental and physical health. With school and the pandemic going on your sleep may have suffered, but remember that it is an important part of your life. As always, keep calm and vandal on.
– Zach Gokey