How to get enough sleep at school
You probably already know this. Sleep is important if you want to do well in school (and anything else in general). It doesn’t matter how old you are or what your gender is; consistent and sufficient sleep is essential in order to function properly throughout the day and have enough energy to perform necessary tasks.
Of course, for such a long time, the importance of sleep was a concept that my brain was never really able to grasp, until last week I came across this post on Quora which opened my eyes to what could happen to me if I continued to neglect my sleep (nothing good). For the past several months, schoolwork has kept me so busy that I’ve been sleeping 5 hours and sometimes as little as 4 hours a night, thinking that I would be able to succeed in school and get through long days. Simply put, no one, no matter how smart or talented they are, can possibly do well if running on low energy, so unsurprisingly, my grades started dropping, my mood started to slip, my diet started to drop south - I got the whole package of what people should really avoid in school.
Eventually, after long last, I realised that my problem started with the amounts of sleep I was getting. So for the past week, I’ve been making sure to get at least 7 to 8 hours a night, and the difference is astounding. I’ve regained motivation to do my work, my mood is lifting, and in general, I feel more in control in my life.
I’m assuming that I’m not the only person who struggles with getting enough sleep as a student, so here are some tips on managing this:
1. Set yourself a strict bedtime
Pick a time that you have to go to bed at, no matter what, and organise your schedule around this time. Aim to get around 7-8 hours of sleep at night and take your school times into consideration. For instance, if you need to be up at 6 to get ready, make sure you set your bedtime between 10pm and 11pm.
2. Stay organised with your work
The most difficult part of getting enough sleep when you’re in school is that you always have work to do, which can make sleep feel like a waste of time. But finishing your homework at 11pm is not worth you ruining your health for. So use your weekends to get work done and don’t leave it to the night before. I’ll talk about this in more depth in a future post, but if you spread out your work across the week intelligently, you’ll have less work to do the night before your class, you’ll be less stressed, and you’ll be able to be better rested!
3. Get into a bedtime routine
This is a good brain/body hack. Your brain has an autopilot mode, and if you manage to create a systematic routine before you go to bed that you do everyday, you’ll find it so much easier to get to sleep at time. Imagine you decide to wash your face, brush your teeth, read for 10 minutes and then sleep. As time passes, you’ll become tired when you start your reading session. Why? Because your brain knows that you’ll be going to bed next and will be getting ready for this. So pick a good routine and stick to it!
4. Avoid blue light before bed
Notice how I didn’t say to avoid technology in general? The worst part of using tech before bed really is the blue light that comes out from screens, which makes your brain believe that it’s broad daylight - bad idea. The new iOS has a ‘nighttime mode’ which is more friendly for night users and for Androids, there are many apps that you can download that block out blue light. Of course, avoid doing anything too stimulating, like watching hilariously funny videos or whatnot. But scrolling through Tumblr or Instagram for a bit won’t hurt you too much before night, provided you don’t make your social media session turn into three hours of switching between Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
5. Do some stretching/yoga
Stretching or yoga before bed is great for relaxing your body and prepping it for sleep. It’s a calming form of exercise and if you play meditative music, it’ll definitely allow your brain to wind down after your long day. Stretching out your muscles is a great feeling, especially if you’ve had a long day sitting at a desk. This really doesn’t have to last for too long; 5-10 minutes should be more than enough! (This is a good example - it’s 13 minutes but you get a good idea)
6. Listen to calming music in bed
You know how lullabies work wonders at making children go to sleep? Well it’s not too different with teenagers and adults. Find a good playlist of calming classical or jazz music that you can listen to as you go to sleep - I promise it works! I personally really like listening to this music when I go to sleep. I put it on shuffle to make sure that I don’t become too accustomed to the melody and I’m asleep in no time.
But what if you really can’t get to sleep? I know, sometimes you just can’t get to sleep. In these situations, I just pick up a book and do some reading. Don’t choose something gripping or emotional though! Alternatively, you could also watch a few youtube videos if you really feel like it. But I’ve found that if you get used to getting sufficient sleep and get into a good rhythm, you’ll be less likely to have difficulty sleeping. Still skeptical about whether or not sleeping 7-8 hours is really that helpful? Try doing it properly for a week, and you’ll probably feel a whole lot of difference.
