Many individuals who go to college and pursue a degree take on additional stress from being a student. The time requirement and stress from college life may begin to affect some students' improving sleep quality and schedule.
Sleep deficiency can affect the quality of a student's work and their focus in class and cause other serious health issues later in life. It is important to maintain a healthy sleep schedule.
There are some actions that can be taken at home to quickly improve the quality of your sleep.
6 Tips:
- Get Comfortable
- Consistent Sleep Schedule
- Get Some Sun & Exercise
- Substances To Avoid Before Bed
- Avoid Technology Before Bed
- Get A Doctor & Or Supplements
Get Comfortable To Improve Sleep Quality
The first step to ensure you get quality sleep every night is to personalize your space and make it as comfortable as possible. Specialists and doctors advise that adults set their thermostats in the range of 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Everyone's body keeps up with the circadian rhythms, so as night falls, the body's natural temperature begins to decrease. Lowering the thermostat may help signal the body that it is time for bed and regulate your temperature throughout the night.
Buying an entirely new mattress is unrealistic for most college students, especially those who must pay for their schooling. There are some other cheaper and more efficient options to sleep more comfortably at night.
Mattress toppers can be purchased to make any mattress firm depending on your preference. One can also experiment with different types of pillows for the head and body until finding something that works for them.
Consistent Sleep Schedule
If you struggle to get enough sleep at night because you cannot fall asleep, your sleep schedule may be too inconsistent. Try going to bed within the same hour every night. By doing this, you are programming your body and sleep schedule to a specific time.
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This will prevent you from lying awake in the dark. In addition to this, waking up around the same time each day will prevent the body from having excessive energy when it's time to start winding down for bed.
This tip is most effective when the bed is reserved for sleeping only. Spending excessive time in bed during the day forces the body to dissociate from the bed and lie down from sleeping.
Get Some Sun & Exercise
There are lots of physical and mental health benefits from exercising regularly. Among these benefits, there is one that many individuals do not consider often. Exercising and spending time outdoors have several positive effects on sleep as well.
Exercising can be used to wind down for bed or generate some extra energy to prevent crashing during the day. Moderate and strenuous workouts in the evening will help alleviate extra energy during bedtime.
Light to moderate exercise can be used for the opposite. To prevent taking naps during the day that will interrupt your sleep schedule, you can do a light workout or just spend some time in the sun.
Substances To Avoid Before Bed For Improving Sleep Quality
Contrary to popular belief, large meals before bed do not help you sleep better, nor does alcohol. Eating a heavy meal soon or directly before bed may help wind down the night, but it negatively affects the body later in the night because it slows down digestion.
Additionally, eating fatty and greasy foods before bed may completely disrupt digestion, causing discomfort and waking someone completely.
Many people believe that alcohol helps them sleep in the same way that large meals do. Alcohol may indeed help individuals feel drowsy and fall asleep faster because it is a depressant substance.
However, alcohol disrupts the natural sleep cycle. Some individuals wake up entirely after receiving a few hours of sleep because alcohol works against the REM stage of sleeping.
Even if you manage to sleep through the night after drinking, you may wake up feeling not really refreshed and rested.
Most people know how to avoid caffeine and sugar before bed and in the evenings but may not have considered that some of their favorite foods contain caffeine.
Most sodas and carbonated drinks contain a considerable amount of caffeine, so these should be consumed earlier in the day. Some other foods that naturally have caffeine are chocolate, tea, and even some fruits.
Avoid Technology Before Bed
Most devices with a screen produce a type of light that is counterproductive to the body's sleep cycle. Phones, tablets, laptops, and even some TVs produce blue light, which slows melatonin production in the body.
Melatonin is a naturally produced chemical in the body, and it is responsible for the sleepy sensation felt at nighttime. Newer handheld devices have a setting where you can lower the blue light coming off the screen, but this method is not as effective as limiting technology usage before bed.
If you have fluorescent or LED lights in your home, turn off as many as you can as you wind down for the night, as these omit blue light too. This is key in improving sleep quality.
Get A Doctor & Or Supplements For Improving Sleep Quality
There are lots of sleep-related illnesses that affect people around the world, not just college students. A lot of these illnesses are well-known but sometimes underdiagnosed.
Sleep-related illnesses include insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and the list goes on. If you have tried various methods at night and during the day to ensure quality sleep and these do not work, then you may want to consider seeing a doctor.
Some sleep-related illnesses can be prevented with over-the-counter supplements such as melatonin, but be sure to follow the instructions on the bottle.
