It is about that time of the fall semester when this is a good reminder for college students:
A tired brain makes everything worse. Emotions can rage out of control. Learning, processing and retention of new information are impaired. Focus and problem-solving decline. Then you bomb a quiz or a test and trigger a cycle of test anxiety.
Dorms may be the worst setting for quality sleep. They are loud, bright, hot and smelly, and never mind that you had to add other people in your bedroom. Control what you can. Block out light with a sleep mask; use headband-style headphones and guided meditations to buffer sound; and place a fan near your bed to cool your sleeping space and add white noise. Most importantly, communicate early with your roommate about sleep schedules, expectations and respect for each other’s privacy.
The most common mistake that I see college students making is not staying up too late; it’s having an inconsistent wake-up time. If you have early classes two days, but sleep till noon the other days, you are disrupting your body’s circadian rhythm, which reduces your sleep quality and increases daytime fatigue.
Instead, prioritize getting up at the same time each day, adding in a short early afternoon nap if needed. Obviously, total sleep quantity matters, too. If you choose to study or party till 2 a.m., make sure that you’re able to sleep till 10 a.m.
College students have all sorts of things going on around them. Classes. Social life in the dorms and with friends. All sorts of campus events. Extracurricular activities and work. A phone that keeps trying to get their attention. And their schedules can be pretty open, particularly compared to high school where they attended for a longer set of hours from early morning into the afternoon.
What gets lost in this is a regular sleep schedule. There is always some things that could be done. People to hang out with. Work for class is always there, if not immediately due. Stuff going on. Their class schedule could vary quite a bit across days of the week.
It is easy to stay up late and hard to get up at a regular time. They can survive with this for a while but at some point the lack of sleep catches up to them. Hard to stay awake in class. Drinking lots of energy drinks. Feeling sluggish. Showing up but not really learning much.
It took me several years in college to figure out what I needed each night to function well. This meant going to bed at a reasonable time (by 11:30 or 12), not doing work late into the night (there were steeply diminishing returns on the quality), and getting up at a fairly regular time in the morning (by 7 or 7:30). By my senior year, I took a number of 8 AM courses and felt okay. Yes, I had to miss some late night opportunities but I felt better.
I wonder if there are colleges where the environment or education has led to better sleep across students. What works in really helping students figure out the value of sleep earlier and enjoying the college experience?
