Why is getting enough sleep so challenging? What is your “sleep hygiene”? Has it changed since you got to college? What do you notice about yourself depending on how much sleep you got? Would you like to change anything about your sleep habits?
Firstly, “enough sleep” is subjective, I think. Scientifically, someone in my age should get between 7-9 hours of sleep every night. But I have friends who sleep much more or much less than that recommended time and they define “enough sleep” according to their own needs. Personally, 8.5 hours of sleep is ideal for me. It gives me enough time in the day, but also allows me to feel rested when I wake up.
I think that getting enough sleep is challenging because people procrastinate a lot during they day! They pull all-nighters when they could have done all the work while they were watching Netflix during the day. Therefore, I think that sleep correlates with work ethic and time management. Another important factor is the sleep education that people get from their parents when they are kids. For example, my mother was very strict about putting us to bed at 9:30 PM every night. My body got into this cycle of sleep and I would naturally get sleepy when it was 9:30 every night. I know some parents who let their kids walk around at 1 AM and I think that this is unhealthy for the physical development of the kid as well as a bad habit to be formed at such a young age.
One other thing about the subjectivity of appropriate sleep cycles and amount of sleep is the lifestyles of people. A rock-star may be going to bed at 3 AM, but she may still get 8 hours of sleep by waking up much later. With that said, as my lifestyle changed from high school student to college student, I just shifted my sleep schedule. Basically, I used to go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 7:30. Now I go to bed at 11:00 PM and wake up at 8:00 AM. Throughout the week I successfully stay on track with this schedule. However, on the weekends I do get a little sleep deprived sometimes.
I know that my body is very sensitive to the amount of sleep it gets. When I don’t get enough sleep, I am very moody. I get very short-tempered and I am not as productive. Since I know that I depend on sleep a lot, I generally do my best to get a good amount of sleep at night. The major problem with sleep, for me, is the environment I sleep in. Living with a roommate is difficult because I am a very light sleeper and she is not sensitive when I go to bed earlier than she does. Even coughing or sniffing wakes me up and she has a constant cold (I don’t know why… maybe it’s an American thing) Therefore, I have to use ear plugs most nights. This is a pretty good solution and it helps me a lot, so I think I’ll stick with it.
