Class. Work. Homework. Assigned readings. Studying for that one exam next week. And also for that other exam the next day. Office hours and supplemental instruction. Coffee. Making food. Eating food. Physical activity. Friends. Family. Significant others. Pets. Happy hour. Internships. Volunteer work. Club meetings. Hobbies. Netflix. Laundry. Other house chores and random errands.
And then at the very end of your long list of things to do…sleep.
I get it. It happens to me, too. You’re exhausted and just want to get a good night’s rest, but you have a million and one responsibilities to take care of and those ultimately take priority over sleep.
Sleep is important. There is no way around it. You need to sleep in order to function properly. Moreover, you want to sleep because it makes you feel good and ready to tackle the day ahead of you.
Sleeping comes with many benefits, as it helps maintain several vital functions in your body. For example, your body undergoes important restorative functions during sleep including tissue repair, muscle growth, and protein synthesis. Furthermore, studies have found that not getting sufficient sleep increases your risk for developing certain diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and the common cold.
And don’t even get me started on the mental health benefits!
But how do we know what “sufficient” sleep is? A quick Google search will yield a typical answer like 7-9 hours per night. A better answer, though, comes from you. YOU will know when you have slept enough because you will feel rested and energized. Rather than going off a general recommendation of hours to sleep every night, I find it essential to listen to your body. After all, if you don’t listen to it, no one else will, and your body has some very important things to say to you.
So how do we balance it all? How do we obey our body’s sleep needs while still getting it all done? Check out these six UCAN sleep tips:
- Cut back on the non-essentials. This will be different for everyone, but in my experience, I have found that the only time I can cut back without any major consequences is my Netflix time. So instead of watching Netflix for an hour every night, I cut back to 30 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but think about every morning when your alarm goes off and all you want to do is hit the snooze button a couple of times (or a couple of dozen times). Wouldn’t an extra 30 minutes be just perfect?
- Schedule it in. Or, what if instead of scheduling our sleep around every other aspect of our lives, we schedule everything else around sleep? Prioritizing sleep will help you stay awake and alert for class, work, and other parts of our day. Why not prioritize the one thing (or one of the main things) that will benefit every other aspect of your life?
- Set a “go to bed” alarm. Try setting an alarm. Not an alarm to wake you up in the morning, but an alarm to remind you to go to bed at night at the hour you know you need to. Developing time management skills can help make it happen.
- Put your phone to bed. Your phone needs rest too, so put it on sleep mode. Text messages and social media alerts can wait. A ping-ping-ping all night, or a vibrate sound, or even just the light from your phone screen can mess with your deep sleep cycles, which are so important for health and well-being.
- Keep your caffeine in check. Take a close look at your caffeine consumption later in the day. Switch to decaf, herbal teas, and other non-caffeinated beverages around 4 o’clock.
- Get movin’. Regular physical activity will help you fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly at night. It doesn’t have to be a full on workout. Even just a brisk walk can do the trick.
Most of all, remember that this is the only body we get in this lifetime. Take care of it. Nourish and love it. Allow it to rest and heal and repair properly. And please, get that sleep your body needs, no one will do it for you!
Dulce Jimenez
Health Coach