School has officially started (joy…) and life is starting to get crazy again. Between readings, homework assignments, meetings and deadlines, your head can get pretty cluttered with all the things you need to do.
All this stimulation can make it next to impossible to shut your brain off at night and fall asleep. What’s a college kid to do?
Read below for some rest-well tips that might just help you to stay awake in your next class:
Make a to-do list for the next day: Sound counterproductive? Actually, making a to-do list can really help you fall asleep and get rid of a racing mind.
Writing down a list of objectives will help put your brain at ease. Since it is on paper, you no longer need to think about it and keep mentally reminding yourself to do it the next day.
Stay Active during the Day: Lounging all day could be the reason why you are not able to go to sleep at night.
Even if you are tired from a crazy night, a 15-page research paper or just life, make a point to get at least an hour of exercise. It doesn’t have to be strenuous; a walk around campus or some time walking on the treadmill will do.
Keeping your physical energy can cause your body not to require sleep and therefore prevent you from falling asleep.
Avoid eating and drinking lots of water before you go to bed: There is nothing more annoying than having to get up five times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
So, in order to get a full and uninterrupted night’s sleep, avoid drinking anything within one hour of your bedtime.
Also, eating right before you go to bed can disrupt your sleep cycles and cause you to sleep lighter due to the body’s need to digest the food you just ate.
Take a hot shower one hour before bed: The body uses a mechanism to know when to fall asleep: temperature. When you wake up in the morning, your body temperature is at its lowest and when you go to bed it’s at its highest. Your body knows to fall asleep when the body temperature starts to drop which happens at the end of the day.
By having a hot shower about one hour before bedtime it boosts the body temperature temporarily, which allows for a sharper drop of temperature when you get out of the shower. This sharp drop in temperature helps your body determine that it is time to fall asleep.
Turn off the TV: Looking at a bright screen on a computer or television stimulates your body to produce melatonin.
Melatonin is what keeps you awake during the day (when there is a high level in your body). This also explains why it is so hard to get out of bed in the morning when it is pitch dark outside.
In order to fall asleep faster, turn off that stimulation as early as possible in the evening.
So start trying these pointers tonight and get on your way to super sleep every night! Just don’t let the bed bugs bite!
