How to Fix Your Sleep Schedule

Sleep is one of the most crucial things in our life. Living a healthy lifestyle means sleeping well, eating well, and avoiding stress. If the second and the third parts of this formula are not something that is in your power right now, then you should definitely put effort into the first part of it. Improving your sleep is not very difficult, just follow our easy tips to learn how to do it.

Sleeping Patterns

We all are very different. We speak differently, eat differently, and, yes, sleep differently. Every person has a sleep pattern that sometimes can be not in the best balance. As you might know, there are a few elements of a sleep pattern, such as:

• The number of periods of sleep per day. There is a monophasic, biphasic, and polyphasic sleep with one, two, or multiple periods of sleep per day respectively.
• The number of times you wake up throughout your sleep.
• Sleep stages, for example, deep sleep.
• Sleep hygiene.

Somnology is a study of sleep and there are multiple great specialists in the sphere who you can turn to if you have troubles with your sleep that you can’t solve yourself. However, regular students usually have bad sleep due to very banal reasons and with some effort can completely change the situation with their sleep.

Watch Your Routine

Keeping a sleep routine when you are a student is difficult. Pulling all-nighters or partying, waking up late on holidays and early for classes doesn’t make it any easier. However, the most effective way to improve your sleep and wake up in the morning well-rested is to follow your routine.

Pick the time when you are mostly up and decide when you want to go to bed. Try to stick to your schedule daily, lengthening your sleep on weekends no more than for an hour. Your body will get used to your daily routine after two or three weeks and you will find that you fall asleep faster while waking up becomes much easier.

An adult generally needs 7-8 hours of sleep. But we all are different, so make sure to pick the number of sleep hours that suit you best of all. Maybe you feel great when you sleep 6 hours and don’t need more. Or maybe you need all 10 hours and not less. If you are planning your schedule, make the waking time a starting point to decide when you need to go to bed. Don’t sleep in even when you are on your weekends. Be consistent.

Eliminate Distractions

Sleeping in a room full of light or noises is pretty hard for your brain as it takes more effort for your nervous system to keep you asleep. It means that you don’t get the rest that you need in full. 

Make sure you turn off all the lights in your room including nightlamps, small led indicators on your TV, and eliminate all the distractions, for example, turn off your computer, your phone notification sound, etc. Ask your roommate, if you have one, to make a deal about the sleep hours. This should be the time when both of you are either asleep or not present in the room.

Air Your Room

Fresh air is crucial for good sleep. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to sleep outside. Just create a habit of opening your windows for 15-30 minutes before going to bed. This will help you breathe easier and fall asleep faster, as well as it might help with snoring or excessive movement in sleep.

Even 5 or ten minutes of airing your room will be enough when it’s cold outside. You can leave the room while the windows are open to avoid catching a cold.

Don’t Eat Too Much Before Bed

We all sometimes eat in our beds or have dinner right before going to sleep. Well, that’s not healthy at all. Moreover, our digestion keeps us awake longer and might even cause bed dreams. Remember, that your system is not completely shut down when you are asleep, so don’t give yourself extra tasks, like digesting a big bowl of popcorn.