Students And Sleep: How To Restore Sleep Schedule Under Stress

Many students are often faced with sleep problems. Sometimes they neglect it: they disappear at parties, work or start studying for exams late. Unfortunately, in most cases in the student body, a person is faced with frequent stresses. 

Situations are not uncommon when the anxiety becomes too strong and the student’s sleep is disturbed. All this is fraught with fatigue, bad mood, accompanied by a decline in student performance, and problems with health. To prevent this from happening, you should not only adhere to the norm of night rest but also properly manage your time during the day.

In any case, it doesn’t matter what reasons have led you to be unable to fall asleep and wake up at the right time – a change of time zone, stress, studies, or insomnia. Only one thing is important: it is necessary to normalize sleep, as it is very important for young people. In this matter, you should try to find a middle ground. With your studies, expert services like “write paper for me” from WriteAnyPapers.com can always help you quickly and efficiently complete tasks. Therefore, if you need rest and time to restore the regime, experts will always be there for you.

So, how much sleep does a student need, and how to establish a sleep regime during the stressful period of student life?

Adult sleep rate

Most adults need 7 to 9 hours to feel awake. The average person needs 7 hours and 40 minutes of sleep.

There are many people who need either too little or much more than that. Those who sleep quickly need 4-5 hours, and those who sleep long need more than 10 hours of sleep. If this is their individual trait, there is nothing to worry about. But more often, this sleeping habit is associated with hidden or obvious problems, which you should try to eliminate. Calculation of the individual norm of sleep, analysis of the student’s condition will help to adjust the regime.

What time do you need to go to bed?

There is no such thing as a universal sleep schedule. This is no secret to anyone. However, there is a point at which this is regarded the usual. This is the time between 23:00 and 7:00 a.m. If a student is completely dissatisfied with such a schedule, he has the option of creating his own.

You can determine when is the best time to sleep on your own. For example, if a student generally gets up an hour before the alarm clock, he should go to bed an hour later so that he can get up on time and not miss out on important opportunities. However, if the student is sleepy during the day, it may be time to consider going to bed early.

Once you’ve established an individual norm, you should stick to it every day. This applies even to weekends or vacations. If this is not done, the body will have a hard time both falling asleep and waking up.

How to form a healthy sleep schedule when stressed?

There are a certain number of rules that you can follow in order to restore sleep as quickly as possible. Following these guidelines can assist your body in performing its duties effectively while you sleep, which will undoubtedly improve your well-being and mood while you are awake:

• You should not eat before going to bed. Eating at night slows down the production of melatonin, which is necessary for falling asleep. But if you really want to eat, you can allow yourself a light snack: vegetables, fruit, or dairy products, a few hours before bedtime.
• Before bedtime, avoid alcoholic and caffeine-containing beverages (cocoa, coffee, and tea).  It is far healthier to drink chamomile tea, mint tea, or warm milk with honey before going to bed. They will calm the nervous system and help you sleep faster and easier.
• An evening walk in the fresh air will help you fall asleep faster.
• Put your problems and worries aside for later. Postpone the problems and worries for later. Try not to think about your debts, the upcoming term exams that you have to pass. You will have time for this during the day. And in the evening it’s best to relax in order to restore your body during a night’s sleep. If possible, relax your muscles and think about something pleasant.
• Evening procedures. A warm shower or hot bath is a great “sedative” to relax the body and help deal with stress. It is better to leave a cold shower for the morning.
• You can read classic literature or listen to peaceful, slow music, nature noises, lullabies, and other soothing sounds to get a good night’s sleep.
• Do not forget to air the room before going to bed. Make it a habit to air the room on a daily basis. This will benefit the nervous system, boost well-being, decrease headaches, and aid to cope with stress.
• Turn off the light in your sleeping space; otherwise, your sleep will not be deep, which will not allow your body to fully rest and recover. If you live in a dorm, try to come to an agreement with your roommates about turning off the light when you need it.
• Sleep should be in a horizontal position, preferably alternately – on the right or left side. Experts do not recommend abdominal sleep.
• Don’t lie in bed for a long time in the morning. When you wake up, stretch your body, move your body and immediately get up. If you allow yourself a long time in bed, then you can fall asleep again and skip study. Thus, the regime will be violated again.

Is it possible to reduce the amount of sleep without harming one’s health?

If a student feels he doesn’t have enough time to keep up with coursework or study for tests, he can try practicing polyphasic sleep. Surely there are people in your social circle who sleep during the day, and sometimes many times a day? These individuals may unintentionally engage in multi-phase (polyphasic) sleep. Its significance is derived from the fact that a person divides his or her rest time into multiple intervals during the day. In contrast to the widely known single-phase sleep approach, this method reduces the number of hours of rest while improving the quality of sleep.

The duration of such sleep includes two phases:

• The first is a slow phase sleep. It begins immediately after a person falls asleep. Slow phase sleep lasts about an hour and a half.
• The second phase is a fast phase sleep. Its duration is 10-20 minutes. Unlike the other phases, this period is characterized by increased brain activity. It is during this phase that we see dreams.

These two phases usually alternate. In order to reduce the time for rest, it is worth trying to shorten the slow phase sleep, as the body recovers worse during this time.

After you’ve tried multiphase sleep, pay attention to how your body reacts. It’s possible that this method won’t work for you, in which case you’ll have to switch to normal mode. Under any event, such tests should only be used in extreme circumstances, as the student’s body is still developing and need proper rest.

In any case, it takes discipline to adjust your sleep. If you follow your sleep schedule for a long time, then you will succeed. However, if, despite all your efforts, insomnia and other sleep problems do not go away, then you need to see a doctor-somnologist. You may have an undiagnosed sleep disorder.