The best sleep schedule for college students and how to stick to it!
This post is all about sleep tips for college students.
Let’s be honest here… Sleep is not every college student’s best friend. But it SHOULD BE. And that’s why these sleep tips are SO IMPORTANT.
If you want to know all about the best sleep schedule for college students, you need to hear these sleeping tips that will help you create the perfect nighttime routine!
You probably know all about the importance of sleep for students… so let’s skip that whole part, and get straight to the HOW.
This post is all about sleep tips for college students.
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BEST COLLEGE SLEEP TIPS
1. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule
Obvious, right? But we all know this is so much easier said than done.
I understand the struggle of not being able to maintain a consistent sleep schedule… It took me like a year to finally master my sleep schedule. And I’m still working on it.
But if you can, try to go to bed and wake up within the same hour every night/morning. It seriously makes such a huge difference and will even improve your mental and emotional health. This is one of the best ways to learn how to sleep better!
2. I don’t care what the experts tell you. SLEEP IN SOMETIMES!
I’m tired of reading blog posts that tell you to wake up at the same time every day, “even on weekends.”
Are you kidding me?!
Who the heck wants to wake up at 7am on a Sunday morning?
As college students, we know all too well that sometimes, we just REALLY NEED that extra couple hours of sleep. I don’t need to remind you about the importance of sleep for college students… We all know it’s super important.
There will be nights you wanna stay out late with your friends. Or even nights where you’re binging your favourite show on Netflix after a hard week and you don’t want to stop at 10pm just because it’s supposed to be your bedtime.
SLEEP IN SOMETIMES. You probably need it. The key here is to just stay consistent with it; don’t just sleep in EVERY time you feel tired because that will throw you off and defeats the whole purpose of having a healthy sleep schedule.
My recommendation?
Pick one day a week that’s going to be your sleep-in day. This will let you catch up on sleep once a week without throwing off your body’s internal clock. My sleep-in day is Sunday. Every day of the week, I’m happy to wake up at 7am. But on Sunday, don’t wake me up until at LEAST 9!
[RELATED POST – Morning Routine for School: Habits to Make Your Mornings Better]
3. Do something you love before you sleep
The truth is, sleep comes a lot easier when you give yourself the time to unwind and relax from your day. It’s really hard to fall asleep when you go immediately from studying to putting your head on the pillow.
What can you do instead?
Don’t settle for just quickly brushing your teeth and then sleeping right away. Spend at least half an hour doing something you love. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Reading
- Journaling
- Praying
- Stretching
- Learning a new language
- Listening to a podcast
- Listening to music you like
Really, anything that doesn’t involve a screen or hard work is a great way to get your mind off your worries and focus on something that makes you feel good!
4. Get a diffuser
Having a diffuser is seriously a game changer when it comes to sleeping well.
Aside from all the good scents you can obsess over, the quiet sound of it running is seriously so soothing. Getting a diffuser seriously changed my life when I used to struggle with anxiety a lot. I started sleeping so much better and I’ve heard so many people say the same!
5. Keep your bed for sleeping only
I know it can be tempting to take your homework to your bed when you’re tired, but this is one of the worst things you can do. If you keep your work at your desk, you’ll seriously feel so much better when you shut down your studying for the day and go to your bed as a place to relax and de-stress.
If you blend the lines between where you work and where you rest, it’ll be harder to get yourself into a relaxed mindset before you sleep. I can tell you for real that this is tried and true — I sleep so much better when I keep my homework and work away from my bed!
Plus, we all know that sleep habits and student success are highly related. So even though you might feel more successful if you study all night from your bed, it probably won’t make you more successful because your quality of sleep will worsen.
[RELATED POST – Keeping the Sabbath Holy in College (Valuable Faith Benefits)]
6. Tea is the absolute best
Obviously, stay away from the caffeinated teas! But having a good cup of relaxing tea before you go to bed is so soothing.
Here are some great teas for relaxation:
- Chamomile tea (my personal favourite!)
- Peppermint tea
- Lemon ginger tea
- Valerian nights by DavidsTea (love this one!!)
7. Exercise consistently
You’ll sleep so much better if you exercise consistently.
This doesn’t mean you have to exercise every day, but even a couple times a week will make a big difference when it comes to your sleeping habits.
This is one sure way on how to get more sleep in college. If you wear yourself out through exercise, you’ll need sleep to recover, so your body will naturally want to sleep more (and quicker)!
8. Get an alarm clock with a wake up light
If you’ve been around the LVDletters community for a while, you’ll know that I am obsessed with these alarm clocks. That’s because these alarm clocks seriously changed my sleep routine for me in the best possible way.
This will help you wake up earlier, go to sleep at the same time (since the light will turn off automatically for the time you set it to), and it will make it easier to get out of bed in the morning.
If you’re in a shared dorm room, just check with your roommate first as it will affect their sleep, too. Otherwise, you seriously need to grab one of these!
9. Figure out how much sleep YOU need
You probably want to know, how much sleep do college students need anyways?
You might not like the answer:
It depends. There is no one-size-fits-all minimum hours of sleep for college students.
You need to figure out how much sleep you personally function best on and then go with that. And don’t feel any shame about it.
A lot of college students can get away with 7 hours of sleep. I have friends who are good on 4 hours (although I don’t recommend consistently getting only 4 hours). Me? I need a good 9 hours to be functioning at my best. So that’s what I strive for.
What about you?
What are your favourite sleep tips for college students?
This post was all about sleep tips for college students.
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