A: You say that you have not been sleeping enough. It is difficult to know exactly how much sleep you need, especially because the amount of sleep needed varies from person to person. College students typically need eight to nine hours of sleep per night, and may exhibit symptoms of sleep deprivation when they are not getting that amount. Those symptoms include difficulty waking up in the morning, inability to concentrate during the day, falling asleep in class and falling asleep within five minutes of getting into bed. Emotional or psychological symptoms include moodiness, irritability, depression and anxiety. Your immune system can also take a hit when you are not sleeping as much as you need. Does any of this sound familiar?
To get better sleep, one of the first things you can do is change or eliminate activities, foods and substances that make sleep more difficult. Try reducing soda or coffee intake, especially after 5:00 p.m. Reducing or eliminating nicotine intake can also help. Regular smokers tend to have reduced amounts of REM sleep, which is important to feel refreshed in the morning. Because exam period may not be the best time to quit smoking, avoid smoking three to five hours before bedtime. Although alcohol is a depressant (which makes falling asleep easier), that sleep will be less restorative than regular sleep. Be aware that after a night of drinking, even if you sleep for a solid 8+ hours, your body has not had a chance to catch up.
There are some daily activities that can either increase or inhibit your ability to get a good night's sleep. Exercising can increase heart rate and body temperature, giving you a burst of energy (ENDORPHINS!), but that same burst of energy can make it more difficult to fall asleep. So, we recommend going to the gym earlier in the day. Napping during the day can also make falling asleep at night more difficult.
However, there are ways to nap effectively. First, take naps that last fewer than 30 minutes, because deep sleep does not begin until around the half hour mark. Another option is to take naps in 90 minutes increments. The first REM stage occurs around the 90-minute mark, and it is better to wake during the REM stage than during deep sleep. Waking up during deep sleep will only make you feel more tired than when you started napping. Timing when you wake up can ensure that you have a restful nap. Also, do not take naps close to bedtime, because doing so might make it more difficult to fall asleep when you are ready to sleep for the night.
At bedtime, it can feel like the pressure is on. When you really need to sleep, for instance if you have a test the next day, anxiety about sleeping might prevent you from falling asleep at all. To calm down, try writing out a list of things to do or things that are bothering you. You could also try breathing diaphragmatically. To breathe diaphragmatically, wear comfortable, non-restrictive clothing (a good idea when you go to bed anyway). Place one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen, and breathe slowly and deeply at an even rate. Be careful not to hold your breath between inhaling and exhaling. You may experience heaviness or lightness, warmth in your hands and feet (all signs of relaxation) and, hopefully, you will begin to feel sleepy. Although it may feel difficult to breathe this way initially, it becomes easier with practice. We recommend trying this breathing technique during the day before you use it as a sleeping aid.
You should also try separating work and sleep geographically, in order to train yourself to associate the bed only with sleeping (and other nocturnal behaviors). You can also learn to associate certain activities with sleeping; rituals as simple as brushing your teeth each night can prime your body for sleep. We leave you with a reminder that sleep is an essential physical need. You wouldn't put off breathing or peeing to write a paper, would you? We hope not.
The Student Health Educators offer workshops on Sleep, Stress, and Nutrition that may be of interest as the end of the semester approaches. To request a workshop in your dorm, talk to your RC who can e-mail she@amherst.edu.
E-mail she@amherst.edu with your questions (we won't ever use your name in the column), and check back in two weeks to see which one we've chosen to tackle. Go forth, and be healthy!