{"id":860,"date":"2024-01-24T14:15:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T14:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/?p=860"},"modified":"2024-05-02T18:18:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T18:18:47","slug":"developing-a-good-sleep-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/2024\/01\/developing-a-good-sleep-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing a Good Sleep Routine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">By Joanne Goldwater, Associate Dean for Retention &amp; Student Success\/<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Seahawk Family Liaison<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Office of Student Success Services (OS3)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo sleep perchance to dream\u201d (Shakespeare in the play, \u201cHamlet\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>How many hours of sleep should a college student get each night? If you answered 7-9, you are correct. Between classwork, their social life, stress due to family\/friends, a job, living on their own for the first time, etc., it is very easy for college students to sleep 6 hours or less. This can be physically, mentally, and academically harmful.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.system-concepts.com\/insights\/sleep-are-you-getting-enough\/\"><strong>Benefits of Healthy Sleep<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improved attention and focus<\/li>\n<li>Better memory<\/li>\n<li>Lower risk of high-blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke<\/li>\n<li>Improved immunity<\/li>\n<li>Reduced stress levels, improved mood, better mental and emotional health<\/li>\n<li>Maintain healthy weight<\/li>\n<li>Better grades<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The results of too little sleep include<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Moodiness<\/li>\n<li>Illness<\/li>\n<li>Lack of energy<\/li>\n<li>Brain fog<\/li>\n<li>Hard time remembering info (it\u2019s bad when this happens during a quiz or exam!)<\/li>\n<li>Stress<\/li>\n<li>Anger<\/li>\n<li>Cannot focus\/concentrate<\/li>\n<li>Falling asleep at bad times (like during class or while driving!)<\/li>\n<li>Weight gain<\/li>\n<li>Falling grades<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How to Improve Sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prep for sleep\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid alcohol, caffeine, nicotine for at least 4-6 hours before bedtime (alcohol interrupts the quality of sleep)<\/li>\n<li>Stop exercising at least 2 hours before bedtime<\/li>\n<li>Stop working at least 1 hour before bedtime<\/li>\n<li>No screens<\/li>\n<li>Take a warm shower, brush teeth<\/li>\n<li>Meditate, listen to relaxing music, read for pleasure<\/li>\n<li>Close shade\/curtains to create a dark room. Use an eye mask to help keep out the light.<\/li>\n<li>Cool rooms work best for sleep<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/healthy-lifestyle\/stress-management\/in-depth\/relaxation-technique\/art-20045368\">Relax<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>Use one of the many (free!) sleep apps<\/li>\n<li>Do deep breathing<\/li>\n<li>Meditate<\/li>\n<li>Do progressive muscle relaxation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Consistency\n<ul>\n<li>Go to bed at the same time every night<\/li>\n<li>Wake up at the same time every morning (even on days when the student doesn\u2019t have an early class)<\/li>\n<li>Sleep when sleepy (if the student can\u2019t get to sleep within 20 minutes, they should get up and do something boring for 10-15 minutes and then try again to go to sleep)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mymind.org\/self-care-good-sleep-as-part-of-mental-health\">General Tips<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid taking long afternoon naps. Naps should be 24-29 minutes long to get the most benefit and to avoid having a hard time falling asleep that night.<\/li>\n<li>An early evening walk can help a student get to sleep faster.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid eating heavy food late at night.<\/li>\n<li>Students must get into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep in order to form memories (e.g., so they remember what they learned in class the day before).<\/li>\n<li>Avoid watching the clock.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid studying on or in the bed.<\/li>\n<li>Use good time management skills (for help with this, encourage your student to meet with someone in OS3).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Want to see if someone\u2019s level of fatigue is cause for concern? Try using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale on the CDC Archives (click <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.cdc.gov\/#\/details?archive_url=https:\/\/archive.cdc.gov\/www_cdc_gov\/niosh\/emres\/longhourstraining\/vital.html\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Helping your student develop a good sleep routine will be useful for the rest of their life. Happy ZZZZZZs!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joanne Goldwater, Associate Dean for Retention &amp; Student Success\/ Seahawk Family Liaison Office of Student Success Services (OS3) &nbsp; \u201cTo sleep perchance to dream\u201d (Shakespeare in the play, \u201cHamlet\u201d) How many hours of sleep should a college student get each night? If you answered 7-9, you are correct. Between classwork, their social life, stress<a class=\"tribe-events-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/2024\/01\/developing-a-good-sleep-routine\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" > Find out more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-parent-family-resources","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/office-student-success-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}