Handling the Health: Good Sleeping Helps College Life

Waking up refreshed, feeling the flow of natural energy through your body, enjoying the lack of purple circles under your eyes. This is a state of being experienced by most College students only during Christmas break or the summer, the time when mothers become convinced they will never see their children conscious again. These extreme changes in sleep habits are not healthy, but why? How does sleep work? Most people have a vague understanding of the sleep cycles, but not a hard and fast one. This column will hopefully elaborate on and explain some of the intricacies of sleep, and how to get a good night’s sleep even when you feel it will be impossible.
As you likely have already been informed, sleep can be divided into non-REM and REM stages (REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement). The non-REM stage can be divided into four smaller stages, the first two of which are called “light sleep” and involve slower breathing than when the person is awake, while the second two are called “slow-wave” or “delta” sleep and involve even slower breathing. During REM sleep, eyes and eyelids flutter and it is normal for breathing to become irregular and even stop for short periods of time. (There is also a sleeping disorder, sleep apnea, which causes breathing to stop and is not normal. Other symptoms of sleep apnea include loud snoring, restless sleep and being sleepy during the day, headaches in the morning, and trouble breathing while asleep. If you think you have sleep apnea, contact Student Health at x8180.)
Keeping as regular a sleep schedule as possible will help you to fall asleep each night, as your body will be ready for and used to a particular bedtime. This is one of the most ignored and most important points on a college campus. There are, however, other ways of helping your body out, since classes and extracurricular pressures often mount, making a schedule impossible to keep. Try adding a bit of extra exercise in your afternoon: walk up some extra flights of stairs, go to the gym between classes, visit someone on the opposite side of campus. Keep alcohol and caffeine consumption at moderate levels, meaning one drink a day or less and 300 mg of caffeine a day or less (that translates to around 3 cups of coffee per day, or around six cans of Coke or Pepsi). Use your bed only for sleeping or having (safe) sex. Try to eat regular meals and not to eat too close to bedtime. If you must have a snack, have something light. When sleeping in, don’t stay in bed for longer than 8 hours, so that you fall asleep earlier the next night and don’t affect your sleep schedule negatively overall.
A quick note on the topic of all-nighters: it’s much better for your health to not pull them more than once a semester, rather than every time you have a major test, so if you fall into that latter category you should seriously consider planning ahead a bit more. Talk to your class dean if you’re having academic troubles or feeling too pressured.
Another surprising factor that affects sleep is sun. During the winter months it’s especially difficult to get enough sunlight, but if you miss out your sleep may suffer. Try to get at least 20 minutes in the sun every day, preferably in the afternoon. Watch a sunset with a friend or significant other, make a snowman, have a snowball fight. Get out and active.
Monitoring your bedroom’s temperature and environment can also help you to sleep. Try limiting your TV exposure later in the evening, and also make sure that your room is cool and has ventilation. If you have too much heating, keep a window open and a fan on, but don’t let your room overheat. Also, to add to the restfulness of your night, don’t drink too many liquids right before you go to bed so that you won’t have to get up in the night to go to the bathroom.
Sleep in college is one of the most difficult things to get, and if you find yourself unable to sleep on a regular basis there could be an underlying problem. Contact Student Health or the Counseling Center if you would like to discuss any problems you may be having further. A good web resource is www.webmd.com. But above all, try to keep your head and get a decent amount of sleep each night to carry you through this hectic end of the semester.

–Emily Roberts
College junior