Sleep is one of the most essential day to day activities that a human being does, in fact every living being does. Without a proper sleep, your brain can’t function or maintain your body that helps your brain to learn and make new memories, helps in concentration and respond fast.
It is also important for the functions of brain and removes toxins while you sleep. You will feel refresh the next day. Sleep deprivation almost affects every kind of tissues or system, from your brain, heart and lungs to metabolism, mood even your immune against diseases.
The lack of sleep will increases the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes , depression even obesity. According to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, they are trying to find if there is any relationship between sleep and diseases or the risks involves due to lack of sleep.
Late night learners might get benefits of time to their study and assignment .But, it also hampers your study and mental health. According to the article in sleep education, the memory recall and concentration will impact your exam and ends up with low grades.
There is a co-relation between Sleep and mental health. The lack of sleep affects your mental health. With its problems, comes insomnia or other sleep disorders. The sleep problems are usually associates with anxiety, despression, dipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
“44% of students experience symptoms of depression. Also, 80% feel overwhelmed by academic responsibilities, and 50% have struggled with anxiety” National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2012
When asked Janette, a student of Griffith college about if it affects your mental health and study, she said that it’s a normal situation that comes in everybody’s life , the only thing they can do is take it easy.
Likewise, Reky, student of Journalism says “when I was in my undergrad days and was working as a photographer, I didn’t get much sleep but eventually figured out how to balance between the sleep, study and work. Moreover, it did not mental affected my study nor body.”
A goodnight rest has its own peaks but how many hours should we know as “better sleep?” Some may say getting at least eight hours of sleep is a good advice. The high school teenager should have eight hours of sleep or sleep upto ten hours for a healthy lifestyle.
While, college students must have seven to nine hours of sleep. This timetable is usually popular when it comes to the topic of better sleep. Likewise, sleep pattern is also that much important to get a better sleep. Here is some pattern that needs your proper attention:
- Sleep latency- how much time it will take you to go from you fully awake to sleep. Keep the track of your sleep latency by doing the sleep latency test (MSLT) so that you will know if you have a sleep disorder or not.
- Sleep efficiency- It is the total time that you spend in bed. You calculate and compare the time you spend in bed without sleeping versus the time you sleep. Just divide the each of the time (in minute). A normal sleep efficiency is considered to be 85 %
- Wake after sleep onset- It is also referred as WASO which is the amount of time you wake up in the middle of night before your waking time. Waking up too much in the middle of night is not a good sign.
- Wake time after sleep offset- It is also called as “WASF” which is the amount of time you are awake for long after you wake up from your unusual sleep in the morning. If this happens a lot it will cause a disorder in your sleep
- REM latency- It is the timeframe between sleep onset and REM sleep.
The combination of these two above is a essentialingredients of a better sleep. In fact, creating a routine goes hand to hand with your sleep. According to the expert, Brian st. Pierre, sports dietician and nutrition coach at Precision Nutrition Suggests that it is important to establish sleep routine.
Here are 10 tips for the students that will help you to get a better sleep
- You should do 3 to 4 hours of exercises before it’s your bed time
- Create your own wind down routine of 30 to 60 minutes that will help you relax before you sleep.
- You should go bed as per your regular time
- Try to wake up at your regular time
- Don’t take day naps
- You should not drink any caffeinate drinks or alcohol after 12 pm.
- Avoid taking pills for sleeping pills if you have being prescribed.
- Don’t do any work in bed expect sleeping.
- Avoid any form of tobacco.
- You should turn off your electrical devices; this creates an environment for sleep.
Sukrity Sharma 