Make time for a good night’s sleep

By Samantha Amaro | Reporter

Sleep is a blessing that can be overshadowed in the face of other things. Want to go out for a late bite? Let’s go. Want to drink some coffee and work on homework? Why not? How about studying last minute for an exam that we’ve had two weeks to prepare for? Of course!

Doctors and parents are always warning students to be sure to sleep enough when they go off to college. The constant reminders to keep a regular sleeping schedule from wise adults are irritating and repetitive to the point that a person finds they can’t fall asleep so easily anymore.

It’s not all about having homework done in advance –– though that would be incredibly helpful to some students –– but it’s about actually letting the brain relax and the body rest. Term papers and all-night study sessions are really draining: they leave the student bleary eyed in the face of another day of classes. Rather than stumble through the day in a haze just hovering over everything students do, it’s better to reap the benefits of a good night’s rest.

Going to sleep at an earlier time rather than spending all night pushing through course work would be better. Rather than waking up and dreading leaving the warm bed to face the world, feeling refreshed and fully awake would be much more preferable.

A negative personality is also easy to avoid when a person has had adequate sleep. Acting crabby can be attributed to a few things, among them are having had a bad day, not eating and not being able to sleep. Acting snobbish or snapping at others simply spreads ill will and draws a dark cloud over anyone who interacts with a person with shadows under their eyes.

Endless energy wouldn’t be a figment from a dream, and going to the gym wouldn’t sound like such a dreadful idea. Walking across campus wouldn’t be a foggy mess to staggering students, who almost fall asleep while walking from class to class. Having the ability to be active and more aware of your surroundings is one of several positive outcomes of letting the body and mind recover at night. In addition to being able to walk around with eyes wide open instead of half-shut, dealing with daily stress would be easier.

Sleeping a full seven or eight hours would help the brain keep any anxiety at bay and alleviate any stressful feelings from bubbling to the surface. When the body wakes from a nap, the muscles are warm and ready to be used to some extent. There’s more peace in waking-up than there is in staying-up.

Insomnia can be caused by irregular sleeping schedules –– by not sleeping at night and taking naps during the day. Sleeping during the day, in short naps, can also make it more difficult for some to fall asleep at night. By missing nights of sleep often, consecutively or otherwise, while cramming for exams or working on projects through the night, a person’s body clock is tampered with.

The inability to sleep can be solved if a person is willing to put their metaphorical foot down and get into bed by a certain hour. By taking certain steps to help the body slowly relax –– the likes of which can easily be searched on Google or found in meditation books –– and letting the mind be clear, sleep will come eventually. The human body needs to be conditioned to sleep.

Sleeping always seems a better option to take –– especially if it leads to a clear mind. Keeping a level-head protects a sleep-addled college student from making a dangerous decision to what would be a simple question (example: to party as a stress release on a Sunday night or sleep?).This doesn’t include the fact that getting some shut-eye also helps to ward away any future sleeping sicknesses, like developing insomnia.

There’s no need to stay up so much. Though it would seem a bit difficult at the moment to begin forming a regular sleeping schedule, it’s a great future payoff. Then, when a person is ready to sleep, they won’t have to stare up at the darkened ceiling waiting for the sweet embrace of dreams.