University life can be busy. From keeping up with readings, attending classes, and going out to maintain a decent social life, sleep tends to be one of the first casualties in the struggle to manage a hectic schedule. While placing sleep on the back burner to make time for work and study may seem like a small sacrifice, it does have its consequences.
Students often find themselves unable to rest properly to meet the challenge of an exam or paper simply because of stress. Peer Assisted Study Session (PASS) facilitator and fourth-year neuroscience student Trevor Deley said he believes maintaining a regular sleep and eating schedule is probably the most effective way to handle stress, but “a lot of students, when they hear these study tips or they get these pamphlets in the library, they’re too busy or stressed to read through them.”
As a neuroscience student, Deley said he understands that stress is a normal and natural response.
“Stress is a physiological response that prepares your body for a challenge it’s about to face,” he said.
However, he said the only way to properly face down this challenge is through taking the time to plan, eat, and sleep, as inconvenient as those things may sometimes seem.
Rethinking the all-nighter
According to Harvard Medical School, a deficiency in sleep impacts a student’s mood, making one feel additionally short-tempered, irritated, and stressed. Yet sleep, or a lack thereof, does more than affect a student’s mental well-being.
In 2006, researchers at Harvard Medical School conducted a study to explore the relationship between a student’s learning ability and the amount of sleep obtained.
In the study, students were taught to memorize 20 randomly paired words of which they were to be tested on, without any revision.
Different groups were then created with some who were allowed to sleep before the testing, and others who weren’t.
After the examination, the study found those who had received time to sleep beforehand performed better than those who had not. Researchers concluded that sleep is beneficial for memory retention and have encouraged students to get sleep before an exam, rather than pull an all- nighter.
Finding the right way to snooze
While sleep is known to be important, many students do end up staying awake until the late hours of the night in order to study and finish assignments.
For Eric Nguyen, a first-year commerce student, he said the transition from high school to university life made a profound effect on his sleeping habits.
“In high school I slept a lot more because the content was easier and I did homework faster,” Nguyen said.
“Now I get so distracted, and procrastinate more.”
Since school began, Nguyen said he’s regularly gone to sleep around 2 a.m. and then woken up around 6 or 7 a.m. for his early commute to school.
Nguyen admitted that studying for midterm season while not having enough sleep was harder than he had thought.
As a standard, Patty Allen, a mental health nurse at Carleton, recommended about 7-8 hours of sleep, along with exercise and nutrition for students.
“If you can do these three things in a healthy manner, your immune system stays strong and you can manage (stress and overall mental health) more,” she said.
To induce a better night’s rest, Allen suggested students put off large meals and intense exercise for about 2-3 hours before sleep.
Allen also advised students to take the time to wind down before bed, partaking in leisure activities such as reading a book or taking a shower.
And what about those naps taken between or after classes?
“A nap for 10-20 minutes will make you feel refreshed,” Allen said, but any longer and it becomes disrupting to regular sleep.
For students dealing with issues of insomnia, Allen advised they cut down on electronic use.
“If you are watching TV, playing video games, or on Facebook waiting to go to sleep, you won’t,” Allen said.
“If you engage in this it stimulates the brain and keeps you up from going to sleep.”
While proper sleeping habits can be hard for students to keep up, third-year commerce student Josh Bissessar said he has it down to a tee, or a nine in this case.
Bissessar said sleep is a priority, so he schedules his routine to have nine hours of sleep each night. But it wasn’t always like that. Bissessar admitted that his first year living in residence made for a chaotic sleep routine due to the constant noise and activity.
Now, the only way he said he can juggle all the activities he wants to do is by having a disciplined sleep pattern.
“As long as I get my sleep, I feel like everything just falls into place,” Bissessar said.
“If I don’t get my sleep, I can’t function,” he added.
He accredited his good sleep habits to a quiet and calm environment and said he believes any student can change their sleep routine if they devote themselves to it.
Beating stress to hit the sack
There are many places students can go to look for help with de-stressing and sleep.
The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre has a sleep clinic, and information on their website about dealing with sleep disorders such as insomnia, as well as general knowledge about good sleeping habits. There is a number available for anyone to call if they’re looking for advice or a consultation with a specialist.
Basic tips from Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep But Are Too Tired To Ask by psychologists James Maas and Rebecca Robbins include sleeping in one block of time instead of fragments, whenever possible.
The book explains that getting to sleep earlier has been shown to help you catch up on lost sleep better than sleeping in later, and that six hours of uninterrupted sleep are more valuable than eight hours of fragmented sleep.
In their book, Maas and Robbins also explain that while exercise will help to tire your body out, it should be done at least three hours before you go to bed, or you’ll find yourself too awake.
Reading for 30 minutes can cut the time in half it takes you to fall asleep—so fit in that last studying session before you hit the sack , they add.
There are also many uncommon and unorthodox techniques students might benefit from considering.
ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a pleasurable physical sensation some people experience from specific kinds of external triggers.
According to the official ASMR website, these include whispering and rhythmic monotone speech.
This sensation helps the listener to relax and fall peacefully asleep. YouTube is overflowing with videos made by members of this unusual community.
Carleton’s Health and Wellness Centre also hosts two mental health workshops every Thursday from 10-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3 p.m. The sessions provide tips on how to maintain wellness, including not only advice about healthy sleeping habits, but also diet, exercise, and motivation.
—with files from Alexandra Whyte
