Why Sleep Can Either Improve or Mar Your Life – and How to Do It Better

Sleep is a real issue, particularly when you’re a student. If you’re in secondary school, you probably stay up super late doing homework only to wake up super early to go to school on time. In college, you have less of a structured schedule, but you’ve got to contend with loud roommates, a 24/7 social life, and those seemingly inevitable all-nighters.

Thankfully quality snoozing isn’t as elusive as it seems, but before we get to solutions, let’s talk science: Teenagers’ body clocks are biologically programmed to go to bed late and wake up late. Why? Teens release melatonin (the sleep hormone) later in the day than adults do, which explains why you probably don’t get tired until at least 11 p.m. Going to bed later makes it harder to fit in eight solid hours of Zs, meaning you’re probably going to encounter some negative effects. Like what, you ask?

“Lower grades in school, poor concentration, moodiness, and poor performance in athletics,” says Dr. Michael Breus, clinical psychologist and author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health.

A study also found that students who slept less than eight hours “reported significantly more symptoms of depression, and greater use of caffeine, alcohol, and illegal drugs than better-rested peers.” Yeah, sleep is way important. Read on for our snooze-worthy tips!

Stick to a schedule.
It’s important to go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time every morning—weekends included. (We know, we know.) This helps regulate your schedule and body clock. If you do sleep in on weekends, the UCLA Sleep Center suggests keeping it to a maximum of two hours later than you usually wake up on weekdays. And if you must nap, snooze for an hour max.

Get in the mood.
Experts recommend setting an “electronic curfew” one hour before going to bed. This means no phone/tablet/laptop usage and no TV watching (especially programmes that are tense or violent). Instead, read a book or magazine or write in a journal. If you think you’ll cheat, enlist your roommate, sibling, or parent as an enforcer! Dim your lights an hour before you want to be asleep too (use a book light if you’re reading!), and maybe even take a nice relaxing bath 60 minutes pre-hitting the hay.

Be mindful of your overall health.
This may seem like common sense, but alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and not getting enough exercise all affect your ability to get a good night’s sleep, not to mention your health in general. But if you just can’t kick your coffee habit, you can temper it a bit. The UCLA Sleep Center suggests not consuming anything with caffeine (including soda and chocolate) after 4 p.m.

Respect your space—and your sleep.
Do not do homework in bed! Your bed should be for sleeping only. Consider it a sacred snooze space, but also don’t stress yourself out if you can’t pass out there right away. The Mayo Clinic suggests “paradoxical intention” or staying passively awake. This means that if you can’t sleep, you shouldn’t fight it because you’ll only succeed in keeping yourself up for even longer. Instead try to relax and not worry about it, and sleep will come quicker than you think.

Mornings are important, too.
This is hard, but resist the urge to use the snooze button in the morning! You’ll only perpetuate a bad sleep cycle. If you do need to reset your body clock, take in 15 minutes of sunlight at 7 a.m. Super weird and specific, but it works! You can also use mornings to analyse your sleep patterns thanks to apps like Sleep Cycle and Sleep Bot. We’re not quite sure how this would work with Dr. Breus’s electronic curfew rule, but these apps are out there and their data can help find you a better way to snooze. Got that all? Good—now go to bed when it’s time!