Throughout my college experience, many of my friends and peers (including myself) talk about how tired they are. It never seems to end: each day we wake up feeling exhausted, despite how many or few hours of sleep we got the night before.Â
How can we combat this?Â
Well, many of my friends turn to coffee, tea, and other caffeinated drinks to keep themselves awake throughout the day, but those can only provide temporary relief. Others try to combat this issue before they go to sleep, taking sleeping aids such as melatonin gummies, but this still isn’t a permanent fix.
One thing I have noticed that tends to work for everyone: learning about your body’s personal sleep patterns through your biological clock.
Personal sleep patterns
The idea of a biological clock existing within each and every one of us is not necessarily a new idea. Each person has their own systems which coexist within them: their sleep and wake systems. They may differ slightly from person to person, but the general theme stays the same: we rise during the day, go through the motions of life, and sleep during the night.Â
Over time, you may notice what time you get tired each night. Use this knowledge to your advantage! Try to get things done earlier so you have time to settle in and get ready for bed when your body needs it.Â
Control
There is also a way to control your biological clock so you can wake up in the morning feeling refreshed: using a sleep calculator! There are hundreds of websites online that function as sleep calculators. I tend to use one when I know I have an important event in the morning, but I could probably use it even more often to feel refreshed. All you have to do is enter what time you want to wake up in the morning, and the sleep calculator gives you a few different times that you could fall asleep.Â
For example, if I wanted to wake up tomorrow at 7 a.m., the calculator would recommend that I fall asleep at either 9:45 p.m., 11:15 p.m, 12:45 a.m., or even 2:15 a.m. It may seem a bit odd, but if I were to go to sleep at any of these times, I would wake up, be able to get out of bed and be ready to take on the day. You can do this too!
Sleep is really, really important! College students need to be getting a good amount of sleep each night in order to function properly the next day. Go get some sleep while the night is still young!