After going through my current sleep habits, it is safe to say that they are pretty healthy, but they could also improve. At the beginning of the school year, I had a big gap between my second and third classes, so I would fit a nap in. This then caused me to be up late at night and have a hard time falling asleep. Now, I try to refrain from taking naps. I preoccupy myself with homework and getting ahead in my classes or going to the gym or hanging out with friends. Because I wake up around 7:30 every morning, I usually try to be in bed and asleep by 11:30. I use the “bedtime” mode on my phone so it notifies me around 10:30 to start unwinding and relaxing. At 11:30 it puts my phone on “Do Not Disturb” to block out notifications so I can get a good sleep. I also use the sleep mode on my Fitbit so it will also tell me to start winding down. Although I’m pretty good about getting a decent amount of sleep, I usually have to take melatonin supplements to actually fall asleep.

Going to bed at 11:30 and waking up around 7:30 seems great because I’d be getting a full 8 hours of sleep. The amount of times I actually follow that is less than ideal. Most of the time I’m up past 11:30 studying or working on assignments or just playing on my phone. I also have a bad habit of setting like 4 alarms in order to be able to hit snooze and feel good about myself.

If I were to make improvements on my sleep habits, I would try to do most of my homework throughout the day so that I wouldn’t worry about it at night. I would also try to start reading at night or doing something other than being on my phone so that my brain can rest and unwind like it’s supposed to.

I think it is important to get a good amount of sleep, but that differs for everyone. For me, I can still function on about 6 hours of sleep. On average, I’d have to say that a healthy amount of sleep for a college student is probably around 7 hours.