Sleep is one of the most important actions that every human needs. My current sleep behavior is rather poor. I currently have a very fluctuating sleep schedule where I get over nine hours one night and then the next night I will get four to six hours of sleep. I also like to watch some episodes on Netflix or some videos on Youtube before I fall asleep. I think this is rather unhealthy because it is throwing off my internal body clock and disrupting my sleep cycles every night. Fixing both of these problems would be rather simple and could drastically improve my overall health.
First, I could adjust my sleep schedule. I can do this by changing the time at which I go to sleep to around the same time every night instead of vastly different times. This will help put my body into a reasonable sleep schedule and hopefully regain my internal body clock instead of relying on an alarm to wake me up and possibly disrupting my sleep cycle. Secondly, using a screen before sleeping is only tricking my brain into staying awake, instead of letting it know that it is time to sleep. Instead, I should just have my eyes closed in a dark room with no screens on in my view. This will help tell my brain that it is time to sleep. Lastly, avoiding caffeine after dinner would also help. By consuming sugary or caffeinated products, I am only encouraging my body to stay awake longer instead of falling asleep. Avoiding these substances would be in my best interest to having healthier sleep habits.
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Both reasons you gave for wanting to get better sleep are achievable as long you as you do them consistently. I say not drinking caffeine after dinner should be your first course as action since it will dictate how tired you may be over the next few hours before bed. Being on your phone would be the next step in improving your sleep. As we talked about in class, it is recommended to be away from screens about 30 minutes before you want to be asleep. If you say you want to be asleep by midnight, you be done watching Netflix or YouTube around 11:30. You mentioned wanting to set a time you want to be asleep by every night. The only trouble would be if it is drastically different from when you normally go to bed on a given night and it might take a couple days to adjust falling asleep at that time. Based on what was talked about in class, try and aim for 7.5 hours of sleep since you would be at the end of a sleep cycle and it is easier to get up. Given that information, base when you go to bed off that and fall asleep 7.5 hours before you want to get up.
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Your ideas for getting a better night’s sleep including the screen time, caffeine, and regular schedule are all really good ideas to helping you sleep better and feel more refreshed the next day. It is really important that your body is used to a schedule and is not influenced by any outside factors in order to get the best sleep you can get. I really like that you made sure to take what we learned in class and apply it to your own personal life. I think personally the screen time is everyones biggest issue when trying to sleep. So not using any type of screen before bed is a great option for everyone. I am very guilty of the Netflix use as well, so I think we can all work super hard to make that better for ourselves. As for how much sleep to get, don’t forget when you’re making your schedule that anywhere from 6 hours to 7.5 hours to 9 hours would be your best option due to the sleep cycles being 90 minutes long. I think taking that into consideration and everything else you mentioned, you are setting yourself up for success.
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