Whether by procrastination or by necessity, sleep deprivation has turned from a passing state of mind into a painful consequence of the university lifestyle. Some will revel in it and boast of their superhuman caffeine consumption and every all-nighter pulled in pursuit of a passing score. But most will simply endure, resigned to their sleep-deprived fate. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The most important factor in successfully balancing sleep with wakefulness is to set a schedule and stick with it. It doesn’t matter if you’re attempting to follow the XCKD-endorsed 28-hour day, the Uberman, the Siesta, or the vanilla eight-hours-a-night regime (more about that later). Hard boundaries must be set. Sleep at and wake up at the same times every day, including on weekends.
Rationalize that sleep is more important than pictures of cats or the problem set that should have been done yesterday. Realize that as the night deepens, mental ability deteriorates. Homework completion and cat picture enjoyment will become difficult, but luckily they will still be there in the morning when you can properly appreciate them.
Other strategies which help:
– Avoid drinking too much of anything before sleeping, including caffeine (it skews sleep schedules) and alcohol (decreases sleep quality) to avoid having to wake up to go to the washroom multiple times during the night.
– Avoid strong artificial light at night. Ever wonder why Reddit keeps you up at night but books don’t? Artificial light fools the brain into thinking that it’s still daytime, decreasing melatonin, a hormone which regulates the Cicardian cycle and makes you sleepy. If possible, dim the lights an hour or two before sleeping to simulate sunset and be sure to sleep in complete darkness.
– Exercise in the morning was found by a 2003 study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help people sleep, though exercise at night was found to do the opposite.
– Certain foods such as milk, chamomile tea, turkey, bananas, potatoes, oatmeal, and whole-wheat bread are said to enhance sleep.
– Reduce noise. Earplugs are a good investment.
– Sleep on a comfortable surface. 400-count silk sheets are also a good investment.
If, however, circumstances make eight hours of sleep from roughly 11 to 7 impossible (e.g. roommate screams bloody murder in sleep, can only study in the dead of night, internet is only interesting at 2AM), the student years are also an excellent time to try alternate sleep schedules! Attempt at your own risk.
The Siesta
Six hours of sleep at night and a twenty minute nap in the afternoon. Many students already follow this pattern unknowingly when they nap in class.
The Everyman
This covers a range of schedules centered around two to four hours of sleep at night and two to four twenty minute naps throughout the day. Keep in mind that missing a nap will leave you more sleep deprived than when following conventional sleep schedules.
The Uberman
The name is awesome and so is the concept – six 20 minute naps at three hour intervals. There are people who would give their appendixes to only need two hours of sleep a day.
Too good to be true? Nah. Adapting to The Uberman takes approximately a week of feeling like a zombie. Even after the schedule has sunk in, the naps must be taken on a strict schedule – miss one and it’ll take days of sleep deprivation to recover. Not everyone (profs, coworkers, exams) will be willing to accept that you need to sleep every two hours. Plus, without a regular core sleep period every night to divide each day in your mind, the days will appear to stretch on endlessly.
The Twenty-Eight Hour Day
19 hours awake, and 9 hours asleep. Sleep onset is regulated by exhaustion rather than nighttime. I can say from experience that it is physically easy to adapt to the Twenty Eight Hour Day, but difficult to sync up with classes and exams.
So, if it’s 3AM and you’re still awake, the time has come to rethink your sleep strategy. Don’t put it off too.
The author, the Iron Warrior, and the University are not responsible for any insanity or ennui that may result from following any of the above
Leave a Reply