By Sarah Wetzel
During our time off from school we stay awake until the break of dawn and sleep until the day is well underway. This quickly becomes our routine. As our winter break quickly came to an end, we all realized what our sleep schedule had actually come to. Going to bed at a reasonable time seemed practically impossible and waking up before the sun rose looked entirely unreasonable. But the break inevitably ended and the task of getting a normal sleeping schedule dawned itself upon us.
The United States has a society that awards nights where we are too busy to sleep. However, sleep deprivation can cause many health issues. The main disadvantage of getting no sleep is a noticeable decrease in performance.
According to the Web MD article, “Sleep Habits”, you can lose 32 percent of your alertness by reducing your sleep as little as an hour and a half. Sleep deprivation also leads to a decrease in your cognitive abilities. With both of those crucial functions impaired, your overall performance is hurt dramatically. If poor sleep habits remain, you can experience high blood pressure, heart attacks, and heart failures as all long term effects.
After any break, going to bed at a normal time is hard. We lay in our beds for hours on end and think about how tired we’ll be in the morning if we don’t fall asleep that instant. The best way to get back into a regular schedule is to plan ahead. If you know your break is ending soon, start working on it as soon as possible. You will want to give this period about a week considering a routine cannot be formed within a day.
The most crucial step to maintaining a regular sleep schedule is actually setting a bedtime. If you go to sleep at different hours every night, it’s impossible for you to form a regular habit. The next thing you should make sure you do during the week you’ve provided yourself is to never oversleep. You should get up at the same time everyday no matter how tired you are. You may be a bit sleepy at first, but your body will get used to being awake for a certain number of hours each day.
The next thing you will want to do is exercise. Exercise allows your body to burn excess energy, which will, in turn, make falling asleep a lot easier. Another important step is to not take naps during the day. Naps will just add to the amount of your energy when you are finally ready to fall asleep for the night. When you feel sleepy, get up and do something. Being active will diminish the feeling of being tired.
Even though the second semester of the school year is well underway, gaining a regular sleeping schedule can be done at any time. So, if you have still failed to form a regular habit, you’re still in luck. Just give yourself enough time to achieve your sleeping goal and it’ll end up as a success.
