Over the past few days, I’ve become the most unproductive, groggy, exhausted human being. This is no doubt a result of my erratic sleeping patterns. My sleep schedule has consisted of going to bed no earlier than 3 a.m., waking up no later than 2 p.m. and taking obscenely long naps throughout the day when the exhaustion becomes too much to handle.
This isn’t something we students are unfamiliar with — during the school year, it basically becomes the norm. Days chock-full of classes, meetings, job obligations and extracurriculars leave the wee hours of the night as the only time to do homework, party or continue procrastinating. Our to-do lists are so cluttered that sleep is typically the last item on the list. No one disputes the necessity of sleep, but many of us downplay its importance — some of us believe it’s something we can be successful without. Even if you run consistently on four to five hours of sleep and manage to get the grades and have a social life, you’re definitely not as healthy as you could be.
In an April 2013 National Institute of Health newsletter, sleep expert Michael Twery explains that sleep regulates the immune system, growth hormones, appetite, cardiovascular health and blood pressure. Lack of sleep has also been linked to higher risks of heart disease, obesity and depression, according to the newsletter.
The environment at UC Berkeley inevitably leads us to believe that sleep and academic success are mutually exclusive. While I’m clearly no paragon of sleeping — there have been countless occasions when I’ve gotten out of bed in the morning only looking forward to the nap I’d take a few long and miserable hours later — it’s important to re-evaluate the way we sleep in the context of our daily lives and commitments, regardless of how difficult change may be.
The first step to getting a good night’s rest — finding out how much sleep is actually necessary. That amount of sleep actually varies from person to person, and what makes some people feel rested and refreshed may be completely different for others. On average, according to UC Berkeley’s own Tang Center, adults should sleep seven to eight hours per night to feel alert and free of fatigue.
But this fact doesn’t help much — simply knowing how much sleep you need doesn’t mean you’ll get it. So how do you fix your sleep schedule? It means going to bed before 3 a.m. in order to get more hours in. It means establishing a schedule and sticking to it — yes, even on weekends — which is something just as important as the quantity of sleep. Waking up at 8 a.m. one day, snoozing until noon the next and sleeping in all day during the weekend disrupts the body’s natural rhythms and makes you feel awful. By getting quality sleep consistently, you can prevent stress and psychological strain, according to a Clayton Sleep Institute study.
This same sleep quantity and consistency should also be supplemented with regular exercise and maintenance of a well-rounded diet free of stimulants late in the day to maximize the quality of sleep each night.
What happens when we hit the mid-afternoon wall and just can’t function? Well, that’s when our buddy, the nap, comes into play. Napping shouldn’t replace a good night’s sleep, but if done right, it can seriously improve concentration and focus. The Harvard School of Public Health concluded that the likelihood of developing heart disease is 40 percent less in people who nap regularly. The benefits are so potent that UC Davis health professionals have begun to encourage their students to accompany a full night’s sleep with 20- to 30-minute naps to improve productivity and boost academic success. But the key here is to not overdo it — a nap longer than 30 minutes might backfire, making you feel more tired and sluggish than you originally were.
So if you’re sick of constantly feeling fatigued and lethargic, try this experiment: Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day just for a week and notice how you feel. Our commitments and obligations are hopefully a little less intense now than they are during the school year, so use the next month to gear up for the school year by stocking up on sleep.
Our generation has done a great job of giving sleep less priority than everything else, but its importance is on par with developing healthy eating habits, exercising and maintaining proper hygiene and psychological health — all things we vehemently try to pursue. But without the energy and and restorative benefits of sleep, we’re mistaken in thinking that health and general wellness are attainable.
If we truly want to take control of our health, we have to start prioritizing sleep, even if that means getting a little less done. Our post-college lives aren’t going to get much easier. The next four years aren’t the peak of our responsibilities and commitments, but they may very well be the peak of our youth. We need to establish proper routines and sleep habits now, because our bodies won’t be able to withstand college-style sleep patterns forever. The earlier we start, the healthier we’ll be in the long run.
Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life.
Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at [email protected].