It’s been a great four day weekend. Many of us have been able to catch up on all the sleep we’ve been missing out on. But with school starting back up on Monday comes having to wake up (on average) before 7 in the morning again–a pretty difficult feat if you’ve been sleeping in past 10 or 11 o’clock these last couple of days. To add fuel to the fire, this Sunday is Daylight’s Savings Time, meaning that we lose an hour. And even though it doesn’t technically work like this, the way I think of it is that instead of waking up at 6:40 A.M I am now waking up at 5:40 A.M. For someone who is not a morning person, this is a nightmare. Anyway, in light of a full week ahead and the adjustment to a new time I figured it would be appropriate for this blog’s focus to be on getting more sleep and tackling insomnia, something that I have struggled with throughout high school.

Alright, let’s just dive right in. One way to get more, and better quality sleep is to reduce your stress levels. I know–it’s easier said than done. But stress can really interfere with your sleep; probably more than you think it does. That’s why it’s important to address. Now, while it’s difficult to control some things like school, sports, and other commitments, there are still ways you can manage your stress better. These include, but are not limited to, talking to someone (whether it’s in person or on the phone), listening to music, exercising (even if it is just taking a walk outside), spending time with the people you care about, and taking breaks when needed. Another thing you can do is write down any negative thoughts you have before bed and think of how you are either going to work through each one or let it go. This exercise really helps to clear your head so you aren’t worrying about things as much while trying to fall asleep. You should also try and resist the urge to wake up and do homework in the morning rather than at night. Personally, if I go to bed knowing that I haven’t completed everything I’ve needed to do for the morning it’s difficult to relax. This is why I try and pack everything for school the night before too.

Besides managing your stress there are a few quick fixes you can try during the day. One of these includes simply being up on and on your feet. The more active you are during the day, the easier it will be to fall asleep later. If you are looking at getting a workout in though, try to make it earlier in the day since working out too late will raise your body temperature, making it more difficult to fall asleep. The same goes with coffee (or really, anything with caffeine in it) and sugar; you should try not to have any past the afternoon since it could keep you up. In summary; try not to do too much in the few hours before you get to bed. Going along with this–45 minutes prior to when you want to fall asleep you should try not to use your phone or any other electronics since they emit blue light that is disruptive to sleep. If you have to, though, at least put on a blue light filter. All iPhones have one called “Night Shift” located in the control center, and in a similar fashion Chromebooks have a blue light filter called a “Night Light” that you can activate after clicking on the bottom right tab of the computer. Other things you can do before actually going to bed include avoiding naps and lowering the temperature of your room a few hours before bed. For the latter I like to just open a window for a bit since it lets in some fresh air inside as well.

When it comes to actually falling asleep there is only so much you can do. Hopefully some of the things you did earlier in the day have made it easier to fall asleep, but if not you can’t force sleep. If you are still awake around 30 minutes after trying to fall asleep it’s recommended to just get up and do something calming that doesn’t involve any electronics. You could try reading, doing some light stretches, drawing, or something along those lines. When you feel yourself starting to get tired during these activities you can try going back to bed again. The good news is that after sticking to a schedule for the rest of the week, it is likely that your body will have adjusted to waking up at the new time and you won’t have this problem.

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Anyway, that’s all for now. Maybe some other time I’ll discuss why Illinois should abolish Daylight’s Savings Time, but this post will do for now. After all, I’m getting tired, so I might as well go to sleep.
Thanks for reading 🙂