Adapting to the School Schedule
After returning from a summer long habit of sleeping all day, staying up all night and a long-lasting feeling of freedom, especially from academics, it’s finally time to get back to reality and face the coming of the new school year. This is probably not something you’re looking forward too much, huh? With the coming of an another year of school, there also comes the adjustments that high school students have to deal with towards the first part of the school year. There’s no denying that poor sleep quality, late bed rise times, and bizarre sleep/wake schedules get in the way. Now if you’re sitting there thinking “Is this normal? And how can I overcome these?” Know that you are definitely not alone with these issues. School can demand us to change sleeping patterns. This takes patience, time, determination and discipline to get used this changes. “Sleeping patterns are definitely hard to establish, especially if you’ve been used to them,” says Miram Mueller. “In my case, I try to sleep an hour early each night so that I’ll be able to adjust more easily,” Mueller says. However, worry no more, below are some tips to reduce getting the chances of feeling drained out in school mornings and having a daytime malfunctioning.
1. Know when to take a nap: If you take naps maybe after school for at least two hours, then this wouldn’t be helpful with your sleeping pattern. It’ll harder for you to fall asleep at bedtime.
2. Establish a routine: This might tend to be really hard on students, but working your way up will help little by little. Try to sleep an hour earlier than your normal late go-to-bed schedule, if you feel like you’ve gotten used to that, then try to establish and make a goal to train yourself sleeping on your desired time.
3. Alarm clocks should be on!: Whether you think alarm clocks don’t usually work to wake you up, it does help. However, you have to have self-discipline and motivation to make yourself get up when your alarm clock goes off. This allows your mind and body to get used to getting up at a certain time every day.
4. Prepare for sleep: As you get closer to bedtime, avoid stimulants (physical activity, coffee, smoking, sugar etc), eat lightly, or dim the lights. This will create an environment in which most likely will help you fall asleep much easier.
5. Get Busy: For some students, this is merely not a problem. With homework, tests, etc. due the next day, it is sure that you will be busy on school nights. However, this still doesn’t work for a few. Once you get done finishing all the school works you have to do, then that’s the time when you go to bed and try to fall asleep. Try to be consistent on this sleeping schedule as the school year goes, that way you’ll have a permanent sleeping pattern you’ll be following as the school year passes by.
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