Sleep rituals for school

Stacy shares her tips for getting a better night’s sleep as a student.

- Stacy

I never struggled with sleep in high school. Sports, academics and extracurricular activities kept me busy and by the time I came home, I could barely keep my eyes open. That all changed when I went away to college. 

In college I didn’t play sports and was strictly there to focus on academics. I had never struggled with coursework in high school, but the intensity, autonomy and pace of college classes made me fall behind quickly. I started looking toward the study habits modelled by successful peers around me.

Many students would hit the library late in the evening, staying there until early in the morning. Thinking that this was normal, I aligned my study schedules with classmates to make sure I could study with them. Coffee became as normal as drinking water and at times I felt like I was merely taking breaks to go buy more fuel for studying. 

Since I was also working part-time during college, my circadian rhythm went awry. I would study all night, get back from the library late, sleep for a few hours and then wake up early to go to work and then class, doing it all over again. Some nights I deemed it easier not to sleep at all since I had drank so much caffeine to study. It became a twisted cycle and although I was studying more, I didn’t see it reflected in my grades. 

When classes ended, I still felt the impending anxieties of future deadlines and exams when I laid my head down to sleep. It was like sleep was no longer a time for rest, but a time for guilt. 

I tried turning on music, TV or watching videos on my phone to tire me out, but the blue light would simply strain my eyes. I would sit up and count how many hours I had until my next shift or class. 

I quickly learned after consulting a sleep therapist that my stress around academics had manifested itself in the form of sleep deprivation and was taking a toll on my body and quality of life. My doctor showed me studies that proved adults need consistent sleep routines and told me to say goodbye to my library night owl friends. 

I had all the signs of poor sleep hygiene and she recommended a few bedtime rituals to help me wind down after studying. I’d like to share what worked for me with you. 

3-4 Hours Before Bed

Setting an artificial “end to the day” is important for workaholics who will likely take their coursework to bed or keep studying up until it’s time to sleep. You need to allow your body and mind time to rest before sleep as it’s difficult to switch from focus to sleep. That could mean changing your location, physically leaving your desk or the library, or scheduling a workout with a friend to help you close the book on your work.

1-2 Hours Before Bed

Practicing some form of mindfulness can be very helpful for handling stress and releasing the cortisol or stress hormone that lurks in your body. Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, recommends practicing mindfulness during the day, ideally for 20 minutes. “The idea is to create a reflex to more easily bring forth a sense of relaxation,” he says. That way, it’s easier to evoke the relaxation response at night when you can’t sleep.

60 Minutes Before Bed

Turn off your phone! You might have a million reasons to keep your phone on and next to you while you sleep, but even the lingering awareness that it’s there can hurt your chances of sleep. Screens from phones emit blue light that stimulates your body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm), keeping your mind and body awake. Buy an electronic alarm clock to wake you up and keep your phone off and across the room while you sleep. 

I hope that these bedtime rituals can help you the way they helped me. If you are experiencing serious levels of stress you should consult a medical professional. 

Learn more about how you can look after your wellbeing on Student Space.

Hi there! I’m Stacy, an alumna from San Diego State University. I enjoy sharing my personal experiences with stress and offering holistic approaches to cultivating mental health. I’m currently working as a Content Marketing Specialist for Siege Media.

How Radio Came to my Rescue

Ben Dolbear tells the story of how listening to the radio helped to save his sleeping pattern and improved his mental health.

- Ben Dolbear

Night-time is the hardest time for many people living with depression. In the dark, there is no background noise to blend out thoughts that  just don't want to disappear, no visual parade of ever-changing events that entertain your thoughts and no company, to distract you from your depression’s trickery. To make things worse, much of our days are spent wading through the depths of social media, flicking our focus between posts about a friend’s wedding, a natural disaster in Asia, a new-born kitten, a family member’s holiday snaps. Sometimes modernity makes me wish that we could set the clock back fifty years and live in a time where the news was less brutally in-yer-face, where summer afternoons were spent outside, and where there was no such thing as blue light-induced insomnia Our brains are being eternally trained to cope with a constant influx of wide-ranging information that induce wide-ranging emotions. When eventually we stop, our  mind continues to be a rally track, a whirlwind race between memories and feelings competing for our minds’ attention. In the moment, it feels impossible to just stop – 

and breathe. 

For so long, the night-time was something I dreaded. Getting off to sleep was even harder than getting out of bed in the morning (a mighty task that often leads to a slumb back into the pillow and missing yet another lecture). Waking up in the night ushered in palpable feelings of dread and upset. Not being able to sleep properly during the night, set the next day up to be filled with anxiety and stress.  Shame, regret, disappointment, self-loathing, all forced their way in to steal my calm. Sleeplessness was only exasperated by university pressure which complimentary only worsened my sleeplessness.

I tried listening to instrumental music as I drifted off to sleep, and whilst I know it is effective for many people, my bullish depression could not be held off. I tried meditation to no avail. Apps promising that these 5 minutes will bring you a goods night rest, all failed to bring rest to my mind. 

In a last ditch attempt to expel this unhealthy sleeping pattern which was having a detrimental effect on my daily activities and relationships, my thoughts returned to the time we are living in, and realised how wrong I was wanting to return to the old days where mobile phones and social media didn’t dominate lives. I admit, the 21st century has isolated many of us from our friends, but it has also brought the world so much closer together. How would we call our parents, listen to podcasts, stay updated on what is happening in the world, or even read this blog post if it were not for the world evolving, so instead of fighting this change I tried to embrace the beauty of it. 

As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them, so I decided to welcome my old foe the mobile phone into my bedtime routine. I downloaded a talk radio app and began to listen in bed. The fast pace of modern living and social media has taken away our human tendency to listen to others, as our days are instead defined by fleeting encounters with strangers,  often ones behind a screen. But listening to the radio as I go to sleep is the most rewarding practice, I have ever engaged myself in. Instead of searching for silence I adopted societies fast pace. 

Escaping the addictive authority of low-mood inducing social media platforms, radio offers the perfect natural remedy for insomniacs – my radio station of choice, LBC, which hosts Steve Allen, with his hilarious analysis of the tabloids and belly-achingly funny stories about his hometown of Twickenham, entertaining early risers between 4-7AM, seven days a week, pulling in the highest overnight ratings in London.

My mental health has been aided immensely by my listening to radio call-ins at bedtime. In my darkest times, when my ability to communicate with the people I love fractured, and I shut myself away, talk radio meant that I was never alone. I could surround myself with voices who didn’t demand a response, who didn’t question me or my intentions, and welcomed me calmly to the conversation without judgement.

Now, I sleep in peace. My thoughts and emotions are guided by the radio as I drift off, and I am happier for it.

Hi, I'm Ben. I'm an English Literature student in Southampton writing for Student Minds to help other people living with depression who are on the same road to recovery that I am on.