My Sleep Habits

Check the appropriate boxes:	Usually	Sometimes	Never
I get 7–8 hours of sleep at night.	X
I feel sleepy or have trouble focusing during the day.	X
I take a nap when I feel drowsy or need more sleep.	X
I fall asleep or have trouble staying awake in class.		X
I fall asleep while studying.	X
I stay up all night to study for exams or write papers.		X

Looking back at my sleep schedule this week, I get about 8 hours of sleep on both weeknights and weekend nights, but even 8 hours of sleep is not enough to help me function properly throughout the day. During this week, I've noticed that with the amount of sleep I'm getting every night, I get drowsy and start slouching in my chair halfway throughout the day while studying. I also tend to take a lot more breaks from studying because my attention span becomes shorter as I progressively study. I think if I'm able to get one to two more hours of sleep every night, I'll be able to study more effectively throughout the day. Oftentimes, I find it harder for me to focus throughout the day with the amount of sleep I'm getting. For example, this week I was required to watch a few videos and documentaries for several classes, and while watching these videos I constantly found myself falling asleep or zoning out which would delay the time I actually needed to complete homework because I missed important information, in turn requiring me to play back the videos several times. I've also noticed that my creativity flow becomes limited. In English, one of my main assignments this week was to write two paragraphs on an essay we read on fixed versus growth mindsets. In attempt to complete this assignment, I kept getting stuck. I knew what I wanted to write but I could not figure out how to put it into words and it ended up taking me several hours to just write two paragraphs. Though I was finished, I still was not satisfied with what I had written. 

I would rank the important of sleep a solid three after spending time with family and studying. Sleep is also ranked under spending time with family because they are a main factor of my happiness. I'll sacrifice my sleep to make sure my loved ones are okay and taken care of. Sleep is also ranked under studying because since high school, I always had the mentality that studying came first and that even if I was tired, if I slept then that would take time away from my studies. This mentality applied mostly to my junior year. As someone who was taking several AP classes and doing several sports, I spent any spare time I had to complete homework and study. On many school nights, I usually got 1 to 3 hours of sleep. It was exhausting, but after reading chapter 51 and watching those videos on the negative effects of sleep deprivation, I now understand why I was barely able to maintain information even after hours of studying and why my mental health began declining.  

Some things that get in the way of me consistently getting enough sleep is my anxiety, stress, studies, and my phone. I've always had anxiety but it got worse during junior year when I also started suffering from depression and a lot of stress. Most nights I distract my thoughts with my phone and social media because if I just lie awake in bed waiting to fall asleep, I'll get in my head a lot and start over thinking everything negative in my life. Stress also tends to be a factor is why I'm not getting enough sleep, because usually I think about all the things I need to get done the next day and if I have enough time to get it all completed. Again I'm able to distract myself from this stress by being on my phone. Studying used to be a huge factor in my sleep deprivation, but with online school I'm able to manage my time a lot better in order to get some sleep. This week, there was only one day in which I stayed up late studying which is so much better than when I would spend nearly every weeknight studying past 2 in the morning. 

One change that will help change my sleeping routine is to substitute my phone with a book when I get ready to go to bed. I think that by reading a book, it will also help with my anxiety and stress because my focus will be on the events happening in the book rather than my thoughts that tend to keep me up all night. I also used to love reading, but I stopped when I had too much on my plate and couldn't find time to read anymore. I think this substitute will be a great way to help me find that passion I once had for reading. Also, I think it'll help to charge my phone further from my bed so that I won't be tempted to grab it and begin scrolling through social media. If I'm able to implement these changes, I believe I will be able to get the one to two more hours of sleep I need to get me through the next day of studies.