It’s not your smartphone or the WhatsApp group with your friends. Neither Netflix, Facebook, nor the annoying guy next door can kill your productivity the most while studying. The most common reason why you are distracted, unmotivated and powerless is another: you are not sleeping properly.
Whether too little or too bad: many students are miserable sleepers. Not because they are not tired – quite the contrary. Studying is exhausting: your weekly schedule is full, the learning load is constantly increasing and finds its stressful climax in the exam phase.
There are days when your eyes will close in the morning. A productive study is hardly possible in this state. But instead of working on their sleep and getting enough regeneration, most students prefer to stay awake and get tired every day.
Secrets about better sleep tonight
Numerous studies and leading health experts confirm in almost every journal: Healthy sleep is the foundation of a productive day and, in the long term, one of the key success factors for a happy life. Those who sleep more can do more – even though they spend more time in bed.
Many people can make friends with this theory. In practice, however, it seems almost impossible for her to sleep longer and better. But there are simple tricks to help you improve your sleep habits. People who sleep well in the morning and wake up refreshed are either inherently spared sleep problems – or they stick to these five points.
1. Dim the light before you go to bed!
Bright light prevents the natural production of melatonin, the hormone that controls the day-night rhythm of the human body and causes drowsiness.
So, if you turn off the lights completely when you want to go to bed, your brain thinks until this time that it needs to be awake. But if you dim the lights in your room before you prepare your body slowly for the upcoming sleep phase.
2. Establish firm sleep times!
If permitted by your weekly schedule, you should go to bed and in the morning the same every day at the same time to get up again. Many people get up early in the morning during the week and sleep late for the weekend.
Most of the time they stay awake even longer on Friday and Saturday because they do not have to get out early the following day. But this imbalance can confuse your complete sleep routine. Monday morning feels like you’re living in a different time zone – jet lagging. It then takes until Wednesday for your body to recover and adjust. And by then half a week of productivity is over.
3. Regulate your caffeine consumption!
Similar to alcohol, caffeine breaks your natural sleeping rhythm and prevents optimal sleeping conditions. Caffeine has a slightly delayed effect, but as soon as it reaches the brain via the blood, it prevents the messenger adenosine from docking, which makes us tired. In addition, caffeine shortens the deep sleep phases.
Therefore, pay attention to your caffeine consumption and try to stop taking any caffeinated drinks from the early afternoon.
4. Banish your smartphone from your bedroom!
Your smartphone disturbs your sleep more than you think. First, the display’s blue light works against your natural melatonin production, and secondly, it offers endless distractions that can keep you from getting enough sleep.
Any message you read in bed, any app you open, and any website you watch before falling asleep will delay your sleep.
Even if you use your smartphone as an alarm clock, it makes sense to place it outside your bedroom so you’ll have to get up to turn off the alarm. In this way, you are much more likely to get up and do without the snooze function.
5. Plan your next day!
A common reason many people sleep awake at night and cannot fall asleep is thinking about the future. You can easily solve this blockade by taking five minutes in the evening and planning your next day in advance. Identify key tasks you’ll need to attend tomorrow, write important reminders, and create a clear to-do list.
Depending on the situation, you can go further into the future and sketch tasks for your next weeks and months. The main thing is you do not take these thoughts to bed.
