As the stress of balancing school, extracurriculars, and a social life piles up, something as simple, but important, as sleep becomes disrupted. Currently, with covid, many students are attending school online, which can be even more stressful than in-person learning. Stated below, are some of my tips to make sure you get a good rest each and every night!
Firstly, if you have online school, make sure you set apart a specific time of the day to do your work and a time for a break. Otherwise, you could spend all day working and have your dreams filled with schoolwork.
Secondly, try practicing 10 minutes of yoga before you sleep. When we think of yoga, we generally think of the morning, however yoga can help clear the mind and get rid of any aches or pains before you go to sleep, ensuring a good rest.
Meditate. Additionally, if you don’t want to get up and contort your body into different yoga stances, you can meditate. This can be done by simply clearing your thoughts or by following guided meditation sessions on YouTube.
Fourthly, focus on your breathing. We breathe every second of every day, but we do it without giving it a second thought. Spend a few minutes focusing on your breathing, and calm your heart and brain down. You can also find guided videos on Youtube. If you’re someone who struggles with clearing your head, this is a better alternative than meditating because you are given something to focus on, breathing. Count your breaths. My taekwondo master used to tell me to breathe in the sweet fragrance of flowers through my nose, and blow out my birthday candles as an exhale.
Furthermore, have a diary. Writing down all your thoughts and feelings before sleeping ensures that those pent-up emotions carried throughout the day are released in a healthy way and won’t keep you up at night.
Also, keep a thought journal beside your bed. Sometimes when you have so many thoughts swirling around in your head it’s good to write them down so you don’t have to think of them. If you’re someone who remembers everything at night, this is also good because then you can write everything down as you remember it without having to get up from your bed disturbing your sleep. You don’t have to spend your whole night thinking of them, scared you’re going to forget.
As you may have noticed, our waking life can drastically affect our sleep. Have you ever gotten into a fight and had a terrible sleep, or nightmares? Have you noticed that when exam season rolls around you have bad dreams or nightmares? This is why it’s important to keep out of conflict and reduce stress. The reason behind this is that these emotions can enter our dreams. If you get into a fight, you may spend the whole night thinking of comebacks, solutions, or future results of it. Studies have shown that negative emotions like anger, fear, sadness, or stress can enter your dreams at night if you refuse to acknowledge them when you’re awake. This is why there’s a saying, ‘Don’t go to bed angry’. Reducing stress in your life and resolving conflicts when they occur are some of the important factors of having a good night’s sleep.
Lastly, and one of the most important things to do is to develop a set sleep schedule. You may have noticed that when you sleep at a certain time each night, you only get tired then. This is why a lot of parents make their kids “practice” going to sleep early in the days leading up to school. If you go to bed much earlier or later than normal, you may find yourself drowsy or fatigued the next morning. In the instance that you’re trying to fix your sleep schedule, it’s best to change it slowly so your body has time to adapt.
Try implementing some of these methods and you will find your sleep has drastically improved!
Edited by: Khushi Kumari
Nyla is a grade 10 student. She likes reading and sports. She hopes these tips can help people sleep better!
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