For some people, getting enough sleep is a constant battle. For others, getting eight hours of sleep per night is a non-negotiable and they’ll do whatever they need to do to make it happen. In college, I’ve typically find myself in the first camp.
Throughout my junior year so far, I’ve prioritized sleep much more by making a few changes to my mindset and my daily schedule, and it’s something I wanted to talk about more after some of the comments on this post. But getting enough sleep was something I especially struggled with during my sophomore year.
Disclaimer: Some of the pictures in this post are a little random. But what’s a post without pictures? And I can’t/don’t want to include pictures of myself sleeping 😉
Beginning of sophomore year
For one, I had more commitments than I’d ever had before, ranging from more challenging schoolwork to a new relationship to multiple jobs to new extracurricular activities.
For another, being an RA called for late nights working until 1 a.m. one to two nights per week, often with phone calls throughout the night from residents.
My sophomore year RA staff
And when I became an RA, I no longer had a roommate so I could stay up late and wake up early without bothering anyone. My freshman roommate was committed to her 8 hours of sleep every night and I usually tried to go to bed when she did, but when I started living on my own, I had a hard time making myself stop working to go to sleep. I felt like my workload never had an “off” switch, so neither could I. Then, I’d still wake up early to drag myself out the door for a run before class.
By the second semester of my sophomore year, I was averaging 6 or 7 hours of sleep every single night, even on the weekends because I still had commitments that required me to stay up late + get up early. I also never napped.
By the end of the school year, I was wiped. I remember coming home after finals and sleeping 10-12 hours per night for a week or two straight and just wanting to lie on the couch all of the time.
I convinced myself I could live on 6 or 7 hours of sleep every night and I sort of could. But I was just surviving and I definitely wasn’t thriving.
I was sleepy all of the time, my sugar cravings were out of control, my legs felt like they were made of lead when I was running, and I’d become overwhelmed a lot more easily because I was tired. I also had a harder time focusing in class and in exams.
Don’t listen
This year, I was determined to make a change and start prioritizing sleep. And then, in my first class of the year, a professor said something that really stuck with me. She said, “A full life involves a lot of juggling. I like to picture myself juggling a mix of glass balls and rubber balls. You don’t want to drop those glass balls. But your rubbers balls– those are the ones that’ll bounce.”
With this analogy, she was explaining how we have a variety of things we have to juggle and balance, and some of them require our immediate attention. Those are our glass balls. For me, those could include finishing an assignment that’s due tomorrow, celebrating my best friend’s birthday that night, meeting an internship application deadline, handling an urgent crisis with a resident, or attending a mandatory meeting. I HAVE to handle those things right away.
But we also have a lot of rubber balls, and those are things that will bounce. We can come back to them later. Mine are things like finishing an assignment that’s due in three days, responding to emails, doing a load of laundry, or writing a blog post.
When I sit down to tackle my to-do list, I tackle my “glass balls” first. With any time I have left, I can work on my “rubber ball” items. When I started separating the two things in my mind, I realized I didn’t have to stay up quite so late trying to conquer a never-ending to-do list because a lot of those things can bounce.
A fear of mine was that if I started going to bed earlier, I’d get fewer things done. But I haven’t found that to be the case. Now that I’m averaging 7-8 hours of sleep per night, I’m much more productive throughout the day because I don’t hit an afternoon wall of pure exhaustion. I also work more quickly because I don’t have the option to stay up really late to get things done except in rare cases, like when I have a midterm the next morning.
To be clear, I still don’t mind sacrificing sleep to spend quality time with people (at least to a reasonable extent!) Staying up till 2 a.m. laughing and talking with friends in my room is worth it. Or I’ll sometimes do things with people late at night for special occasions even if I have a paper due the next morning and I’ll have to stay up late to finish it.
Like Halloween this year
And sometimes going to bed late is is out of my control due to being an RA. But there are a lot of days that I can totally decide when I’ll go to bed. And I think it’s the pattern of choices I make on a regular basis that matter most, not the exceptions.
These days, when it’s 10:30 p.m. and I’m thinking about starting a new assignment or task, I ask myself if it’s something that needs to be done that night. The answer is often no, and so I gently boss myself to close my laptop, make the long trek down the hall to brush my teeth/wash my face, turn my phone off, and then get. in. bed.
Going to bed earlier– that’s it? It sounds so simple, but recognizing which things in my life can bounce has made all of the difference.
So tell me…
How do you try to prioritize sleep? Do you find it hard to prioritize sleep over other things?
Connected to this post so much! I have realized that my body loves at least 8 hours of sleep a night. I struggled with this at first because, with student teaching, I have to be up so early, but did not want to go to bed before everyone else in my family did. After the whole legs feel like lead feeling, I realized that I need to focus on sleep and make it a priority, especially when I am working 9-10 hours a day right now. Giving myself the sleep I need has been amazing for my energy levels and just overall well-being!
Thanks for sharing, Brie! I’d like to think I don’t need 7 or 8 hours of sleep, but I think I really do, too. I’m glad you’ve been able to starting prioritizing sleep more and start feeling better throughout your student teaching!
I like your glass ball and rubber ball analogy, that’s helpful! I’ve realllly prioritized sleep in the last 6 months and it’s made such a big difference! I don’t think I slept over 7 hours in college though 😉
I really like my professor’s analogy, too! It simplified things for me and definitely took some pressure off when I recognized that some things are “rubber balls.” It’s a lot more stressful if everything feels like a glass ball!
Good thoughts that make sense.
I definitely struggle with this. I have found myself more and more this year with the mindset “I need sleep more than I need to do this assignment.” I have discovered in previous years I get sick, I get stressed, I get depressed, I get mood swings etc. when I don’t get enough sleep. This year has been a year about self-care. So far I have gotten my assignments done and gotten atleast 7 hours of sleep almost every night (some nights I get 9). I also have had to cut some things out of my schedule like – do I really need that THIRD job? Is that meeting that one night a week really worth how much I dread it? I think sometimes we just have to cut things and manage things and not think about how it will affect others because if we are sacrificing sleep, health, etc. to get to it, it’s definitely not worth it!
On another note, I am glad you are getting some sleep with your busy schedule, I feel you!
Wow I really appreciate your comment, Sarah! I think sometimes needing to cut things out is a great point that I didn’t really touch on in this post, but is so true, too. I’m so glad you and I’ve both been able to find a better sleep/life balance this year!
I’m definitely struggling with getting enough sleep. I don’t prioritize it as much as I should. I’ve gotten better this semester, as last semester I was only getting around 5.5 hours a sleep a night- huge yikes to that haha
Yes, you’ve gotta prioritize that sleep! I feel like I’m a big sleep advocate these days because I’ve seen how much of a difference it makes!
Making a sleep a priority is SO important! I’m lucky in that Jesse and I are both grandparents at heart and sleep is definitely a priority for us. We can’t nap during the day and we both have busy jobs which we need energy for so we’re always asleep early.
We also stopped going to our weekly bible study at night because it was causing serious issues with our week. We wouldn’t get home until 11pm or later and by the time we got to sleep and then awoke again at 5/6am we were EXHAUSTED – and it just wasn’t working because we’d end up more stressed and more flustered by the end of the week because we weren’t working as well the day after.
It sounds like y’all have good perspective on getting enough rest! Hope you’re able to find another Bible study that fits better with your schedule- 11 pm is definitely late to get home from one, even in college 🙂
This really inspired me to rethink my sleep schedule. Ever since I got my new dog, I’ve been up and down quite a bit throughout the night and my body can totally tell the difference. I am tired by lunch time and have lots of headaches; It’s really amazing how essential sleep is to our mental and physical health! This week I’m going to make a conscious effort to get an extra (solid) hour of sleep. Thanks for the inspo, Liv!
Did you get a puppy?! How fun! Sorry to hear that your sleep has been off, though 🙁 Hope you’re able to get some work sleep this week, Edye!
I love that glass and rubber ball analogy! Good reminder for when things feel stressful. I feel like college students (aka me) also tend to glorify over exhaustion. But like.. we don’t win a prize for who sleep the least, so why do we do it?
Yes! I think seeing how far we can go on little sleep is a typical college mindset but probably not the healthiest one. Trying to adjust my own mindset on that one, as well.
thanks for sharing the glass ball analogy, i really like that as another way to help prioritize 🙂 i’ve been hitting that wall in the afternoon a lot lately so i need to make some changes!
The “afternoon slump” is the worst motivation-killer! Hope you can figure out a way to knock it down that works for you
Posts are very helpful to me
I am suffering from sleeplessness
Hi Liv, This is a really interesting post. Getting enough sleep is a constant battle for me too. I really try do it but I can’t all of the time. Sometimes when I sleep more than eight hours I wake up more tired than usual, have you experienced something like that? Angel
Thank you for the details on getting that extra sleep that we all need.
Very much appreciated.
Great article!
Just wanted to give my top 3 insomnia-busting tips!
1 – Meditate – as much or as little as you have time for. It helps me too calm my mind before sleeping.
2 – Yoga & Cardio Exercise – I can’t sleep without raising my heart rate for at least 30 mins per day.
3 – Avoid Social Media – You know it’s true…haha! Living your life waiting for “likes” is the best way to increase stress and affect your sleep!!!
Hope this helps some of your readers.
Keep up the great work!