Sleep – is something that we all need, but do we all get enough of it? What happens to us if we do not get as much sleep as we need? We are going to be taking a look at the above questions & more in today’s blog, so let’s get into it!
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Today’s blog is going to take a look at my thoughts on sleep. It may seem like a bit of a random topic at first, but I personally believe that getting enough sleep is more important than any of us truly realise. Even from personal experience of purposely sleep depriving myself to study more, or to socialise, I didn’t realise the negative impact that the lack of sleep was having on my wellbeing.
It is a known fact that we should be getting around 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Sometimes life is busy, and we might only be able to get a few hours of sleep for the night (and of course several coffees the following day!), however, doing this regularly is not sustainable. Especially for students, we are subject to sleep deprivation, even more so during stressful periods of time, like exam season!
As I have witnessed numerous times, many students during exam season give up on sleep in an attempt to cram in as much revision as possible. But in reality, this can be counterproductive. If you barely sleep to study more, the productivity of your revision is so little, due to you not taking the time needed to mentally rejuvenated. Something that may take you 1 hour may take 3 hours or more, because of your lack of concentration & tiredness.
This is exactly what happened to me. When I was studying for my end of year exams, I was sleeping for around 4 hours a night, forcefully waking up early and going to the library to study. I kept up this exact pattern for about a week straight just so that I could feel like I was studying enough to do well for my exams. I fell into the trap of setting daily work targets for myself that I struggled to complete and because I was so exhausted, I spent so much longer doing those tasks, which prolonged my lack of sleep cycle.
It eventually got to the end of the week, and I was so physically exhausted I couldn’t focus any longer and I slept for over 10 hours. The next day when I had woken up, I wish this was an exaggeration, but I had forgotten what it actually felt like to truly feel awake and how refreshing that feeling is.
After waking up that day I realised how unsustainable my lack of sleep was and how it had such a negative impact on how I went about the rest of my day. In the days that followed, I worked fewer hours in the day but because I had a healthy amount of sleep, I was able to focus for extended periods of time and get more work done at a higher quality.
Even if it’s not exam season, getting enough sleep is so important for us to function on a daily basis. Sometimes, we overestimate our ability to survive on so little sleep and claim, “oh I’ll be fine” and then end up crashing a few days later. Getting enough sleep has a whole wealth of benefits: boosting your productivity, immune system, alertness and health to name but a few.
Of course, it’s okay to have the odd time where we barely sleep, we’ve all done it and will almost definitely have many more of those to come but making it a habit is going to adversely impact you. Why don’t you consider starting up a sleep schedule, it could do you the world of good!
Thank you all for reading today’s blog, what do you think? Is getting enough sleep important to you? How many hours of sleep do you usually get? Do you have a sleep schedule? What helps you drift off to sleep at night?
Be sure to let us know your thoughts & answers to the above questions, either in the comments below or through our Facebook page!
Thank you all for reading! I hope you have a lovely day!
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Isha Patel
Sweeney's Blogs 