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Comfy PJs and warm hot chocolate before settling down in a cozy bed. Counting sheep before dozing off into dreamland. A decent eight hours, and poof -- you wake up refreshed. That may be your high school life, but what will happen when you're in college? After all, you'll be too busy cramming 'til the wee hours of the morning, worrying about that 12-page term paper, and figuring out how to block out the sound of your next door neighbor's stereo.

According to Dr. Jodi Mindell, a sleep expert and associate professor of psychology at St. Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA) you actually need a whopping 9.25 hours of sleep each night, though you don't always get it. And when you go off to college, forget it! Your schedule will be erratic and it might not always match your roomie's, leaving you trying to get to sleep just as s/he wakes up to do homework.

Since your dorm room will ultimately be your living room, kitchen, study room, and bedroom rolled into one, it's important to try to deem your bed a "sleep-only" area, says Mindell. As for the dreaded all-nighter? According to Mindell, since sleep deprivation is one of the worst things students can experience, cramming for an exam or to complete an assignment will set you back several days. Plan ahead and don't leave studying to the last minute. Even though you may convince yourself you work well under pressure, the reality is you'll be playing catch-up for days.

In general, about 80 percent of sleep deprived college students try to make up for the lack of sleep with a daily little fix: a power-nap! Bill Anthony, a napping expert and author of The Art of Napping (Larson Publications, 1997), says you should plan to take a short snooze rather than slowly dozing off while reading or studying. "If you're having trouble studying because you're tired, take a 20-minute nap," advises Anthony. "You'll find you'll perform better than if you had studied during those 20 minutes." According to Anthony, not only will your nap re-energize you, it can also do wonders for your concentration and listening quotients.

Tips for a Good Night's Sleep

• No Starbucks, no Mountain Dew, and no Dr Pepper if you want to ensure some shut-eye.


• Exercise in the morning or the afternoon, but refrain from working out within three to four hours of your bedtime.
  
• Buy vibrating alarm clocks for you and your roommie. Yep, you just put it under your pillow and it'll wake you by vibrating the pillow. This will eliminate your being woken up by your roommate's alarm at 7:30 a.m.when you really don't have to rise and shine until nine.


• Talk to your R.A. about setting dorm rules if there aren't any quiet hours. This will help deter that music-loving dorm-neighbor who cranks up her stereo in the middle of the night.


• Make the room comfortable. If you can control the thermostat, set the room temperature anywhere between 65 and 70 degrees.
  
• If a garbage truck drives you crazy every other morning at 6 a.m., try sleeping with ear plugs or run a fan in your room to minimize the outside noise.


• Try to relax. That means not completing a major reading assignment of macroeconomics prior to bed. If you are going to read, opt for recent mags or light fiction.


• Keep a sleep schedule of how long it takes you to fall asleep, the time you get into bed each night, and when you wake up the next morning. This will make you aware of your sleep patterns so that you can try to make them more consistent.


• As Anthony recommends, take naps, but keep them brief (less than one hour a pop). And don't nap too late in the day or you'll really have a hard time falling asleep at night

http://www.vickisalemi.com
Vicki Salemi is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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