Sleep - Crawl back into bed, it's important!

     As a college student, sleep is by far probably the hardest thing to control and keep stable in our lives.  With classes, exams, homework, parties, intramural sports, clubs and personal time, where can you schedule in a solid 8 hours of sleep??  I'll admit, it's difficult and most nights not achieved for myself and I'm sure many other students roaming campus.  BUT I just read this great web page about how important sleep is.  You can check it out right here Healthy Sleep.
   For those of you too tired to click and read it yourself, here's the main points!  Only 11 percent of American college students sleep well, and 40 percent of students feel well rested only two days per week.  This, I'm guessing, would be on those days of the weekend when we hit the hay around 3 a.m. and don't roll out of bed till about 3 p.m. the next day.  But, sleep affects all the basics of learning -  acquisition, which is the process that your brain receives the information your professor is blabbing about, consolidation, which is your brain's ability to grow and become stronger for longer periods of time (think studying, long lectures, whole semesters, etc.) and recall, which is the brain utilizing what it took in and using it.  So with all of that said, basically SLEEP = SUCCESS.
    So the next time your exhausted and can barely keep your eyes open in class, don't go out that night.  My suggestion is to try to get on a good routine, so your not waking up at 7 a.m. one day but sleeping until noon the next.  Trust me, you can go out and party tomorrow night, but tonight, crawl into bed and take a nice long sleep - not only will you feel refreshed in the morning, but I bet you will see a change in your mood that day!  And also, try getting a little active.  Yes, you may be exhausted, but trust me again, a short run will make you feel better and wake you up for the day.  This morning, I woke up to do bootcamp at 6 a.m. Yes, 6 a.m. I was so sleepy when my alarm clock went of at 5:45, but as I was walking back to my apartment at 7 a.m., I felt refreshed and ready for the day.  Hope you really consider these options!

GOODNIGHT!