Resolving Snooze Blues - How to Get Better Sleep | Engineering Wellness Program

Getting Better Sleep

There’s an old meme I remember hearing about from friends before I was coming into university. “Good grades, sleep, or a social life. In university, you can have two.” As a high school student, I laughed it off. I’m not laughing anymore. I might be too tired to. (They never told me you weren’t guaranteed any of the three options!)

We all go through cycles of sleep loss in life. Whether it’s cramming for a test the night before or staying up at night playing Among Us, sleep deprivation is a feeling familiar to many, if not all. It’s the first thing we tend to sacrifice when a situation calls for it, but we really should be taking care of ourselves, and honestly, that starts with getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is definitely something that university students are familiar with, but it became a topic I held dear after my experience with my first coop.

At my first coop, I was asked to work nightshift at a plant. Being the ambitious guy that I was, I made it a point of also coming into the office during the day to work on the other projects I had going on. Nobody asked me to, but I decided that I would sacrifice on my sleep to get ahead in my work and complete the projects I needed to. But I quickly realized that the lack of sleep was getting to me, as some of my coworkers decried me as a ‘zombie’ or ‘scary.’ At the moment, I thought they were just being concerned, but it turns out that the quality of my work had decreased too. I wasn’t able to focus, didn’t have the energy to be creative, and began falling asleep on my way to and from work. Those three weeks of working nightshift, as fun as they were. almost felt like three lifetimes.

So yes, sleep is an important topic for me. I’d like to share some of my research, experiences, and thoughts about sleep and how I have improved and prioritized sleep in my day-to-day (or night-to-night) life.

Sleeping in Darkness

By far the best thing I have done is make my room darker. I have several streetlights outside my room’s balcony door which have always shined in through the blinds. A few years ago, they changed the light colour from orange to white, and my sleep TANKED. I couldn’t fall asleep and it was because of the lights! I found a solution in putting a bedsheet over the window and I slept better than I did in years. Sleeping in total darkness was a gamechanger! I slept with much better quality and slept much more deeply. This brings me to the next thing I did.

Sleeping Mask

I got a sleeping mask! This was a lifesaver when I had to sleep during the day when I was doing the night shift. Yes, I looked like Squidward, and it was a little uncomfortable at first, but eventually, I got used to it and I sleep much better now! It’s worth buying a slightly fancier one rather than using the ones Airlines give you (not that anyone is travelling during the pandemic).

Showering

Some articles say that showering before bed can make you sleep better. Both hot and cold showers supposedly have their benefits, since your body needs to cool down before going to sleep. By heating your body, the cooldown effect occurs when you get into bed. The same effect can occur by taking a cold shower. This one personally has not worked for me AT ALL. Every time I’ve tried to become tired by taking a shower, with both hot and cold water, I end up staying up longer than I would have when just doing the other things on this list. Try it out, but this one just hasn’t worked with me.

Routine

Another helpful tip for me was to have a routine before going to bed. Obviously, this includes brushing, changing, etc. However, having something to do before bed (that doesn’t necessarily need to help you sleep) has been really helpful for me. During quarantine, I found that calling up a friend before bed has helped me sleep better and more deeply, provided I consistently do it. Obviously, this puts me at the whim of someone else’s schedule, so I would recommend something more along the lines of reading or meditating (which also improves sleep, stay tuned for the next section).

Meditation

Meditation has been somewhat helpful for me. I like to either listen to one of those 1-hour YouTube meditation music videos or sit in silence and just wait for my thoughts. I focus on my breathing and let passing thoughts go. It can be very relaxing and can help stop anxious thoughts, which can make it easier to fall asleep.

Devices

Installing a blue-light filter and turning on do-not-disturb have been really helpful, but also, not using devices before going to bed for an hour (and also after waking up for an hour) can make you go to sleep faster and sleep deeper. Lowering the brightness in the evening is also another step you can take to improve your sleep.

White Noise

This is something I’ve always done, and that’s using a fan. Because of years of listening to music louder than I should have been, I think that I, like many young adults, have a slight ringing in my ears. Using a fan has helped me sleep so much better. Plus, it cools you down too, which you may recall from a previous section helps your body go to sleep. This can be an issue in the winter, since blowing dry cold air in your face can lead to a sore throat. Your mileage may vary!

That’s how to improve your sleep, but I found that unless I had an urgent thing to attend to (such as getting up to go to work), it would be easy to ignore my alarm and fall asleep again. The ‘waking up’ part of sleeping is almost as important as the ‘going to’ and ‘sleeping’ parts of sleep.

Getting up immediately

Not staying in bed when your alarm goes off is very key. Even if you’re a little dazed, getting up and going to shower and brush immediately means you don’t waste time in bed and you ready can get up and ready without your brain convincing you to snooze another 15 minutes.

Getting up at the same time

Another helpful thing for me has been to get up at the same time every day, regardless of the time I go to bed. For me, that has been 7:00 am. I feel so much more refreshed when I consistently wake up at the same time, and this is because of the human body’s circadian rhythm. Whatever time works for you, make sure to get up at that time every day. Don’t snooze!

Napping / Not Napping

Napping, as tempting as it can be, can affect your sleep schedule and circadian rhythm. If you're hoping for better sleep at night, it’s not a great idea to nap. I found that napping works better for me once I sleep consistently at night. If you do choose to nap, avoiding naps longer than 20 minutes is better (though easier said than done).

Caffeine

Caffeine does mess up your sleep schedule. I’m a huge hypocrite, given how much I love coffee, but I sleep so much better when I go a week or so without any. If you do choose to have caffeine, not having any after 1 pm is a rule that I try to stick to and notice that I sleep much better when I follow that rule.

Stress

Stress was a huge factor in sleep that I hadn’t ever previously considered. When I was stressed, my sleep satisfaction dropped tremendously. This is, obviously, due in part because of reoccurring and worrying thoughts that occur when you are stressed about something. However, even if you don’t have these thoughts, the adrenaline your body releases due to stress make you physically unable to sleep! The best way to deal with this is to obviously not be stressed, but also, exercise! This clears away the adrenaline from your body and releases endorphins, soothing you, and making you more prone to sleep. With the pandemic, stress is definitely a factor as to why my sleep hasn’t been as great as it could be.

With that, I hope you can get better sleep! You will notice that when you have better and adequate sleep, you feel happier and more optimistic. You become more efficient, more resilient to stress, and overall, life improves! Get some rest all!

Some additional resources that may help:

On behalf of the ENGWellness Team, thanks for checking out this post! Please connect with us if you have anything that you would like to see in the future: ENGWellness@uwaterloo.ca.