For this chapters prompt I picked option 4 regarding how college students sleep. When looking at my own sleeping habits in college I have several things to prioritize. With classes, volunteering, work, social life, and playing a sport, my sleep habits normally suffer as a result. This coming semester I have 5 classes to take equaling 20 credits. I have three business classes and two intensive social work classes. Part of my social work requirement is 40 hour service learning for the fall semester. To try and have a healthy sleeping schedule I have organized my service learning for before I begin practice for winter track. I have myself finishing my volunteering in the first 5-6 weeks of the school year. This will help with maintaining my schedule. The majority of my classes are on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s which is also when I work. I will be working or in class for roughly 12 hours on those days while I have service learning on M and W along with only 1 class. On these days I will be able to accomplish all the work I need for the current week along with the following week. My social work classes are pretty good with having set assignments where business has several ‘pop-up’ work which is hard to plan for in advance. Knowing this, I am able to prioritize and have my homework for my social work class completed for two weeks ahead of schedule. When my work is completed I can focus on working out, work, social life, and this balances my sleeping schedule. For this semester I am striving to get 6.5-8 hours a sleep a night.
Currently I am working a lot. I have work normally from 7:15-6 and either come home and work on psychology homework or go straight to babysitting. I have already taken one summer class and the balancing with statistics was easier to manage but it also led to mild procrastination since I didn’t have to complete homework until 11:59 as it was due at midnight every other day. My sleep schedule for the summer has me aim to get 8 hours of sleep a night. I normally come home from work, eat quickly, do my homework for the next day, shower, finish my homework and study, and aim to go to sleep around 10 and wake up at 6am. The system I had at the beginning of the summer had me sleeping 8 hours every day and I am currently adjusting to it now.
This coming semester I hope to reach my goal of 6.5-8 hours of sleep per night since there is a large difference I notice when I don’t. The major notice I feel is struggling to wake up. Sometimes I get to go to sleep at 9:30 rather than 10 and it is a huge difference similarly to if I go to sleep at 11pm rather than 10. I also find that napping may help but I try to avoid it so I can accomplish my work early and then go to sleep earlier rather than procrastinating work in general by napping.
Loretta Gabrielle 
You did a very good job on this post! I work a lot during the summer too, but I not nearly as much as you! I can’t imagine how hard it is to keep up with everything while still trying to get enough sleep to be energized for such long days everyday! I understand that you think naps will lead to you procrastinating your work, but, as we touched on in class, if you’re tired you may not be working as efficiently and retaining as much information. Naps aren’t always a bad thing, as long as you avoid sleeping for longer than 20-30 minutes. After that, you fall into the NREM stages, each one harder and harder to wake up from. You don’t want to get too far in to the sleep cycle and throw off your internal clock. Also, I would avoid aiming for getting 8 hours of sleep. A sleep cycle is about 90 minutes long. If you do the math, 8 hours lands right in the middle of a cycle. Instead, shoot for at least 6, 7.5, or 9 hours. That way, you can completely finish a cycle, and in turn wake up feeling more refreshed and ready to take on the next busy day!
LikeLike