My first-born is off to college in a matter of days and I am in an utter panic. Enter ‘I have not taught him enough’, ‘it’s all happening before I’m ready’, and ‘all of the other feelings’ (omg there’s so many) that parents have when their first-born leaves the nest. So if you are like me, and hurtling all the wisdom of the world at your soon-to-be-flown-the-coop freshman every time you can grab their attention for a hot second, maybe you can join me in a collective deep breath, and realize there’s still time. You are still a parent, they will still speak to you when they move out, and the world won’t end the day you deposit them (and all their carefully curated crap) on campus. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Freaking allergies.
College Professor becomes College Kid Mother. It might not be pretty but here we go - I bring you Crib Sheets for College. Kiddo - it's all the stuff I ran out of time to tell you, or that you flat out wouldn't listen to the first time around, doled out in slow doses.
Lesson 1: Do not ‘guest beyond thy stint’ …but for the love of god get some sleep!
It’s not news to anyone that I’m a big fan of going to sleep ungodly early. It didn’t used to be that way. I had to pay someone good money to sort through everything I was doing wrong with respect to sleeping. It took some effort and a beautiful piece of tech (ouraring.com) but I finally abandoned my bad sleep hygiene habits and found my natural sleeping window, and I can now rack up some serious REM (good for brain) and deep (good for body) sleep. Good sleep is life-changing and as a college student you will absolutely need it to function at your best. I’ve talked to enough parents of teenagers to know that this Covid-19 home-schooling-summer vacation-extenda time warp has created a cadre of ‘is it day or night now?’ oversleeping zombies. No judgement. Weird times. We are all are coping in our own dysfunctional ways.
But, as the Great Emperor writes in Meditations,
“But thou guest beyond thy stint, and beyond that which would suffice, and in matter of action, there thou comest short of that which thou mayest.” Marcus Aurelius
In other words, sleep too much - miss out on life. So with college starting up, it’s time to rise out of the ashes and get back to the work of being an inquiring mind. Which begins with getting out of bed, AFTER logging some proper Z’s.
Which brings me to the other side of the pendulum: under-sleeping. There is nothing heroic in an all-nighter, and no good work comes from bleary-eyed zombies. A good night’s sleep is a ferocious weapon for a slayer of worldly knowledge but sleep deprivation is kryptonite, resulting in decreased focus, attention, creativity, ability to learn complex skills, short-term memory retention, and long-term memory building. And falling asleep in class makes professors cranky and unsympathetic. True story.
Sounds easy enough, but we are all hard-wired to fall asleep at different times, and these patterns drift around a bit over your life. Despite the stereotype, not all young adults are wired to stay up half the night. Nor does that work with a typical freshman class schedule. Find the go-to-sleep window (generally a 1 hr timeframe) that works for your body – i.e. a bedtime when you can fall asleep within 15 mins of hitting the pillow and stay asleep for 7-9 hours. Tech is great for figuring that out, but barring that, start with a middle-of-the-road plan that works with your schedule, so that you can wake up rested BEFORE your classes start, and start tuning it up to see if your sleep quality improves. Your primary function as a human being right now is to LEARN. You are in the drink knowledge stage of your life. Sleep is a critical component of that.
So some of the big sleep hygiene offenders that are going to be challenging in a cramped dorm room/college environment, but worth resisting: screen time before bed – that cell phone light is a direct single to your brain to ‘stay awake’. Be vigilant about not looking at it or other screens during your wind-down time before bed (30 min hiatus is often recommended but every minute helps). Do not use your bed as a desk or holding room for myriad and sundry possessions. Honor it as a shrine for sleeping - a pristine place that you look forward to crawling into at night – and your brain will make that association. And watch the late day caffeine and heavy eating right before bed. High metabolic activity will keep your heart rate elevated, your body temperature up, and decrease the quality of your sleep.
And in closing, if you are tempted to hit the snooze button in the morning, some more wisdom from the good man:
“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human being.” Marcus Aurelius
Summary: To maximize your success in college, you need to sleep INTENTIONALLY so that you are in the best mental shape for learning. Sleep your stint, then go about the business of being a college student - eat, drink, and most importantly, be curious! Be the shiny bright student asking all the questions because you are well rested and sparkly.
Bonus Advice: When you get up, make your bed. You might believe that such an effort, multiplied a gazillion days of your life, is an awful lot of repetitious work for naught, because you are invariably going to crawl back in it at the end of the day. There’s some truth to that. But the gain in making your bed is worth the minute a day it takes to make it, because it automates your morning start, and within the first few minutes of your day, you have already accomplished something. It’s a tiny confidence builder that gets you moving with gusto into your day.
But don’t take my word for it. Have a listen to retired US Navy Admiral William McRaven on the merits of making your bed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jflUvxQLkgs
Happy Z's and Q's.
Comments