Many college students take naps a couple times a week. Naps are good for students who are sleep deprived, but naps may interfere with normal sleeping. Naps should be be no longer than 20 minutes or they will affect a student's nighttime sleep patterns. Another problem with naps is that students may take naps that are too late in the day. To prevent nighttime sleep problems, naps should be taken in the middle of the day.
Good nutrition is important for students to study and sleep well. Many college students are juggling studying and working, and their eating habits are not ideal. Students may eat too late or not enough before bedtime, which affects their sleeping habits. Another issue is caffein intake. Coffee or energy drinks too late in the day can keep anyone awake at night. Following a well-balanced eating plan will help students create good sleeping habits.
College life can cause stress and anxiety to students who may be coping with exams, financial aid and other emotional problems. Dr. Avi Sadeh at Tel Aviv University studied students and their sleep patterns and found that during high stress periods, students had less sleep. Once the stress was relieved, the students had longer nighttime sleep. He also found that students who were able to focus on other tasks and ignore their stress slept better than students who found it difficult to cope with stress.
College students who engage in drinking may find it affects their sleep and overall health. Even moderate alcohol intake causes sleep to become lighter and more disturbed. Drinking that is done right before sleep causes more sleep problems. The more intoxicated a student may be, the more his sleep is disrupted. The student may fall into a deeper sleep the first part of the night. However, the second half of the student's sleep will have more wakefulness and REM sleep, which is a stage of sleep that stands for rapid eye movement sleep, increases because it decreases during the first part of alcohol induced sleep.