My current sleep habits are poor, to say the least. I am often so tired that, in order to get through the rest of the day, I have to take about an hour nap after classes. I often go to sleep around 2 a.m. and wake up around 9 or 10 everyday. Most nights before I go to bed I lay down and watch TV until I am tired enough to go to sleep. And after, it will usually take me about an hour or more to actually fall asleep. I also sometimes drink coffee late at night.

I don’t think my sleep habits are necessarily the healthiest, but I am still getting about 7 or 8 hours. I think if I were to not watch TV directly before bed I would have a much easier time falling asleep. I also think working more during the day and not napping so much would help when trying to fall asleep at night. I have been working on improving on amount of naps per week by keeping myself more occupied during the day by going to the gym and working on homework during the day instead of late at night. This way I can go to bed knowing that I was productive during the day. This would help to reduce the amount of stress I feel on a daily basis as well. Improving the quality of my sleep would greatly increase my academic performance and stress levels.

I think a realistic goal for amount of sleep for college students is about 7 hours. This requires improving your time management skills. You have to balance eating meals, social time, time spent on academic work, and sometimes athletics. This is definitely a possibility, but it takes a lot of work to manage your time wisely.