Feel better, calmer and more focused naturally, through sleep

By Mark C. Anderson

For college students, finding enough time for restful sleep often turns into—you guessed it—a nightmare. 

So it goes in a reality teeming with classes, deadlines, internships, athletics, social cycles, additional extracurricular demands and part-time (or full-time) jobs.

Compound that with the added twist of living somewhere, on campus or off, where the room, bed, ambient sounds and roommates might be completely new. 

Those challenges inspired CSU Monterey Bay’s Personal Growth and Counseling Center to introduce an Otter version of national Sleep Awareness Week (coming March 12-18).  

The PGCC will host a table at the Otter Student Union 11am-1pm Monday, March 6, and again noon-2pm Tuesday, March 7. 

Adjunct professor and PGCC counselor Merideth Canham-Nelson will help anchor the opportunity for students to pick up helpful items like bedtime tea, ear plugs and eye masks; ask questions about sleep; learn more about available apps to check sleep types and personal patterns; and absorb additional sleep tips, including how to manage sleep environments in new places with everything from mindful lighting to white noise machines.  

“The purpose is to help students learn [some] of the easiest ways to improve mood, retention and comprehension, and reduce stress, anxiety and depression,” Canham-Nelson says. “Yep! Sleep does all that!" 

Canham-Nelson and her colleagues are familiar with how easy it can be to sleep on the benefits of good sleep. That inspires PGCC’s focus on “sleep hygiene,” which involves establishing practices conducive to achieving appropriate amounts of restful—and deep—sleep. 

It also includes avoiding the habits that work against it—like piling on exposure to blue light from all devices, which delays the natural production of melatonin and sleepiness, within 30 minutes of laying down, and scrolling social media before bed.

“Students often get sleep whenever they can,” she says. “If they are busy attending classes, in addition to other responsibilities, then they will use late night as the time to take care of those other tasks and homework. Sleep is not prioritized, and it is pushed late into the night or early morning. Students then get up and do it all again the next day.” 

The good news there: Resources will be available at the OSU this week and also online (see the link below).

“The key is for students to have all the information they need,” Canham-Nelson says. “While doing all of the things necessary for restful sleep is ideal, it isn't [always] realistic. However, incorporating at least a few of the tips will improve students' ability to achieve the optimal amount of deep sleep that will help them wake up feeling rested and ready to tackle their academics.” 

Find sleep tips on the Personal Growth and Counseling Center resources page.