Mornings aren’t my finest moments. The sight of a sunrise is so bright it makes my eyes bleed. But mornings are not a prime time for many people, myself included. And I can guarantee that I am not the only one that wakes up cranky 100 percent of the time.
I set an average of 12 alarms within a 15-minute time frame just to wake me up in the mornings, starting at 6 a.m.
But the key to waking up early and feeling rested starts with a not-so-simple task — going to bed early.
As college students, our brains are constantly running a mile a minute. There is always an assignment that needs to be completed, an email that has to be sent, or a phone call that needs to be made. And it never stops.
And many of us know how important sleep is, but very few of us actually make our time between the sheets a priority.
But there is a lot more happening with our body when we don’t get enough ZZZs besides feeling like a zombie.
I am not just talking about those nights when we’re cramming, but also those nights where we just decide to stay up late because we’re binge watching “House of Cards” on Netflix.
But according to the National Sleep Foundation, lack of sleep can affect almost every part of the body, including stomach, brain, heart, nose, eyes and skin.
And during their 2011 bedroom poll, 71 percent of Americans said they get a better night’s sleep on sheets with a fresh scent.
Maybe if our sheets didn’t smell of Cheetos and ramen noodles we would have a better time falling asleep at night.
Who would have thought?
But the caffeine-induced all-nighters become much more prominent during my second-least favorite time of the year — midterms. Because my least favorite time of the year is finals week, also known as “hell week.”
I hate to break it to you, but midterms start next week.
Fortunately we have the Internet, which is a beautiful thing, and Web-Blinds.com offers a really cool sleep calculator tool and it has some pretty amazing features.
With this site, you can put what time you need to wake up and the site will tell you what time you should go to bed. And if that isn’t spiffy enough, you can also use the feature that will tell you what time your alarm should be set for if you are sleepy at that current moment. Mind blown.
And the app “Sleep Cycle” is also available for smartphones. Sleep Cycle uses the accelerometer in your phone to identify sleep phases by tracking your movements in bed, and then wakes you up with an alarm within a 30-minute window according to your lightest sleep cycle. That way, you don’t wake up feeling groggy or sleepy.
But there are some not-so-obvious, quick-fix reasons you may have trouble falling asleep at night. Varying from rich dinners all the way to having your bedroom at the wrong temperature at night. And these are just a couple from the plethora of problems that exist.
So next week when midterms roll around, we should all try and make sleep a priority and put Trivia Crack, Candy Crush Saga, Snapchat and Twitter on the back burner — but only temporarily of course.
Jen Blate is a 24-year-old sociology junior from Miami, Florida. Jen can be reached on Twitter @Jblate_TDR.