Sleep

What I learned about sleep so far during university (a lot of it from... experimenting... with my own sleep schedule)

When I was in high school I essentially always slept at 10 pm, but my sleep schedule has become a lot more interesting in university.

Sunlight

Getting sunlight after waking up: probably the single most overpowered way to regulate your sleep schedule.

If you always get sunlight immediately after waking up (can be as simple as opening your curtains), you can ensure that you wake up at the same time every morning, even if you went to sleep very late the previous night. It's really as effective as an alarm (but don't rely on it if you have something important early next morning, like an exam)

Scientific background: your body's circadian rhythm is primarily "synchronized" by morning light exposure.

Device Before Bed

Using a device before bed won't always give you a hard time falling asleep (especially if you are slightly sleep deprived), but it will pretty much always cause you to be more tired the next day.

I Can't Fall Asleep

If you are trying to fall asleep but can't:

• Stop checking the time (realistically it's pointless, and might make you stressed if you have something the next day that you wanted to be well rested for)

• Listen to an uninteresting podcast.

• Related to the previous point, some sleep-inducing voices include:

  • Melvyn Bragg from BBC's "In Our Time" (good podcast, but his voice is monotone and gravelly which is good for falling asleep)

  • Trump (normal talking voice, not rally voice. Once again his voice is gravelly/raspy so good for falling asleep)

  • Basically any gravelly voice. (shrill voices will keep you awake more)

• Another common advice: get up in the dark, do some slight physical activity (stretching, going to the bathroom, etc), and lie back down after a while

90-minute cycles

This one is more from research. Basically, sleep cycles (Light -> Deep -> REM) last about 90 minutes and repeat throughout the night.

If you synchronize your wake-up time with these cycles, you might feel less drowsy in the morning and it'll be easier getting up. In other words, making sure your total sleep time is a multiple of 90 minutes (ex: 6 hours, 7.5 hours, 9 hours, etc)

Basically, take your planned wake-up time (possibly your alarm), and count backwards to figure out when to go to bed. (Add ~15 minutes to account for the time it takes to fall asleep)

Not a huge deal though so if you don't want to bother calculating it doesn't matter that much.