Fresh bedsheets and dusk walks: Expert tips for sleep-deprived freshers - BBC News
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Fresh bedsheets and dusk walks: Expert tips for sleep-deprived freshers
By Philippa Roxby, Health reporter
It's the start of university—you're already on your fourth themed night out and have signed up for every quirky society. But your relationship with your bed could be key to keeping up with a busy social life, as well as that lengthy reading list.
"If you can get out before 11am-ish then there's a part of the brain, just behind the eyes, that responds to light," says Jo Baker, a psychotherapist and student sleep and mental health expert. "Getting daylight early on in the day is really going to help to keep your body in check. How you sleep at night starts with how you wake up in the morning."
Sleep is essential for learning and absorbing information, but late nights out, noisy flatmates, and a strange new bed can mean good sleep habits go out the window.
For Anna-May, 20, it's her four-hour round trip from Kendal, Cumbria to study dance at the University of Salford that leaves her short on sleep. She gets about five hours a night—the alarm goes at 05:00.
"I track my sleep and get worried about how little I will get, and then sometimes that keeps me up," she says. "I can tell I'm more tired towards the end of the week and things can feel harder."
Forcing yourself to have an early night isn't going to work, according to Baker, especially if you end up lying wide awake in bed.
"Your brain learns this is somewhere I lie and get stressed about not being able to sleep—so the most important thing is a consistent waking time," she says.
Alcohol and caffeine don't help either. When you feel groggy, it's tempting to chug multiple coffees or fizzy drinks. But caffeine hangs around in the body and blocks the build-up of sleepiness throughout the day. Too many flat whites could leave you short on cash—and with a sleep problem.
"When you fall asleep [after large amounts of alcohol], you're anaesthetised really. It's like having an anaesthetic. You're not asleep," Baker says. In fact, alcohol pushes out the deep sleep which restores you physically and replaces it with lighter sleep, which doesn't.
Emma Young, deputy director of student services for health and wellbeing at Manchester Metropolitan University points out the low-key alternatives during freshers' week: "There are lots of alcohol-free events now, like sip and paint. You can also try wellness and wellbeing clubs, like yoga and crafts, if you don't fancy the sport or music societies."
Anna-May likes a hot shower or bath before bed, which research suggests helps her body's core temperature to cool down and prepare for sleep. Then, the only way she can get to sleep is to watch episodes of Friends on her iPad.
"I watch something I have seen time and time again—it's enough to quieten the busy part of my mind, and I can fall to sleep," she says.