One of my students was talking about his difficulty staying awake in classes. The obvious step was to go to bed a bit earlier, but he said he had tried that and had a lot of difficulty getting to sleep, even when he lies in bed with the lights out. Another student drew up a list of tips for getting to sleep that I thought I'd share here, since they're pretty awesome.
Ways to fall asleep:
- Read a book. Do not use any electronics 20 minutes before going to sleep.
- Don't have any sugar or caffeine before sleep. No caffeine 4-5 hours before sleep and no sugar 1-2 hours before sleep. If you do have sugar or caffeine before sleep, water it down with two glasses of water and one glass of chocolate or regular milk.
- Drink chocolate milk 20-30 minutes before bed. It can be cold.
- When reading or whatever before bed, use a low light setting.
- Turn off all lights, including alarm clock lights.
Ways to stay awake:
- Chew mint gum—instant awake.
- Don't think calming thoughts.
- Read off an LCD screen instead of off paper.
Anybody else have some suggestions on good ways to fall asleep at appropriate times and how to keep yourself alert at appropriate times? My personal addition to Nathan's list is that since the half-life of caffeine in the body is approximately 5 hours, it may make sense to cut off your caffeine even longer before bed than Nathan suggests, particularly if you have chronic trouble falling asleep at an appropriate time.
