Time, schedule management necessary for increased sleep

By Aida Luu     3/25/10 7:00pm

A social life, good grades or sleep: The joke is that in college, you can only pick two out of three, or you'd exhaust yourself trying to achieve it all. To a college student, sleep is one of the most precious commodities and at times, a temporarily unnecessary luxury.One of the most important things to learn in college is how to manage time effectively. There are so many opportunities that are thrust your way: research opportunities, internships, athletics, being a part of the dozens of clubs on campus or just making the most of the classes you take at Rice with faculty who are at the top of their field. If you are one of those people who want to do it all, you need to know how much you can take on and to what capacity. But in the midst of all your efforts, you need to find time to sleep.

Time is a scarce resource, and this inevitably involves trade-offs in life with what we do with our time. Even though sleep feels like something we can do without, hence the ever popular all-nighter, it is biologically, physiologically and psychologically imperative that we get a sufficient amount of sleep in order to function.

How often have we heard our friends say that they were working on a paper, only to find themselves on Facebook half an hour later commenting on and "liking" the latest Beer Bike pictures? Social media and the Internet as a whole have infiltrated our psyches and we often find ourselves addicted to updating our Twitters and replying to e-mails as soon as we wake up. While social media is a great tool and medium for facilitating networking and keeping in touch, these sites make it all too easy to procrastinate, which nearly all college students are guilty of, including myself.

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In my natural habitat, I find myself needing at least 10 hours of sleep a night in order to wake up without the aid of an alarm clock. That is a lot of sleep to be had, which requires me to go to bed early. But oftentimes, there are things that come up, whether an assignment I need to finish before going to bed, or an impromptu dance party in the Lovett quad that I choose over sleep.

That's why I am such a big fan of napping. Naps are one of the greatest pastimes of college students, and I find myself frequently taking them whenever I have time. Power naps are great for a quick recharge and may work wonders in getting your mind back on track and fully refreshed to tackle that problem set or paper. I have, on more than one occasion, walked into friends' rooms to find them sprawled face down on their beds for an impromptu nap.

Sleep-deprived students should try to find any time they can to sneak in a nap. When studying late into the night, you often get to a point where you are too tired to be able to absorb any more information or do any more quality work. Taking a power nap often helps with focus and concentration. I have seen students slumped over in slumber in Fondren Library with textbooks in their hands, or in the Lovett Commons sleeping on one of the couches with their laptop next to them. It is better to allocate time for these breaks than to overwork yourself and unexpectedly crash for an indefinite amount of time and wake up in a panic over that lost time.

Time management doesn't always come easily, and I have come to learn there are several things that are effective for me when I have a lot of things on my agenda to get done. Each day, I come up with an index card or post-it note of things I need to accomplish that day, and usually I continually add to it throughout the day as more things come up. I also use Google Calendar for more longterm projects and deadlines. It is a great feeling when you can cross out all these things you have accomplished, and there may be things that roll over, but as long as you allocate time to finish everything you need to, there is no need to stress over it.

You should also try to leave some space open in your schedule for random and spontaneous events. I usually have at least a two-hour block not assigned to anything so that in case anything comes up, such as an impromptu viewing of Notorious in the commons, I can go to it. If anything, I can always use that time to nap, or to do more work anyway.

But when you truly find yourself strapped for time, sleep can be made up later, which is what weekends and extended breaks are for. The life of a college student isn't consistent, and it always seems like there aren't enough hours in a day or days in a week. At times when all you want to do is take a much-needed nap but just don't have the time, tell yourself that sleep is for the weak anyway.

Aida Luu is a Lovett College sophomore.

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