Yes. Sleep is actually more important to us than we think. Especially for graduate and PhD students. Even though you may think that if you get less sleep, you can get more work done, you will benefit more than you know if you decide to catch those Zs more often. You might be thinking, “That could never happen with my schedule,” but here are a few notes that you should keep in mind when deciding your sleep schedule.

Do some research. I learned a lot about the importance of sleep through these 3 articles, so be sure to read over them to understand everything you can about getting enough sleep.

College Student Sleep Patterns Could Be Detrimental: This article is about a study that a student conducted at Central Michigan University to understand college students’ sleepiness.

Sleep: This article gives readers sleeping tips and different diagnoses of why they might not be getting enough sleep.

Sleep and Grad School: How Important Is It For Students?: This article will help you understand many reasons why it is important to sleep more than you do now.

Try to get 6-8 hours of sleep each night. Staying within this amount of sleep each night will allow you to be regular with your sleep patterns, which will allow you to sleep easier.

Pay attention to other health habits. Eating healthy, exercising regularly, and practicing general healthy behaviors will also keep you on an easy-to keep sleep schedule.

Decrease the amount of time you spend in front of a screen. Give your eyes some time to rest between looking at your phone, your computer, and your TV.

Use continuous white noise while you sleep. The study by LeAnne Forquer showed that white noise helped students get to sleep faster and stay asleep all night.

After reading the other 3 articles and understanding a little more about why sleep is more important than you think, head over to PhDStudent’s article on sleeping and other relaxation techniques so you can learn other ways to successfully rest while in school. For instance, read about meditating and slowing down, focusing on smaller tasks, socializing with others, and listening to music are important notes to keep in mind.

You may be surprised by reading that sleeping less just to get more work done is bad for you. Not only is it physically draining, but it also brings emotional and mental issues if you do not get an adequate amount of sleep. Based off the articles and information in this blog, I hope that you received enough incentive to head to bed a little earlier tonight.