Cherish your sleep
How to take back the night
Students adore and crave sleep. When we asked hundreds of you what you’d love to be doing right now, sleeping ranked second—behind only “being with someone I love,” and ahead of eating delicious food, having sex, and other pleasures.
Every time we sleep, we’re taking a luxury nano-vacation. We are “constantly refreshed by little holidays from ourselves,” wrote Iris Murdoch, the English philosopher and author.
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Four ways to honor sleep as the hedonistic pleasure that it is:
1. Make your bed every day Think of your bed as a gift to yourself. You’ll peel back the duvet and blankets (unwrap the gift) before you turn in.
Making our bed daily gives us a sense of control and is a surprisingly effective happiness fix, according to Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project.
2. Reframe your thinking “Sleep isn’t something we have to do; it’s something we get to do. It’s a luxury. We do it because it feels good, not because we’re afraid of consequences,” said Heather Turgeon, a psychotherapist, in the New York Times in January.
3. Think “don’t,” not “can’t” Here’s a mind trick that helps with desirable behaviors, like relishing bedtime: Frame your self-talk so it’s empowering, not punitive.
- “I don’t use gadgets after 11 p.m.”
- “I don’t stay up after 12:30 a.m.”
- “I don’t deny myself sleep.”
When we remind ourselves “I don’t,” we are more successful than when we tell ourselves “I can’t,” studies show.
4. Pamper yourself. Try…
- Changing the sheets: Fresh sheets mean better sleep, said 2 out of 10 people in a National Sleep Foundation survey. In our survey, only 2 in 10 students said they change their sheets weekly.
- Lavender: It’s relaxing. Drop some aromatherapy oil on your pillowcase.
- Memory foam pillows: They conform to the curves of your neck, head, and shoulders.
How do students rank life’s greatest pleasures?
Source: Student Health 101 survey.
500 students answered the question: Which of these would you relish most right now?
- Being with someone I love
- Sleep
- Good food
- Sex (or fantasy)
- Music, literature, arts
- Being in nature
Which sleepy moments do you relish the most?
Source: Student Health 101 survey.
500 students answered this question.
- Getting into bed after a long day
- Waking up refreshed
- The warmth and security of being in bed
- Reading or watching TV in bed
- Waking up and remembering a good dream
- The drowsy transition between being awake and being asleep
- Eating or drinking in bed
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