Health Behavior
Being a college student that works a night shift and has morning classes I do not get the sleep I need. In fact, most days I hardly get to sleep at all. On most days during the week I wake up at 8:30 am to get ready for class and don 't go to bed until around 5 a.m. That 's only 3 and half hours of sleep, less than half of what I need to function properly.
Risk for Illness I have already begun to see how not sleeping is affecting my health. My immune system has suffered significantly this semester due to my lack of sleep. It seems that i 'm constantly sick, I stay sick for a lot longer, and once I fight off one thing it seems I’m sick again just a few days later. This has made this semester a challenge. While I can see that my immune …show more content…
While I can’t change when I work or what time I have classes, I can change what I do in between my school time and work. Typically I drink coffee or energy drinks during the day to keep going. So, my first step would to slowly reduce my caffeine intake. This will help me fall asleep sooner. If I go from drinking 3 glasses of coffee a day to 2 and then eventually one glass no later than 7 pm than I should see a slight effect on my ability to fall asleep.
Another thing I would do is change what I do after work, before bed. I typically spend a couple hours laying in bed before I can fall asleep after work, unless of course I still have school work to do. So, while I’m laying in bed not sleeping ill sit on my phone for hours playing games,checking emails, on social media, etc. In order to increase the amount I sleep I would slowly decrease the time I’m on my phone. Instead of being on my phone for two hours I 'd go to 1 and a half hours, then 1 hour, then 30 minutes, then no phone time at all. This will force me to lay in the darkness and fall asleep instead of giving me something to do to prolong the time it takes me to fall
Being a college student that works a night shift and has morning classes I do not get the sleep I need. In fact, most days I hardly get to sleep at all. On most days during the week I wake up at 8:30 am to get ready for class and don 't go to bed until around 5 a.m. That 's only 3 and half hours of sleep, less than half of what I need to function properly.
Risk for Illness I have already begun to see how not sleeping is affecting my health. My immune system has suffered significantly this semester due to my lack of sleep. It seems that i 'm constantly sick, I stay sick for a lot longer, and once I fight off one thing it seems I’m sick again just a few days later. This has made this semester a challenge. While I can see that my immune …show more content…
While I can’t change when I work or what time I have classes, I can change what I do in between my school time and work. Typically I drink coffee or energy drinks during the day to keep going. So, my first step would to slowly reduce my caffeine intake. This will help me fall asleep sooner. If I go from drinking 3 glasses of coffee a day to 2 and then eventually one glass no later than 7 pm than I should see a slight effect on my ability to fall asleep.
Another thing I would do is change what I do after work, before bed. I typically spend a couple hours laying in bed before I can fall asleep after work, unless of course I still have school work to do. So, while I’m laying in bed not sleeping ill sit on my phone for hours playing games,checking emails, on social media, etc. In order to increase the amount I sleep I would slowly decrease the time I’m on my phone. Instead of being on my phone for two hours I 'd go to 1 and a half hours, then 1 hour, then 30 minutes, then no phone time at all. This will force me to lay in the darkness and fall asleep instead of giving me something to do to prolong the time it takes me to fall