SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: Welcome to the podcast that explores all realms of sleep, your routines, schedules, hacks, and crazy stories. Today, we’ll be asking the following questions: what’s the best way to maximize your sleep during the week? What type of product makes it easiest to get the most rest? And is waking up at 3 am actually good for your sleep hygiene? Let’s find out. I’m your host, Sunde Auberjonois, and you’re listening to Running on Empty.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS:
Disclaimer: Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for medical or mental health advice. If you’re experiencing a disconcerting lack or abundance of sleep, extreme fatigue or insomnia, please consult a medical professional.
If you’re on social media, you’ve definitely seen at least one video of a really aesthetically pleasing nighttime routine. However, as full-time students at a rigorous institution who often fill their schedules with extracurriculars, most SPA students aren’t using their time to do extensive skincare routines. Spending forty-five minutes winding down and eventually getting in bed sounds great in theory, but with a minimum of two hours of homework per night, that option is not really on the table. So let’s hear about some current SPA student nighttime routines.
ADDY PETERSON: I normally get home and if I have practice, I get home and I get ready pretty much immediately. I make myself a very early dinner at like, 3:30, and I don’t know, I basically just go to volleyball right away. And then on Tuesdays, I get home at ten. Yeah.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: That’s Addy Peterson, a ninth-grader at SPA. Like lots of high school students, Addy often has sports practices after school that go late into the night, and this isn’t uncommon. However, it often leads to feelings of stress around balancing a demanding extracurricular schedule with a big homework load. According to the Child Mind Institute, kids and teens should ideally get homework done before dinner or as early in the evening as possible. The later in the evening homework gets done, the more active your brain will be when you finally get into bed. This activity can lead to trouble sleeping, eventually giving way to sleep deprivation, which impacts a student’s overall ability to perform and process information. It’s a truly vicious cycle, one that seems to have no end in sight.
According to a sleep study conducted at Brown University in the nineties, teenagers experience a shift in circadian rhythms that makes it much more difficult to fall asleep before 11 pm which for the average teenager, means getting around seven to eight hours of sleep, in contrast to the eight to ten recommended. Like I said before, this experiment was conducted in the 1990s. School systems have had this information for over thirty years, yet still continue to give copious amounts of homework to their already overloaded students, all while asking them to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. So, how do we make the most of what we’ve been given? How do you balance social life outside of school, homework, and everything else? A lot of students have developed habits that help them get to sleep quickly, eliminating some stress from their day. Here’s junior Sophie Donahue giving her nighttime routine, tips, and favorite products that help her fall asleep.
SOPHIE DONAHUE: My main trick is that I take, like, so much melatonin, and then I will, like, sit there and, look at the ceiling for a little bit, and then I just listen, and then after that, I’m out. Oh, I also, like, used to, like, plug my ears in my sleep, yeah, I slept like this for 10 years, and so now I like, put in earplugs, but it honestly doesn’t, like, it’s just not the same. I just wish that I could just keep doing that. But, you know, sometimes I got nails on, it just isn’t working. So I would recommend plugging your ears with your hands if you can’t go to sleep, or just taking so much melatonin. Sleepytime Tea! Love it. Awesome. Yeah, I think I use the Nature’s Remedy type of melatonin. My favorite Sleepytime Tea is Sleepytime Vanilla. Let me like, show you.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: We’ll link this all in the description.
SOPHIE DONAHUE: Yes! Sophie’s nighttime routine.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: Melatonin is commonly used among college students and adults, but in recent years, many high schoolers have been hopping on the trend. Around 88% of adults who use melatonin say it helps their sleep cycle. However, for adolescents, it still doesn’t really solve the homework issue. Now that we’ve heard a couple of nighttime routines, let’s hear from junior Evan Morris, who has some pretty radical ideas that might just eliminate all your homework stress.
EVAN MORRIS: I have a really, really, really cool nighttime routine when I really need to lock in. Sometimes I go home, and I pop two melatonins, and I pass out at like 5 pm and I just sleep until 3 am, and then I wake up at three so I can lock in. And I basically, like, lock in for like, five or six hours because, like, at three I’m really productive, so I take caffeine then, and I’m just really, really locked honestly. Before tests, I’ll do that.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: Will you do that before finals, do you think?
EVAN MORRIS: Oh, most definitely. Because, like, honestly, it’s a strat, because you still get sleep if you go to bed at five. Because let’s be honest, when you get home at five if you don’t have sports that day, like, what are you gonna do? I sit on my phone for like, two hours, probably, then I try to eat, and maybe I start homework at eight, so I’m, like, losing a lot of time. But then if I pop melatonin, I wake up really early. Like, I’m sorry, I’m not gonna be on my phone at like, 3 am in the morning. I highly recommend.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: Okay, so if that’s your, like, week weekday routine, what do you do on the weekends?
EVAN MORRIS: Yeah, well, it definitely throws off, like, my circadian rhythm a lot. So like, today, I actually did it. And, like, actually went to this bakery at like, 5 am and I went and got some donuts and cookies. And it was really tough. And I just, like, worked there for two hours. So it really, I only do it, maybe, like, once every two weeks when I’m really feeling it. So it normally doesn’t affect my weekends that much, but like on the weekends, I kind of just like sleep.
SUNDE AUBERJONOIS: While Evan’s routine may seem unconventional, it might also just be genius. Falling asleep at five and waking up at three gives you a full ten hours of sleep, plus around four hours of time to do homework while your mind is fresh and rested. Additionally, distractions are limited. Really, who’s snapping people at 3 am?
That’s all for hearing about SPA student nighttime routines. Let us know if you try one out.
This has been Running on Empty. Thanks for tuning in to this episode, and please be sure to go check out our others. They can be found on the Rubicon website.
We hope you enjoyed.