What happens if you do not get enough sleep?
If you do not get enough sleep, or if your sleep is of substandard quality, you are very likely to feel drowsy, irritable, and unable to complete daily functions efficiently. You will feel unbothered with tasks, have a worsened memory and struggle with your concentration. This is especially intensified if you do not get enough sleep for several nights in a row as this puts you in a state of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation has several detrimental effects and as such it is critical to get an adequate amount of sleep.
How to sleep better, and get the most benefit possible from sleeping?
Getting more sleep usually means getting to bed earlier- this may mean you have to limit what you do in the evening or be more efficient with your time management. This could specifically be focused on by coming home after school earlier. Additional advice includes limiting sweets and limiting screen time after 8pm. If you are in a situation where it is necessary to use a screen, be sure to turn on the ‘night light’ mode which helps to block blue light (this interferes with your ability to achieve sleep of good quality). Also, try to fit in more exercise during the day, as this uses up your energy, and this means you are more likely to fall asleep earlier. Sometimes, when you are trying to go to sleep you may start to think about things you have to do or things that have occurred throughout the day. This may prevent you from being able to fall asleep on time and to help with this, you could write down the things in a notebook kept beside you. This way, you don’t need to focus on distracting thoughts and instead think about it the following day.