Sleep Diary Essay

737 Words2 Pages

Although the Stanford Sleepiness Scale was the most interesting to analyze, the weeklong sleep diary allowed me to see aspects that the “Alertness Test” did not. The two biggest pieces were the effects of the program on my sleep latency and the negative impact alcohol has on sleep. First, it was one of my goals to improve my sleep latency, as during the 4 weeks of the sleep diary, my sleep latency was typically 15 minutes (higher during stressful days ex/basketball games). In order to allow for the sleep latency to decrease during emotional times, I decided to implement a 15-minute routine before I went to bed. Without a doubt, the part of the routine that was the most beneficial was turning my phone to airplane mode. Like many college students, …show more content…

By doing this, I found it easier to fall asleep since my melatonin level did not go down from staring at a bright screen. Although the 5th week of the sleep diary shows that my sleep latency increased to 30 minutes, I found that my TIB before sleep onset was relaxing and the only reason why I struggled to fall asleep was because I was not used to sleeping so early on days like Saturday. The other aspect that the diary showed me was the negative effect of alcohol on sleep. In my first 4 weeks of keeping a diary, I consumed alcohol 4 times. Every single one of those days, I got in my bed much later, my sleep was heavily fragmented, and my sleep latency was about 30 minutes. When comparing this to the 5th week where I did not consume alcohol, my sleep was less fragmented, but the times when it fragmented was when my roommates came in after a night out, so alcohol still found a way to negatively impact my sleep. In conclusion, the sleep diary allowed me to analyze my sleep latency, which I was shocked was larger during my program, and allowed me to understand the negative impacts of …show more content…

In order to accomplish this, my main focus was to establish a consistent sleep/wake pattern. As a result of improving my sleep hygiene, I found that my overall quality of sleep improved tremendously; therefore my program was a success. Although the data showed that my sleep and alertness level were disrupted and negatively affected by the program at first, within a couple of days my body started to get used to it and the positive results began. Since the results came back positive, I have decided to continue on with parts of my program. The main part will be the same routine before I go to bed and the hour time frame of waking up. I enjoyed not looking at my phone before I slept, as it made my eyes feel better and my mind more relaxed. Meanwhile, I enjoyed waking up around the same time because I noticed that my body adapted and suddenly I was more of a “morning person”. In conclusion, I believe my sleep improvement program was a success, and I am excited to implement parts of the program in my daily

Open Document