How College Students Can Avoid Insomnia

There are always those nights when you simply can't fall asleep; I for one had that experience recently, and even though I knew I'd fall asleep eventually, I became really frustrated, which made it even more difficult for me to fall asleep. It's really annoying, and I'm sure there are many other college students who have similar--or the same--experience. You feel like you've been awake forever, and you track of time. Yet you're afraid to look at the clock, for fear of freaking you out even more, and you feel like crying; you know that you're going to be extremely tired in the morning, especially if you have to get up early or you have a big text the next day. Obviously, this is not something can can be "cured," per se, but there's always something you can do to make it better.

First of all, you'll know something's wrong if it's taking you longer to fall asleep than usual. If you do find you're having difficulty falling asleep, take a minute and think about why you're having difficulty sleeping. There are various reasons:

-You're hungry. Perhaps you haven't eaten in a really long time, and that tends to happen if you have an early dinner and go to bed pretty late, with no snack afterwards. Or you could be full -- you're so stuffed that maybe you're even feeling sick.

-You're hot or cold.

-You had a lot of caffeine shortly before going to bed. This differs for everyone; for some people, all it takes is one can of Coke and she's awake for a long time, but for others, a couple cups of coffee won't do anything. You're an adult now, so you should know how much caffeine your body can tolerate.

-You took a nap during the day, or slept longer than usual the night before. Your body's rested up enough, so it doesn't feel quite ready for sleep.

-You're really worried about something, or you just have a lot on your mind. Maybe you're very stressed out about classes, friends, other personal problems, etc.

-There's a lot of noise outside your room or nearby, which is preventing you from falling asleep. This is often the case in dorms, especially on the weekends when there's a great deal of partying going on, and you're not a part of that crowd.