The Must-Have Apps for College Students!

Getting enough sleep every night is difficult for a majority of college students. With all the late night studying, homework and parties it seems students continuously cut their sleep time short. In my first blog post, More Z’s Can Mean More A’s, I talked about how big of a problem getting the right amount of sleep for college students has become and why it needs to change. With the majority of college students having a presence on some type of social media, I used my following blog post, Don’t Sleep on the Truth, to share where reliable information can be found on the websites already used. I also did an entire blog post that pointed out common myths that people believe about sleep to help my readers understand whether the information they are getting is true or not- check it out here. After my readers have learned about the importance of getting quality sleep each night and have learned what is true and not true about the topic, I have decided to suggest some Apps that may help students get a full night’s rest. I have reviewed many different sleep apps and have found three that I would suggest college students try!

Apple’s Bedtime Feature on Clock App

Bedtime Feature

Clock App (pre-installed)

The Clock app was created by Apple and comes pre-installed on every iPhone, iPad and iPod, which you cannot delete from any Apple product. After opening the Clock app, in the bottom section there is an option to go to the Bedtime feature. This is where you can set the time you want to go to bed as well as when you need to wake up. The app then sends you a reminder to notify you it is time to go to sleep. You can set the bedtime reminder to go off 1 hour, 45 minutes, 30 minutes, or at bedtime in the app. By setting the time you want to wake up, the Clock app will sound an alarm at that time. In addition, there is an option to turn on do not disturb during bedtime, which dims the lockscreen, silences all calls and alerts, and allows for emergency alerts to still have noise. If you use your phone during the time that you are scheduled to be asleep the time will not count towards hours slept as well as when snoozing the alarm the sleep time will not stop until the alarm has been stopped. The app allows you to set up times you want to go to sleep and wake up every day of the week and then creates a sleep analysis, which is automatically sent to the Health app for users to review. This app could help college students get to sleep when they want to each night by receiving the reminders and also know how much sleep they were able to get by using the sleep analysis feature. This could really help college students know exactly how much sleep they are getting and know when they are not getting enough. The app does seem fairly easy to use and explains every feature well, making it something all college students could understand. The one downside to the app is the sleep analysis data is sent to the health app, but this app cannot be deleted from Apple products either. There are no ratings for this app on the App Store because it is pre-downloaded to all phones and cannot be deleted.

Sleepzy: Sleep Cycle Tracker

Sleepzy icon as displayed in the App Store

The Sleepzy app is free in the App Store if you allow the ads to pop-up and was designed by app developer company Apalon. It is available to download on iPhones, iPads, iPods and even the Apple watch using iOS 10.0 or later. Sleepzy is used to track sleep patterns (cycles, snoring), analyze the quality of sleep the user is getting and notify the user when a sleep debt is occurring. The app also provides sounds that the user can fall asleep to if they have difficulty getting to sleep and provides weekly stats as percentages to help the user know what they need to work on to get a better full night of sleep. The app uses the microphone on the iPhone to track the movement of the individual to tell whether they are getting quality sleep or not. The app has a 4.2/5 star rating with 6,341 reviews in the App Store with over 50% of the reviews being 5 star ratings from users. This app is really helpful for students that seem to wake up a lot in the middle of the night because it is able to monitor the movement and not use the time spent moving around as time spent sleeping. The most helpful part of the app, in my opinion, is that it tracks your sleep debt and suggests how much sleep you should get each night depending on how much you wake up. This can be a really helpful app for college students to realize how often they may be waking up at night and for them to fully grasp how much sleep debt they are building up. Many college students don’t recognize how much sleep they should be getting each night, and the sleep debt feature will help them comprehend why they may be feeling so tired throughout the day.

Alarmy: Alarm Clock

Alarmy icon as displayed in the App Store

Alarmy is an app offered in the App Store and was created by the Delight Room Co., Ltd that is free or $7.99 for the Alarmy Pro version. My review is looking at the free version of the app as there are not enough additional features in the Pro version to get me to pay $7.99. Alarmy is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPad touch that have iOS 9.0 or later. This app could be really beneficial to college students that snooze an insane amount of alarms and just can’t seem to get up in the morning. Alarmy allows the user to set an alarm, but in order to turn it off in the morning the user either has to take a specific picture, shake their phone to reach an exercise goal, or solve a math problem. If the user chooses to set up a specific picture, they register a photo to the app and when the alarm goes off they are required to get out of bed and take the same picture to turn off the alarm. The shake exercise requires the individual to set a specific goal, usually 30 seconds, to shake their phone to finally turn off the alarm. For the math problem option, the individual can customize the level of difficulty of the problem and then are required to solve it in order to turn the alarm off. These techniques require the individual to either use physical or mental exertion, which can be very difficult when tired. However, these are effective ways to make sure the person is awake and getting up. Alarmy currently holds a 4.8/5 star rating in the App Store with 50,570 ratings total. Greater than 75% of the ratings for Alarmy are a five-star rating. This app could help college students like me who can’t seem to find the drive to get up in the morning. According to the National Sleep Foundation snoozing alarms has shown to make people more tired and getting up right when the alarm goes off could help students feel more awake throughout the day. Alarmy might be the key to being on time in the morning and not feeling tired in class.

I believe the Bedtime feature on the Clock app, Sleepzy and Alarmy are some of the best apps out there right now that will help students understand their sleep cycle and realize what they need to work on. All of the apps I have suggested are free, so it doesn’t hurt to test one out! You never know which one might change your life.

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What Should You Believe About Sleep?

My blog is entirely committed to the topic of sleep (or lack thereof) in college students. In my first blog post, More Z’s Can Mean More A’s, I identified how much of an issue getting enough sleep is for college students today. Many students do not realize the effect continually losing sleep is having on their physical, mental and emotional health. I want to help students treat their bodies better and provide sources they can easily access to get reliable information. Many college-aged students use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and so many other sites. With the major social media presence this age group has, I decided to provide quality sources that college students can easily follow on accounts they already look at daily. In my blog post titled Don’t Sleep on the Truth, I identified some great pages that students can use to determine whether the information they are getting about sleep is accurate or not.

With this blog post, my goal is to identify common conversations I hear all the time around campus and provide research results to either support or debunk the statements. I hope this post helps college students find healthy ways to get enough sleep and identify any unhealthy behaviors they have been engaging in.

Myth #1: Daytime sleepiness always means you are not getting enough sleep.

Are you feeling incredibly sleepy throughout the day most of the time? You may actually be getting enough sleep, but have an underlying condition that you are just brushing off. According to the National Sleep Foundation, these conditions could include narcolepsy and sleep apnea, which can be treated and your symptoms should be discussed with a physician. A social media page I found to be very informing and bring individuals together that may have questions about sleep apnea is the Sleep Apnea Support Group on Facebook. This page is a great place to start to read about people’s own experiences that you may have personally dealt with as well. Do not brush off excessive tiredness during the day for just needing enough sleep, especially if you are getting about 8 hours a night.

Myth #2: Naps are bad!

Actually, naps aren’t a bad thing, you’re welcome college students! Research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information has shown that even naps that only last 10 minutes can boost alertness. Taking a 20-30 minute nap is considered the “sweet spot” for napping because people usually have not entered the REM state yet. Taking naps longer than 30 minutes, however, can cut into your nighttime sleep and make it harder to fall asleep. The Smithsonian Mag on Twitter (@smithsonianmag) published an article suggesting that taking mid-day naps were a bad thing. However, once reading the article the title is mostly just click-bait. The article is similar to a lot of the research I found about naps, which is taking short naps that won’t inhibit your nighttime sleep. Set an alarm for your nap, don’t sleep for more than 30 minutes and you’re golden!

Myth #3: You can just catch-up on missed sleep over the weekend.

When you miss out on a full night of sleep, you accumulate what is called sleep debt. Many college students believe they can make up for their sleep loss during the week by sleeping in on the weekends. However, this is not exactly how you can get rid of sleep debt. Depending on how long you have been accumulating a loss of sleep, you need to add hours to each night to gradually make up for it. If you have missed 10 hours of sleep in the past week, you are not going to be able to make up for this in one night. If you add three to four hours of sleep each weekend night and an extra hour or two the following week you will feel much more refreshed and caught up on sleep more long term than trying to just sleep all weekend to make up for it. Sleep.org explains more in-depth how sleep debt can be caught up and the symptoms individuals may begin experiencing if they continue this lifestyle. A helpful page I found on Facebook is called Sleep Debt Tracker App, which you can also download as an app onto your smartphone. This app allows you to measure the amount of sleep you are getting and the page actually posts helpful videos to determine whether you are getting enough sleep. Just remember, when making up for sleep debt slow and steady is the way to go on this one.

Myth #4: Watching television or laying on your phone will help you fall asleep.

Social media is easily one of the biggest contributors to students using their phone before bed. Whether it is checking Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter before going to bed they all have one thing in common– blue light. While this may make you feel more tired, the “blue light” that comes off of these screens is actually distracting your brain and preventing it from relaxing to fall asleep. Studies from Harvard Researchers found that people who watch some type of “blue light” technology before going to sleep take an average of 10 minutes longer to actually fall asleep. Harvard also found that it messes up people’s circadian rhythm, suppresses melatonin secretion and decreases the amount of REM sleep you get. Many college students use their phone before going to sleep, in fact a Qualcomm online survey found that 62% of adults keep their phone within reach in bed. All students interviewed also use their phone between 15 minutes to an hour before going to sleep. Ohio State University research found a positive association between phone use before bed and insomnia. For a lot of college students using their cell phone before falling asleep has become a nighttime routine, but I suggest finding some other way to relax your brain such as reading a book or drinking a warm cup of tea. These alternatives will likely help students from feeling so deprived of sleep the next morning.

Myth #5: You get better sleep after a night of drinking.

Although drinking has been shown to make people more sleepy, this is not a healthy way to fall asleep. Alcohol is constantly at the center of many college student’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds. In fact, restaurants even use social media to promote their happy hour menu. The Recovery Village goes more in depth on the influence social media has on alcohol use. With alcohol so present in social media, it is important to realize the effects it can have on sleep. WebMD does a great job explaining what effects alcohol has on REM. When someone has drank alcohol close to going to sleep, alcohol must be metabolized throughout the night and will likely disturb sleep- especially REM. Although alcohol helps induce sleep, the reduction of REM may cause daytime drowsiness and poor concentration the next morning. REM is also incredibly important for memory storage, so individuals who use alcohol as a sleep aid may have more difficulty remembering things. College students using alcohol may have a hard time converting information they have learned in class to their long term memory because this occurs during the REM stage.

Myth #6: You can train yourself to need less sleep.

Many people, especially college students, believe they can train their body to function on little amounts of sleep. However, this is not true and Dr. Sigrid Veasey explains it best in a New York Times Article when he says, “people that believe they can change the amount of sleep they need have skewed their self-awareness. On Twitter, there has a hashtag has become incredibly popular among people who do not get enough sleep called #teamnosleep where people post about how long they have gone without sleep and it has become a viral sensation. This hashtag promotes users to go as long as they can without sleep, which is just not healthy. The more you deprive yourself of sleep over long periods of time, the less accurate you are at judging your own sleep perception.” College students that believe this myth may be so sleep deprived that they begin feeling normal when they are in this stage. Being aware of the amount of sleep you get on vacations and school breaks when you are not sleep deprived is important to help you realize how much sleep your body might need every night.

Myth #7: You can easily become a morning person, just get up!

There’s a lot more to this than what most people think. All around campus you can hear students talking about not wanting to take a 7 a.m. class because they are not a morning person, and then that one person who says you will get used to it. You really have to dedicate some time to become an early riser. Jet Brands (@JetBrands) posted on Twitter “5 tips on how to become a morning person” and many of them are actually the same suggestions researchers have. Some helpful tips from Psychology Central to point you in the right direction include: getting to bed early, not using screens before bed, finding something that will motivate you to get up when your alarm goes off, continually waking up at the same time and eating a healthy breakfast. So this one might not be a complete myth, but it is much harder than most people think! Stick to it and find a reason to get up in the morning to motivate yourself, whether that is a nice cup of coffee or a yoga session. I believe in you!

Myth #8: You should take Melatonin supplements to fall asleep.

One company I found on Twitter @klovasleep promotes the use of a melatonin patch to aid in falling asleep. However, your body already produces the amount of melatonin you need. Mayo Clinic has provided evidence that suggests short-term use is safe for individuals, but it is recommended to talk to your primary care physician before using it. Treat it like any other sleeping pill and discontinue use if you feel any side effects including dizziness, nausea and drowsiness. There are possible drug reactions that can occur if you are taking multiple types of medications, which is why it is very important to speak to your doctor first before deciding to try out melatonin.

Getting enough sleep in college is easier said than done, but hopefully this post has helped at least one college student identify any unhealthy habits they are engaging in or at least provide some research on some of the statements students have likely heard before. If you are interested in getting more information on sleep, my blog post Don’t Sleep on the Truth provides a lot of great sources that can be found on social media sites. Some of my favorite pages are on Twitter including the National Sleep Foundation (@sleepfoundation), Academy of Sleep Med (@AASMorg) and Dr. Michael Breus (@thesleepdoctor). Now, go get the quality sleep you deserve!

Don’t Sleep on the Truth

With sleep being such a large topic for research, there is constantly new information being put on the internet. In my last post I talked about how sleep helps protect your mental health, physical health, overall quality of life, and even your safety. My goal for this next post is to leave college students feeling like they can identify whether the sleep advice they are getting is truthful and reliable. Many college students use social media and easily accessible websites to get current information on tons of different topics, so I will be analyzing different social media websites to determine whether these outlets are providing quality advice that college students should believe.

Facebook

As a social networking site that anyone can create a page on, it is important to know whether the source is credible. I did find a great page that individuals looking for information about sleep could rely on. The page is run by Dr. Michael Breus who is a Clinical Psychologist as well as a Diplomat for the American Board of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The page is called The Sleep Doctor and Dr. Michael Breus posts his podcasts, articles and even just helpful tips to fall asleep. When searching Facebook for quality sources I highly suggest determining whether the page is verified. When looking at The Sleep Doctor’s page there is a blue checkmark, which is Facebook’s way of informing users that the page is authentic for the public figure, media company or brand it is claiming. It is important to stray away from the pages that don’t present information about the author or just post pictures with text on it. Looking for the blue checkmark and verifying the author is a reliable source by looking at their qualifications is a great way to determine credibility.

Twitter

Similar to Facebook, Twitter allows anyone to create a profile about sleep whether they have reliable information or not. Many of the pages I found on Twitter are pages that attempt to provide quick information in 240 characters or less in tweets, often not providing links to where the information was received. If profiles do not provide references or have verified profiles (blue checkmark) it is difficult to determine whether their tweets should be trusted. A popular page is called the Sleep Well Blog, which uses hashtags and links to their blog for information on sleep disorders. However, the links are now unavailable, making the information they are giving followers unclear whether the statistics are accurate. Without knowing the background of the author it is very hard to tell whether the information is authentic research. However, there are profiles on Twitter that provide reliable information about sleep, such as the National Sleep Foundation, the Academy of Sleep Med and Dr. Michael Breus (The Sleep Doctor) who all have verified accounts on Twitter. The National Sleep Foundation is a credible source because it is a nonprofit in the United States that promotes the public’s understanding of sleep and sleep disorders while also sponsoring research in the sleep field. Individuals with sleep disorders could use this profile to get new information about research outcomes and helpful advice about their sleep disorder. The Academy of Sleep Med on Twitter, also known as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, is a professional society in the United States that focuses mainly on sleep disorders and circadian rhythms. The AASM accredits companies for adhering to the AASM standards. The AASM profile on Twitter is a great spot to start when looking for credible sources about sleep because they post articles from companies they have accredited. In addition, there are lots of profiles such as the Sleep Research Society who are not verified but provide links to their website. After checking out the Sleep Research Society’s website and seeing the different research, advocacy and events they hold I have determined that their Twitter feed provides reliable research outcomes.

Pinterest

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is full of images, gifs and videos on virtually any topic. When I looked up sleep facts in the search bar I had 213 search results. I want to help the average user be able to narrow down their searches to information that is reliable and useful. Pinterest is more of a middle-man for individuals looking for advice about sleep. By clicking on the images people have pinned there is often a link that will redirect you to their website. Many of the links lead to people’s personal blogs, which do not always provide information on the blogger. However, the first image I clicked on lead me to Vanessa Rae Romero’s blog called Healthy Living How To where she talks about her personal health issues and hopes to inspire individuals to find healthier habits. Her blog gets personal but also has a lot of helpful habits she has found to personally be successful. Her blog provides real life problems and helpful reviews of products she has found to be beneficial to her. In addition, I came across an image provided by the Bustle, which is a publisher company aimed mostly at millennial women as their audience. Their post called 5 Psychological Tricks for When You Can’t Sleep provides worthwhile tips for individuals having a hard time sleeping. The Bustle is a trustworthy source because they provide credible references to the information they are publishing, such as different University’s research, the Sleep Foundation and even Medical Doctor’s insights.

Ultimately, I want college students to feel like they can find credible information on sleep within the social media sites most already use daily. It is important to look deeper into pages to determine the reliability of the publisher, such as clicking the links provided, searching the author’s name and even making sure the page is verified on Facebook or Twitter. In addition, checking the sources that pages are using it a great tool to determine whether the advice is creditable. Research and helpful information on sleep is all around us, we just need to know how to separate the dependable information from clickbait.