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Back to School Guide
- Date : 2023-08-24
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✨ BACK TO SCHOOL GUIDE ✨
The new semester starts next week. Are you prepared? Excited? Dreading it because you’re not prepared at all? Well, fear not, we’re here to help out! We prepared a comprehensive Back to School Guide so you’ll have a healthy and kick-ass semester, so get your notebook and pencil, and start taking notes! 📓✏️
PRIORITIZE SLEEP 😴
How much sleep are you getting these days? The CDC recommends adults sleep at least seven hours. But it’s not only about the time – the quality of sleep is also important. Here are a few tips to make sure your sleep is as healthy as possible:
Be consistent with the time you go to bed and wake up. Yes! Even on the weekend!
Your bedroom should be quiet, dark, and relaxing. Consider investing in sleep masks and earplugs if the light and noise can’t be helped. A humidifier or dehumidifier with soothing essences are a plus!
Remove the screens from the bedroom. That means no doom-scrolling in bed either. The screen lights can confuse our brain and tell us it’s still daytime and we shouldn’t prepare for sleep. But also the doom-scrolling itself doesn’t help set the right mood for a restful night. We should be away from screens for 30-60min before hitting the sack.
Avoid large meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bedtime. You heard me. None of these are good for your sleep hygiene.
The right way to wind down. Budget 30 minutes to slow down and tell your body it’s time for sleep. That will mean different things to different people, but a few suggestions are meditation, soft music, light stretching, or reading.
If you still experience difficulty falling asleep or poor sleep quality after these tips, you may suffer from a sleep disorder. Going to a doctor would be the best option.
STAY HYDRATED 🚰
Drinking water can offer many benefits; among these: regulating internal body temperature, metabolizing food and regulating hunger, lubricating joints, flushing bodily waste, producing adequate saliva, and more. And all of that’s great. But there are also consequences if you’re not hydrated enough. Did you know that the first sign of dehydration, after the feeling of thirst obviously, is tiredness? Followed by irritability and then headaches. So if you’ve been feeling tired even though you’re sleeping well, and everything around you is annoying lately, it could be that your water intake is just too low.
Here are some tips to prevent that, and get all those benefits too:
Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. There are proven benefits to starting your day off with H20; it’s more likely to give you an energy boost than even coffee, and it’s healthier too! But also it can give you the serotonin boost of knowing you’re starting your day on the right track.
Invest in a fun or fancy water bottle. We all like cute things. As human beings, we’re naturally drawn to anything beautiful. If you have a dazzling bottle you’re more likely to take it with you wherever you go, and remember to keep drinking water.
Use phone alarms or app notifications. There are plenty of apps with the sole function of reminding you to drink water, but if that’s too much work, you can always just set the normal alarm on your phone to go off at specific times so you remember.
Set a daily goal. We’re also very goal-oriented, and keeping track of how many bottles, cups, or liters of water you’re drinking, can help you a great deal to achieve your goal, whichever that is. (And if you’re wondering, Health UNL suggests about 3.7 liters (about 16 cups) for men, and 2.7 liters (about 11 cups) for women.
EAT WELL 😋
Our lives as university students can get super busy fast, especially those of us writing a thesis or dissertation. But contrary to popular belief, we must still eat. And as much as I personally enjoy the convenience store triangle kimbap, no, that doesn’t count as a meal.
What qualifies as a good diet will depend on your age and health conditions, but one thing’s for sure: it must be balanced and colorful. Treating yourself every now and then is more than fine – encouraged even! – but try not to live off of fried food, candy, and coffee.
STAY ACTIVE 🏃
I’m not going to preach too much about the physical benefits of staying active, because I’m sure your doctor and mom have already told you all about it. But are you aware just how much your mental health can be improved by staying active? In the past, people with severe depression were prescribed walking, and still nowadays in health clinics, walking and exercise is highly valued. That’s because when we exercise, our brain releases chemicals like endorphins and serotonin, making us feel immediately good. It reduces stress, boosts your memory, can help mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia, improves your concentration skills (so you're basically exercising so you can do well at school!), and even give you more energy. That's right, spending energy gives you more energy. Our bodies are wild.
If you don’t live under a rock, you probably have a smartphone. And if you have a smartphone, chances are, you already have in your hands a powerful tool to stay active: the step counter. Counting your steps is a small nudge in the direction of a healthy and active life. Experts estimate we should walk at least 10.000 steps/day, but it’s okay to slowly work our way up there.
As adults, we have two options for minimal exercise time, according to the CDC. We can do 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise, or 1 hour and 15 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. So what’s it gonna be?
MAKE TIME FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY 👯
Not any less important is making time for friends and family. Yes, even if you live abroad. Being around loved ones – online totally counts – is important for mental health, and you can’t be productive at school if you’re feeling drained.
It’s okay if you’re busy; we understand, we’ve all been there. But you still have to eat, and hopefully do some exercise, so why not do those things with people you care about? If meeting a friend to eat out once a week becomes too expensive, you can always go to each other’s place for fun cooking time. Just make sure it’s at least once a week!
With family, video calls can be a good way to catch up. You can have an actual video date, eating together on different sides of the camera (and maybe the world), or you can talk while you’re doing chores around the house, or even walking to school. If the time zone difference is too crazy, you can send each other voice messages too.
💡🔊
So, what do you think of our tips? Is there any area you’re going to especially focus on this semester? Were the tips useful to you? Let us know in the comments and don't forget to follow us on social media!
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Sources: Forbes, FraserHealth, SleepFoundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health UNL, Health Direct, Everyday Health.