Sleep

 

Sleep is an important competent of our mental health and wellbeing as it contributes to your mood. Sleep is essential for studying and learning: you need deep, slow-wave sleep to place what you have learned within your wider knowledge. Lack of sleep makes it difficult to concentrate and harder to remember what you've learned. It can be frustrating if you cannot sleep, which in turn can make it more difficult to sleep.

It can be challenging to maintain a pattern of healthy sleep at university. Academic and social responsibilities can mean we sacrifice sleep to have more hours in the day to accomplish the things we feel we have to do. This trade-off can have a really negative impact on the way we feel, our mood and our general health.

Continuous difficulties to sleep and stay asleep can be very distressing, frustrating, exhausting and depressing. Creating a routine around sleep with a time to go to be and wake up can be one way to help manage sleeping problems. 

What support do we offer? 

Student Services is here to help you if you are struggling with your sleep. We can help you develop a healthy sleep schedule, relaxation techniques and how to manage the challenges that come along with sleep difficulties. You can book an appointment to speak to a member of staff or email support.advice@st-andrews.ac.uk for advice. You can also see our latest groups and workshops on our Instagram. 

Alternative Internal Support

You can access self-help through various University channels such as:

  • ShelfHelp, which provides eBooks or physical copies which can help you understand and manage sleep.
  • SilverCloud, which provides various modules to work through at your own pace to help understand and manage the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that come with sleeping problems using cognitive behavioural therapy techniques.
  • TogetherAll - a safe, online community where people support each other anonymously to improve mental health and wellbeing. (TogetherAll will be supported until Febraury 2023, after this time, we recommend that students reach out to SHOUT).

External Support

If you would like to access some self-help materials here are a list of alternative support resources.