Dear year 7 student, 

I have been having a crazy sleep schedule lately. I wake up at 6:00am and sleep around noon. I know that it is terrible for my health in lots of aspects, and that is why I want to change this bad habit.

However, the problem is, after school, I have some stuff to do, so I get home at 5 or 7pm, depending on the day. As I get home, I take a shower, eat dinner and blow dry my hair, which takes around 20 minutes. I get everything done around 10pm (the time I was supposed to sleep). I really enjoy watching a TV series or reading a fun book, but I am usually done doing these things really late at night, and when I have to wake up on the next day, I feel exhausted!

I would really appreciate it if you could help me with a few pieces of advice on how I can improve that.

Best regards,

Anonymous.

Dear Y9 student,

I understand you have a big problem with your sleep, so I think you should try to organize yourself in a way you don't have anything to do close to the time you should be sleeping. 

You told me you go to bed very late and  feel exhausted in the morning. How about you avoid doing your chores close to the time you should be sleeping? Going to bed late can negatively impact your health by destroying  your body's natural rhythms. If you go to bed late, you will be tired. Avoid sleeping very late at night, and  bright lights because even when they are little they can distract your sleep making you exhausted.

Try to organize yourself, in many sites, there are very efficient methods on how to be organized, or try to separate your chores into days, so then you may have more free time in your day. If you separate your chores, you have more time to sleep.

To have a great sleep, avoid screens before going to bed ,  try to do everything you need in a sequence with no breaks. If it doesn't happen to have a better sleep,according to… doctors indicate melatonin to sleep deeply, so as a consequence depending on the time you go to bed your sleep would increase a lot. If you had taken melatonin you would sleep more and better.

To conclude, you should avoid sleeping late every night. In order to do that, you could separate your chores into dates. You could also avoid bright lights. If none of my suggestions work out for you, you could see a doctor to help you with your sleep routine. Or you might be stressed because according to psychcentral stress can leave you feeling exhausted. It’s quite common to feel tired in stressful situations.