The brain needs to rest at the end of the day. However, sometimes it can have difficulty shutting down. Psychology teacher Kyle Hall has several tips for students trying to get a good night’s sleep.

1. Develop a good sleeping schedule. If your bedtime isn’t consistent, then your circadian rhythm is inconsistent. That’s why we sometimes lay in bed awake, even when we’re tired. If you went to bed at a much later time the night before, then your circadian rhythm isn’t in a place for it to be bedtime.
2. Give yourself a buffer between when you are staring at a screen and when you go to bed. It is recommended that people turn off all screens 30-60 minutes before going to bed due to the blue light stimulating your brain, keeping you awake.
3. Avoid spending too much time in your room when you aren’t sleeping. When you spend a lot of time in your room, whether it’s eating dinner, doing homework, watching shows, etc. your brain will start to associate your room with being awake and doing things other than sleeping. This is another reason why you might have a hard time shutting down your brain when you try to go to sleep.
4. Get exercise on a regular basis and try to avoid eating food super late into the night. You want your muscles as relaxed as possible, so if you’re eating food late into the night, the muscles in your stomach will be trying to digest your food rather than resting.
5. Mindfulness meditation is also an amazing thing to get into a habit of. YouTube has meditation videos that are specifically for going to bed and might help you fall asleep.