My freshman daughter seems to have adjusted to college life pretty well except for one thing: Sleep. I can see her posts on FB and Instagram at 4 and 5 am.
MWF her first class isn’t till 11am and on TTh her first class isn’t till 1 pm…so it’s possible she’s still getting enough sleep even going to bed at 4 am. While all nighters are part of college life, they shouldn’t become a habit, and it seems it’s becoming one with her. She scheduled her classes later because she’s never been much of an early bird, a problem made worse when she had mono 2 years ago. (At least she doesn’t sleep 16 hours at a stretch like she did then.) It took a very long time for her to regain anything approaching her old energy levels. I don’t want to see her run down and go through that again. She makes a conscious effort to eat well (or so she says) but nothing affects mood and grades like sleep.
Maybe I’m worrying for nothing? I survived on naps for 4 years in college, after all, and I’m sure others did, too…and we outgrew it. She’s also an athlete and with evening practices and games, I’m sure she’s up late studying and simply may not be tired enough to sleep after exercising so late.
Thoughts? I can’t really do anything but advise, but am I worrying for nothing?
I think the chances of listening to advice are close to zero, yet we must offer our thoughts. Some will get run down and sick; then we offer comfort.
I know you’re right. 
We all did it and survived, and she’s not going to listen anyway. So far I haven’t said anything, though. She’s coming home next weekend. I’ll talk to her about it then if she seems overly tired.
I came home for Christmas my sophomore year and didn’t get out of bed for 3 days – that’s how tired I was and how screwed up my sleep schedule was. I just don’t want to see that happen to her.
You survived. She’ll survive too.
http://nahic.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Sleep-Brief-FINAL.pdf
Sometimes having information available like this might help. You’ll be able to assess whether or not she is actually sleep deprived or just sleeping on a weird schedule but sleeping enough.
What?
We stay up until 4 am on purpose. Late nights in college is when all the fun stuff happens.
Thanks! When I see her or talk to her she doesn’t seem exhausted, so maybe she is getting enough.
I’m not happy with her at the moment. I was supposed to pick her up at 10 am this morning for Easter weekend. It’s now 1:30 pm and she’s still not up and moving. She can miss Easter dinner. I’m not a servant at her beck and call who can just drop everything when she says jump. Let her explain to her grandmother why she wasn’t there.
She was still up at 5:30 am judging by her Instagram and FB. She knew I was coming to get her but is too immature to GET IT.
Oh well, not my problem.
Yes, I know that. Most of us did it ourselves. However, we still did what we needed to do and were where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there. That’s the difference.
Sorry to hear that she wasn’t ready for you @SoftballmomPSU. What she did to you was actually disrespectful. She should be the one to explain it to her grandmother and she owes you an apology. Her sleep schedule may be altered but enough in quantity, and that would be fine if it isn’t interfering with her functioning.
However, when you blow off your mother and family holiday plans because you are still in bed, then it is interfering with functioning and expectations.
I hope that you can tell her that it hurt your feelings.