Better sleep = better mood

As the second week on my journey to happiness comes to an end, I am using my phone’s sleep tracking app to observe my sleep cycle trends over the past four days. On average, I got 7 hours and 49 minutes of sleep each night! Consistent with many studies concluding that better sleep is indeed associated with higher levels of moment-to-moment happiness, I agree with the findings of those studies as I’ve noticed my personal increase in mood throughout the week. Not only was getting out of bed easier and less dreadful in the mornings after a solid night of sleep, but my emotional reactivity was much lower than normal, making me less agitated with others and more rational in moments of stress. I think this particular intervention is probably one of the most important things for college students especially, because though our days are stacked with tasks to complete and many commitments and obligations, being tired makes the efficiency of completing these tasks much, much less. Things take longer to be completed and focusing on school work becomes much more difficult for me when I am running on less sleep. Overall, this past week has definitely proven the importance and effectiveness of prioritizing sleep and aiming to get at least 7 hours each night, because it makes our daily lives much more enjoyable and productive!