Sleep Strategies and Their Effectiveness in Improving Dreams and Mental Health

Abstract

84% of college students experience stress dreams in connection to school, suggesting that students in college-preparatory high schools may have a similar rate of stressful dreaming. As the rigor and competitiveness of education continue to increase, the levels of anxiety and sleep deprivation for students will continue to drastically increase as well. A survey was administered to a college-preparatory, independent high school community that included questions about their sleep schedule, dreams, nighttime routines, and school involvement. Subsequently, volunteers participated in a two-week sleep study that tested three sleep strategies to see their effects on the participants’ dreams and mental health: staying off of technology for an hour before going to bed, doing a ten-minute yoga routine before bed, or adding an hour of sleep to their regular sleep schedule. For the survey, the research team discovered that, on average, students at Flintridge Sacred Heart tend to get 6-7 hours of sleep. As for the sleep study, the team did not get as much participation as hoped, so there are no definite results. However, they noticed one trend where, for the staying off of technology strategy, on the nights the participant remembered to follow through with the strategy, she would not remember her dreams or have positive dreams, but, on the nights that she forgot to do the strategy, she would have negative dreams.