Many people don’t get adequate sleep. On one hand, this is a massive pain, on the other hand, addressing sleeping problems can go a long way toward improving your day to day life.

According to Shelley Hershner and Ronald Chervin’s article, “Causes and Consequences of Sleepiness Among College Students,” 50% of students report daytime sleepiness, and 70% attain insufficient sleep.

If you’re in that 70%, or you’ve ever stayed up late to meet a deadline, you already know a lack of quality sleep can be a major issue. Sluggishness, irritability, trouble focusing — a lack of sleep affects basic functioning, let alone students’ GPAs.

Whether you’d like to take control of your sleep, or just recover from a late-night study session, there’s a lot to learn from the experiences of other students and what has been found about healthy sleep habits.

Before we get into the details, there are a few disclaimers. First, if you’re experiencing chronic insomnia, it’s worth getting personalized care from a doctor. Second, if your class schedule is seriously impacting your health, that’s a discussion you should have with your academic adviser.

The most important disclaimer is that things happen and that’s okay. You don’t need to find a perfect relationship with your sleep to see noticeable changes. Which is good, because the simplest advice you’ll hear about sleep is also usually the least helpful: “sleep for eight hours every night.”

Nathan McKnight is a busy Weber State University student. He’s a full-time student working two jobs with extracurriculars. Despite that, he schedules his week so he has enough time to sleep, “assuming all goes great.”

Sometimes, the week’s work bleeds into the weekend, and sometimes, there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done.

Most people are willing to lose some sleep time without considering the lasting effects, instead choosing to think of it as a future-self problem.

“I’ll sacrifice my sanity to decompress a little bit,” McKnight said. “I generally try not to mess anything up for the next day.”

It’s obviously easier to stay up a couple of extra hours every night than it is to get enough sleep, but one certainly feels better in the long run.

If you can possibly make time for it, find something that you enjoy doing and save it for the next morning. Having something to look forward to can make it easier to get up early.

If you can’t think of anything, try watching your favorite show in the mornings. Waking up to watch the next episode is a lot more motivating than waking up for your third alarm in a row, and as a bonus, it is a lot less guilt-inducing than those 3 a.m. Netflix binges.

Unfortunately, sleep isn’t just a question of getting enough hours. The quality and consistency of sleep matters a lot too.

When you go to sleep, your body goes through maintenance cycles. According to Sleep Foundation’s article, “Stages of Sleep: What Happens in a Sleep Cycle,” people go through four to six sleep cycles per night.

Think of your sleep as a load of laundry your brain has to do every night. Several 20-minute sessions of soaking your clothes aren’t the same as a full-hour cycle where the laundry machine washes out the soap. It’s not just the time in the washing machine that makes clothes clean, and it’s not just time spent lying down that makes you well-rested.

In the short term, your brain might settle for quick naps. In the long term, your brain is building up a backlog of sopping-wet laundry that still needs cleaned.

Consistency matters as well. Your body has its own internal clock, called your circadian rhythm.

Your body is always trying to find a consistent pattern of sleep to adapt to. If you’re lucky, your brain might fall into a rhythm easily, but if not, that’s even more reason not to mess up your sleep schedule.

Your circadian rhythm is why you should avoid staring at screens too close to bedtime. It’s also why jet lag sucks so much.

Elmer Peña, a Weber student, seems to have a much less toxic relationship with sleep. Peña said he usually goes to bed at 1 a.m., which would be late for some, but if you consistently wake up at 9, it’s a full eight hours.

Peña also shared some of his nightly routine, specifically listening to music or the background noise of a fan to create his ideal atmosphere to go to bed.

It’s worth mentioning that not everyone has the same opportunities, responsibilities and stressors. Not having to work odd or inconsistent hours can go a long way.

A little patience and a good nap might do the rest.