Goodnight! | How to get good sleep in a noisy environment

Hi Guys!

This Friday, I have my last exam, JEEJ! This means that I'll be staying at my student residence from today until then. Since Belgium is so small, it's easy to go home during the weekend and only half of the students actually stay at a student residence/house/studio. 

During this week, I want to get the best amount of sleep I can get, which is not always easy when there are social (read loud) students having fascinating (again, read loud) conversations in the middle of the hallway. 

Since so many of us suffer from sleeping problems, I thought I'd share with you what I do to avoid bad sleep due to noisy neighbours.

Block the sound

This is something that works really well in my dorm because of the way it's designed. When I walk into my room, I have the door of my wardrobe on the right and the door of my mini-badroom on the left. When I open both doors before I go to sleep, they form a type of sound barrier, which blocks just as much noise as a regular door would. 
Basically, try to find objects to create a sound barrier with. You can also do things like putting long vertical objects against the wall or simply lay a mat against your door gap. Trust me, it will make a difference, even if it's just a small one!

Listen to white noise

Often, blocking the noise won't be enough. I'm still able to hear little parts of those 'fascinating' conversations and I will start to focus on them. To avoid this, I listen to white noise. I downloaded the 'White Noise Lite' app for Android and now I listen to it every time I go to sleep. The sound I prefer the most is the 'Ocean Waves Crashing'. 

Not only does this help me to block distractions, it also helps me to calm my mind after a stressful day at University. With the sound of the ocean playing in the background, I can let my mind drift off to a quiet and peaceful place without being interrupted.

Use Earplugs

Using earplugs is probably the most common thing to do when trying to sleep in a loud environment. I recommend that you buy custom molded earplugs, since normal ones can be quiet difficult to sleep with. I don't use them because I have sensitive ears and they get infected when I wear them too often. I always have earplugs, just in case, and use them occasionally when I really need to get proper sleep or when I go out. If you don't have sensitive ears and can wear earplugs without further problems, I strongly suggest you do, because it's the most effective sound barrier there is.

If all else fails, talk to your noisy neighbours

No one likes to ruin other people's fun, but sometimes that's the only thing you can do. If your neighbour is only having a party once a month, it isn't too much of a problem but if it's at least once a week, this can be a huge nuisance. 

Talk to your neighbour about the problem in a respectful manner. For all he/she knows, you don't mind him/her being the party animal every now and then. Say what effect this has on you and then, talk with him/her about a proper solution. A good agreement would be e.g. he/she can still throw parties, but only once a month and he/she will always let you know first. 

And maybe, just maybe, you'll party with him/her once in a while and gain a new friend. Or you have to call the police because he/she is behaving like a little [insert dirty word].

What do you do to get a good amount of sleep? Advice is always welcome since so many of us suffer from things like insomnia, parasomnia,...Hopefully, we'll be floating along fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows quickly. 

xoxo Lien Bee

Dorm Life: Making that nice hot chocolate whenever you want!

This week I had to get my biggest coat out and we all know what that means, the winter is (already) settling in.

I live in a dorm where I share a big kitchen and have my own fridge, which creates a lot of cooking possibilities. Sadly enough, cooking an amazing meal isn't always an option when you have limited time and only have to cook for yourself. 

This is an easy and quick way (duh!) to make a nice hot chocolate which is almost completely vegan.

Your traditional ingredients: Milk, chocolate and a sweetener as an extra option

Instead of using cow milk, you can use almond milk, which tastes just as good, in my opinion even better. For chocolate, use one which has a really high percentage of cacao. The highest one I could find in the nearest supermarket had 84%, but there's chocolate which has up to 98% cacao in it. To make it completely vegan, you can use pure cacao powder, but I would never be able to use all of it and it would only take up a lot of space in my dorm. As a sweetener, use about one teaspoon of honey.

First I heat up the milk a little bit in the microwave. Next I add chocolate and heat up the milk again. Last, I add honey as a sweetener and stir well so there's an equal amount of chocolate everywhere. 

Drink it like a pro:

- While reading a book and listening to your favourite Christmas music
- While watching your favourite youtuber, movie, series,... 
- While wearing your most christmassy pyjamas
- ...

 

I'm starting to get in the Christmas mood, really looking forward to celebrating it together with my friends and family :)
I hope you enjoyed this blogpost and are having a wonderful day!

xoxo Lien Bee

Back to school part I: study tips

Hi guys! Since I'm in the middle of my retakes at university, I thought it would be a good idea to give you some study tips. Soon I will upload a back-to-school-look and makeup-look as well. 

Make a planning and stick to it!

I know this is probably the first tip people give you, but that's because it's extremely important, especially at university. I myself study Dutch and English linguistics and literature. Throughout the whole year, we've had almost no tests, no tasks, just nothing. The point is, if we don't study during the year, we will NEVER be able to get everything done before the exams. I have to read a lot of books and have to study a lot of the theory by myself. When making a planning, it's important you add breaks to it and also add extra moments which I call Buffer-moments. During those moments you can take a break OR finish off the work that you haven't done yet but should have. Make sure your planning is realistic; first make a try-planning before the year starts in which you plan out how you will spend your day.

 After a couple weeks, take a week in which you write down every 30 minutes what you're doing to figure out if your planning actually works. Maybe studying those words only takes up 30 minutes instead of an hour, or maybe making those exercises actually takes far more time than you first expected. Or maybe, you can't focus really well in the morning and shouldn't study in the morning or  should try studying a different subject with more exercises, where more thinking has to be done, where you have to read more,.... 

Now you can make your actual planning which will actually fit your life.

Summarise

An important tip that probably saved my exams more than once. Everyone seems to have their own way of summarising, so get creative and find a way that suits your brain best! I will mostly summarise by writing down all the titles and will then add names, dates and definitions. I'm a person that's really bad at learning things by heart, so most of the time I will look at the title for extra information but will never learn it by heart. 

For all you other people out there who might also suck at learning things by heart, here comes my very important tip! Analyse whatever your subject is (history is best for this) in different categories instead of learning it as one big thing. Add every little piece of information to a different category. Now read all the theory you have to study BUT actually study the categories. I know this method takes time, but it will work every single time because you're actually trying to understand the theory instead of just learning it by heart. 

I can't focus ... AAAHHH

We all have it sometimes; you're trying to study for that really important test but today your brain decided to act like sh*t. Sadly, sometimes, there's simply nothing you can do about it., but I have some little tips that might ease the pain just enough. The two previous tips about planning and summarizing should already help a great deal. Don't plan to study a subject you hate or a difficult subject on moments you can't focus. Instead, do a subject you like or make exercises that force you to think. 

When studying a long text and you just can't seem to focus, summarize it by using the 'category-technique'. Another way of summarizing is by reading a little part of the text and straight after that making a mini-summary of it. 

If you can't seem to focus for any longer than 30 minutes, then only focus for 30 minutes. Normally I can study up to 4 hours straight without a break but now, in the middle of my retakes, I'm just not that motivated. What I do is I study with full focus for 30 minutes and then I take a break for 10 minutes. Use the alarm on your phone to indicate when the break is over and use a really loud and annoying sound. 

When your mind is clouded with thoughts about all things but studying, take a little note book in which you write down where you're thinking about every time you start drifting away. That way, you won't forget it and can think about it later.

I hope these tips will help you! Enjoy your day (or what's left of it ;) )